Cats nail counter punch
IN boxing parlance, Geelong found itself on the ropes on Friday night.
Adelaide had come into the game with a clear strategy on how to beat the Cats and had executed the plan perfectly for a quarterand-a-half.
But what recent weeks have proven is that Chris Scott’s men are capable of taking a knock or two in a fight without necessarily hitting the canvas.
And while in seasons gone by the Cats might not have been able to deliver any hits of their own after a few early strikes, they are becoming adept at nailing counter punches when the opposition invariably fails to hurt them when they have the opportunity to do so.
It has been apparent on numerous occasions in the first half of the year, notably against Richmond before the bye when the Tigers brought their intense pressure game early, but what was most evident on Friday was Geelong’s capacity to adapt on the run.
Down in the clearance count, they sent Mark Blicavs to the middle to try to ignite a spark.
Jack Henry went back to defence, Rhys Stanley spent some time forward and while to begin with there were only a few body blows, things started going Geelong’s way.
That is the sign of a good football team and a coaching panel that is on top of its game.
But the Cats know they have issues in the middle of the ground and that their biggest bouts for the year are still some time away.
Despite the fact they sit two games and percentage clear atop the AFL ladder, they face several challenging games in the run home — albeit only two will come against teams currently in the top eight and none are against sides in the top four. What happens from here and how they look to fix their clearance work will be intriguing.
Stanley has enjoyed perhaps the most consistent 12 months of football for his career but has been down on form since the bye and had carried some injury concerns prior to that.
Blicavs, while brilliant on Friday, plays his best football down back but would be giving Scott and his assistants plenty to mull over on the back of his effort against the Crows.
Esava Ratugolea is still at least a week away from returning to senior football but he is better suited for Geelong as a forward that can pinch-hit in the ruck rather than a permanent option.
Then of course there are the three ‘backups’ in Darcy Fort, Zac Smith and Ryan Abbott.
That trio has managed just five senior games between them this year, with Fort the most recent to get a crack in the loss to Port Adelaide last weekend.
He did not play in the VFL on Saturday and Abbott was off the ground early with concussion, but Smith was serviceable and might be worth a try.
Regardless of who Geelong deploys in the ruck though, or who it is playing against, it must beat them to the punch at the coalface and ensure it does not find itself so far behind in the clearance count so early in the contest again.
The Cats addressed their failings within the game on Friday, which was a positive, but they cannot allow that to become a trend because when quality teams smell blood in September they rarely let their opponents engage in rope-a-dope tactics or scrap for a points decision.
Quality teams roll with the punches, yes, but they also have a killer instinct, hit hard, hit effectively and ultimately land the knockout blow when the opening presents.