CATS MUST LIFT
Cats need to up their game if they want to stay in flag hunt, says Tuohy
Work to do but no panic, says Tuohy:
DEFENDER Zach Tuohy concedes Geelong must get back to work if it is to reach the heights it wants to scale this season, but says there is no need for panic after Saturday night’s disappointing loss to the Western Bulldogs.
The Cats were beaten in nearly every key statistical area against the Dogs as they lost just their third match of 2019 — and their second from three matches after the midseason bye.
Tuohy said Geelong had not been playing its best football even before the break, despite its 11-1 record.
He insists the Cats must find a way to get better if they are to become the team they want to become this year.
“We weren’t exactly setting the world on fire before the break, we were finding a way to win, but we need to play better than we are playing now if we want to get to where we want to go,” Tuohy said.
“Truthfully we need to play better than we have played almost at any stage this year if we want to get to where we want to go.
“We have put ourselves in a good position, it is not doomsday just yet, but it is a disappointing loss.”
Tuohy was one of Geelong’s strongest performers on Saturday, gathering a team-high 30 disposals along with six marks and 10 rebound-50s on a night where both sides struggled to penetrate the opposition’s defence with any great efficiency when they went forward with the ball.
That was until the final quarter when the Dogs slammed home five goals to one to run out 16-point winners at Marvel Stadium, with the Cats seemingly powerless to stop the home side’s momentum.
Tuohy acknowledged a lack of conversion in front of goal had hurt his team’s chances of killing the contest early, but said the Bulldogs deserved credit for their tenacity late in the game when they all but doubled their score to secure victory.
“We didn’t take our chances, particularly early when we had them,” Tuohy said.
“If you give a team that plays this ground so well a sniff late, they can really hurt you, and they did.
“I felt like they set up the ground really well and got a lot of numbers behind the ball and sort of slingshot forward, and then from stoppages it felt like they started surging a lot in that last quarter.
“I’m not sure if that’s how it looked but they started getting it going forward any way at all and that is always hard to play against.”