Whole season in a day
IF you ever wanted to witness a microcosm of Geelong’s 2018 season, Saturday afternoon at the MCG provided it.
A reasonable start, a disappointing period after a break, cut down by injuries to key personnel and leaving itself a mountain of work to do very, very late.
Having kept Hawthorn goalless in the first quarter, the Cats conceded five goals in the next and were playing catch-up from halftime.
The result means they have now lost five of their past eight games and have won three of seven after the mid-season bye.
The loss of Rhys Stanley hurt badly as it forced Geelong to use Mark Blicavs and Jack Henry in pinchhitting roles, but it now puts the Cats in a position where they are relying not only on winning their last two matches, but for other results to fall their way if they are to play finals.
That is never an ideal scenario and with such a quality list, this is not how the executive, the board or the football department would have envisioned the year playing out.
But that is Geelong’s lot and rarely do sides find themselves anywhere other than where they belong.
The Cats are a good team, no doubt, but a great team? The jury is still out on that. They can get there, but they need to earn that title because the evidence presented to this point in the year suggests they are far from it.
Great teams do not rely on a handful of players to keep them in matches.
They have reliable contributors on every line.
Week after week we see the same names lead the way and a handful of others jump on board for the ride.
But too often there are countless others who appear content just to be out there and add little to the side.
Great teams also do not pick and choose when to play at their best.
They are dogged, relentless and feared.
Opposition sides fear Geelong at its best, but they also know it is extremely vulnerable and prone to lapses of concentration where they can take advantage.
While the Cats can flick a switch and kick quick goals to put themselves back into a contest that might otherwise have appeared lost, it is the consistent manner in which they allow themselves to be in such positions that cannot be tolerated.
Questions will be raised regarding what Geelong was doing at selection, with particular queries on how five changes could have been made after getting within a kick of knocking off the reigning premier last week.
But once Stanley presented as fit he was always going to come back into the side.
His calf injury may well have been a recurrence but there is no way he would have been named to play had he not ticked every box, and while Ryan Abbott was undoubtedly stiff to miss out after a fine debut against Richmond, the Cats have not gone with two noted ruckmen all season.
Tom Stewart and Quinton Narkle, like Stanley, were certainties to return, and so Jackson Thurlow and Jordan Cunico made way, while a shoulder injury to Jed Bews presented an opportunity for Mark O’Connor to get his second game of the year.
Incidentally, his only other match this season was also against the Hawks, and O’Connor seemed to hold his own when the heat came on Geelong’s defence.
James Parsons missed a shot at goal late in the game to cut the margin to two points but was otherwise barely sighted, and while he may battle to hold his spot, there are clearly bigger issues the Cats need to fix.
Finals are not out of the equation but their destiny is now out of their hands.
It seems a lifetime away, but it is only if they get there that we will discover if they have what is required to take that next step to go from good to great.