The easter Monday massacre

Gee the Hawks were good.

Danger signs were there early on for the cats in their Easter Monday clash with the reigning premier. The hawks had brought the pressure game that dismantled the swans in last year grand final but early on the cats held on. Even went goal for goal , even matched the hawks around the contest . Until the siren went for quarter time.

It was like watching a team have a switch flicked. The hawks stepped up every aspect of their game and the cats settled back on the effort of the first term that saw them up at quarter time. The Hawks set up on the defensive side of the contest at most of the stoppages and as soon as the ball got loose it seemed like they had an extra two players. They just knew where to be at the right time. They are easily the best  drilled side in the league.

It was predictable. Predictable for the other hawks around the contest , predictable to their teammates down the fields even predictable to me sitting in the grandstands, it was seemingly predictable for everyone, except the cats players. They looked clueless around the contest , weak , slow and not willing put in an effort unless it got  rewarded with the ball. The polar opposite to the hawks who seemed to relish putting on a block or smother or scrag to give their mates an extra split second to ensure anther target was hit further up the field. They wanted the Cats to get the loose ball because they had them covered like a cheap suit.

The Hawks were brave in every sense of the word. They were strong and brave in the contested situations , while the cats went to ground the Hawks kept their feet and then pushed to outnumber at the next contest either to be an option or to help out a teammate. The running brigade of Hill and Rioli knew their roll perfectly , relentless pressure , force turnover , then run and exploit.

If a loose ball was gathered by the cats it was nervously flicked around by hand until a Hawthorn player was able to pick off the next link in the chain and then they punished that link with some of the hardest tackling I have seen on a football field. They basically turned Geelong's quick hands into the old fashioned hospital handpass and an easy turnover ,then over the top to a mobile runner , 30 m run and carry and easy goal.

This happened time and time again.

Cut to when the Hawks gathered a loose ball. I was two slick handballs into space and the ball was in the hands of a runner who was armed with some information:

The Cats are slow and they don't chase.

This is where the bravery comes in , it's all well and good to know that your quicker than your opponent but takes bravery to take those opposition on in the middle of the MCG in front of 80000 people. That what the hawks did , time and time again. The loose ball would occur and within 10 seconds they had run it 80m and the ball was up the other end  out of trouble and in a position for them to score.

Not only did the Cats not look like they could chase any of the Hawks down , they didn't look like they wanted to.

The only saving grace for the Cats will be that this won't be the only thrashing the Hawks hand out this year, plenty of sides won't be able to match the Hawks output because plainly put they were awesome. You can't control how the opposition play but you can control the effort that you put out and from the stands it looked like the Cats gave up early in the third term.

Not good enough in round one of a premiership season when you were exposed in the same fashion last year.

The Cats are lazy when they don't have the ball.

 As soon as the opposition has the ball they are able to have a free man thirty metres away from the contest at all times. It seems there is no urgency to run defensively to pick up these men or at least make an effort to put on some token pressure. Now I'm no AFL standard coach but I would have my charges relentless in their pursuit to turn the ball over and then rest when we have possession, slow it down around half back all ready to reset and launch a counter attack, but the Cats seem to have it the wrong way around. Plenty of guys streaming into the open looking for easy kicks when we have the pill but when the going gets tough and it's time to run without the promise of an easy kick the current batch of cats take the easy option and had the best seat in the house to see the best side in the last twenty years ply their trade. The defensive structure is not there.

Where is the plan B?

Too many times in the last few years the coaches box seems bereft of ideas when the opposition gets a run on. Chris Scott has to take some accountability and when an opposition kicks two in a row a move needs to be made stem the flow. Get some numbers behind the ball , hold up the opposition even set up a bit more defensively at the stoppages. Do something because at the moment the cats are easy beats for the likes of the top four sides.

Lets address selection.

How George Horlin-Smith was not in the side has me absolutely baffled. I'm not privy to how each player trained over the preseason and I understand that effort has to be rewarded with games in the big time but the only guy that I thought had a pre season deserving of a round one call up was Darcy Lang. (Mitch Clarke goes without saying is a permanent fixture in the cats forward line this year)

Lang was ok in the game and deserves to keep his spot. Gregson was poor and clearly not to level of a Geelong vs. Hawthorn Easter Monday clash. I'm all for giving these guys games but I think we can be smarter about it.

Smedts has shown he is not an AFL footballer, his decision making is poor at best and his disposal was shocking which was  amplified as he was continually given the ball and allowed to use his foot skills to exit the back half. I use the word skills as a figure of speech. The worst part is Taylor Hunt who was let go at the end of last year had a ripper for the Tigers. His contested work and running would have served us well. When coaches make calls on players and move them on from the club they have to live and die by their decisions. Hunt is a far superior player than Smedts and the call to get rid of one and gift the other a game is simply put a bad management call.

Horlin-Smith in my opinion is one of the best young players in the game and I was shocked he couldn't get a game. He is a hard at the contest player and that was an aspect the Cats were sorely lacking , he needs to back in the side next week.

Scary game this week against Fremantle. On exposed form the cats are going to get another touch up, this time in front of the faithful at home but let's end on a positive, at least we can all enjoy a $4 bucket of chips.

 

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