Patrick Dangerfield says Cats won’t dwell on Richmond loss as they prepare to bounce back
DID Geelong coach Chris Scott tear strips off his players for their performance against Richmond in the qualifying final? PATRICK DANGERFIELD reveals the coach’s post-match message.
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“ARE you happy for the Richmond faithful who’ve had to wait 16 years to win a final?”
The question came out of nowhere and caught me completely off guard.
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Post-match press conferences are part of the business and obviously the circumstances on Friday night weren’t ideal but it was my turn to face the music.
I’m not normally lost for words but that question had me stumped.
“Are you serious?” was my first reaction.
I then added: “You obviously haven’t spent too much time in sporting clubs.”
My club was hurting but already just 30 minutes after the siren had sounded on what had been a disappointing qualifying final, we were moving on.
The post-game meeting with Chris Scott wasn’t the rev up people might expect.
We hadn’t executed the way we wanted or performed how we’d liked but the only thing now was to get on with making sure it didn’t happen again.
“What are we actually going to do to change that?”
That was the question we were asking each other.
There will be a review of the game but it’s crucial that we move on quickly and focus on what we need to achieve next Friday night.
It’s no use hiding at home for the next couple of days, we have to front up and think about how we’re going to be better next time, how we’re going to improve and how we’re going to get back to playing the footy we were two weeks ago.
The first point of call is to start better, we can’t afford to let teams control the game the way we let Richmond control the first quarter.
We have to wrestle that ascendancy as quickly as possible which didn’t happen and we also need to be more precise with ball in hand and absorb pressure better.
It was one of those nights where we seemed to fumble a lot and that was certainly the message from my wife afterwards.
“Gee, you fumbled,” she said.
She calls things as she sees it so a declaration like that was enough for me to understand that it looked as bad as it felt out there in the middle of the MCG.
In the end we got what we deserved with the way that we played but that doesn’t mean it can’t change and we all know that it can change quickly.
If the Western Bulldogs taught us anything last year it’s that anything is possible.
The equation stays the same for us, we still have to win three games and all we’ve done now is add in an extra game.
We have a second chance, we’re still breathing and the sun still came up on Saturday morning.
The outside noise is going to be along the lines of Geelong’s season is done, they’re overrated, write them off now; whatever people choose to say it just doesn’t matter to us.
What happens inside the club is what really matters and the focus will be on how we respond.
It’s going to be a great learning curve for all of us, not just the younger players but I’ve got complete confidence in our ability to bounce back.
There are many reasons why we need to ... one being so I’m not asked about Richmond again.
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