The Cats will need to turn their form around against Essendon Saturday night to avoid becoming one of the AFL’s ‘mediocre’ sides.
“We played poorly again,” said Geelong coach Chris Scott following last Saturday night’s loss to Gold Coast.
“What we’re doing at the moment is leading to us being a very mediocre side.”
No side was safe, even if they were only slightly out of form, Scott said.
“I think there’s a general misunderstanding in the footy world as to how even the competition is,”
But that was no excuse for the Cats recent “flat spot” which has seen them loose the past two games, Scott said.
“There are clear things that we need to improve,” he said.
The Cats continued to kick straight, leading the AFL in goal accuracy. But supply has been lacking for Geelong’s forwards with the side sitting on 11th for inside 50s.
“We were dominated in the inside 50s,” Scott said.
Scott will likely be disappointed if Essendon, who are second-last for inside 50s, get more entries than Geelong.
Cats forward Daniel Menzel will be one player hoping for better supply against Essendon.
He shared the coach’s assessment of the Cats’ performance against the Suns.
“They possessed the footy a lot better than we probably did and they were able to cut us up a bit too with their short passes,” he said.
While the Cats sit third on the ladder at 5-2, they arguably haven’t had a convincing win since between Fremantle in round 1.
“We’re not at our best and we probably weren’t when we were winning either,” Menzel said.
Geelong will hope to spoil celebrations for former Cat James Kelly, who will ironically play his 300th game against his old club.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t look at the fixture at the start of the year,” Kelly said Tuesday.
“There’s still a few guys who I talk to regularly there and it will be nice to be out there with them.”
Meanwhile, the Cats will have until at least 2019 to get a women’s team in the WAFL.
“Our club is obviously disappointed that there will not be a Geelong Cats team competing in the 2018 AFLW season,” Cats chief executive Brian Cook said Tuesday.
“We believe we made a good case for expansion, and we will continue the work we are doing to grow the game and the investment in our VFL women’s team.”
More than 2000 people came to the first VFL women’s game of the season at Simonds Stadium, Mr Cook said.
“We look forward to the day that the AFLW is a league with a Geelong team.”
