Tom Lonergan and journalist Scott Gullan discussed why the Cats perform poorly against low ranked teams and shine against the top, on Argue the Toss?

Lonergan admitted that last Sunday’s two-point loss to the Crows was hard to take, especially after their gallant effort against the two strongest sides in the AFL, Hawthorn and Fremantle.

Unfortunately the Cats lost their rhythm when the Crows found theirs. This indicates to Lonergan that the Cats are losing focus too early in the game, which opens the door for their opponent to step in and overtake the lead.    

“Yeah it was pretty disappointing again to lose on the road when we’ve been in a winning position,” Lonergan said.

“I guess it’s the lapse in concentration, and in this day and age all teams are really good at scoring really quickly.

“We’ve seen it through out the year that teams comeback from big deficits and win games and we’ve been switching off and losing concentration, and it’s something we really need to fix in going forward.”

Gullan agreed with Lonergan that today’s modern game has increased in pace in a way that enables teams to turn the score around in minutes. In saying that he believes the Cats perform at their hardest when they’re under pressure and playing against the big names. In other words, when it counts the Cats step up.

“I think they just get board, they turn it on, they get five goals up and then people cruise subconsciously, the younger guys wait for the kicks to come and before they know it, like Lonergan said, any team in this competition can get a roll-on and that is hard to stop… but it’s not panic station for the Cats.”

Click on the video above to watch the full episode of Argue the Toss.