Bluey
13-07-2009, 06:46 PM
Geelong Cats veteran Paul Chapman has laid the blame for Saturday's defeat by Brisbane at the feet of Geelong's older players.
Geelong was missing seven regular players, including Gary Ablett, Darren Milburn and Cameron Ling, in the 43 point loss.
While Chapman praised the efforts of some of the youngsters, he said the team expected better from the more experienced players, the Geelong Advertiser reports.
"Obviously you lose the quality players and your team suffers a little bit, but we feel like we've got a lot of young blokes coming through who have played good footy in the reserves and they deserve their chance and I thought they played not too bad," Chapman said.
"It was probably more the older blokes that fell away a bit and didn't do the things that were asked."
The tough midfielder, who was Geelong's best with 35 touches, said the injuries were no excuse for the performance.
"We didn't have all our best players in but we would have expected a little bit better result than that," he said.
"Even if we didn't come out with the win, probably to play a little better and more to the standards we were after."
Geelong was missing seven regular players, including Gary Ablett, Darren Milburn and Cameron Ling, in the 43 point loss.
While Chapman praised the efforts of some of the youngsters, he said the team expected better from the more experienced players, the Geelong Advertiser reports.
"Obviously you lose the quality players and your team suffers a little bit, but we feel like we've got a lot of young blokes coming through who have played good footy in the reserves and they deserve their chance and I thought they played not too bad," Chapman said.
"It was probably more the older blokes that fell away a bit and didn't do the things that were asked."
The tough midfielder, who was Geelong's best with 35 touches, said the injuries were no excuse for the performance.
"We didn't have all our best players in but we would have expected a little bit better result than that," he said.
"Even if we didn't come out with the win, probably to play a little better and more to the standards we were after."