am Bays wrote:Agreed Geelong lost that game.
You could see in defence and the mids they went away from their structure of one goes one holds to either protect or be an option. They lacked their normal cohesion. They were rushed in their execution around the contest both in ground ball gets and the quick release. They needed to be calmer in getting possession. They panicked in that last qtr.
It’s a relatively easy fix as they’ve been good at it all year. It’s about sorting out the roles in particularly who’s playing the Stewart role of zone off intercept marker a la Lever, Ali.
Geelong s best this year is better than anyone IMO (Melb and Port have legitimate claims too but not to the same extent as Gee).
An interesting take fromBugcat1 on the Cats board
"
* Dahlhaus and at times Close on Lever didn’t really work. He will drag you to a contest and if you can’t compete in the air it’s ineffective. Miers could get flogged like that but at least he’d punish him on the scoreboard.
* Letting Salem run up close to 30 possies was a disaster. He does that Melb win. It’s Melb 101. He must get close attention. Dahl should be on him. Like Whitfield at the Giants which we also did SFA to stop.
* letting the ball live in our backline with the skills we have down there will not work against decent teams. We cannot transition it from D50 to F50 esp without Stewart, Duncan and Touhy involved in the chains. There is only won chance to win this flag and it’s by kicking 13-16 goals in each of the finals. Our Fwd line in our one wood.
* Nothing about the Demons fwd line screams scary to me. So many scrappy goals. They will struggle to kick 80 points even on a good day. Ben Brown, Jackson, Pickett, Fritsch, Sparrow and Spargo would be one of the weakest of a minor premier ever. They do compete hard but it’s hardly scary. They want to hit you on the counter as realistically that’s the only way they score. Turning the ball over around 40-50 out is lethal. The ball must go deeper which we refused to do. They also scored from the centre but that is harder to stop."
The point on Salem is especially true. Scott won't learn and we won't win.
regards,
REB
Please join the Hogg Group so I can set up the Hogg Shield in 2024. Code is 265953.