MOONEY: CATS NEED 2006-STYLE REVIEW
Topping up has not landed prize
BRIAN Cook spoke this week about doing a “deep analysis”, which is good to see.
You can’t keep going back to the well doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
With a finals record that does not stack up, something isn’t working.
So what are the questions Cookie and the club must ask?
In 2007, nobody was out of reach of being assessed by the group or by each other.
Cookie said he would never do a review again after that 2006 post-season. In his words, it killed him.
But the thing with reviews — and we’ve seen Richmond and Collingwood go through them, and obviously Geelong more than a decade ago — it doesn’t mean people are sacked.
Far from it. I think you keep who you’ve got there. They’re good, smart footy people, but somewhere along the line, something’s not right. Something’s not working.
The Cats finished second last year and made a prelim, but let’s be honest, if it wasn’t for a nice, easy draw at the end of this season, they were lucky to make finals.
To go out in poor fashion on Friday night, it has added to a horrible finals record since 2011.
This team was meant to be a year more experienced, but the club must look at the way things are done at Kardinia Park.
Is the communication between the coach and the players — which has been talked about many times over the years — any better?
One big concern is the lack of pressure inside forward-50, but injuries have played their part.
They won’t use injuries as an excuse, but no Cory Gregson, Lincoln McCarthy or Nakia Cockatoo for essentially two years makes it hard.
Does someone like Luke Dahlhaus solve that problem?
The big talk going into 2018 was: “how good is this midfield going to be?”
Everyone believed Gary Ablett was going to be the answer, but that was never going to be the case.
Gary was meant to be the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, the cake was the problem.
Players, for one reason or another, either didn’t know their roles in the midfield or weren’t given specific roles.
There was a lack of twoway running, a lack of leg speed and the Cats were shown up — many times.
Does Gary have to play another role next year? I think so, and I think he should embrace that, as a wingforward.
Even Friday night, people will talk about Joel Selwood not having a great game, but when your skipper is getting heavily tagged, where’s the help?
When does Sam Menegola come across and put James Harmes on his backside? Or Cam Guthrie? Or Mitch Duncan?
Is there genuine love and care for each other as a playing group? Or is there a lot of selfishness because they’ve had it too easy since they walked through the door?
These are the things Cookie needs to find out.
There are a lot of very angry supporters and members.
Despite the lack of real topend talent they’ve had access to in the draft, I like the youngsters the Cats have got.
Their development is something that needs to be looked at and questioned, but we need to remember that guys such as Brandan Parfitt, Cockatoo (if he can get his body right) and James Parsons — who has come under some unfair criticism — are kids.
Add to that Esava Ratugolea and Jack Henry.
The club needs to push their development along as quickly as possible and the AFLPA probably has too much say in denying these kids the amount of time they need at the footy club to improve.
Do the coaches get access to the players as much as they would like?
But the biggest question of the “deep analysis” must be: “What do the next five years look like?”
The Cats have clearly recruited to win a premiership, so are the Cats still in the now?
If they don’t win a flag soon and don’t have that top-end draft talent coming in, where will they be in four and five years?
I was a big believer that after 2012, it was the perfect opportunity for the club to take a step back.
People will talk about the club’s record of making finals almost every year, which is fantastic. It looks great on the stats sheet, but at the end of the day, what has that given the club?
It hasn’t given it a premiership and what we saw on Friday night, they’re even further away now.
Richmond, Melbourne, GWS, Collingwood, even Hawthorn — who took the step back — have gone well and truly past them.
Is that the path that Geelong must go down?
Cookie did the review so brilliantly well 11 years ago and the club is far from those days, but if the club doesn’t answer these questions now, a return to 2006 is not far around the corner.