SEPTEMBER FORM HAS TO BE FOCUS
UNDER the recent tutelage of Chris Scott, Geelong has become a very good homeand-away side that does not always play a brand of football suited to winning in September.
That conclusion will not be well received by those ultimately responsible for the Geelong team we saw fly a white flag to Melbourne last Friday night, but the evidence is sadly compelling.
No team in the competition has capitulated like the Cats in the past three Septembers.
It has left some very disillusioned fans who at least expect a fight, instead of a slow, fumbling outfit that could barely hit a target.
And it always comes down to contested football — an area in which Geelong has been embarrassed early on in too many finals.
Are the players not physically or mentally ready for the test that is about to come their way once the pressure gets turned up?
Scott is said to privately dislike comparisons between his tenure and that of his predecessor, Mark Thompson. But the latter was forever about building a playing group that could succeed in September.
His record says he achieved that, and Thompson readily admits he was helped considerably by assistant coaches such as Ken Hinkley and Brendan McCartney.
That the Cats, like Hawthorn and Sydney, have remained in September contention since those heady days (which includes Scott’s first season of 2011) says plenty about their recruiting, trading and, to a degree, player development.
But the 2010-13 drafts hurt them. Players such as Billie Smedts, George HorlinSmith, Shane Kersten, Jordan Murdoch, Lincoln McCarthy and Jackson Thurlow have not grabbed their opportunities for a variety of reasons.
It has left them with one of the most lopsided lists in the AFL, heavy on those aged 26plus and the 19-21-year-olds but little in between.
And their failure to nail at least two regular small forwards for the vital pressure of 2018-style football has hurt them.
Nakia Cockatoo, Lachie Fogarty, Cory Gregson, Jamaine Jones, Lincoln McCarthy, Quinton Narkle, Brandan Parfitt, James Parsons and Scott Selwood have all been tried there with varying degrees of success.
The “home and away” tag can again be applied this year, even if an eighth-placed finish was short of two seconds in 2016-17.
What made eighth better than it seemed were eight of nine losses coming by 18 points or less, camouflaging what was about to be served up against an inexperienced Melbourne side that embraced the pressure.
Geelong chief executive Brian Cook has been extremely supportive of Scott throughout their time together and remained so when interviewed on SEN yesterday.
But Cook did promise a review of many areas, including game style.
Hopefully that will lead to a side that brings its homeand-away form to September, because right now that is nowhere to be seen.