Cat News

[am Bays]

Ah when all avenues of complaint have gone, blame the umpires.....

The problem with umpires is they just don't care who wins....

[Rik E Boy]

The problem with umpires is they just don't care who wins....

Could of fooled me mate! I reckon good old 18 got a nice handy collect LOL.

regards,

Soursob

[sydney-dog]

did anyone see Bomber Thompson's media conference today, did not handle it at all well, definitely a man feeling the pressure

[Rik E Boy]

Re Bomber: Fans want him gone. The patience has run out. We might even need a Blight like clean out of some senior players a la Adelaide 1997. It is rumoured that the players wield excessive power around the club and that Bomber may have 'lost' the players. Of course this could be A grade bull5hit, but this sort of scuttlebut will abound when you can only win 9 games out of 24 (our record since we were 7-2 last season).

REB's Cat remedy

In the next few weeks Geelong plays Port, Carlton and Essendon. I'd give 'our best 22' until round 15 to see if they can dig themselves out of the huge hole they've dumped themselves in.

What happens next depends on the win loss record. If we are 7-8 or better I'd stick with 'the best 22' and let them run out the season.

If the win loss is worse than this we will struggle to make the eight even with 'our best 22' available. What I would do then is to find out if Lonergan, Mackie, Nathan Ablett, Spencer, Koulouritis and Matthew McCarthy are actually up to it or not. All of those blokes have been on the list for a fair while (Nathan Ablett excepted) but haven't been given a run of matches at league level. The players to be sent to the magoos would be Cameron Ling, James Kelly, Steven Johnson, Kent Kingsley (must be dropped this week in my opinion, the players aren't kicking it to him for a start and he won't accept responsibility for the shot)Josh Hunt and Henry Playfair (still not fully fit in my view).

The following moves must be made in order to ressurect Geelong's development

Cameron Ling: Trade bait. Very disapointed in Linger's form this year.
Josh Hunt: Trade bait. Hunt is a one trick pony but we might be able to scam a sucker club like Essendon into snaffling him for a reasonably early draft pick
Andrew Mackie: Trade bait. Skilled player but hasn't bulked up but might provide value. An SA boy maybe we can ship him off to Port Adelaide.
Steve Johnson: Dead set lazy. We should be able to get someone good for Johnson, it could benefit player and club

Delist

Tom Lonergan: Been on the system for years and just doesn't look up to it
Sam Hunt: Why TF did we pick him up for?? He couldn't even get a gig with Essendon last year..a real strange one.
Charlie Gardniner: Someone who stands out as a dumb footballer even in a team full of them. Must go
Mathew McCarthy: Must show something this year or is gone. Been held up by injury and should be given a go soon as Kingsley has been horseshit.
Paul Koulouritis: Don't think he's up to it either, even though he tries hard.

Other players

James Kelly; Very inconsistent this year but retain
Joel Corey: One paced but played in defence this season. Can't work that one out Bomber
Steven King: Could be time for the skipper to move on. A lack of leadership is killing us. He's no good to us sitting on the sidelines. One season like this sure, but King hasn't been right for years and is at the moment a liability
Kent Kingsley: Should be dropped to the magoos to get a bit of confidence back. I am one cat fan who only wants him dropped, not delisted..doesn't have the build to be the number one forward and this is why he struggles when he has to be that forward.
Ottens: Retain and use as number one ruck option. A bit too slow to dominate in the forward line. Give Mark Blake a go with Cameron Mooney to handle the around the ground stuff.

The few positives

Jarrad Rooke: Having a fantastic season and extremely courageous. Forget Ling as the next skipper..give it to Rooker! Big call I know but I know what example I would like to see set for the players.
Darren Milburn: Another consistent season but the umpires just love pinging Dasher DOH. Like to see him down back rather than up forward. We had Dog in defense and Milburn in attack last week and Dog gave away two goals withing five minutes of being on the park while we had an excellent defender freezing his nuts off in the forward line. Nice one Mark.
Paul Chapman: Where would we be without our small forwards? Chapman has had an excellent year except for a poor one agains the Hawks. Solid stuff from Chappy.
Gary Ablett Jnr: Put this man in the midfield NOW. I'd even swap him over with Ling and play Lingy as a forward for a while. We need a bit more pace and someone who can extract the pill. Gazza's the man. Playing well despite being marooned in a dysfunctional foward line.
Mathew Egan: Developing nicely as a key defender but has struggled with a shoulder injury. Will make it
Jimmy Bartel: One of the few Cat midfielders that can snag a goal. Not disgraced this year.

Coaching

Maddog won't like this but Bomber must go. Seven years into a five year plan and we are still playing crap. With each press conference he sinks further into the mire. He has had enough I reckon and will resign unless we miracoulsly rediscover that winning formula. It won't happen and Bomber will go at the end of the year even though Cook and Costa will not sack him.

Midfield coach Lovell MUST go. The Cat midfield has gone backwards at a rapid rate since the departure of Daryn Cresswell.

Skills coach (whoever he is) MUST go. Geelong can't fargen kick FFS. The fundamental skill of Australian Football!! We'd be lucky to hit the side of on those Geelong freight trains! Terrible. How can these blokes be in the system from 3-5 years and not be able to kick for goal accurately or hit a team mate??

Immediate changes

Kingsley to reserves this week replace with McCarthy or Ablett. Both of these young lads are a better mark and Nathan is a better kick. What is scary about McCarthy is that he is NOT a better kick than Kingsley!! Yikes
Hunt to reserves this week he is 5hithouse plain and simple. Replace with Tim Callan.


If the senior players can't turn it up they must be given a spell in the magoos. I don't buy the tank but next season and beyond we need a REAL forward, a small defender and a mobile ruckman as King is gone.

regards,

REB

[sydney-dog]

REB

First up I really enjoyed your post, couple of questions and observations for me.

Bomber, every club will go through a bad patch, but for me Bomber really struggles through these periods, more then other coaches, his body language is extremely poor and his nature becomes very negative.

Like I said all clubs will go through these periods, but when they do, it starts with the coach, he needs to be up beat and positive, the players will be just as down but the coach needs to start the process and the players will feed off him and this will eventually install confidence, I feel that Bomber struggles in this area.......

REB, my question to you, if the Cats chose to part services with Bomber, who will they target, it may be seen as too much of a risk to go for a rookie coach, I am not sure if the Cat fans are patient enough to go through another rebuilding period.

Their just does not seem to be experience coaches waiting for another opportunity and I doubt they will go for Ayres or Blight

In regards to the Cats List, I think you have made some valid points, the Cats seem to have 6 or 7 players that have been on their list for 2-4 years and we still do not know if they can play....

In regards to basing some decisions on the win / loss ratio criteria, this can be extremely dangerous, the Cats may be 4 wins and 7 losses at the half way point of the season and have a stronger second half of the season, for me their are other criterias, how to players perform in big games, interstate games, games when the season is in the balance, if you make decisions based on win / loss it can be bit of a smoke screen......

This years trade period will be interesting, the market says that this years draft talent pool is the strongest ever, my mail is that the draft will run very strong in to the 3rd round, so clubs will try and position themselves in a strong position by trading players, but in saying this, I don't think clubs will gamble this year on recycle players because picks will hold greter value then ever before, but clubs prepared to trade top quality players will get some reward.

Their is a line of thought coming out of the West, that the Eagles know that eventually they will lose Judd to a Victorian Club and giving him the captaincy has not changed his desire to return home, and given the depth and talent in this years draft, especially that given one of the potential #1 picks is a young gun key forward from WA, they may be prepared to trade Judd this year for a top pick to maximise their losses which is inevitable