I’ve found Geelong tricky to rate for years. Their best 22 never looks amazing, but when you’ve got players like Danger and Selwood you can carry a few plodders.
I also think they play one of the more ‘honest’ brands of football going. They are definitely a ‘territory’ side; they use DangerWood to win the clearance, and are very happy to bomb it long to Hawkins who will usually provide a contest on even the biggest Dangerfield mongrel punt. With that said, they don’t seem to press up anywhere near as aggressively as a Richmond side, but instead hold a few of their taller defenders back to avoid getting roasted on the counter.
I’m sure I’m missing a million nuances to their gameplan, but from what I’ve seen it creates a ‘solid but unspectacular’ feel about the side, until Dangerfield periodically goes berserk and puts them a few goals up.
It’s easier to set up a press when you’ve got a 5 goal breeze helping you. Some of Geelong’s attempts to move the ball out of the D50 were shocking (possibly two kicks out on the full?).
I’d also note that a lot of Hurley/Heppell’s biggest shockers came kicking into the wind. It wasn’t Etihad out there.
Green is lucky he worked into it. Non existent first half. He’s okay - but ideally he should be depth
Myers was awesome
Parish, smith and zerrett will be a awesome trio. If Heppell could kick I’d add him to that group but his disposal is a liability. He does everything good, bar kicking it. Our midfield as a whole was pretty good. Parish looks really good I reckon
Joe has looked really rusty. I hope that rust is gone round 1
Begley was quiet but I’d persist. What he does, is good
That’s your standard stringer game we can expect imo. I don’t see him dominating games, but I can see him winning games off his own boot in a quarter
I rate mcneice but I thought he was ordinary
I really am worried about our key defenders. They won’t play hurls on the #1 forward which means it’s left to Ambrose/Hartley/brown who I think are all average. Ambrose is terribly overrated on here. He’s got his limitations
Yes but its still good that it occured and we scored heavily during that period too.
Some sides can compress it and not know how to score. We used to be a bit more like that. Dominate quarters and have nothing to show for it.
So if we can score while compressing and also score on the slingshot then we stand a chance to be able to kick more goals than our opposition and win games.
Say what you want about the JLT practice games being whatever, but you’d always prefer to see them playing good football as opposed to playing poorly. Today’s efforts sound like we are in good shape for round 1. Getting a win is a minor bonus - but to get it in a tight contest is a positive. So all up a very good day barring the Gleeson injury which is a big disappointment and an important loss. But this stuff can and does happen any time during a season. We have to just cover his absence, which good sides should be able to do.
I share the thoughts of concern about our key defenders. We know Hurley is best suited as a loose, floating defender, using his kicking skills to give us drive from defence - despite a few atrocious kicks today. The thought of him taking on the opposition’s big key fwds is a nasty one, and he’s been exposed at this before. If he got his strength back to 2014-15 level, then maybe.
Ambrose is probably still our best pure lockdown defender, but is offensively limited, and even then can struggle against opponents that beat him for height. Ideally Hartley should fill this gap, but he looks a bit of a shadow of the guy in his first year in 2016, makes dumb errors and gives away frees quite a lot. Only real weapon is spoiling.
Like Brown a lot but he isn’t really a key defender, but he can perform his role pretty effectively. Definitely a defender and not a forward.
Hooker should go back depending on the opposition I think; wouldn’t want him back there full time after 40 gls last year and how much he assisted Joe to have a brilliant season. Even throwing him back for the last 5-6 minutes of quarters at times was useful. Him going back should be like the plan B if we can’t cover the opposition forwards early on.
On paper we have a decent side.
However, we are obviously lacking some superior quality.
For us to go far this season we need to give 100% effort in tackling effort each game. As soon as we drop off our vulnerability to losing increases ten fold. Other sides who have star talent can get away without putting 100% effort in but from i’ve seen of this team we are not one of those sides yet