A Quick Look Back, or, 7 down, 15 to go

Well alright. It wasn’t a 35 goal, 200-plus point thumping but we can’t play Richmond every week; no, we have to share that yellow & black percentage boost around. But beating the league’s top team by a healthy 39 point margin is alright. It puts things in perspective a little bit, namely Geelong’s ‘interesting’ record up until that point. But before I elaborate, let’s quickly review the Cats results so far this season:

Rd 1: A 20 point defeat to the Western Bulldogs.

Rd 2: A 78 point victory over Carlton

Rd 3: A 52 point victory over Melbourne

Rd 4: A 4 point loss to Hawthorn

Rd 5: An 18 point loss to the Kangaroos

Rd 6: A 157 point victory over Richmond

Rd 7: A 39 point victory over the Eagles

Overall, Geelong has a 4-3 record, a league leading percentage of 149 and have copped a hammering in the media (up until now, I would presume) for underperforming while perennial under-achievers (and their coaches) Fremantle, Melbourne and Richmond have somehow escaped the blowtorch.

But examining the record a little more closely may show it’s not as bad as it may have previously appeared.

First off, the three victories over the bottom three sides (Richmond, Melbourne, Carlton) were written off as Geelong being ‘flat-track bullies’ and accredited more to the oppositions failings than the Cats strengths – the classic, ‘its-not-you-its-me’ routine. But the Cats did exactly what you would expect a good side to do to a poor one, namely, tear them a new asshole. A lot of other sides have also played these three teams and none have beaten them as convincingly.

Secondly, let’s look at 3 loses, in chronological order. Against the Bulldogs the Cats never really seemed in it, slaughtering the ball in a ‘Playfair-esque’ display of disposal, and yet still stayed close, having the same amount of scoring shots as the Dogs. On radio this week Rodney Eade said this was the best game his 4-3 Dogs had played all season. Also, Brad Johnson kicked 8, mostly on Tom Harley and out of his ass. (Mercifully Tommy went down with an injury in the next game and I only hope the Geelong medical staff is being ‘very, very cautious’ in regards to the skippers return.)

The next loss occurred to Hawthorn, in Geelong’s first look at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, with its ‘silent alarm’ siren. The Hawks have a 9-4 record there and Geelong lost a nail-biter by 4 points in windy conditions which the locals later described as "fuckin’ windy".

The very next week the Cats went down to the Kangaroos, at home. No excuse for that, however, the Roos have rolled Sydney and Essendon in consecutive weeks, and are in the midst of a 4 winning game winning streak, so their form’s not bad. Geelong ended up losing by 18 points, a margin bumped up by a Kangaroo goal on the siren and the fact that the Cats showed up for about 15 minutes. Seriously, I haven’t seen anyone mail-in a performance as badly as that since Vince Vaughn sleep-walked his way through ‘Dodgeball’.

So to recap, Geelong has lost 3 close games, one to a highly-rated outfit in their best game of the year, one to an up-coming team in shit conditions on a foreign ground and one to the form team of the competition. Geelong has also pumped 3 shit teams by an average of about 16 goals and beaten the reigning premiers and previously undefeated West Coast. Granted, the Eagles were without their best ruckman, their Brownlow medallist Robert Downey Jr., and it was played at KP, but still, the Cats took care of business (or, T.C.B.). And, isn’t that about what you’d expect?
I’d say the only game they were genuinely ‘beaten’ in was round one; the Hawthorn game was a coin-flip and let’s call the Kangaroos game their ‘brain-fart’ moment, where, for whatever reason, they just weren’t switched on mentally. And that’s ok, I mean, it happens, Hell, Edward Norton willingly agreed to do ‘Keeping the Faith’.

So maybe the Cats were never going as badly as everyone thought. Regardless, T.C.B. Cats, T.C.B., and let’s get that media blowtorch pointed in its rightful place; the faces of Terry Wallace and Chris Connolly.