CHAOS IS SUPREME
SOME people call it chaos football. A few prefer manic. Others say it is simple, highpressure footy that stops opposition defences from transitioning the ball out of its backline and into its attack at the opposite end of the ground.
Call it what you like, but it is clear that Geelong has accepted that this is the way it has to play if it is to avoid falling further down the ladder in 2019.
It is the reason it acquired Luke Dahlhaus on the opening day of free agency and why Gary Rohan was brought to the club yesterday — both players are fleet of foot, tackle and can kick goals.
As much as the Cats might have liked to try to play this way in the past, they simply haven’t had the cattle to do it, and Dahlhaus and Rohan are seen as the ideal players to fill what has been a sizeable hole.
Small forwards Cory Gregson and Lincoln McCarthy have been sidelined for too long to be able to consistently show their best footy at Geelong and Daniel Menzel — despite kicking 100 goals in his 50 games since the start of 2016 — no longer fits the game style that his team wants to play next year.
Gregson had started to show signs of being over his foot injuries in 2018 but his latest setback proved to be the final straw for Chris Scott, which is why the decision to move him on was made well before the end of the season.
McCarthy, likewise, spent most of his seven years at Kardinia Park in the rehab room, and while the Cats would have preferred that he stayed, they were also quick to move him on to ensure Rohan’s move back home was seamless.
McCarthy may well find fitness and form in Brisbane and he has already developed a close relationship with Chris Fagan, but Geelong’s patience had worn thin and so eyeing off targets from other clubs became a priority.
For Menzel, it is a second straight year that he has been forced to play the waiting game and while there is no contract in front of him, there remains an outside chance that he will still be in blue-andwhite hoops next year.
The truth though is that Scott and his team would not be unhappy if he was at another club.
Rohan can now be deployed to perform the second or third tall forward role that Menzel was playing and can do it while chasing and tackling.
Geelong was ranked 15th in the competition for average tackle inside-50 differential this season, and in its eyes that is a key area it must improve if it is to compete for a flag.
If this trade period is anything to go by, Cats players have been put on notice: if you don’t want to chase, if you don’t want to pressure your opponents, if you don’t want to tackle and if you don’t want to help lock the ball inside-50, you do so at your own peril.