Post Match v Cats..all comments here thanks

[Cuthbert Collingwood]

so what....anyone that wants an intelligent discussion about the match rather than gushing about how good we were (weren't) is now a negative poster. I have so far found the debate rather reasonable and balanced and not negative.....after all, we did lose on saturday.

[stui magpie]

Zakal, that fast leading player you talk of is Travis Cloke. 4 goals and a stack of marks and possessions up the ground is better than anything Tarrant did for us in years. Rocca drew the attention which left Trav free. I doubt we could play Rocca, Tarrant, Trav, medhurst all in one forward line

Yeah i suppose you are right....Travis was playing up the ground for most of the game, ....but he still got 4 goals. Just a fantastic effort by Clokey...but the way he was being playing at CHF...his forays into the 50 himself were more surgical strikes than a constant presence there, and thats what i was kind of getting at.

Trav had about 6 shots on goal, so if we say he took 6 of his 10 marks on the lead inside 50....thats only really about 6 contests that Rocca being mauled allowed us to capitalise on.


What i was getting at, was on a more consistent basis. If a tarrant-type...in fact lets not use tarrant as an example because hes no longer with us....if Rusling or Reid was playing inside the 50 on a consistent basis...Geelong would HAVE to do something to counter it. If every time the ball came towards our half-forward line, Geelong had to decide whether to cover the kick to the top of the square aimed at Rocca, or a potential kick to a fast lead....they could not consistently just play the percentages and blanket Rocca...because everytime they did that, it would be a pretty high risk of Reid or Rusling taking an uncontested mark 45m out on a lead.


Maybe im looking at it the wrong way, but i think its about pressure, and if 9/10, the only leading player was Travis Cloke 60m with the ball in his hands looking to pass it inside the 50, and the only target was a flatfooted Rocca...then the decision of the Geelong defence is quite simple....peel off and cover Rocca, pretty certain in the knowledge that there won't be any dangerous lead coming.

Zakal, I'm with you.

In the past we have had 3 tall forwards. We traded Tarrant and this year our set up was supposed to be Rocca, Trav and Rusling.

Rusling got hurt so we've bandaided. That would have been the role played by Bucks probably in main but guess what, he hasn't played either. JA played most of his junior footy as a forward so he might have been an option but, yet again, Doh.

In various games, we've used fill in's to try to play that role. Daisy, Medhurst, Maxwell with not a lot of consistent success. We've also used Josh in a floating role but not as a hard lead up forward.

On Saturday, Medhurst was, IMO, trying to play the leading forward to provide an alternative to the ball being bombed on Rocca's head. The problem is he doesn't have the height. So, in a congested forward line his player would often zone off him taking the punt that one of his teammates would be able to spoil if the pass went to him and instead pull back and double team Rocca.

Leon and Dids are the ones who should be at Rocca's feet.

My solution would be to play Reid.

He's only a kid but he's shown he reads the ball well and has speed and height. Start him in the goal square with Pebbles 20 metres in front of him.

Reid does the hard leading from the goal square ad, because of his height, the opposition will have to man him up. They can't afford to treat him as a decoy. That leaves Pebbles with the goal square free behind him if we bomb it long or space in front to lead to 45 and mark at his perfect kicking range.

We've gone from the highest scoring tem in the comp to middle of the pack mainly because we've played 1 tall forward short for most of the year.

[Zakal]

Yeah, definitely agree that Reid is the man. At the very least until Rusling is fully fit. Atm Reid is fit, Rusling is not so the decision is easier.

Also, it really doesn't matter if Reid kicks many goals or not, as his purpose is just to make them take one OTHER of our tall forwards seriously, thus freeing Rocca up.


I dont think the Rocca, Travis, Rusling setup will work as well on a wet day, but both Reid and Travis are perfectly competent below their knees, so on days like that, perhaps Rusling will (when he returns) have to make way for a guy like Reid anyway. Both quite tall, great leap, good mark and lightning quick so it will just be a matter of who seizes the opportunity better. Although in the long term, it really has to be rusling for his own sake. Reid will be able to play anywhere on the ground...but if Rusling can't fill the this role as the leading forward, he might find himself at Williamstown a bit too often.

[RudeBoy]

I think Reid is definitely needed back in our side. My only worry, however, is his atrocious kicking. If BT can improve that over the next few weeks, then Reid might end up being our secret weapon come finals time. Throw in Bucks as well, and our forward set up could become very scary.

The other thing to note is that even if we lose a couple of games, we'll probably still finish top 4. This means we play our first final at our home ground. This means that we must grab the opportunity to win the flag this year, not next year, as such a window might not be open again for some time.