FOOTY FIX INSIDE TODAY
IT took more than 12 months, but the monkey is off the back.
Geelong, finally, has strung together consecutive wins.
Yes, those victories have come in an unflattering manner, against an up-and-down Melbourne team and then against a Gold Coast side that, while on the rise, was fatiguing late in the game having lost its young star Matt Rowell in the first quarter of the match.
But securing two wins on the trot in the current climate is something the Cats need to celebrate.
It allows the players — some of whom have spoken of their win-loss-win-loss-winloss streak’s affect on their confidence — the opportunity to sharpen their focus ahead of a lengthy stint away from home.
Saturday’s victory over the Suns was encouraging as it showed Geelong was capable of adapting both from one week to the next, and within a match.
The Cats were proficient early, going inside-50m, moving the ball quickly, controlling the play without overusing the footy, and should have been up by more than the 20 points they were at quarter-time.
When challenged in the second quarter and in the early part of the third, they did not panic.
They took the hits, steadied, and went again.
What that showed was Geelong has learnt some valuable lessons in the past fortnight, as highlighted by Jack Henry post-game, who said his team wanted to ensure it did not get flustered when the Suns got on a roll, instead choosing to continue to take the game on.
It is a promising change, albeit the sample size is too small to suggest the Cats are entirely over their consistency issues.
Coach Chris Scott was strong in making that point after the 37-point win, saying while the nature of the competition meant predicting outcomes from week-to-week was fraught with danger, Geelong still has work to do to say it is a consistent side.
“I think it removes a symbolic monkey off the back but I don’t think it fixes the problem long term,” Scott said of Saturday’s win.
“We are confronting it; we have been a patchy team over the past year, and that is not all bad because we have had really good patches, we just haven’t been able to follow it up for a prolonged period of time.
“I suspect that is a little bit of where the competition is at the moment, and I am not the arbiter of who is a good team or who the favourites are, but I think I know a little bit about footy, and I watch it confused most of the time at the moment, which I think is great for the game.
“I thought today was a high standard game to my eye, but if you remove the look of the game, which I think is a bit separate to the competitiveness of the game, I think it is intriguing to watch.
“The AFL has been searching for it for a long period of time where most people switch on the TV or go to a game thinking ‘I’m not sure what is going to happen here and … wouldn’t be surprised if the underdog got up’. I think that is just where we are, so you can look back and say the teams that traditionally have been towards the top of the ladder are inconsistent because they are not beating teams that have been down towards the bottom of the ladder, but I think that is just the new normal.
“That is not abdicating our responsibility to our performance — we need to be more consistent. But because we won tonight doesn’t mean we are all of a sudden a consistent team, we are a work in progress.”
The strength of that progress will be tested again on Thursday when Geelong plays a red-hot Brisbane team. But more than that, the challenge will come as the Cats begin life on the road away from the comforts of home.
As each Victorian team begins to come to terms with the reality of being based interstate for the next five weeks — and possibly beyond — Scott and his team are faced with ensuring all of the hard work that has been done to get to third spot on the ladder with a 3-2 record and healthy percentage is not undone amid the uncertainty of life in a hub.
“What I would say is we are up for it,” Scott said of the task confronting the Cats.
“It is not to diminish the challenge that everyone is facing, but I got the strong feeling back in March that our club was up for it.
“The whole world has been tipped upside down; there are going to be some bumps along the road, and I don’t think anyone in their right mind thought that we would get out of lockdown and everything would run smoothly, but we were prepared for the unexpected, whatever that may be.
“So I am confident we have got the right attitude to it. I can’t guarantee that is going to translate into performance, but we are not going to look back and say it was too hard for us.”
In effect, Scott is saying there will be no excuses.
Not one team will play in its home state in Round 6 — and many will be living away from home and the usual luxuries afforded to AFL players and staff.
The monkey may be off the back, but a new normal awaits.