Round 20 v Geelong at the MCG

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First and away
It’s interesting on the night to see the Cats kick away to an early lead, because you know this team has the ability to settle, control tempo and then accelerate when needed. Without a worry.

And it was Cap Cotch who lead the charge, literally. His pickup and dash on the corner of the square, then second effort following the ball upfield for another tackle was a sign that he was switched on, and that we would be too. Those efforts lead to Jack kicking the first. From the restart we snag another, and again it’s the Captain. A few minutes later, our third via a Jack flick over the head. This team. Seriously.

Letting Geelong get some space in the corridor late in the period was not good, and a sign of the play to come. So too letting them get the ball to Dangerfield when they’re struggling.

Despite all the gloom and doom about the look of the game and it needing fixing, we are a very entertaining footy team. How can you not love the run and chase of George when he took on two Cats from the back of the square and forced the ball to the forward 50? Hilarious to show up the Cats with speed and pressure. And Rioli and Shane were very creative with the ball as well.

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Steady second
“Kick not his best though” – BT summing up the Clangerfield cameos for the night. Not quite to QF level though. His hand skills also suffered and the only reason would be from our pressure.

Nank had a great quarter, with a sneaky goal after a goal saving mark a few minute earlier. And when he was off, well – we were exposed a bit.
Speaking of exposing, Titch went up a notch and had the best of the quarter, and Connor also had a few moments. Unfortunately for Connor, there were a few the other way too. Good to also see Rance play all over ‘the best key forward’. Played him completely.

A few more runs from the Cats through the corridor end up in goals… not good and no improvement from the first quarter there.

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On song in the PQ
George scored a steal and a goal early, plus some great pressure… all great George efforts, delivering the first 2 goals for us.
Shedda has a wonderful kicking style, and his vision, and that steal later ! Another long period where we were dominating the game, but the problem was that scoring was hard. Sharing the ball is great but sometimes it was overshared. Another thread of our play to be tightened up before the final.

Corridor Cats… again. Tigers oversharing again. Lloyd and Lambert could have goaled. But at least Towner did… too messy though.

Do like it when Nank gets grumpy and exerts himself. Yeah sure there should have been a free kick, but other physicality from him was great.

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Getting it done
When in doubt, go to Dangerfield… and they did, and they did again.

Its only when you see Selwood live that you can really see exactly what he does in tight and extracting free kicks.

Good to see Selwood and Danger handballing their teammates into trouble too. They looked better than we did in the last quarter, but we also did enough when needed, a 7-point play with Josh and Jack, Lloyd bobbing up for a goal, and then later his defensive effort with those tackles on Tuohy and Henderson.

And gain through the middle Geelong scored. All our good work sending them wide was then undone by open corridors.
Speaking of defensive efforts, Kamdyn, Grimes, Grigg, and Dave… all did real well in the last period.
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To The Benny’s…
So hard to give out the votes to individuals when a solid team effort is the feature of this team.
5 Brilliant early was the Captain, and powering the engine room all game.
4 You could notice when he wasn’t there, and a marked improvement when he was. Is running Nank solo starting to be exploited?
3 Mr Creativity shone all night. Loved Titch‘s game.
2 A welcome return to the George we all know he can be.
1 Jack kicked a modern day bag and presented all night. What a Tiger great

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