Pitiful Cats owe us all an apology
I HATE doing this but someone needs to.
Otherwise, we’re going to see the same rubbish finals performances by the Cats again and again — if we’re lucky enough to get there again.
Geelong Cats, much as I love them, need to hang their heads in shame.
Their preliminary final performance against Adelaide was pitiful, abysmal, shameful and unprofessional.
I cannot believe the number of times I saw six-figure-contract AFL players kicking and handballing directly to the opposition, fumbling the ball like first-year Auskick juniors.
I know there’s pressure, but the errors were dreadful. When the opposition kicks 18 goals from us coughing up the ball, it really hurts.
The unforced turnovers, the dropped sitters, the mongrel kicking and dud passing was so bad.
I’m serious. The Cats aren’t. Chris Scott is right when he says we have to build again, but I don’t know if any of the players are taking him seriously.
Is the leadership group demanding their teammates take a long, hard look at themselves?
What’s happened to consequences?
Once the game’s lost and over, it’s like they can’t get away from it fast enough.
All of them. They seem preoccupied with Wacky Wednesdays and exotic overseas holidays.
That’s not how you fix problems.
The day after bundling themselves, appallingly, out of flag contention yet again, the Cats weren’t looking for a post-mortem to see where they went so wrong.
If they were, we didn’t see it. They were happily putting it all behind them and playing this Pollyanna “positive, positive, don’tlook-back” head-in-the-sand game.
Sorry, but it doesn’t work like that.
Pull your heads out of the sand and ask the hard questions. We need accountability.
We need a clinical autopsy of this Cat corpse to see why dropped dead on the job.
Why are so many of our highly paid Cats so unprofessional when it comes to the business end of the season?
It’s not like they can’t play. We know they can play. But they choose not to.
It was a disgrace to see tripleflag Cats champions Andrew Mackie’s and Tom Lonergan’s AFL careers closed on such a sour, miserable note. Just a tragedy. The Cats owe them an apology. In fact, the Cats owe all their supporters an apology. And all the Geelong people and businesses who have poured millions in taxes, rates, passion, emotion and other hefty hip-pocket contributions to these non-starters.
Some younger players just don’t seem to get it. They have to be accountable. Non-performing, megabucks players can’t just shrug off this kind of accountability. Without these people backing them, they wouldn’t have a job.
But like any job, you have to it turn up for work. Sorry, guys, but you’re in the gun, the pressure is real, you have to perform or you’re cut.
Football isn’t tiddlywinks or Chinese checkers, it is a hardnosed business operation. It needs players who approach the game like hard-nosed professionals — before, during and after the game.
Right now, I can see the need for some serious cuts, starting with key names in the Cats’ forward line.
They’re just not up to it, not fast enough, can’t mark and can’t kick. You know exactly who I mean but he’s not alone — not by a long shot.
Geelong’s senior players need to call out the Cats’ fumblers, turnover merchants, Hail Mary disposal artists, snail crawlers and their cross-eyed shots at goal.
Stop mollycoddling them. Give them what they really need — a fair kick up the backside.
The real tragedy for me is watching coach Scott’s face when the Cats decide they can’t be bothered fighting, not even for a finals win.
Scott is perhaps the best coach in the game — a lovely man, a generous, intelligent and talented man — getting blindsided by players too uncommitted, too entitled and too immature to even deserve a finals berth.
And was anyone watching the Brownlow the other night? Oh my God!
I don’t know how many Sportsbet adverts ran but it was ridiculous. They were betting on anything, even on Danger’s votes in the last couple of rounds.
The AFL and the State Government have allowed gambling ads to overrun the game. It is a giant social problem that’s already turning young kids into chronic gamblers.
Where’s AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan on this disaster?
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull needs to take on the role of federal sports minister just for this crucial issue and get this gambling bulls--t banned. It’s just not on.