Superb performance. If we’re not the best team in the comp we are certainly the most complete. We can squeeze the life out of teams and dominate, or we can sit back and absorb pressure then destroy on counter.
Noticeably less forward thrust from Grant & Zullo today, I presume by design as I haven’t seen less output from Pain and Risdon either. We forced them central then won the midfield battle, even without the best player in HAL history. Brandon up to his usual standard, but fuck me, Brattan MOM by a mile imo. He has been an absolute beast the last few weeks, getting through all of the defensive grunt work that Brillante used to and then some, as well as his distribution. Happy as hell to eat my words / doubts on that one if he continues.
Baumjohann had a few really poor moments too, but happy to let that slide courtesy of the assists. He still needs to be better for longer in matches but certainly stepped up today in Milos’ absence. And defensively we scrambled when we had to and deserved the clean sheet, loved seeing Redders fired up over it at the end there.
Despite having just kept our first clean sheet we also now have the best defensive record in the league. Joint top scorers with Jamie Maclaren, I mean City.
Brattan’s quality can be seen in the fact that this game was probably Diamanti’s worst contribution all season. Brattan never gave him more than half a metre, which is really impressive.
Agree with all positive comments about our team. That we did so well without Ninko is amazing. Some of the play down the right was a joy to watch and our defending was really staunch. Kudos to Bimbi and the coaching staff. It’s like watching the best of Arnie’s time but with more all-team, fast-moving flow forward.
Was so pleased to see Max Burgess play so well. Wish we had kept him. He would be the best attacking MF we have after Ninko and ABJ, Shades of Jackson Irvine gawkiness but like Irvine, very mobile, and quick-thinking and with good control. Maybe we should try to get him back. Local lad and we have too few.
Everyone put in a strong shift today, but special mentions to Le Fondre, O’Neill, Brattan and Grant. Absolutely superb that we were able to make the presence of Diamanti and Kone purely academic.
I did like the aftermath when Bratten got the yellow for fouling Diamanti.
Bratten complains to the ref, Diamanti proceeds to wrap his arm around Bratten and point to the 3 spots where Bratten had a go at him prior to the foul being awarded.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Diamanti. I thought he was here as a final payday and would phone in his performances. Turns out he’s far too good for that team and, possibly, this league still.
I thought that was a pipe and slippers day out there today. Never felt that uncomfortable as they had pops from long range. Some of our passing moves were as good as at basically any time in the club’s history, including a perfect 2nd goal.
Again, we are the only proper team in this comp. All the others are either naive, negligent, incompetent or a mix of the above.
Second goal was sex. Opened them up so cleanly. Inevitably the replay will cut out the first few passes in the move but was one of a few passing sequences that carved them up straight through the middle. Happy watching. Better finishing from Kosta and its a rout.
This is ridiculous. It looked like there was basically nobody there (match report has the attendance at ~4100), and they’re ejecting people for standing in what is effectively an active support section.
Geelong don’t deserve a team in the league. Stick to AFL.
