FRUSTRATED Geelong superstar Patrick Dangerfield has delivered a brutal assessment of his team, labeling the Cats' recent form "mediocre" and insisting they "haven't proven anything" this season.
In the wake of Geelong's 38-point loss to the Sydney Swans at Simonds Stadium on Friday night – its second in succession following a round 14 defeat to lowly St Kilda – Dangerfield expressed disappointment that the premiership contender had been unable to perform consistently.
The Cats have now won just three of their past seven games to place their top-four hopes in jeopardy.
"We've been a mediocre side the last three weeks, no doubt," Dangerfield said on Melbourne radio station SEN on Saturday morning.
"Unless we've got an even spread of 22 even contributors, we're a mediocre side. We're not Hawthorn.
"We haven't proven anything so far this season. We've played some really good footy but, geez, we've played some really poor footy as well.
"We're the ones that have to arrest it and make change.
"We've played some unbelievable footy this year, and we've played some incredibly poor footy as well."
In the defeat to the Swans, Dangerfield felt the Cats let themselves down in their lack of defensive pressure, in particular tackling, and said their forwards and midfielders were too slow to react at times.
"We weren't quick enough to reset and get our forwards ahead of the ball and have our midfielders pressing in," he said.
"We're going to change our team until we can find that real balance," he said.
Meanwhile, teammate Daniel Menzel said the Cats needed to relieve the pressure on Dangerfield, who was their best player with 34 possessions, including an extraordinary 18 in the first quarter.
"I don't know if we're guilty of leaving him with too much work to do, but at the same time we do rely on him a lot," Menzel told Fox Sports on Saturday.
"Last night we relied on him too much.
"He's such a great player and he's such a good mentor for our younger midfielders, but hopefully in the coming weeks we won't have to rely on him as much and other guys can step up into his role."