R12 - Geelong v Richmond (game day thread)

[MD Jazz]

If there’s one (maybe 2) knocks on Holmes though it’s that he kicks a few floaters a la Dangerfield. The other is that he lacks a bit of physicality (David King or somebody…might have been someone else) brought this up during the week.

Still, he runs hard and fast all game long and sets up so many attacks.

Yeh he is super soft.

 

[Tigers of Old]

I think we had 10-12 inside 50s for the 2nd half. All the forwards were just starved of opportunity so I wouldn’t be marking Sonsie, Lefau, Cumberland etc too hard on the 2nd half

That’s fair re our half forwards. All of them struggled for possession for the reasons mentioned.
I guess my biggest frustration with Sonsie is why wasn’t he given opportunity on the ball?
Our mids were completely gassed (especially McAuliffe) & Tyler has two possessions for the second half?
This is a guy that gets 30 touches in the VFL regularly.
Yet Yze won’t even try him on the ball? Does he not rate him whatsoever as a mid?
Somebody please make it make sense.

 

[Little Ziggyadee]

I hope very soon the list is flushed clean of Hardwicks preferred running half back types with neither the body shape and strength (most of our recruits over the last 4 years simply have not developed physically into seasoned AFL footballers!), and passion for getting the hard ball; replaced with bulls that develop quickly.

Our mid season duo maybe the beginning of a different sort of footballer that we are desperately lacking at the moment.

Spot on.
Using Gold picks on duds.
Fingers crossed Toche starts bringing in footballers not projects

 

[Little Ziggyadee]

Top effort. 1st half was the best we have played all year. Effort followed by more effort.
The kids are showing something Ralphsmith, Dow and McCouglan all were good.
We missed 4 set shots that wouldve made a huge difference and then we conceded 2 goals in the last 3 minutes.
Scott was angry really angry.
The Swans will smash them by 60+.

 

[tha8ball]

Can’t fault the effort. Severely undermanned playing a good side on their home dump. Boys had a crack and might’ve got over the line if they converted when the foot was on the throat - lesson learnt for a few of the kids in Sonsie, Campbell and McAuliffe. Imagine how bad the cats would be without the equivalent of Lynch, Bolton, Taranto, Prestia, Hopper, Gibcus from their side!

Balta going back has completely changed our look - for the better!

We have found a few in McAuliffe and Lefau and HRS has turned the corner this season. Has a future.

Loved what I saw from Gray and Blight. Think they both will play - Gray possibly as soon as next week. Blight is a brute with great hands - positioned himself beautifully all game and has a lovely shoe on him. If these two work out - we could really hit the ND hard for quality midfielders to go alongside McAuliffe and all of a sudden things aren’t so bleak.

All in all felt pretty positive about last night and as bad as this season had been, with a bit of luck with injuries and at the draft, I think we can bounce back pretty quickly

…. Oh and if Baker is to go home to WA then we must play hardball - he was super last night.

 

[seven]

Hope dusty is on a plane to GC for a week off, then The G for 300th

Staying at Dimma’s place?

 

[mrposhman]

Only watched the last 15 minutes, but a few observations from when Geelong were in control and out players would have been worn out.

I do wonder if players get worn out quicker when they are playing a team with more experience and talent? Yes, our young players were too tired at the end of the game, and that is to be expected. But, the older players should be able to run out games. Maybe it is the combination of having to work so hard when we were doing well, and that chasing a better team is a lot more work than being a better team.

I think the thing with this is, that because younger players aren't as fit, they need more time on the bench so take increased rotations, meaning that our core mids need to play more time in the game. Chasing tail as well, tires players out quicker than when we have the ball (ie. you make the ball do the running).

I think it all just consolidates and leads to the lack of running in the final quarter which we then needed good quality kicks coming out of the backline.

For all the Short supporters on here talking about his disposal efficiency, I'd love to see a ball retention % for him. When kicking long, as long as you kick to a contest then its recorded as an efficient disposal and he kicks long with a lot of his disposals, it would be interesting to see how often yesterday we actually retained possession of the ball from his long kicks. From the eyes I'd say it wasn't good. Add to that probably the worst kicking performance I've seen from Broad for a long time, and Balta turned the ball over a number of times (to be fair I think he was trying to be aggressive as we weren't getting anywhere with timid kicks), with the lack of run and the poor kicking out of the backline, we were screwed in the 4th.

 

[yo_eddy]

Yer, but that's not saying much. Lefau is even better - it's simple: run straight at target, kick straight at target! Maybe some coaching of this 'complex skill' to young players?

That’s true but it’s amazing how many ‘good’ players don’t do it, or don’t do it consistently.

 

[mrposhman]

Just as a guide as to why we ran out of legs and possibly a few ideas.

Footywire provides stats on average games and average ages, and they don't look too bad (clearly we have much lower games experience), Geelong were 26 years and 9 months with 122.7 games experience compared to our 25 and 6 months and 86.3 games experience, but I think the bigger guide as to the predicament we are in, is using median as opposed to mean.

Geelong median age was 25 and 10 months and games experience was 109 games.
Our median age was 24 and 9 months and games experience of just 42, highlighting how our team is made up of a few guys with high games, and a whole bunch of players with low games experience (12 under 50 games compared to the Cats at just 4).

With that gulf in experience, its remarkable that we only lost by 5 goals IMO.

 

[leon]

I think the thing with this is, that because younger players aren't as fit, they need more time on the bench so take increased rotations, meaning that our core mids need to play more time in the game. Chasing tail as well, tires players out quicker than when we have the ball (ie. you make the ball do the running).

I think it all just consolidates and leads to the lack of running in the final quarter which we then needed good quality kicks coming out of the backline.

For all the Short supporters on here talking about his disposal efficiency, I'd love to see a ball retention % for him. When kicking long, as long as you kick to a contest then its recorded as an efficient disposal and he kicks long with a lot of his disposals, it would be interesting to see how often yesterday we actually retained possession of the ball from his long kicks. From the eyes I'd say it wasn't good. Add to that probably the worst kicking performance I've seen from Broad for a long time, and Balta turned the ball over a number of times (to be fair I think he was trying to be aggressive as we weren't getting anywhere with timid kicks), with the lack of run and the poor kicking out of the backline, we were screwed in the 4th.

Yes, the kicking from our backline got more frustrating as the game went on and it's easy to criticise the kickers for it. Some brain fades eg Balta's. However, another reason that I have been harping on about for years is our failure to recruit many strong marking players. The two rucks last night are average in the air, Ryan not strong enough still. Balta our best with no TL, as he showed. But thin stock of players who can take a contested mark. Compare with Geesook who load up with this type.
Signs that Toce recognises this and picked two talls who can really compete aerially.
Finally. I'm so happy ex-recruiter headed west.

 

[yo_eddy]

Blight, Bauer and Gray are good in the air, thankfully. Bauer has superb hands.

 

[Redford]

I didn’t realise they put a standing/terrace section up on the second level of their new stand. Aren’t terraces or standing areas normally ground level ? 2,300.

What’s in the water down there !

 

[TigerForce]

I didn’t realise they put a standing/terrace section up on the second level of their new stand. Aren’t terraces or standing areas normally ground level ? 2,300.

What’s in the water down there !

What's with the light show disco down there. I read they lowered the volume of our theme song when the players ran out.

 

[Redford]

What's with the light show disco down there.

They play all this yokel, red neck hillbilly music at half time too. Something about bogs in a valley or something ? Geelong is weird.

 

[Ice]

its amazing how a favourable free kick differential equates to a better outcome

in the first half we got some dodgy free kicks that halted their momentum or allowed us to move the ball forward

 

[Dev Tiger]

It is going to take time to rebuild this list given how poor our drafting has been since 2018. To be fair we weren't picking in the area when everyone wins a prize other than 2021. We would have the worst under 23 talent in the league.

 

[TigerForce]

its amazing how a favourable free kick differential equates to a better outcome

in the first half we got some dodgy free kicks that halted their momentum or allowed us to move the ball forward

Admittedly, the flogs umpired well last night.