GEELONG
Sort out the forward line
They're a cagey bunch, the Cats, and they certainly weren't about to spill the beans about why their season crashed in the minutes after their loss to the Sydney Swans in Friday night's preliminary final.
And Chris Scott made it clear afterwards, he'll be in no hurry to share with us when he does make that discovery.
But it's a reasonable bet that the forward line will be forensically examined. The Cats finished with the third-highest points tally during the home and away season, but could you say with any real certainty that the forward line clicked?
The stats sheet from the preliminary final will haunt the Cats all summer – eight goals from 72 inside 50 entries. Scott called it "inefficient" and he might have been too generous with that assessment.
"You can't keep banging it in there like that, hoping for the same result," he said.
Tom Hawkins kicked 55 goals for the season, but only Steven Motlop (38) and Daniel Menzel (33) averaged more than a goal a game.
Menzel was stiff to be injured and miss the preliminary final, while the flighty Motlop is being tipped to play elsewhere next year.
Every Cat rated: Star mids dig deep on horror night
The Cats didn't get much from Mitch Clark this year and when it came to the crunch in September, they chose not to pick Shane Kersten. Lachie Henderson played forward on Friday night and was either unfit or chose the wrong time to play his worst game of the year.
It was a part of the ground the Cats couldn't really settle and will be a focus headed into next year.
Scott rated the season as successful, albeit with a disappointing end. With a home preliminary final, the Cats could not have done any more to give themselves a shot at the flag.
But there will be a perception until next season that the Cats are a two-man team. In the heat of the preliminary final, Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood stood up brilliantly, but not too many others did.
Geelong is better, much better in fact than what it dished up on Friday night. But there is work to be done and it starts forward of centre.
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY
Protect home field
It sort of didn't matter because they earned a home preliminary final, but the Giants will rue missed opportunities at home this year.
They made Canberra a real fortress and in the first 12 weeks of the season they knocked over Hawthorn, the Western Bulldogs and the Swans – all convincingly – at Spotless Stadium.
But then it turned strange. They led Collingwood by four goals at Spotless before losing by 32 points. They somehow coughed up a goal to Nic Naitanui with three seconds to go in round 21, and then on Saturday night, couldn't get the preliminary final played on their terms for more than a few minutes at a time.
They led by 14 points early in the final quarter and couldn't ram home the ascendancy from there.
But let's face it, if the biggest issue facing the Giants is a few losses on their home deck, then there's not a whole lot going wrong.
Every Giant rated: So close yet so far for young Giants
As Leon Cameron noted on Saturday night, the Giants are a team on the march and the concentration lapses and form dips are typical of a group of young players still coming into their own.
The Giants were downcast Saturday night, but the depth of their disappointment was nothing like that of Geelong the night before and nor should it have been.
The weight of expectation on the Giants will be greater in 2017, however, which is how it should be.
