Geelong midfield ace Nina Morrison says the Cats still have to time to make a run for the finals
Geelong might be anchored in the bottom four of the AFLW ladder, and down a young ruck with an ACL injury, but a Cats star says there’s plenty of time to turn it around.
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There’s no reason to panic despite the Cats remaining anchored to the bottom four of the AFLW ladder after a historic 24-point loss to Carlton on Saturday, says midfield warrior Nina Morrison.
The Cats were held goalless for the second time in their five-year history in the 4.5 (29) to 0.5 (5) loss at Ikon Park, and kept to their lowest ever score — falling short of a seven-point effort in the 2019 preliminary final against Adelaide.
The last time they were kept goalless was in Round 9, 2022 against St Kilda in season six, recording nine behinds that day in March.
Geelong, which made scoring a big focus in 2023, is averaging 27 points a game so far after three rounds.
Adding to their issues, new ruck recruit Lily Pearce ruptured her ACL at training during the week, leaving Gabbi Featherston and Kate Darby to share duties on Saturday.
Pearce was brought into the squad due to the absence of Liv Fuller, who was placed on the inactive list as she pursued a career in the Australian Defence Force, while Erin Hoare has retired.
On Saturday, scoring was tough for the Cats – with heavy rain in the first and third quarters, and a brief showering of hail – but they wasted a window of opportunity in the second term after generating three clear opportunities to score.
However, Julia Crockett-Grills’ attempt was rushed over the line, a gettable shot from Amy McDonald missed and Aishling Moloney dropped a mark in dangerous territory for the Blues.
Meanwhile, Carlton’s defensive pressure in their forward half was elite, creating all of their four goals for the day.
The Cats’ back 50 exits were consistently cut off while the Blues’ tackling pressure in their forward arc created avenues to goal.
Geelong defender Claudia Gunjaca was set upon just outside the goalsquare by Lily Goss, while a Rachel Kearns clearance at half back landed in the hands of the Blues for another goal.
Morrison said her teammates were “quite fumbly” which invited pressure from the opposition.
“I thought their pressure was pretty good all day,” Morrison said.
“I watched it back (Saturday night) ... watching the first half, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
“We had a few opportunities if you capitalise on maybe it looks a bit different.
“It’s a game of moments and we probably didn’t take ours.
“We probably shot ourselves in the foot at times, taking short kicks we shouldn’t of, it just makes it really hard when you’re not clean, they were a lot cleaner than we were.
“It was not the day we were looking for obviously, not much went right in the end.
“We went away from our brand of footy a bit.”
Morrison said the loss the stung and she was expecting a strong response in Round 4 against Gold Coast.
“You sort of just want to go back out there immediately and redeem yourself straight away,” she said.
“I usually watch the games back pretty quickly.
“Win or loss, I like to get a feel for how the game looked.
“We know what our best footy looks like ... there’s no reason why we can’t get back to that pretty quickly.
“There’s so little room for error but at the same time ... we were 6-4 by the end of the season (last year).
“There’s no major alarms bells at the moment.”
Meanwhile, Morrison hoped Georgie Prespakis would be back against the Suns after training during the week week but ultimately sidelined due to a quad issue.
“She’ll be a test for next week, it was more of a conservative approach to manage her,” she said.
“She’s got that quad injury she’s working through.
“We’re coming into the condensed period as well, hopefully she’ll be back next week but we’ll see how we go.
“It would have been to good to have ‘Pres’ out there but we let ourselves down a little bit, whether she was out there or not.”
Morrison said it was “super disappointing” for Pearce to go down, who previously spent time with Richmond.
“We’ll wraps our arms around her and support her the best we can,” she said.
“I didn’t see the incident to be honest but I think it was a change in direction.”
Analysis: Blues’ defensive pressure chokes the Cats
It’s the kind of loss which highlights how slight the margin for error is in a 11-game AFLW season
Geelong, chasing their first win in 2024 after two extremely close encounters, were dominated in the middle and choked at either ends of the ground on Saturday in the wet against Carlton at Ikon Park.
Held goalless for the second time in their five-year history, the Cats also kicked their lowest ever score — falling short of their seven-point effort in the 2019 preliminary final to eventual premiers, Adelaide.
After an opening quarter of minimal forward half play, the Cats finally enjoyed a window of opportunity in the second term to take a lead, but couldn’t seize it.
With rain and hail to come in the third, a buffer could have possibly changed the complexion of the game.
However, the numbers will show senior coach Dan Lowther missed his midfield ace in Georgie Prespakis (quad), as the likes of Mimi Hill, Madeleine Guerin and Abbie McKay each had 30+ and a goal.
The inside 50 count would be lopsided – 34-22 in favour of the Blues – but it was exactly the same in a preliminary final last November, with the Cats just going down by four points.
This time, the Cats couldn’t create anything forward of the ball, while at the other end they had even bigger issues.
Time and again, the Blues would cut off Geelong’s defensive exits, either through perceived or actual pressure.
A hurried kick out of defence by Julia Crockett-Grills was marked by Guerin, who converted for her side’s first.
Cats defender Claudia Gunjaca would be tackled on the edge of the goalsquare by Lily Goss with Hill picking up the spillage to boot one home, then Kearns’ clearance out of defence was intercepted and sent back for another goal.
After some promising forward play for the Cats, it was a strong response from the Blues.
In the third, a defensive smother on Chantel Emonson was gobbled up by Tarni Brown who expertly nailed a right foot banana.
There was still 10 minutes to run in the quarter but it felt like game over considering how hard a slog it was for the Cats for most of the day.
A relatively easy miss from about 30m out from Kate Surman in the game’s deaththroes perhaps summed up the day for the Cats.
As mentioned, with just an 11-game season, there isn’t much margin for error for the winless Cats who remain anchored at the bottom four of the ladder and have lost their young ruck replacement for Liv Fuller, Lily Pearce.
It feels like very much season on the line next Saturday at People First Stadium.
Originally published as Geelong midfield ace Nina Morrison says the Cats still have to time to make a run for the finals
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