{"id":390537,"date":"2024-05-03T22:12:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T22:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=390537"},"modified":"2024-05-04T00:04:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T00:04:22","slug":"why-cats-tag-should-be-deemed-respect-for-petracca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=390537","title":{"rendered":"Why Cats tag should be deemed 'respect' for Petracca"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defence is the word this weekend for both Geelong<\/a> coach Chris Scott<\/a> and Melbourne<\/a> coach Simon Goodwin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In their top-of-the-table clash on Saturday night, both sides will have the mammoth tasks\ufeff of shutting down a plethora of stars.<\/p>\n

The Cats will need to lock down Demons midfielder Christian Petracca, who was quietened by Richmond and Brisbane with a tag<\/a> in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> $4.5m 'bidding frenzy' to pour fuel on bitter NRL rivalry<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Sydney club shattered by mid-match death in England<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Fitness' probed as horror moment sums up sorry Souths<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

They'll need to do it without their key taggers, Mark O'Connor, who the club has decided to manage in round eight.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Scott says it's all part of the plan to give O'Connor the week off.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

"If we said 'we can't manage Mark O'Connor \ufeffbecause this team's (Demons) got a couple of gun mids', then we'd never rest him," Scott said on Friday.<\/p>\n

"He (Petracca) knows that (he'll get tagged). That's the respect you get from the opposition when you're as good as he is."<\/p>\n

On the other side, Goodwin says he finally believes he has a plan to help Petracca get back into the game and break the tag.<\/p>\n

"We feel like now we've got some better strategies around how to help Christian and how to keep his influence in the game\ufeff," the Melbourne coach said.<\/p>\n

\"Petracca<\/p>\n

\ufeffMeantime, there's a big battle brewing in the Cats forward-line.<\/p>\n

Demons defensive duo Steven May and Jake Lever will have the task of shutting down Geelong's twin towers Jeremy Cameron and Tom Hawkins.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Although Hawkins hasn't \ufeffkicked a goal in three weeks, Goodwin says he is still very weary of the damage the triple-premiership Cat can inflict on his Dees.<\/p>\n

"It's really going to come down to how we defend\ufeff. Our ability to defend the ground, our ability to put them into a game we know we can control," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Hawkins<\/p>\n

Scott on the other hand \ufeffsays that the club will not solely rely on Cameron or Hawkins to carry their side at the MCG.<\/p>\n

"I don't think it's optimal for us to\ufeff be thinking 'well, we need Jeremy Cameron playing well for us to win' and it's the same with Hawk (Hawkins) and it's the same with other players as well," Scott said.<\/p>\n

The Cats and Dees face off at the MCG on Saturday night.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defence is the word this weekend for both Geelong coach Chris Scott and Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin. In their top-of-the-table clash on Saturday night, both […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":390540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390537"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=390537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":390547,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390537\/revisions\/390547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/390540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=390537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=390537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=390537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}