Review Cats belt Freo by 78 points.

[Silver Cat]

Wasted two years on the Mullin project thus far. It's highly likely that a solid year in the VFL would have given him some insight into the nuances of the game.
I put my faith in CS and the MC as a rule but this case is truly baffling to me.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I like some of what mullin does but he doesn't have the game sense to play deep in defence. Loses his man too much and relies on his pace to make it up. Doesn't have the feel yet to intercept how our other defenders do. Either put him in the midfield and let him use his legs (those are his asset) or put him in the vfl if they are planning to make him the bews replacement (if that's the role he's being trained for do it at vfl level).

I feel like he had the physical assets to be a good mid but he needs to play there and that needs to happen in the vfl for a while. I think he can be a very good player but we're trying to Jed Bews him into learning to be a player.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Changes today from the 2022 premiership side:

In: Bowes Clark Dempsey O.Henry Holmes Humphries Knevitt Mullin Neale O'Sullivan B.Smith
Out: Bews Duncan C.Guthrie Hawkins Kolodjashnij Parfitt Rohan Selwood I.Smith Stanley Tuohy

That is absolutely mind blowing

 

[Art Vandelay_]

Ollie Henry is such an enigma.
Does **** all for 97% of the match and kicks his 3 still.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

We quite literally have nearly finished our rebuild already, lol. I did a visual representation on the main board:


"8/10 of our best on ground players, 26 and under.

Or for a visual effect of our whole side (bolded are all 26 and under):

B: J. Henry, Blicavs, Zuthrie
HB: Stewart, C. O'Sullivan, L. Humphries
C: Dempsey, Holmes, B. Smith
FO: SDK, Knevitt, Bowes
HF: O. Henry, J. Cameron, Miers
F: Stengle, S. Neale, Danger
INT: Close, T. Atkins, O'Connor, Mullin, Clark

17 out of 23, 26 or under. Atkins and O'Connor 27 and 29, with only 4 players in Danger, Stewart, Cameron and Blicavs, being over 30."


Replace Atkins with Bruhn, and it'll be 18 out of 23, aged 26 or under. Raise the age to 27 and replace Danger with Mannagh and keep O'Connor in, it becomes 20 out of 23 players. Replace Blics with Kolo and Stewart with Bowes (via Atkins to the mids) and it becomes 22 out of 23 under 30. A gun athlete in Jez at 31 is all that remains for at least another 3 years, while we complete the rebuild. Stewart and Blics will still be here too, but they won't be relied on as much.

Make no mistake, this is list management that is unheard of in professional sports. Visual representation of possible complete list turnover by 2027 (only using players we have now):

B: J. Henry, SDK, Z. Guthrie
HB. L. Humphries, C. O'Sullivan, Bowes
C: Dempsey, Bruhn, Knevitt
FO: Conway, B. Smith, Holmes
HF: Miers, O. Henry, Mannagh
F: Stengle, S. Neale, Close
INT: O'Connor, Clark, Mullin, Clohesy

No player above 27 or over - all have played at least 1 AFL game. Stewart and Jez still likely playing, at the expense of Clohesy and Mullin.

That wall seems to be getting further away

 

[StonedCat]

hehhehe.......WEKILLTDEMFARKING !!!

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Neales improvement is incremental. Slowly slowly he is looking like he believes he belongs. He is coltish atm..he has spring to burn and sooner or later he is going to pull down two or three for gimme goals..

A bit like Neale ..I think he will have up and down efforts. I could imagine him just losing concentration once he gets a bit tired. I would have tried Neale in the ruck for 5 in the 3rd..give Same just a bit of break…but it worked out in the end.

Liked Knevitts pressure ..his kicking is a weakness

COS had a few moments …but all good. He will learn form those

Really obvious what BSmith will mean for us

Overall I wouldnt be too critical or too pumped up with anyone today..lets see when we are a couple of games in against a club a couple of games in … playing in something a little cooler.

Knevitt's kicking - i remember it being pretty good when be debuted on the wing. Possible it just got worse because he's playing inside? I didn't see much of the game

 

[thejester]

Only saw the second half. That collapse in the third did seem to highlight the twin weaknesses - inexperienced last line defence with Stewart in midfield and O’Sullivan and Mullin deep and a fragile midfield. Lost centre clearances, young guys couldn’t kill the ball. Be interesting to know what restored midfield parity - without wanting to be a hater, Atkins going out seemed part of it. I know he works hard, pressure etc but not sure he can be a full time mid.

Other thing - if they’re willing to put time into Mullin and SDK come he’ll or high water, they have to do the same with Knevitt. Won’t be a star but could be the workhorse we need. Just needs to build confidence and learn the little tricks.

 

[Strange Cat]

Just on Mulin can you imagine how hard it is to learn the game playing it at the elite level with people that have played it all there lives…I agree he does seem a bit lost at times and I still think he would be more suited in the middle maybe as a tagger with his speed

But you have to give him credits for making it this far given his background

 

[Vdubs]

Ollie Henry is such an enigma.
Does **** all for 97% of the match and kicks his 3 still.

I love him

 

[Live in hope]

Keep him in at the top level while we are winning- his confidence and pressure levels will improve- if we lose, and he has a shocker, fine. Who is better at what he offers ? Can you see a bit of Wojo in him potentially? Wojo of couse was a freak player, but he didn't start out that auspiciously

Wojo did indeed have low numbers, but was such an amazing athlete in terms of speed and kicking (who could, and did, take a specccy), they could let him develop.
I think Chris S (and some other coaches) use BP to develop players for mid field - Atkins ( who copped much flak in that role) a more recent example. Suspect Mullen might be penciled for such in next year or two - question is if better have him develop that in VFL. If they can find a better BP option, then I think they should do that.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

I think where Freo really went wrong was when they made chappy the sub.....

 

[Frank Bunn]

That was very impressive
Neal, knevitt, SDK, smith, were great all day real team effort for three quarters. Think we may have tried to rest up a bit in the 3 as we had done enough, but it really shows that you have to keep playing your game or the opposition will run you down.

Third term also took a fair amount out of Freo as we witnessed in the 4th

I wonder if Freo put everything into that 3rd quarter but were unable to maintain it? It wasn't a mad hot day but it was humid. The Cats disappeared to the rooms every break.

Smith was BOG with maybe Holmes and Stewart not far behind. Other little things impressed me. Close's repeat chase down intensity is insane. Humphries is a class act. Good decision making and I couldn't tell you which is his preferred foot.

I'm not a fan of the deafening music played after every Geelong goal. It makes it impossible to share a little moment with friends or family of how the goal happened.

 

[year of the cat]

I only saw a few minutes of the last quarter so only saw Clark here and there but i definitely like what I saw from him.

They're very different roles though and I don't think i really like the idea of Clark as a defender

No wasn’t intending to suggest they play the same position. But O’Connor or Kolo could play back instead of Mullin.

I liked what I saw of Clark. Would like to see him named in the 22 against St Kilda.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

No wasn’t intending to suggest they play the same position. But O’Connor or Kolo could play back instead of Mullin.

I liked what I saw of Clark. Would like to see him named in the 22 against St Kilda.

Yeah MOC back and Clark given more of a run certainly makes sense to me though MOC might get exposed for peace by done of the more pacey smalls

 

[Hamingja]

I wonder if Freo put everything into that 3rd quarter but were unable to maintain it? It wasn't a mad hot day but it was humid. The Cats disappeared to the rooms every break.

It was a bit of everything really. There was no way we were going to be able to keep up our tackling pressure from the first half for a full game, particularly in the heat. I think we took our foot off that and allowed Freo to play. Freo took advantage of that, we had 2 or 3 very poor defensive errors from inexperienced players in O'Sullivan and Mullin that cost goals, the young kid from Freo had a purple patch on the back of it and then they were up and about for the quarter. We wrestled back the control at the start of Q4 with some old school Scott tempo footy and then piled it on once Freo conceded.

 

[year of the cat]

Yeah MOC back and Clark given more of a run certainly makes sense to me though MOC might get exposed for peace by done of the more pacey smalls

Humphries has been a find to play on one small forward but we are needing to find another small defender for sure. Not sure whether Atkins is an option? Other than him and the aforementioned others, I’m not sure we have that player currently on our list? Maybe Retchko could play that role in time?

 

[Hamingja]

SDK in the ruck is going to be a wild ride all year. Going to be a lot of team results based judging of his personal performance I feel.

 

[Generalissimo]

I thought MOC looked good in the midfield today. I'd leave him there.

 

[smotherking]

I thought whilst the last ten minutes of the third we got killed at centre bounces and we did surrender a number of goals, I did feel like there were a number of occasions where we were away and bout to break but either a) a free was called b) the ball was called back or c) we just turned the ball over inexcusably. It kind of felt like it just wasn’t our quarter and momentum really started to get away from us

 

[year of the cat]

SDK in the ruck is going to be a wild ride all year. Going to be a lot of team results based judging of his personal performance I feel.

He’s got the talent. Just needs to cut out the lapses in concentration we see at times. Not get down on himself. The way he fought back in the final term was encouraging.

 

[Biggy_Boy]

I think where Freo really went wrong was when they made chappy the sub.....

Chappy sub at KP is a curse.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Astute observation. Looks like that have decided to wear the mistakes to give him games down deep. Maybe it pays off in the end. I think he has more to offer offensively once he gets enough games into him

You could be right about that being their strategy. But my counter would be if we are going to pinch a flag this year with some of the weaknesses we have (first ruck spot and midfield) we need everything else to go right. I'm not sure we can carry mullin conceding goals in defence and do that. I actually liked some of his footy in MF last year as he's surprisingly powerful but he needs to be in a role where his mistakes are less likely to cause goals or he needs to be in the vfl for now imo (I understand they think he will develop quicker in the 1s but still).

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Humphries has been a find to play on one small forward but we are needing to find another small defender for sure. Not sure whether Atkins is an option? Other than him and the aforementioned others, I’m not sure we have that player currently on our list? Maybe Retchko could play that role in time?

Yeah i think Humphries is less of a lock down type so there's room for a Jed Bews style player that just chases Eddie Betts around. They do need to defend well though

 

[Pure_Ownage]

He’s got the talent. Just needs to cut out the lapses in concentration we see at times. Not get down on himself. The way he fought back in the final term was encouraging.

It's more mental. If a big ruck like xerri starts squashing him with tackles or an elite tap ruck like gawn feeds his mids and they get 4 centre bounce goals in a row he.needs to not get down on himself (I think he's a bit of perfectionist judging by his body language) and he needs to hit every next contest with real physical aggression. If he can do that he's got the tools. We probably have to persist with him for now because while Conway is crocked there's no other option.