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August 27, 2007
Catempire's Critique
Injuries
This was the big pre-match story.
When Geelong made the decision to rest Selwood with “general soreness” it was widely met with nodding approval at the clubs wise management of the young gun.
But when Bartel was forced from the side with appendicitis on Friday, an eyebrow or two would have been raised at the impact this may have on the functioning of Geelong’s engine room.
On Saturday morning, when news arrived that Cameron Ling was a late withdrawal, the alarm bells were well and truly ringing.
Geelong played the game with two our of its best 4 midfielders and 3 out of its best 5. Against a team strong through the middle of the ground, this was always going to be a problem.
Kane Cornes in particular, ran rampant without the close checking of Cameron Ling. To make matters worse, Cornes clamped down on Joel Corey, heavily limiting his effectiveness and leaving too much load on the shoulders of Gary Ablett.
Geelong were destroyed at around the ground stoppages, particularly those close to Port’s goal where several goals were created from poor setups and loose checking.
Rucks
Brad Ottens continued his stellar form in the ruck with 16 possessions (11 contested) and 27 hitouts up against quality opposition in Lade and Brogan.
Ottens took two telling marks in the final stages of the game, however his failure to clear the ball with a long kick down the line was probably a factor in losing the game.
Meanwhile, Mark Blake received a chance to prove that he owns the backup ruckman role in front of Steven King. His 5 possessions, 1 mark and 10 hitouts (only 2 to advantage) failed to achieve this.
With King one of the VFL teams best yesterday, the selectors will once again have a difficult decision on their hands.
Kicking for goal or choosing not to
If bad kicking is bad football, not kicking for goal when you should must be a football abomination.
Too often you see players in this team pass to low percentage options when they are inside scoring range. For memory, Stokes, Varcoe and Mooney were all guilty of this yesterday.
It is time these players took responsibility for scoring goals.
Turnovers by senior players
Darren Milburn contributed three goals to Port Adelaide’s total through his turnovers that resulted in goals. Scarlett and Steve Johnson (among others) were also guilty parties to this heinous crime.
It was reported that Port won 63 possessions from Geelong turnovers and converted them into 10.4 (as compared with Geelong’s 7.7 from 54).
Contributing to this were the seven occasions where Geelong kicked the ball to Dean Brogan who was lurking inside their forward 50. Not waking up to this tactic was a terrible indictment on Geelong.
Back-slaps
Steve Johnson has been superb in the past 16 games, averaging 18 possessions, 7 marks and 2.5 goals per game. For a player who was offered for trade less than 12 months ago and who was forced to play the first 5 games of the season in the VFL, this is an outstanding effort. He continued the form on Sunday with another 3 goal game.
Gary Ablett was the standout for Geelong again, collecting 27 possessions under a close tag and kicking what was nearly the winning goal of the match in fine style. He did his Brownlow chances no harm in a performance that could see him snatch the 1 or 2 votes in a losing side.
Players in the firing line
Shannon Byrnes produced more of the material that makes him such a frustrating player to watch. In the final quarter, when he had a shot at goal from near directly in front, he pulled the kick to take his career tally to 16.35. This is simply not good enough for an AFL footballer, particularly one who is in the side to kick goals.
Henry Playfair will be ruing his performance. The once promising centre half forward gathered only 8 possessions and took 3 marks. For a player playing for their career the performance simply wasn’t good enough. He will now play out the season in the VFL and will probably never play senior footy for the Cats again. As an aside, however, the levelling of blame for the loss at Playfair is misdirected when several other players had far greater negative impacts on the game with their turnovers resulting in Port Adelaide goals.
Posted by catempire at August 27, 2007 02:37 PM
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