Geelong aim to tackle their issues

GEELONG captain Joel Selwood concedes the Cats must get better at shutting down opposition sides following his team’s loss to Essendon.

Selwood fronted the media yesterday to address the intense slide in Geelong’s form over the past three weeks, with losses to Collingwood (17th), the Suns (12th) and Essendon (11th).

The Cats have been accused of playing bruise-free footy on the back of the worst tackle differential recorded since 1999.

Selwood said while there had been no issues with the planning that went into those matches, the players execution had let them down. “Everyone has their own opinions and we’ve opened ourselves up to that (criticism) by the tackle number count,” Selwood said.

“People will have that opinion on us but footy can change quickly and we look forward to getting back here on Friday night and making amends for it.

“We’ve been preparing for these games quite well, we just haven’t put the performance out there we’ve wanted to.

“We knew what Essendon was going to do on the weekend, they just did it so well.”