- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
As it stands, Geelong is a mediocre football team. After Round 17, the Cats are in eighth position, hanging in by percentage.
The complete truth is, despite making the preliminary final in two consecutive seasons, Geelong hasn’t been a great team for a number of years.
Of course, adding Patrick Dangerfield has ensured the Cats maintain relevancy and experience relative success.
It isn’t a bridge too far, however, to suggest that he is the only reason the club has stayed afloat since his arrival.
Dangerfield is one of the league’s best players. Joel Selwood is one of the best captains in the league and they are surrounded by arguably the best midfield group.
Joel Selwood and Gary Ablett look dejected (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)
On paper at least.
Bringing in Gary Ablett was a nice story, and he’s still playing good footy.
There is no issue with bringing ‘the Little Master’ back to the club for the twilight of his career.
Clearly though, having great names in the midfield hasn’t produced great result in 2018.
Stephen Wells’ and Geelong’s drafting success is well-known, and they continue to produce, having drafted Tim Kelly and Charlie Constable in particular this season.
If the tactic is to overpower the opposition with elite midfield strength, Geelong’s doing a poor job of it.
They’re ranked ninth in the league for disposals, seventh for tackles, and sixth for clearances. They’re ranked 11th for disposal efficiency, 17th for centre clearances and ninth for metres gained, when the move the ball to the outside.
On average, the Cats lose the tackle count by nearly five per match, and they go down on clearances.
Rhys Stanley as the number one ruck is fine at the moment given the spread and contested marking he can provide around the ground, however 2018 has shown what a dominant ruckman can truly provide.
It’s also puzzling why the Cats insist on playing Patrick Dangerfield predominately in attack, as the stats suggest the ball won’t get down to him enough for him to be the matchwinner.
He needs to be in the midfield and using his strengths to push the Cats forward, however that’s far from the only issue.
The modern game is all about being able to get the ball forward and locking it into your forward line.
Geelong is ranked seventh in inside 50s and seventh for tackles inside 50, which is fine for a team going through the motions in the current state of the league.
These numbers have improved with the inclusion of Jamaine Jones and Quinton Narkle in recent weeks, who are both exciting players in the forward 50. Lachie Fogarty too has been a great tackling option in attack, while Brandan Parfitt’s form has dropped off since returning to the senior team.
Where is Patrick Dangerfield most valuable for the Cats? (Photo: James Elsby/AFL Media/Getty Images)
The main issue with having these young players in the team is that they’re only really boosting one area of the team.
Narkle and Parfitt are great finishers, however the former has only played three games and may get tired very soon, while Parfitt is far better suited to playing higher up the ground, as he did earlier in the season.
When Fogarty is in the team, he adds great pressure, however he has 5.10 for the season and simply cannot finish well in his first season at the club.
Tom Hawkins is the only reliable player in attack, and he truly has been a star for the team.
He’s averaging a career-high 1.4 forward 50 tackles this season, while putting elite numbers of 15 disposals, seven marks and 2.5 goals per game. He’s the only one applying pressure and producing at a high level, which has kept Geelong in many games.
Then there’s Dan Menzel, who has 16 goals in six games, but his lack of defensive pressure is a genuine liability.
This group of full-time forwards, to put it bluntly, isn’t good enough to be a genuine finals team.
Other options for the Cats don’t inspire a lot of confidence. Kelly, Menegola and Dangerfield are midfielders who are averaging over a goal a game while being required to play far more time out of position than should be the case.
Gryan Miers doesn’t tackle enough in the VFL to warrant selection at the moment, while the injury-prone duo of Lincoln McCarthy and Nakia Cockatoo aren’t reliable solutions, even when fit.
Dysfunctional may be too strong, but this forward line mismatch is unsustainable and can be concerning for the future if the Cats don’t make smart moves in the draft and off-season. Esava Ratugolea is already an important player for the club and has been sorely missed.
Geelong’s defence has been seen as their strength this season, despite the ad hoc nature of its makeup.
The team’s defence thrives on rushed opposition kicks, which suits the intercept marking of Henry, Stewart, Taylor and to an extent, Blicavs.
It’s easy to be attracted to intercepts, and it’s easy to be attracted to the fact Geelong has conceded the second-least amount of points for the year.
Against teams that move the ball quickly and lower their eyes, Geelong’s defence looks all at sea.
[latest_videos_strip category=”afl” name=”AFL”]
Blicavs has been great in his new role this year, but there are moments in every game where he tries to do too much, getting caught out of position.
Kolodjashnij isn’t quite a second key defender, and Henry struggles defensively when the ball isn’t bombed in.
Stewart is the best player Geelong has in its back half, while Bews is solid and unassuming.
One thing all these players have in common, as indicated by the negative 2.5 “tackles inside 50” differential, is that they’re relatively one-paced and get tackled easily when the ball is on the ground.
Tuohy is the only one with pace, while Duncan tends to drift into defence to help run the ball out.
The strengths Geelong have in the backline are relatively predictable, and good teams know how to shut the team down.
The worrying aspect of Geelong’s supposed strength is that waiting for Lachie Henderson to come back doesn’t fix much. While he is a very good player, he only offers improvement on the traits that already exist in the current set up. Taylor too, is similar.
It’s easy to be critical of Geelong after a loss, and given the season is extremely tight, having six games left and being in eighth position mightn’t cause the club to panic yet.
We all expect the Cats to be one of the top tier teams when looking at the names on paper.
The truth is that Geelong is a mediocre team that has a level of inflexibility that prevents it from rising to the top tier any time soon.
Papering over the cracks is entirely possible with Dangerfield playing in the midfield and maybe throwing Henderson into the forward line upon his senior return, however without Chris Scott becoming inventive over the next few weeks and in the off-season, there could be some issues moving forward.
No team wants to be mediocre, but it’s the reality of Geelong’s situation.
Having good kids on the list will only take the club so far and if things don’t change, Geelong will be seen as just another middle-of-the-road team for years to come.