Geelong’s scoring wobble has Patrick Dangerfield warning that there’s no need to jump at shadows.
While the Cats remain a game clear on top of the ladder, and with the healthiest percentage, they have lost two of their last three games.
After Port Adelaide restricted them to eight goals in Round 14, Geelong kicked a wasteful 7.13 in Saturday night’s loss to the resurgent Western Bulldogs.
The Cats average a healthy 93 points per game and teams are putting plenty of work into how to stop them scoring.
Geelong significantly revamped their forward structure in the off-season, recruiting Gary Rohan and Luke Dahlhaus as well as making star veteran Gary Ablett a permanent half-forward.
Dangerfield doubts there is a need to look at significant changes to their attack.
“I don’t think it needs revisiting – I don’t think you have to jump at shadows after one or two games,” he said.
“We’ve had great pressure in that forward half, we’ve had great execution and we’ll continue to get that, I think, for the rest of the year.
He was also asked if opposition teams are working them out.
“Yeah they did on the weekend, but does it happen if we kick straight? Perhaps not,” Dangerfield said of the Dogs.
“They certainly played their brand of footy, which we weren’t able to counter- punch against, and we have to make sure we play ours for longer periods of time.
“If you look at it in isolation, you’ll say we haven’t been great over the last three weeks.
“But we played some pretty good footy at times on the weekend, we just weren’t able to kick goals.”
Key forward Esava Ratugolea could return for Saturday night’s home game against St Kilda after being out of action since round 12 with a hamstring injury.
– AAP
