“I don’t know why it is not working. Why isn’t it working?”
We have Joel Selwood the best contested player in the AFL
yet every week I look at the stats and the Cats have lost the contested ball
and the clearances. The skipper leads headfirst into every contest and receives
very little physical support from the rest of the midfield. If you could bet on
blokes getting cuts over the eye Joel Selwood would be $1.01 favourite every
week and I would still back him. The devils advocate would argue that he drops
his body and looks for free kicks, the fact is he is just hard and at the
moment he is the only one.
He deserved six Brownlow votes on the weekend against the
Gold Coast.
I touched on it last week but the cats aren’t brave. The
stat that I found the most damning from the game is gold coast taking 13
bounces to the Cats 3. The cats refuse to take the game on and when asked Chris
Scott says we don’t look into the past and that we are a new side, well I agree
but the fact is that the side we have become under Scott is the tick the boxes
do the team thing side with absolutely no confidence or flair to take the game
on. The same way Scott was as a player this cats side wants to play the
percentages , I can see it every time Harry Taylor gets the ball , he is looking
for safety every time. I do buy into the whole defence wins premierships and I
want to blame our backline but they have been as good as can be expected when
the ball is coming in as often as it has been. I cant actually blame Taylors
seemingly negative play because I guess he figures that the ball is just going
to come straight back in and at least he has time to set up if it’s a stoppage
and tis is what he has been trained and instructed to do. The truth is the Cats
should be avoiding stoppages like parking inspectors at the moment because we
are getting smashed in that department every week.
The lack of bounces just illustrates how negative our ball
movement has become under Scott. In the first three matches the Cars have taken
just 15 bounces to the oppositions 36 and round two against Freo both teams had
7.
That tells me that opposition sides know to attack with run
and carry because they know that we won’t chase and tackle but will guard space
and try and corral which is just giving their two way runners easy possessions.
Having said all that there was a lot of positives to come
out of the game. First we won a game we shouldn’t have, or did gold coast lose
it? I’m not sure, either way its four desperately needed points. Ten more wins
and we can start thinking about finals. Secondly the game of Marc Blicavs was
his best for the club. He came through when we needed him most and slotted
through the sealer but it was really a sustained four quarter effort from the
big man. Think he may have polled his first Brownlow vote.
We can’t beat Nth Melbourne
this weekend on exposed form. Shouldn’t even get close however we are Geelong
Go Cats
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