Dual premiership Kangaroo David King has questioned whether Geelong is “out of tickets”, exposing an alarming number of defensive lapses during the Cats’ shock loss to the Giants.
It comes as Herald Sun chief football writer Jay Clark suggested the Cats’ ability to “defy gravity” for almost two decades was beginning to take its toll.
Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.
The Cats are in the middle of a stunning mid-season slide, losing five of their past six games. They’ve slipped from third to ninth on the ladder and put their top-six hopes in jeopardy, let alone top-four aspirations.
Geelong on Saturday night led by as much as 39 points in the third quarter, but conceded nine of the last 10 goals of the game to go down by 13 points.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack on Sunday night, King said he was stunned by how susceptible the Cats were.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen as many defensive lapses or deficiencies in a fortnight of footy,” King told First Crack.
“I saw it last week and I thought: ‘Nah they’ll still be fine, they’re still one of the major players for me.’ And you watch them again on the weekend and they lead by 39 points late in the third and you thought ‘yeah they’ll get this done, they’ll be fine’. And then they just have these moments.”
Callum Brown got away from Tom Stewart.Source: FOX SPORTS
King then highlighted several costly Cats errors during the Giants’ comeback win, which you can watch in our video player above.
The first example saw five-time All-Australian Tom Stewart positioned too far away from Callum Brown near the goalsquare and not keeping pace with the Giants forward before Brown received the ball out of congestion and snapped a goal.
“He just doesn’t move,” King said of Stewart.
The dual All-Australian then showed two clips featuring premiership on-baller Tom Atkins – widely regarded as the Cats’ best two-way midfielder.
Firstly, Atkins failed to track Xavier O’Halloran closely enough during a Giants forward entry. Although the Cats initially won the ball back in defence, a turnover allowed the Giants to attack again – and neither Atkins nor any Cats teammate was anywhere near O’Halloran.
Tom Atkins and Xavier O’Halloran.Source: FOX SPORTS
“I’ve never said this about Atkins,” King said. “He’s been one of their heart and soul players of this midfield forever and we’ve shown vision after vision after vision of this guy. But he didn’t really want to push with O’Halloran.
“He got away with the first one … but there he is again. And there’s no one else covering.”
Atkins was then shown not paying close enough attention to O’Halloran in another example, with the Giant getting free to set up a set-shot opportunity for Brown.
“Same thing here. You’ve already been nutted a couple of times, who you got? I know they were down on rotations and that can be a factor, but this is a 120-minute game,” King said.
Bulldogs games record-holder Brad Johnson added: “His communication is almost non-existent there. He’s normally the driver of everything while the ball is flowing out.”
King’s last example showed run-with player Oisin Mullin opting to hand over his match-up to Finn Callaghan at a stoppage, before the explosive Giants midfielder burst away from congestion and nailed a game-sealing goal – all while Mullin was caught in no man’s land.
Oisin Mullin didn’t follow Finn Callaghan.Source: FOX SPORTS
King also pointed out the Cats, since Round 12, are ranked 16th in the competition for conceding a score in their defensive 50. They ranked inside the top three in each of the previous two seasons — reaching the Grand Final and a preliminary final respectively — and were second in the league during their 2022 premiership campaign.
“It just makes you wonder when you look at their defensive vulnerabilities: Are they out of tickets?” King asked.
“Defensively, they’re miles from where they’ve been over the last couple of years.
“I don’t think you can win the flag if your D50 is as vulnerable as that.
“I think Chris Scott would be sitting back and saying: ‘What’s happened here? How has this crept into our psyche and ability to be here one minute and there the next?’
“It’s just a different Geelong right now and it makes you question can they gather? Because if they are still going to hang in … it’s going to have to be defensively, because they’re not as gifted offensively as some of those others (teams).”
The latest loss prompted First Crack host Jay Clark to question whether the Cats’ extraordinary run had finally reached its tipping point.
“It’s a footy club that’s been defying gravity for the best part of two decades. So is this a motivational deficiency? Have they just been up for so long that it’s eventually got them?” Clark asked.
Scott gives Cameron update after loss | 07:12
“We’ve been talking about ‘the cliff edge’ for this football club for a very long time. Do you think this is the tipping point?
King replied: “No I don’t, but they got smacked out of the middle … So it’s not just one section. It’s across the board.
“There’s enough talent there to fix it. It’s either a concentration or application issue … Chris Scott has to find that answer and he knows that better than us, he knows exactly what he’s demanding from each player.
“They haven’t got a lot of time to fix it, that’s the bottom line.”
Johnson said Geelong’s midfield now had to drive the turnaround.
“They will get the looks if the midfield for this group can actually start to turn it,” Johnson told First Crack.
“Are they the group to turn what we’re seeing now? Because you go with the Cats: ‘They’ll fix it, they’ll be right next week.’ But it’s been going on for too long now. We’ve got a block of six weeks where they’re one win.
“So things are being judged and assessed harsher. It’s up to this group to fix it.”