Cats go direct to big targets and reap rewards
AN instruction to be more direct has helped Geelong turn its VFL fortunes around.
The handball-happy Cats were burned on the turnover too often in the first half of the season, but team co-ordinator Nathan Tweddle said that had been addressed.
“Our kick-to-handball ratio has been quite low, we’re a really high handballing team and we’ve found when we’ve got targets like Esava (Ratugolea), (Wylie) Buzza’s playing really well, that we want to get it into them and give them more opportunities,” Tweddle said.
“We seem to have been playing around with it on the half-back, wing and turning it over by hand, so we’ve tried to be a little bit more direct into those guys.”
It worked the trick against North Ballarat last weekend, with the Cats recording their third win for the year to keep their finals hopes alive.
“It was a danger game going in,” Tweddle said.
“(There’s a) pretty positive vibe and really good for our young AFL-listed players and VFL players to experience a win after a couple of heavy losses.
“We played a lot of the top eight sides earlier, so it’s really our first opportunity to play sides below us this year, so with Coburg, Collingwood and Sandringham all coming up in the next month, and we beat Footscray earlier in the year . . . we look at them as really important for our season.”
Campbell Floyd will miss after injuring his quad last week, however Leopold premiership captain Jai Thompson is set to make his VFL debut, should he be passed fit to play.
“He’s just got to get through training, he’s got some knee soreness, but he’ll make his VFL debut if he gets through, which is exciting,” Tweddle said. “He’s been working hard.” Meanwhile, the Brownlow Stand will be opened to fans as the Cats return to Simonds Stadium for the first time since Round 4.
“We haven’t actually played at home since the redevelopment, so it’s our first VFL game at the redeveloped stadium,” Tweddle said.
“We’re actually bringing all the match-day operations across to the Brownlow side as well, which is probably worth noting.
“It gives the fans the opportunity to come and check out the new Brownlow Stand, so the boys are certainly excited about that. We’ll have all that open — people sitting in the cafe will be able to see us warm up, which will be exciting as well.”
He said it was important his side had a strong performance against Coburg tomorrow.
“Playing those sides around where we are on the ladder; we’re all around that same mark, they’re just important games we have to win,” he said.
“We’ve done our work on them and watched footage on how they want to play — they want to play fast and take the game on, so we’ve got plans in place to combat that. If we play the way we want to play, hopefully we can keep that under control.”