Sydney Swans Vs Geelong Cats Game Thread

[Primmy]

Don't be so agreeable Kanga. We are still wallowing.

Mind you I do like Jetts red booties.

[giant]

Can't answer that as I wasn't at the game, but I did notice that at half time geelong had a lot more I50's than we did, and were still only 2 goals up. So our defence was workgin overtime, during the first half to repel attacks. I guess once they cracked our dam wall, it was only a matter of time before the deluge started.
It looked like they'd completely run out of steam by the 4th Q.

Exactly Scott - altho our first half was OK (other than a number of soft goals), the stats suggested that if the Cats were on their game, it should have been over at half time. They certainly were on their game in the second half - and we were out of our league. That said, Goodes in particular and White to a lesser extent went AWOL in H2, and Bradshaw had a day that must rank among his worst.

[johnno]

I have a question for anyone who went to the game because some things are hard to pick up on TV.

In the first half we made some mistakes, especially giving away some soft goals in defence, but we looked like a structured team out there. And that is reflected in the fact we did move the ball forward with some system.

In the second half, I know we were smashed at effective clearances and hence the defence was under siege, but I thought our defence still did a reasonable job rebounding the ball out of there, up to about a third to a half way up the field. From there, it seemed to be a case of long bombs forward, rather than trying to find a target across half-forward. Was this primarily because our half-backs were tired and/or convinced they were under pressure, or was it that no-one was actually presenting on leads to the half-forward area. In Goodes, White and even Barlow, we had three tall, quick, athletic men all more than capable of leading to that area. White did it quite well in the first half but I don't recall seeing him at all in the second half, ditto Goodesey. It's not even that they seemed to be being beaten in one-on-one contests. I just don't recall the ball going to them there.

So was it poor decision making by the backs or lack of work rate from the forwards?

I was there Liz, and if I had to pick one over the other I'd have to say it was lack of work rate from the forwards. The backline was under so much pressure in the 2nd half it just wasn't funny. They did well to rebound it out of there on quite a few occassions, but the ball would reach half forward(for us) and it would just be sent back to their forward line so quickley that our defenders just had no chance. Only shining light was Nick Smith and kennelly...to a certain point.

[ScottH]

Exactly Scott - altho our first half was OK (other than a number of soft goals), the stats suggested that if the Cats were on their game, it should have been over at half time. They certainly were on their game in the second half - and we were out of our league. That said, Goodes in particular and White to a lesser extent went AWOL in H2, and Bradshaw had a day that must rank among his worst.

White's first half was the best he has played for a while.
Goode's just had a shocker.

As for Bradshaw, the commentators were lauding Scarlett on the job he did on Bradshaw, but with limited supply and then it was usually under pressure, not sure if we can blame Bradshaw, or praise Scarlett.

[johnno]

White's first half was the best he has played for a while.
Goode's just had a shocker.

As for Bradshaw, the commentators were lauding Scarlett on the job he did on Bradshaw, but with limited supply and then it was usually under pressure, not sure if we can blame Bradshaw, or praise Scarlett.

God, with the lack of inside 50 entries we had, my grandma good have played on Bradshaw yesterday and kept him quiet.
The way everyone sayd Scarlett beat him is a joke.

[Nich]

[/B]

God, with the lack of inside 50 entries we had, my grandma good have played on Bradshaw yesterday and kept him quiet.
The way everyone sayd Scarlett beat him is a joke.

I know DT points aren't the be all and end all of course but Scarlett and Bradshaw were two of the lowest scoring players in the game. Neither of them did anything. Pickering crapping on about Scarlett was sickening. Scarlett is great but he hardly had to work yesterday. A wonderfully easy come back game for him.

[SwansFan1972]

Pyke was good, didn't think Mummy was horrid. Blake probably took the points in the end, but not by much. Malceski was playing on Varcoe IIRC.

Blake needed a big one - hadn't given a yelp in the season thus far. Probably a bit to do above the ears, proving a point to his own about the relative value of him/Mummy. Long term Mummy will be the pick of the pair I reckon.

Whole cats team lifted and played their best game of the season thus far. They still have issues, especially away from the comforts of Kardinia Park. We may have issues also, but considering where both clubs are at, I think we can forgive one sub-par performance every now and then. Our teams have been as honest as the day is long for many a year now and we should be grateful. There are a few teams out there who choose when to put in and when not to far more frequently than ours!

[SwansFan1972]

[/B]

God, with the lack of inside 50 entries we had, my grandma good have played on Bradshaw yesterday and kept him quiet.
The way everyone sayd Scarlett beat him is a joke.

Agree 100%. With the delivery and F50 entries, Braddles and Scarlett could have spent the day teaching each other pole dancing on the behind posts, or making daisy chain necklaces for the old dears in the front row of the cheersquad. Neither got a look in on the game!

Yesterday was a shocker - all agreed - buit not end of the world type stuff. The ledger reads 6 very creditable performances and 1 debacle. We all knew the upcoming month would tell us a lot and it will - hopefully the creditable performance column will have a few more additions to it and yesterday will be just a bad memory.

And who knows - the next time we meet them they might be (a) coping with the prospect of losing Gazza to the Coasters and (b) wondering why they didn't just cut Matthew Stokes altogether. And it definitely won't be at that cursed dungheap at Kardinia Park!

[AnnieH]

Still spewin.

[707]

Very disappointed with the margin but circumspect that Geelong are impossible to beat at Kardinia. A few positives for us though

Pyke, wow what progress he has made over summer. If you didn't know his background, on yesterdays performance he looked like he had played the game all his life. He is a BIG asset for us now and will only get better. We now have a very inexperienced ruck pair but I'm comfortable with them.

Mumford, second efforts are excellent, a hard tackling ruckman -nice!

White, showed glimpses of how good he can be, guys that size shouldn't be that fast

Rohan, must be left in for a few more games at least. Six tackles in that furnace is a good effort and brings so much X factor to the table.

Jetta, showed what a star he is likely to be with THAT pick up, and evasion

Kennelly, looked like he was at his very best again despite the huge pressure

So don't despair, Geelong were absolutely at their best yesterday and we wll get a lot better as the year progresses.

[Hartijon]

Very disappointed with the margin but circumspect that Geelong are impossible to beat at Kardinia. A few positives for us though

Pyke, wow what progress he has made over summer. If you didn't know his background, on yesterdays performance he looked like he had played the game all his life. He is a BIG asset for us now and will only get better. We now have a very inexperienced ruck pair but I'm comfortable with them.

Mumford, second efforts are excellent, a hard tackling ruckman -nice!

White, showed glimpses of how good he can be, guys that size shouldn't be that fast

Rohan, must be left in for a few more games at least. Six tackles in that furnace is a good effort and brings so much X factor to the table.

Jetta, showed what a star he is likely to be with THAT pick up, and evasion

Kennelly, looked like he was at his very best again despite the huge pressure

So don't despair, Geelong were absolutely at their best yesterday and we wll get a lot better as the year progresses.

Fair comment and I am now seeing the good work Kennedy does too. Thought Jack was useful and always takes on anything

[ShockOfHair]

Another positive: Geelong rested Ablett the week prior to our game. I would've felt severely dissed if they'd given him the weekend off.

[Matty10]

Kennelly, looked like he was at his very best again despite the huge pressure.

I watched the rest of the game again this morning and was quite impressed with Kennelly also. He missed a few targets moving the ball forward, but generally seemed to have his head around the game better than most. I wasn't sure how big an impact he would have coming into the season, but now have much higher hopes based on his efforts against Geelong.

When receiving the ball he also made more space than he stared with which was good (plus he seemed to run to the most open side to receive handballs - Kirk and Goodes were both wrapped up quickly by Geelong players on a couple of occasions when running past for a handball when they really wasn't any space, particularly when it put then on their non-dominant side).

[swansrule100]

Another positive: Geelong rested Ablett the week prior to our game. I would've felt severely dissed if they'd given him the weekend off.

ha ha yeah i though that too, scarlett and ablett back and they seemed switched on more than any other game, made it seem like geelong respect us.

[Bloody Hell]

If you compare the players and the structure for the first few rounds vs this game - all you can say it's a team decimated by injury. The best 5 players have virtually been replaced by 5 at the bottom of the list. Geelong = full strength.