Prediction How will the Geelong Cats fare in season 2024?

[Footy_Fan2007]

Thats assuming the dogs even make it.
I would prefer brisbane rather than hawks in week 2 though.

You’d think the dogs beat the giants and then Port will beat a Freo with nothing to play for.
Probably the most likely scenario is us finishing 3rd and playing Port for the 3rd time in 5 years in a qualifying final in Adelaide which would an absolute disaster.
Then again this season has been nuts. There may be a few more twists yet…

 

[Pure_Ownage]

You’d think the dogs beat the giants and then Port will beat a Freo with nothing to play for.
Probably the most likely scenario is us finishing 3rd and playing Port for the 3rd time in 5 years in a qualifying final in Adelaide which would an absolute disaster.
Then again this season has been nuts. There may be a few more twists yet…

Giants are better than the dogs i think personally.

And if stkilda can beat carlton freo will have it all to play for.

 

[Mr Meow]

Finishing 3rd would be a nightmare. Probably port first up followed by the winner of dogs v hawks.
Complete death sentence.

Smile.

 

[BIGANT]

Their midfield scares me no doubt.

But IF we can break even esava allir and zerk lack football IQ. Cameron can massively exploit this.

I'm probably not the last person to agree on this point, but yes. The rest of there phases feed off there mids. We cracked in was it two yrs ago here (proud south australian, lived in radelaide for 14 yrs) in Adl & W but our finals record at AO isn't good.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Smile.

With that possible fixture I can’t.

 

[Mr Meow]

With that possible fixture I can’t.

Will you attend the game?

Or are you just nervous about the fixture even to watch through your fingers on TV?

Port can serve up shockers at home. Not all hope is lost.

 

[Footy_Fan2007]

Will you attend the game?

Or are you just nervous about the fixture even to watch through your fingers on TV?

Port can serve up shockers at home. Not all hope is lost.

Nah I’ll watch at home.

Yeah I am nervous about the fixture considering we have struggled against Port at AO in finals recently. And I don’t think we’re good enough this year anyway regardless of the opponent.

You’re right though, Port have been inconsistent like every other team and there’s always a chance.

 

[Mr Meow]

Nah I’ll watch at home.

Yeah I am nervous about the fixture considering we have struggled against Port at AO in finals recently. And I don’t think we’re good enough this year anyway regardless of the opponent.

You’re right though, Port have been inconsistent like every other team and there’s always a chance.

Fair enough. Our 2024 team is still fairly different to the 2020/2021 one though. Cameron was on one leg too in 2021.

I'm actually massively against reading into previous season results. My fear of playing Port is simply off how they blitzed us in a half this year, although there was encouragement from how we responded in that game too.

You only need to be good enough to beat the standard of competition. At times this season that has been staggeringly low. If teams aren't "on" in finals we could easily roll them. If they play to their absolute best then we are probably big outsiders. I just don't see the point of heading into a final sort of miserable. Hope springs eternal, we can deal with sadness if/when we lose.

 

[Gavin Excell]

I don't think this is a particularly strong Geelong side, but credit to the club for again making the top4. It's sometimes easy to take for granted how well run the club is.

 

[Gavin Excell]

I'm probably not the last person to agree on this point, but yes. The rest of there phases feed off there mids. We cracked in was it two yrs ago here (proud south australian, lived in radelaide for 14 yrs) in Adl & W but our finals record at AO isn't good.

It's all about Dangerfield really
If he can play like he did 2022 finals we are a slight chance

 

[GeelongFTW]

basically, all mids are better significantly on paper than ours. We just need to hope they break even and let our backs/fwds take up the slack.

 

[CHAWKTS]

So I won’t be able to help myself…but I am going to TRY and ignore the results today and accept that we play whoever, whenever - after 24 rounds of ups and downs.

Earlier this week I was very exercised about hoping Bulldogs miss (so we don’t meet them at anytime) or at least we get 4th so we avoid Hawks/Bulldogs second week - and somehow I thought we might have better chance of beating sydney in sydney that port or GWS… but to be frank it is a lottery so I am going to try and relax!

Obviously the perfect scenario on paper is GWS lose and Port by 4 goals and we get home final first week. Having said that it will then be against Port at MCG - which again sounds better than at AO but I still think is a lottery that will make it worse if we lose!! (Of course it is better but I am not sure 100% changes any of the risk).

Put simply, IMHO we need a surprise win first week - and that can happen anywhere. Whilst I don’t like the pre finals bye I think it could be good for us…. Give Danger and Jezza a rest (as well as a couple of the young boys as I know 2-3 of them including the two Ollies have been struggling to train over past couple of weeks) and get Tommy, SDK and Lawson right….that gives us the best chance of having our “big 3” play out of their skins and have the rest follow…

If we win week one we get another week off which will be huge for us.

I don’t subscribe to the notion that if we lose week 1 we are likely to be our in straight sets - but I do think if we lose week 1 I can’t see how we then win three in a row given our demographic…

How exciting it is to be in this position.

 

[CHAWKTS]

It's all about Dangerfield really
If he can play like he did 2022 finals we are a slight chance

I think now it is probably about Danger, Stewart and Jezza… against good teams they ALL need to play at their best (2024 best is good enough if all 3 play it)…I am confident we will get good form out of the younger players but need the stars to dominate for us to win

 

[00VicWard001]

Their midfield scares me no doubt.

But IF we can break even esava allir and zerk lack football IQ. Cameron can massively exploit this.

You know we only lost by a goal against port right? No danger, and Stewart was not playing his new role.

I think we'll do allright in the rematch.

 

[00VicWard001]

Last time we played Port, Rohan kicked 2 goals, while Hawkins, Jezza & Henry each kicked 1 goal

I’m pretty comfortable in suggesting that we didn’t have the right balance that night and we look more dangerous with the more mobile Neale up forward rather than Hawkins was who uncompetitive at times over his last 8/9 matches

Teams had worked out that they could run off Hawkins to double team Jezza or Henry, and when that was happening, Hawkins wasn’t holding marks to make them pay

Neale with his mobility & willingness to compete in the air gives our foward line a different look to how it was earlier in the season

I also think that we had a better balance to it today with Rohan also missing meaning that we went in with 2 x KPFs (Jezza & Neale), then we had Henry as the 3rd marking option & Stanley drifting forward at times - we looked better balanced and more dangerous at times, with the guys each having their own space to work into, while also being able to block for each other when needed

For teams who haven’t yet played our forward line with Neale in it and instead used to Hawkins with how he played, it could take some getting used to

I like Blicavs down back too. Jack Henry and Kolo got an amazing chopout. WOuld be good to have Stanley and SDK rotating in the ruck and SDK and Blicavs rotating ruck and Half Back.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I'm probably not the last person to agree on this point, but yes. The rest of there phases feed off there mids. We cracked in was it two yrs ago here (proud south australian, lived in radelaide for 14 yrs) in Adl & W but our finals record at AO isn't good.

Yes but if you can conquer the midfield their defence is nowhere near premiership standard and the 2 D grade defenders they traded for last year dont paper over it. yes AO can be a loud crowd and mentally a challenge but i would personally prefer to play port away than syd or gws away.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

You know we only lost by a goal against port right? No danger, and Stewart was not playing his new role.

I think we'll do allright in the rematch.

Yep i agree.

 

[00VicWard001]

Yep i agree.

If we slingshot into our forward line like we did yesterday, I dont think the Port backline can stop our forwards kicking a big score. No Houstan either. They would be the easiest of the top four to take out. ANd it would make a big statement too.

 

[Hamingja]

basically, all mids are better significantly on paper than ours. We just need to hope they break even and let our backs/fwds take up the slack.

Yeah we are up against it in the midfield v anyone basically but Port and the Dogs are the two teams I would want to avoid from that perspective and they are likely to be the two teams we will have to play. Sydney have a good midfield and Heeney may well tear us apart if we were to meet, but Sydney's mids much more likely to shit it in a one off game than Port or the Dogs for mine.

 

[fpm84]

Highly likely that we’ll have seven players play their first career final next month.

Bruhn, Bowes, O Henry, Neale, Dempsey, Mannagh, Humphries.

Five of those weren’t even on our list two years ago when we won the flag.

Just remarkable from top to bottom - recruiting, development, coaching - that we can win a flag, refresh 1/3rd of the side, and make top 4 again.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Highly likely that we’ll have seven players play their first career final next month.

Bruhn, Bowes, O Henry, Neale, Dempsey, Mannagh, Humphries.

Five of those weren’t even on our list two years ago when we won the flag.

Just remarkable from top to bottom - recruiting, development, coaching - that we can win a flag, refresh 1/3rd of the side, and make top 4 again.

Good call out but just flagging Bruhn played finals at GWS

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Yeah we are up against it in the midfield v anyone basically but Port and the Dogs are the two teams I would want to avoid from that perspective and they are likely to be the two teams we will have to play. Sydney have a good midfield and Heeney may well tear us apart if we were to meet, but Sydney's mids much more likely to shit it in a one off game than Port or the Dogs for mine.

Port and wbd also have the sort of rucks that wont exploit a stanley on his last legs or sdk rucking.
Gws and sydney are much more worrisome woth their rucks hence id rather get port and back in dangerfield.

 

[catempire]

Highly likely that we’ll have seven players play their first career final next month.

Bruhn, Bowes, O Henry, Neale, Dempsey, Mannagh, Humphries.

Five of those weren’t even on our list two years ago when we won the flag.

Just remarkable from top to bottom - recruiting, development, coaching - that we can win a flag, refresh 1/3rd of the side, and make top 4 again.

This is beating the system. Finding players and renewing the list without the rightful capital to do so. Remarkable indeed.

But Geelong is old, the cliff, derp, etc.

 

[Jimmy Yamazaki]

Happy with these predictions from February and June respectively. Got a lot of pushback to both.

We won 7 after the Carlton loss by the way Vdubs, Jimmy Yamazaki, Jeff76, Warhorse, Baggins15, et al.

Nice.

It's good we turned around our season after that Carlton loss. We where in freefall for a while there.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

Nah I’ll watch at home.

Yeah I am nervous about the fixture considering we have struggled against Port at AO in finals recently. And I don’t think we’re good enough this year anyway regardless of the opponent.

You’re right though, Port have been inconsistent like every other team and there’s always a chance.

Then just enjoy the ride. Any success is a bonus.

If you're the nervous type, that's a much better scenario than knowing we're the best team in it and just praying we don't **** it up.