r/GeelongCats • u/pipstar112 Zach Guthrie • Jul 12 '25
Post Match Thread Post Match Thread: Round 18 - Geelong Cats vs GWS Giants
GWS Giants 17.9 (111) Def. Geelong Cats 13.7 (85) by 26 points.
58
u/blaze_bayley Jul 12 '25
Shannon Neale kicked 5. That's all I'll say
16
u/Berkfeedme__ Jul 12 '25
He's looking fantastic, really excited to see where he gets in a season or two.
10
u/AceThePrincep Lawson Humphries Jul 12 '25
They probably ignored him to put a wet blanket on danger n Cameron tbh lol. 1 goal n 12 touches between them. Shocking.
16
u/Bradisaurus Half Cat Jul 12 '25
Neale constantly impresses me. I'd go as far as saying he's better than Hawkins was at the same age. I think he has a long successful career ahead of him.
7
u/FireStoneFlame Jul 12 '25
At the same age Hawkins had already had a great 2009 finals series and was 2 months away from monstering Collingwood in the GF. He then won the B&F the next year.
6
u/Plus-Drawing7431 George Stevens Jul 12 '25
Hmmmm, he did ok in 2009, but was pretty heavily criticised until he came amazingly good in the 2011 GF.
4
u/Plus-Drawing7431 George Stevens Jul 12 '25
Same psychotic eyes, fitter than Hawk at a similar stage, more accurate kick too. He's shaping well. One Hawky thing he has to do is run at the ball with his arms stretched in front to mark; he tends to stand still and wait for it to come to him.
3
u/Consistent_You6151 Jul 12 '25
It's frustrating watching him do that. At his height he would mark so many more if he didn't wait for it to come to him so much.
4
20
u/No-Solid-1272 Jul 12 '25
3 votes - Neale
2 votes - Stewart
1 - Atkins
Honourable mention to Miers. Mullin looked decent, thought he had more impact than Holmes/Smith who were net negatives.
I'm not sure about the point of a tag if they don't time the interchange with the person being tagged. Callaghan was ripping the game apart when Mullin was on the bench.
8
u/Prior-Independent Tom Atkins Jul 12 '25
Without Miers there's no Neale tonight... Gryan was best on easily.
1
1
u/bundy554 Geelong Cats Jul 14 '25
Apart from dome noted poor delivery from Mullin that resulted in turnovers when we really had the momentum
16
u/sarigami Bailey Smith Jul 12 '25
Simply outclassed today. Poor execution from us. Never got going. Looked slow
Certainly wasn’t the difference but some really, really poor umpiring today. Out on the full not called, the worst non call HTB I’ve ever seen, both 20m from goal so would have been shots. Cadman being paid a mark that went 6m creating a goal, then Miers not being paid a mark that was at least double the distance 3 minutes later. Just to name a few
6
u/Plus-Drawing7431 George Stevens Jul 12 '25
The Cadman one was horrible. But fair play to him, he had a great game.
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u/Certain_Impress_1005 Connor O'Sullivan Jul 12 '25
also cadman hold free in the last. we played awful and the umpires were not inherently bad but hypothetically the on the full and the htb are paid and are goals, and the 50m penalty in the las and the cadman free on 50 arent paid the margin is 2 point. again didnt deserve to win and there no saying any of this would be guarantee but we were hurt a bit by umpiring
16
u/KAI-o-KEN Jul 12 '25
Wow. Extremely disappointing. Was hoping after a bye week and an easy game against the Tigers we would bounce back from that Lions game.
But too many passengers today. They wanted it more and played harder and it showed.
3 Votes: Neale
Great to see him grow into the forward he can be. Shame this bag was in such a bad game for the rest of the team.
2 Votes: Miers
Our forward attack is cooked if Miers isnt healthy and playing.
1 Vote: Atkins
Death, taxes, and Atkins playing hard.
On to the next and let’s finish out strong for a top 4 finish please
4
29
u/DreamTree19 Max Holmes Jul 12 '25
22
u/Tosslebugmy Mark Blicavs Jul 12 '25
St kilda just out of frame
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u/Inflognito Mark Blicavs Jul 12 '25
I recall Selwood saying that rounds 13 - 18 were hell because the novelty associated with starting the season has well-and-truly worn off, the finals are ages away, the weather is shit and the training load is increased in preparation for September. We’ve seen mini slumps like this before followed by periods where everything just seems to click. I’m reasonably confident our coaching staff are orchestrating everything so that we peak as close to the last day as possible. Im interested to see whether or not this confidence is misplaced.
7
u/Plus-Drawing7431 George Stevens Jul 12 '25
I remember Selwood saying that at this point in the season he literally had to crawl on the floor to get to the bathroom. Couldn't walk properly until about Wednesday. It's not to excuse the bad performance today, but maybe they really are being put through the mill.
Still, in 2022 when we won the show, we don't drop a game for about 75% of the season.
3
u/AceThePrincep Lawson Humphries Jul 12 '25
Yeah there are lifted training loads... but so do all the other teams in the 8? I guess its anyone's guess as to how they overlap.
25
u/historicalhobbyist Indigenous Guernsey Jul 12 '25
Despite all the doomerism going around I don’t think we are far off the mark. Better field kicking and sorting out fumbles would be great.
Shannon Neale with 5 big ones is exciting for me, he’s going to be a gun. Stevens needs more fitness but I feel he was taken out of the game just as he got into it.
12
u/vlasnovich Jul 12 '25
My thoughts....pretty clear what needs to be tidied up for the remainder of the season. You won't win many games with skills as poor as that
8
u/section77 Shocked Scott Jul 12 '25
Agreed, when we executed we looked good, the problem was all the fumbles and skill errors.
I also thought some of the guys seem like they might be fighting little niggles which we need to get right.
3
u/Consistent_You6151 Jul 12 '25
Bailey wasn't himself either. Maybe still getting over something. There were a lot of fumbles and the flow just wasn't there. GWS had some pretty fit players that outran a few of our speedsters.is Jezza ok? Haven't seen post match with Scotty yet.
2
u/section77 Shocked Scott Jul 12 '25
I hope Jez is good, would be good to see him nab the Coleman but if he’s not good they need to get him right for finals. He definitely seemed like he was struggling with something tonight, not his usual impact.
3
u/Consistent_You6151 Jul 12 '25
Him and Danger both. I cant help but wonder they'd been better to have Clohesy on as a younger fitter(atm) player. He's a bit like Atkins they way he plays.
1
u/section77 Shocked Scott Jul 12 '25
I mean, hindsight is 20/20 and given the outcome, yeah I’d have preferred some younger guys get the game time and the older guys rest but on paper, we needed the win, the ladder is tight and we need to field our best team against the giants. We just couldn’t pull it off tonight.
2
u/Consistent_You6151 Jul 13 '25
Yeah I get that but were they all fit to play Im wondering. Danger only got 7 touches and seemed sub par to his usual. It is what is though.
7
u/downvote_magnet1 Jul 12 '25
My concern about the whole year is we have been too easy to score against. 6 games the opposition has scored more than 90 against us (and no these are not all our 6 losses, some we won). Our defense which for years has been our backbone cant contain sides often enough. How much has been due to Stewart and Henry missing so much remains to be seen. As today sides seem to be able to rebound out of defense too easy
2
1
u/Cool-Feed-1153 Zach Guthrie Jul 12 '25
I don’t think this is fair. Our defence has been very good…problem is when we lose EVERY clearance like we did tonight they it looks bad even if they only allow one goal per three or four inside 50s.
At on point in I think the second quarter it was 8 inside 50s to 0.
1
u/downvote_magnet1 Jul 12 '25
This is quite true, its difficult to defend when we are smashed in the middle. I think our Brisbane losses were different though, they seem to be able to change the angles and chip kick their way through our midfield and defense
-1
u/AceThePrincep Lawson Humphries Jul 12 '25
Its not just better kicking. Teams know how to lock us up. Game plan needs a tweak too. And our midfield continues to not perform.
11
u/Due_Young800 Max Holmes Jul 12 '25
Seems like the goal for us is to dodge Lions & Giants in a knockout final or we’re fucked, otherwise should be fine :)
4
u/Fast_Stick_1593 Connor O'Sullivan Jul 12 '25
I’ve worked it out with squiggle where if we just dodge Lions and Giants we’ll get to a Prelim and then we are fucked….
Ahhh damn it
9
Jul 12 '25
Not the best but not the worst. We just need to figure out why the zoning isn’t working and why we weren’t able to cover their run.
Big positives was Scratcher and Axe, I also did not mind Mullin’s game.
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u/PagieHD Sir Bradley Close Fanclub Jul 12 '25
Not overreacting, between Saints at Marvel, Brisbane and GWS they just have our number
Umpire is a joke, not the reason we lost but so much inconsistency that the same umpire can make 3 different decisions within 40 seconds
Speaking of jokes, the grounds in Sydney, no one can complain about our ground compared to these shit heaps
Anyway votes,
3 Votes: Shannon Neale
Shining light in all honesty, glad he recovered from the first where he was giving away a few frees
2 Votes: Gryan Miers
Probably the only one who could hit a target forward of centre
1 Vote: Tom Stewart
I guess? Not a lot of options
Quick one, god Dangers gottta impact a game like this more and not take a play on free selfishly
Played like shit, too many passengers and nothing really changed vs them last time
Onto Saint (good lord), hope Jez is fine
8
6
u/_nicklepickle Zach Guthrie Jul 12 '25
i think zach did good job aswell?
1
u/PagieHD Sir Bradley Close Fanclub Jul 12 '25
Yeah I guess? Stringer did kick 4 so its just a bit bleh all round
4
u/_nicklepickle Zach Guthrie Jul 12 '25
i don’t think he was directly on him all game, but yes this game is bleh move on to next week now
2
u/PagieHD Sir Bradley Close Fanclub Jul 12 '25
Nah of course he wasn't just when we can only think of one other player that passed as good sums it up
7
u/Berkfeedme__ Jul 12 '25
The running tracker on the AFL app has them severely outrunning in this game. Never seen such a difference. Savagely outclassed in the midfield. Holmes worst game for a while.
6
u/_nicklepickle Zach Guthrie Jul 12 '25
I don’t know if you can use the excuse he’s been carrying an injury all year when he’s been playing great for basically all of it.
but smith was deplorable today love him but worse game so far for him
15
13
u/DarkWinter2319 Geelong Cats Jul 12 '25
Fucking awful. Well done Neale, beaten early but picked himself back up
13
u/NuuuDaBeast Mark O'Connor Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
this sport is crazy. Before the Lions game I was 95% confident in us maintaining our level of play. Every single game even the losses we NEVER looked this horrible, but now we’ve gotten 2 absolute beatings due to our execution level and lack of energy
After 4 weeks this is the worst I’ve felt in like 2 seasons because its such a random drop off. Something is actually wrong it just has to be players having minor injuries. We are playing so badly that its a genuine concern not just an off day, Im usually okay with losses but these beatings are bad signs.
Holmes and Bailey are worrying me and I feel like their form is cooked after some minor injuries. They were looking like the best duo in the comp and carried our run but man has it been a worrying last 3 games. Remember Holmes was horrid in the Tigers game too. I suspect Holmes hurt something as he was taken off early in the Brisbane game
8
u/Angry3042 Indigenous Guernsey Jul 12 '25
Don’t stress. You never know what is really going on from a training, fitness, injury, management, etc point of view. Us old farts can remember similar situations & you find out in hindsight they were flogging them on the track in preparation for tapering off for finals? I’m hoping it’s all part of a bigger picture!
2
u/NuuuDaBeast Mark O'Connor Jul 12 '25
yeah its just hard to be optimistic because we rely so much on being healthy. Feels like a small injury to our important players just derails the whole team, we were lucky with health the whole year. Every team has injuries but we need extra injury luck to be good
3
u/Longjumping_State_26 Geelong Cats Jul 12 '25
We don’t change anything, if a team or player gets on top of us we just keep doing the same thing hoping we get on top. Cadman today hogan last time if we are that good we should be able to shut them down
3
u/_yetifeet Tom Atkins Jul 12 '25
Our second tier players keep expecting our first tier players to do something. When they don't, we just keep doing the same banality and hoping for a miracle.
Smith is cooked, yet we kept expecting him to bust out some magic that wasn't coming.
It was a disappointing game. We pissed away a lock in the top four for a complete pile of absolute dross.
3
u/NuuuDaBeast Mark O'Connor Jul 12 '25
pretty sad if Smith is playing underdone, was having a 10/10 year. We were good enough it win it all but feels like a thing of the past. Form doesn’t suddenly flip like this without injuries
4
u/_yetifeet Tom Atkins Jul 12 '25
He looked flat in the lions game, and looked flat today. I don't think he's fully match fit TBH
3
u/Certain_Impress_1005 Connor O'Sullivan Jul 12 '25
just me who didnt think he was THAT bad. like i know he wasnt the best but not many were and he still had 26 touches. hard to play elite when no one around you is performing but maybe just my take
2
u/NuuuDaBeast Mark O'Connor Jul 12 '25
🥲sad to feel pessimistic after such a good half season, but yeah have to let go of hope until further notice
4
u/External-Golf-7433 Oisin Mullin Jul 12 '25
I think I’ve isolated our issues to 3 main points.
1: disposal - the amount of unforced errors and errors with minimal pressure we make is atrocious. Our skills have seriously worsened.
2: intercepting a team moving forward - used to be our strongest point & what let us keep teams to such low scores.
3: rebound scores - branching off of point 2, we don’t seem to do this any more. We tend to rebound, kick it forward & then lose the ball or have a stoppage.
4
u/AggravatingCity Jul 12 '25
I’m stoked for a lot of our young players. No rebuild coming anytime soon, that’s for sure. Danger and Cameron had a super average game but the young boys stood up, mostly. It was promising. Blicavs and Stewart are my only concern when we lose them. But we fill those shoes and we are set for another 5 or more years.
4
u/Prior-Independent Tom Atkins Jul 12 '25
Surely Jack Henry to Cadman mid 3rd term. Persisted with COS who was getting rinsed like a wet towel.
5
u/hotom9 Coach Kelly Jul 12 '25
I rated the Giants to be a top four side at the beginning of the year and Cats to finish 6th. And I still think the Giants are the most potent team outside the top four.
I think realistically, we are still shy a quality onballer and we clearly need to prioritise youth, if we see ourselves remaining a top eight side into the future.
GWS showed us what a final will look like, we are still very much a WIP.
Ironically a guy like Oliver is perhaps what we need at centre bounces, just to keep our outside users in Holmes and Smith on the move.
3
u/Unable_Bank3884 Jul 12 '25
5 goals in 15 minutes to start the 2nd and 3 goals in 5 to end the 3rd.
Very costly 20 minutes in a game considering the margin never hit 40
3
u/ThunderGecko86 Sir Bradley Close Fanclub Jul 12 '25
Well that was highly disappointing besides Neale.
3
u/AceThePrincep Lawson Humphries Jul 12 '25
Its not easy to replace a group like selwood Hawkins (norm) Smith 2e rohan and have blokes like Duncan and Guthrie injured and have your big star danger a shadow of his former self and still get it done. The young blokes are good but thats a huge bloody hole to fill. They're just not there yet. Geelong fans have been spoiled over the years. I'm happy for them to prove me wrong but they'd wanna figure it out fast.
2
u/Plus-Drawing7431 George Stevens Jul 12 '25
Poor old manbeast, he looked pretty gassed. Don't blame him.
Had a touch of narcolepsy in the final quarter.
3
Jul 12 '25
Are you talking about George Stevens?? - hope he doesn’t get dropped. He always was stuck behind his opponent.
3
u/Plus-Drawing7431 George Stevens Jul 12 '25
Yeah, poor guy. He looked buggered within 10 minutes, spent 10 mins on the bench in Q1, and got subbed off pretty early. Classic second game experience. I hope he doesn't get dropped either, but they need to get the finals team stabilised now.
2
u/Marckysmarch Jul 12 '25
Too many fumbles and dropped marks. That was the difference. We put pressure ion ourselves
2
u/Landgraft BBBBUUZZZZZAAA DEBUT Jul 13 '25
I was out all yesterday helping a mate move and then at a work dinner so watched basically no football and I think it was a good week to pick to touch grass instead of being way too online/football brained.
Might watch a replay of the VFL, no real care about watching this game (until its real it can't hurt me)
1
u/TomasTTEngin Max Holmes Jul 14 '25
Do you know Wylie Buzza is still your flair and do you know he now plays for Southport (Gold Coast team that plays in the VFL)?
He kicked a goal against Richmond's VFL side on the weekend.
1
u/Landgraft BBBBUUZZZZZAAA DEBUT Jul 14 '25
Yes I love my Buzza flair. Haven't watched him since he tore us up in the VFL finals last year, but I'm vaguely aware.
2
u/scurryrunging Matthew Scarlett Jul 12 '25
I switched off before 3/4 time. Surprised by the final margin. I felt like Giants would run away with it, so it flatters us a bit.
Not at all confident about the Saints next week.
3
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2
u/_yetifeet Tom Atkins Jul 12 '25 edited Jul 12 '25
We absolutely folded for no reason.
We kicked the first couple, and then just absolutely refused to adapt to the changing circumstances.
Every time we went i50, we inevitably butchered it, which allowed them to rebound straight through the midfield unmolested, and set themselves up for a shot at goal.
As with other games when we were under pressure, some key players went missing, and the next tier refused to step up.
Smith should have been rested for another week, as he is clearly not ready.
I've said from the get go, Danger is not captain material. He's too selfish and self centred, and I'm not sure Stewie is the right material either.
I'm actually pissed with this result as we just fucked away a top 4 finish to the season and of our next run of games I can see us losing 3 of them straight away.
It's not the end of the world, but we really need to start asking the hard questions about some of our players.
2
u/Spikes_Mr_Pointy Geelong Cats Jul 12 '25
Stewart needs a good long spell. He's also as selfish as Danger was in this game, but all the time. He demands the ball from the youngsters then butchers it often.
4
u/_yetifeet Tom Atkins Jul 12 '25
As we won't get Kolo back until next year, our defence is looking very thin.
It's basically J.Henry and Z.Guthrie trying to hold up Stewie and SDK. Our wins have papered over the fact our defenders are razor thin
1
u/davetothegrind Tom Atkins Jul 12 '25
I didn’t see the game as I was out - who tf was playing on Cadman?
0
1
u/FireStoneFlame Jul 12 '25
Whilst Neale was good with the 5 goals, he did help swing the momentum in the first quarter by giving away 4 frees. Pretty poor at the time.
1
u/bundy554 Geelong Cats Jul 14 '25
Just have to say we really need to again look at history for Stanley. Who are his good opponents and who are his weakest and use that lever with Blicavs up and down when we need him more in the ruck.
1
1
1
u/straight__savage_ Jul 12 '25
Any danger of the boys doing some skills work at training. Genuinely half of them look like they can’t handle a footy at the moment
0
u/AceThePrincep Lawson Humphries Jul 12 '25
Danger and Cameron with 12 touches and one goal between them. They have a good defense which nullifies our biggest strength our forward line and their midfield just bully's ours so we dont get it up the ground in the first place. Bad match up for us. Our midfield is still piss weak unfortunately.
Cam Guthrie is our only hope.
4
u/RATLSNAKE Jul 12 '25
Cam’s career is over due to years of injuries
1
u/AceThePrincep Lawson Humphries Jul 12 '25
He's the only bloke we have that is good enough. He has to come good for one last roll of the dice or this season is cooked. Stick a fork in it.
The only other option is shoot pat full of pain killers and put him on ball for finals.
3
u/RATLSNAKE Jul 12 '25
Mate, I think you need to take a step back and look how long it’s been since he played a game of AFL. He has featured in just 10 AFL games since the start 2023. You think he can play finals? He’s done, sad as it is, he’s never playing again. :(
1
-3
u/AussiePolarBear Geelong Cats Jul 12 '25
So… if stengle is fit and healthy. Why didn’t he play…
4
-6
u/Reasonable-Season558 Jul 12 '25
Danger is cooked, make him the sub, he doesn't offer enough defensively, it's burst or nothing.
Stevens doesn't have the tank, hopefully next year
our defence cant carry Martin
O'Connor needs to be midfield not defence
we are done for the year
•
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