What makes Halloween so terrifying isn’t Michael Myers himself, necessarily. It’s the threat of Michael Myers. The clear and present danger that he represents as a quiet, unkillable, relentless force of pure evil. And the way that we’re constantly over his shoulder in that relentless pursuit.
Michael Myers is an extension of the shark from Jaws. Even when the shark is killed at the end, there’s at least part of you that has to be thinking what if this thing is unkillable? Unlike Myers, though, the shark is more of an existential threat than a physical one, given how much time we’ve spent worrying about it compared to its actual body count.
Myers racked up bodies.
Who does that remind you of in the AFL? The anxiety that, even when it seems like they’re probably dead, even as you breathe heavily over their carcass, they still feel like a threat.
Geelong.
A HUGE WIN FOR THE CATS UNDER FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS! 😼
Thanks to @GMHBA.
✍️ #AFLPiesCats MATCH RECAP https://t.co/XYk1Oo98rE
🔢 STATS https://t.co/owWVjVKgMw pic.twitter.com/Eyhw0YM9rL— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) July 12, 2024
Last year Geelong finished twelfth, missing the finals for just the second time in Chris Scott’s tenure, with the oldest and most experienced list in the AFL.
Last year felt like Michael getting shot six times at the end of Halloween 1.
The first seven games of this season felt like Loomis yelling “I shot him six times” while Michael isn’t there.
From there, the Michael Myers Cats went 1/6 in their next seven and again looked dead.
True to form, the Michael Myers Cats have now since won three on the trot against three finals aspirants – Essendon, Hawthorn, and Collingwood.
In each of the last three games they have played differently to the rest of the season and have shown the ability to put together bespoke game plans to play their oppositions.
Michael Myers is going to the hospital and once he’s done, he’s coming for you, Sydney.
Particularly unkillable is Chris Scott, who is approaching Bill Belichick territory with his ability to get his team playing the kind of game that forces the opponent into playing left-handed.
Chris Scott has spoken about umpiring in the wake of last night's clash with Collingwood, where officials cracked down on 15 metre kicks.
FULL STORY: https://t.co/sdRCT0aK5k pic.twitter.com/NxdYPiTjLg
— SuperFooty (AFL) (@superfooty) July 12, 2024
Early in the season, Geelong thrived with speed on the game. They attacked the corridor relentlessly, led footy in metres gained and scored extremely heavily, most often from turnover. They played rock and roll footy and were electric viewing.
This proved to be something of a double-edged sword.
In the game against Port Adelaide in round 9 for instance, the entire game was a battle for the corridor and Geelong just couldn’t maintain the ascendancy for long enough and were ultimately beaten at home.
They took their third fewest marks in a game this season on that night and couldn’t exert enough control of the ball.
In their midseason swoon, that lack of control was relatively common as four of their five lowest mark and lowest mark differential games came in the 1/6 skid.
But over the last three weeks they’ve rectified that.
They have exerted real control in the games against Hawthorn, Essendon and Collingwood with their three highest mark and mark differential games.
Against Hawthorn and Essendon, however, they didn’t go away from their bread and butter which is scoring off turnover and gaining over 6,000 metres.
Their pressure was relentless in both of those games as they scored over 70 points from turnover in each of those games (the league leader, Sydney, scores about 60 per game).
In general, though, they still played a “Geelong Brand”. They attacked the game, took metres, and scored off turnover.
In those two games, Geelong played the same song just changed the key.
Against Collingwood the rockstar started playing folk covers.
The Cats took 145 marks against Collingwood, 33 more than they took against Hawthorn and 42 more than they took against Essendon. They took 70 more marks than Collingwood on the night. That is the fourth highest mark differential in any game this season, behind two Brisbane games and a Bulldogs game.
Friday night delight 🤩 #WeAreGeelong | @FordAustralia pic.twitter.com/BSAjF5gajF
— Geelong Cats (@GeelongCats) July 12, 2024
Brisbane and the Bulldogs are the two highest mark takers in the league and the only two teams averaging over 100 marks a game for the season.
Geelong is fourteenth in marks.
More than just ball control, the way that they scored was different. They scored their second fewest points of the season from turnover, but their third most from stoppage and centre bounce.
They changed everything, except their metreage dominance.
It was remarkable to watch.
It’s like what Martin Scorsese has done in recent years. He spent his whole life making these electric, rock and roll movies on the blackened core of America that moved relentlessly like Goodfellas, only to recently start making pensive, sentimental reflections on the blackened core of America.
Imagine Michael Myers dumped the knife, learned jiu jitsu, and started choking everyone out.
The ability to do that is a credit to Chris Scott, but also to a collection of young players.
This isn’t Bill Belichick spending a whole season playing man only to play zone in the Super Bowl against the Rams with an experienced defence.
This Geelong team is full of young, talented players. Ollie Dempsey is one that is quickly becoming a favourite as a hard running winger who is excellent overhead and who seemingly lives at the fall of the ball.
Enjoy your weekend, Cats Fans xo #WeAreGeelong pic.twitter.com/Qu4yb4DjDx
— Geelong Cats (@GeelongCats) July 12, 2024
But even beyond him, names like Neale, Mannagh and Humphries all played well against Collingwood.
The Myers mask is kind of getting a face lift.
They seem to be the generation that’s coming in after the younger brigade of Holmes, Miers, Bowes, Guthrie Clark and the Henry brothers have graduated into more critical roles.
All of them are propping up the highly experienced brigade of Duncan, Cameron, Rohan, Tuohy and of course Dangerfield.
I want to finish with a word on Patty Dangerfield, who was ridiculous against Collingwood on Friday night.
It's a hot contest here 🔥#WeAreGeelong | @FordAustralia pic.twitter.com/ZQv8JgSqpy
— Geelong Cats (@GeelongCats) July 12, 2024
The issue with Dangerfield has always been his kicking. I have been of a view that Dangerfield is like a superhero: if you’re asking him to save the world, he’s going to destroy a few buildings in the process.
I figured, though, as his burst of speed left him that he would become a less valuable player.
That stupidly assumed that his burst of speed would ever leave him.
Instead of becoming a more accurate kick, which at this point in his career is probably impossible, Dangerfield has leant on his speed even more and become a genuine 100m player. He doesn’t really try to hit targets anymore and instead gets metres, in keeping with Geelong’s ethos as a metreage team.
He is having the highest metres per disposal season of his career and is the fifth highest metres per disposal midfielder in the AFL. At 34, he’s having the fourth best metres gained season of his career, his best since 2019.
He can’t play every week anymore, but when he does play watching him is still remarkable. He is still so strong and explosive at this point in his career that he looks like he could move mountains, let alone players in the way of the ball.
An amazing player.
In the end, Geelong is unlikely to win the premiership in 2024. They’re at once too young and too old.
But they’re at the top of the list of teams you don’t want to play in the finals with their ability to change their game depending on opposition, their mix of experience and youthful exuberance, and their talisman.
I fear that the Michael Myers Cats are Michael Myersing once again.
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