If you tuned into Geelong’s clash with Melbourne on Friday night and decided you weren’t going to look at the scoreboard at all, this was a match that had all the makings of a close contest.
The Cats, sure, had plenty more of the footy, racking up uncontested marks galore, particularly off half-back – but far from the rabble that headed in off the back of two humbling thrashings, the Demons looked capable of taking it right up to the home side.
Steven May was titanic in defence, Max Gawn influential in ruck contests, Kysaiah Pickett buzzing with menace and class whenever he went near the ball, and the movement of the footy in general was a far cry from the lifeless mess it has been to start 2025.
With two goals from defensive 50 chains in the third quarter, breaking through the Cats’ normally watertight defence with minimal precision but maximal willingness to take the game on, the Dees hovered right at the edge of touching distance.
And yet, their trip to the Cattery ends with just six goals on the board, another deflatingly comfortable loss – this time by 39 points – and the sealing of a 0-4 start to the year, their worst since Mark Neeld held the reins.
The reason is simple: the Cats go inside 50 with accuracy and intelligence, whereas the Dees… don’t.
Sometimes footy is straightforward – good kicking to good structures wins games, bad kicking to bad structures loses them.
The Dees were by no means outworked, or outhunted, at GMHBA Stadium on Friday night. But all that does is show just how stark the gap in class is between these two teams.
Melbourne and Simon Goodwin came in with a plan that was downright bizarre: sag spare men a kick behind the footy, attempt to clog up their defensive 50, and hope the Cats would do what they do faced with similar difficulties and bomb away haphazardly.
Geelong were just way too smart to fall for such a simple trick: rather than bombing, they patiently chipped the ball around, switching the play as much as possible, and waited to see whether the Dees’ defensive structure would crumble.
In the first quarter and a half, more often than not, it eventually did.
By the time the Dees made moves to equalise those numbers, particularly wide of stoppages, the Cats had five goals to one on the board, and the game was all but out of their grasp.
The key stat, of course, was 148 – that’s the amount of uncontested marks the Cats took, a club record for a team that racked them up during 2020 and 2021 before shifting their gameplan towards something more aggressive.
The identity of the takers was telling, too: 17 for Zach Guthrie, 13 for Lawson Humphries, 13 for Connor O’Sullivan, 11 for Tom Stewart, 9 for Sam De Koning. All defenders – throw in another 10 for Gryan Miers and 8 for Ollie Dempsey, ranging between half-forward and the wing, and the Cats’ calm ball use rarely failed to yield positive territory gains further afield.
17 marks inside 50 is equally damning considering the way the game was played: the Cats, rarely using the ball less than immaculately, were consistently able to find options inside 50 despite the numbers in there, repeatedly capitalising on mismatches.
Rhys Stanley took two of them, one notable instance in the first quarter seeing him sprint off Max Gawn and clunk a sizeable grab for a goal; Patrick Dangerfield three, his overhead marking unstoppable for any Dee that could go with him for speed and his work on the lead too quick for anyone that could match him in the air; Shannon Neale five, capitalising on May’s need to stay closer to goal to guard the most dangerous space.
The Dees, for all their willingness to take the game on, were far, far sloppier – even when they did pay off.
Both their third-quarter goals to remain within arm’s reach of the Cats came from moving the ball quickly through the middle and into a wide-open forward line, yet both had slices of luck involved: in the first, a wobbly Bayley Fritsch centring ball miraculously landed in Jack Viney’s path to open the field up entirely, while the second saw Kysaiah Pickett torpedo the footy over Geelong’s rushing-back defenders.
It worked – but lost in the highlights is the countless times that kick didn’t work, or ended with a hacked bomb straight to O’Sullivan, Stewart or whoever the spare back was, or my favourite – Christian Petracca making a beautiful lead at half-forward, then throwing his head back as the ball sailed a good six metres over his head.
Which brings me to the second issue the Dees faced on Friday night, one that rests squarely on Simon Goodwin’s shoulders.
This was an utterly bizarre tactical display from Melbourne – effectively, their defensive set-up screamed of a plan to try and catch Geelong out on the slingshot, all the more damning considering they ended the match with just 19 points from turnovers, their ninth-worst return in ten years.
You don’t beat the Cats playing this way, especially not if you’re a team with the Dees’ limitations by foot and with few in-form options to kick to inside 50.
St Kilda, as an example, denied the Cats the footy they crave, smashing them for disposals and marks and using that to expose their defence, particularly at ground level.
Sure, they held on by the skin of their teeth, and had the lucky break of Stewart going down injury and Bailey Smith not playing at all – but this was at least a concrete plan from Ross Lyon to stop Geelong playing the game on their terms, and give the Saints’ strengths – namely, their contested-ball strength and the elite kicking of Jack Sinclair and Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera – the opportunity to thrive.
Bailey Smith is tackled by Jack Viney. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Melbourne, in contrast, allowed the Cats to dictate terms by foot, and tried to hurt them on the slingshot – Chris Scott can have had few easier days in the coaches’ box, even if his team weren’t quite slick enough to put the Dees away until the second half of the final term.
If all this seems harsh, given the Dees’ woes to start the year and a significant improvement in the intensity and defensive stakes, it’s because it is. If it were the point of the exercise, this was leaps and bounds better than what Melbourne dished up against North Melbourne and Gold Coast.
But make no mistake, this was an eminently winnable game that was made almost an impossibility by tactics.
Clayton Oliver was back to his industrious best on the ball with nine clearances; Christian Petracca bagged two goals in his most impactful game of the season; Max Gawn’s ruckwork was vastly improved; Steven May was simply outstanding down back, as was Tom McDonald in keeping Jeremy Cameron to just one goal.
There was once a time where those first four being excellent made a Demons win almost inevitable; that it didn’t is very nearly as concerning as those back-to-back thrashings they’ve just endured, no matter how honourable this loss appears on paper.
Tim Millerhttps://https://ift.tt/Pbqepyn Fix: Goodwin’s tactical disasterclass gives the Cats exactly what they’ve always wanted
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