BARTEL’S CATS PLEA

Former Cats champ’s plea for shift in tactics

GEELONG champion Jimmy Bartel has called on his former team to take the game on following Saturday night’s disappointing loss to Carlton.

The Cats looked a completely different side to the one that opened Hawthorn up a week earlier at GMHBA Stadium, allowing the Blues to dictate terms for the first three quarters of the match.

Geelong now travels to the MCG for the first time in 2020 on Sunday to take on Melbourne, and Bartel believes Chris Scott’s men need to find a balance in their game and not be preoccupied with a defence-first attitude.

“These words that they love to use at Geelong, and Matt Scarlett has said many times, ‘defending with the ball’, but I think they may have just gone a little bit too far and that is what brings them undone a little bit at the MCG,” Bartel told RSN’s Breakfast Club.

“Because they defend with the ball they just invite the opposition up into their half and to get really high in defence.

“When you have got (Gryan) Miers, (Gary) Ablett, (Brandan) Parfitt, (Quinton) Narkle, Tom Hawkins is almost unbeatable in one-onone contests, (Gary) Rohan has got speed in the forward line, and if it is going so slow you (opposition defenders) are not as stressed.

“So you just want them to find a bit of balance. If Blicavs intercepts, you want to see Stewart, or Duncan who comes back off the wing, overlap and get the ball coming up through the middle.

“Then you go, ‘Oh, this Geelong team is very difficult to beat.”

Melbourne will face Geelong off a two-week break.

The Demons squared off in an intraclub hitout at the MCG on Sunday after their scheduled clash with Essendon was postponed following Bomber Conor McKenna’s positive COVID-19 test result.

Bartel has called on his old side to open the game up and stop playing “risk-adverse” footy.

“They have the ability to do both and that is where my frustration comes from,” Bartel said.

“It’s not like they’re playing risk-averse football to hide areas of the ground. They’re choosing to play risk-averse football while they’ve still got the talent and the ability to play that way they played in the last quarter.

“I want them to open up a little bit. They can still be a rock-solid defensive side, and when the opposition gets the ball play slow. But that doesn’t mean then you play even slower with the ball.”