How do we beat the Cats this wknd ??

[Swansongster]

Why is Simmonds Stadium so difficult to win at? Shallow pockets? Winds? Hostile crowd? Seems they historically have a ridiculous home ground advantage.

All of the above. After the recent decline at home by West Coast and Adelaide, Geelong arguably have last claim in the AFL on the word "fortress".

We did, however, beat them there a couple of years ago.

The simple answer to the question posed in this thread title is that we have to score more points than them. Therein lies the key for mine. Restrict their scoring opportunities and rely on our good average in season long scoreboard pressure. We are probably going to score at least 80-85 points which means that restricting them to 12 goals should see us over the line.

Some hard tagging and 2005-style contested footy.

[Doctor J.]

Why is Simmonds Stadium so difficult to win at? Shallow pockets? Winds? Hostile crowd? Seems they historically have a ridiculous home ground advantage.

Their home ground advantage, 40 wins out of the last 41 games played, is probably inflated by the fact that teams like Ess, Coll, Carl, Haw, rich don't play down there. More often than not games down there in recent years have been against interstate teams (travel factor) or hopelessly undermanned Vic teams (Melbourne )

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We are probably going to score at least 80-85 points which means that restricting them to 12 goals should see us over the line.

On that basis our season average points against of 74.5 should get us home.

[Swansinger]

Spot on , Doc J. Fewer tickets available for away fans at KP,too. I cannot go this week , but in the past it has been fun to be amongst "hostile" fans.

Geelong deservedly start favourites , but there is no reason for us to fear them.

Here's an idea - get Benny to tag Selwood. So if you don't enjoy the football game , you can enjoy the "fireworks display".

[Mountain Man]

The fascinating thing on the McGlynn match up on Selwood is whether our little man can lower the usual number of head high free kicks Selwood gets awarded each week.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Didn't Mcglynn play on Selwood, and beat him , last time we knocked them off down there ?

[ernie koala]

I think we need to try and lock down on a number of their players..

McGlynn to Selwood (bash and crash all day)
Shaw to Stevie J (Run off him)
McVeigh to Christinsen..sp? (Hurt him the other way)
Smith to Motlop (smother him)
Bird to ummmm....someone ( maybe to one of their halfbacks...Enright perhaps)

Any,way I think we have plenty of run-with type players to man them up effectively....

Then all we have to do is score more goals than them ...Easy......not.

[aardvark]

The fascinating thing on the McGlynn match up on Selwood is whether our little man can lower the usual number of head high free kicks Selwood gets awarded each week.

That's where Benny is a great match up. He can't reach that high!

[Go Swannies]

That's where Benny is a great match up. He can't reach that high!

He was a flying Swan last weekend!

[Wazza]

Kick more points than them! Thank you I will be here til Tuesday

For me three main things
1. Get out of their forward press. For long periods on the weekend the Eagles could not and did not look look escaping the clamp that was the Cats' forward pressure. They will zero in on Malceski and McVeigh our two best ball users coming out of the back half and try and force the ball to less prolific users like a Grundy. This is where the run of Shaw might be a handy ace up the sleeve
2. Stop the in-form duo of Selwood and Johnson. Selwood in particular is playing at the absolute peak of his abilities in the past month and we are more than well aware of his influence on a game given his heroics against us earlier in the year. We'll probably sit ROK on him. SJ we might try Jack in order to try and hurt them going the other way although they themselves might try to tag Kizza given the relative success tatters have had on him in the past few weeks
3. Stop Taylor going forward. With the return of Rivers they more than have the defensive height to handle our three talls which allows them to play the Taylor wildcard. I think the key player here is White and whether he can win his matchup with his defender which is likely to be Mackie. If he does so it will force Taylor back

Oh and also 4. Stop their small forward running types in Motlop Stokes Christensen Smedts

Good points Ugg and I think the most important is to get Harry back into Defence. Our defence looks very short if they play Harry fwd, I think we would struggle to contain there talls as most of the contests would become one on ones due to the quality of their Fwds and Mids. I think our current defence will become our Achilles throughout this finals series, most teams will rotate 3 talls to test us. Hawthorn and Geelong have the quality tall fwds that could really hurt us.

Cheers

waz

[Blue Sun]

We need to bring back slingshot footy. It was devastating in certain games last season, especially if we were are able to catch the opposition off guard and out of breath. We have perhaps the best midfield in the comp, so much depth. Pairing that with the outside run of either Rohan (or Jetta if he comes back) gives us a major wild-card.

What I don't want to see is mindless bombing to Tippett. The Cats are far too good at mopping up and stinging on the counter.

[Bloodthirsty]

So who runs with Motlop? MightyBloods says Shaw and Ernie Koala says Smith. I don't know who would be best, given that Geelong are like us - tag a couple and the rest get off the leash.

[MightyBloods]

I think we need to try and lock down on a number of their players..

McGlynn to Selwood (bash and crash all day)
Shaw to Stevie J (Run off him)
McVeigh to Christinsen..sp? (Hurt him the other way)
Smith to Motlop (smother him)
Bird to ummmm....someone ( maybe to one of their halfbacks...Enright perhaps)

Any,way I think we have plenty of run-with type players to man them up effectively....

Then all we have to do is score more goals than them ...Easy......not.

Too many lock downs...we need to be smart and play as close to our game syle.
How comfortable would you feel with Selwood taking McGlynn back to their forward goalsquare? Nope!
Bird on Enright is an interesting one....he could do the job on an important link player.
Motlop is super quick and Smith's lack of pace would worry me. Smith is better suited to Selwood or Stokes.
I like Shaw being a run with player and the Steve J match up is not a bad one...he's the kind of player that could get under Stevie J's skin.
The first half result will be interesting. If we're in it, we'll have to play most of our cards. If not, I'd hide some of the tactics in case we meet them again in Sept.

[DK_]

I watched the St Kilda game last night and now I'm nervous. The lads will really need to step up the intensity and skills today. Will be a good test to see where we're at!

[albrotha]

There are 8 players that played in the round 5 game that the Cats won by 21 points that will not play today. Another stepping stone in experience for the replacements.

[hot potato]

What's the weather like in Geelong?