Fox Footy analyst and former North Melbourne premiership player David King has slammed Geelong's effort and intensity during their 25-point loss to Gold Coast on Saturday.
After losing to Collingwoodย the weekend prior, the Cats never really got going at Metricon Stadium, with King pinpointing their forward pressure as an area that hasn't lived up to previous years.
โMoving the ball against Geelong is not as hard as it once was,โ he said on AFL 360ย on Wednesday night.
โ(They were the) second-hardest team in the competition to move the ball against last year out of your defensive 50.
โTheyโre ranked 12th this year.โ
King looked at the opening goal of the game, in which the Suns broke through almost the entire Geelong side with just a couple touches of the ball.
โJust have a look how lax this is in the background,โ King said.
โThe Suns win the ball, they take three steps and look at the guys behind, just walking โ eight of them, 10 of them โ watch how quick they move, look at that, thatโs horrible.
โThen they go over one line of traffic at the midpoint of the ground and the same thing happens again. Itโs pedestrian. Itโs amazing vision. Itโs something Iโve never seen from Geelong.โ
Knees-to-chest! Aaron Hall finishes with this lovely goal๐#AFLSunsCats pic.twitter.com/4RKSg4pLcp
— AFL (@AFL) May 6, 2017
The pressure of their forward line let them down according to King, with their lacklustre defensive efforts having a ripple affect through the side and setting the tone for the rest of the night.
โ(Iโve) never seen that from Geelong and I was horrified when I saw that โฆ this is like a training drill,โ he said.
โEight forwards walking โ the midfielders have got no hope from there. But even they threw the towel in.
โYou donโt give your back six a chance, you donโt give your midfield a chance to defend when your forwards donโt engage in the fight.โ
โOf the top eight teams, theyโre conceding the most to the opposition on counter-attack out of the back half and thatโs not a stat that wins you big games.โ
