Three Things I've Learned - Round 14 Edition

[westdog54]

Here we go again, once the match vs Melbourne is completed post the three things you've learned as a result of the game.

Be constructive but be honest.

[GVGjr]

Lets try and stay constructive.

[boydogs]

Fitness is good
Higher draft pick on the way
Griff's brownlow odds are shortening

[bornadog]

You can't give teams a 40 point start going into the last and expect to win.

You have to hit a target not just bang it on the foot

The umpires still allow players to be held without the ball and dispose of it incorrectly.

[LostDoggy]

1. Everything and anything should be on the table for a marquee forward
2. Jones/Cordy will be bit players at AFL level at best
3. We haven't bottomed out yet

[LostDoggy]

1. Those ladies can play. Very entertaining match, got right into it once I learnt their names/numbers.
2. Melbourne fans were very graceful, to us at least. Class.

[G-Mo77]

1. The woman's game was very entertaining. They were tough as nails. I was actually surprised how physical it was
2. There are a lot of poms in Melbourne. Young and Jackson was thumping with English chants
3. It's much warmer at Etihad.

[SonofScray]

1. My belief in the team is shot.

2. Holding the man, it doesn't apply to Stringer or Cordy.

3. Our fan base is thinning out rapidly.

[LostDoggy]

1. Griff is a champion
2. Libba will be a champion
3. We don't deserve Griff, Libba and Minson right now.

[Chicago1]

1. Do not wake up at 6am to check the scores. It's hard to fall back to sleep when your stomach is churning.
2. I doubt if I want to fly out for the last match of the season against Melbourne now.
3. I'm glad I'm 10000 miles away from Melbourne so I won't have to put up with all the crap so many of you will have to at work on Monday morning. Stay strong.

[F'scary]

1. Team is currently incapable of executing Coach's instruction: during the week, an emphasis was placed on starting strongly. The opposite happened.

2. Backline is as much a problem as the forward line - although see point 3.

3. We apply insufficient pressure in the forward line and in the middle. The turnovers and lack of coverage on the opposition's spread is deeply disturbing. We seem to fall for every card trick going.

[Eastdog]

1. Requirement to win: Play 4 quarters.

2. We rely very much on our midfielders for our goals.

3. We turn it over way too much.

[Pickenitup]

1.Griff is a Bulldog through and Through He Is worth admission alone right now.
2.Ayce Cordy is not a forward and not a ruckman time to cut our losses
3.Play Cooney in the middle where he plays best

[MrMahatma]

1. If Cooney isn't played mid he shouldn't be played.
2. McCrae will be a gun.
3. What pick do we need for the best KPF in the draft? We'll probably have it.

[lemmon]

1. This rebuild still has such a long way to go, we're going to drop off Murph, Gia etc very soon...next few years may very well see a younger team than the one we've been fielding
2. Thank God I'm off to Europe for the rest of the year

[Scorlibo]

1. We rely very much on our midfielders for our goals.

Yep we only look dangerous when it's a stoppage situation in the forward fifty.


2. Play Cooney in the middle where he plays best

This is the one that really gives me the irrits: everyone knows we lack dynamic players through the middle, yet Macca doesn't play our Brownlow Medal winning midfielder there. And the knee issues are no excuse, he's either well enough to be playing or he's not, let's not put conditions on the issue, "oh he can play as a running defender but playing midfield will make him too sore". You can see from Coons' body language that he likes being the main man in the middle, in an offensive role. Every minute we don't play him there kills his confidence in his body and in himself as a top end player. Play him where he wants to be played, play him where he plays best, play him where we need him.

3. We don't spread effectively (not something I've just learned, but it's more true now than ever).

We have a number of players who are poor kicks, but the main issue lies with what's happening upfield. Jones and Cordy make terrible leads, there is no desire for movement or numbers one kick forward of the ball, which is incredibly dumb given how often we win a contested ball and scrub a kick forward. You know it's gotten bad when you see Robert Murphy forced backwards into defensive fifty from the wing in order to find a target.



2. McCrae will be a gun.

He has some magic awareness about him, but like so many of our other young players, has some serious deficiencies. At the moment, he appears to be slow and lacking in foot skills (maybe not compared to the average player but he needs to have good foot skills to play the role we have in mind for him).

[G-Mo77]

This is the one that really gives me the irrits: everyone knows we lack dynamic players through the middle, yet Macca doesn't play our Brownlow Medal winning midfielder there. And the knee issues are no excuse, he's either well enough to be playing or he's not, let's not put conditions on the issue, "oh he can play as a running defender but playing midfield will make him too sore". You can see from Coons' body language that he likes being the main man in the middle, in an offensive role. Every minute we don't play him there kills his confidence in his body and in himself as a top end player. Play him where he wants to be played, play him where he plays best, play him where we need him.


It's a tough one because we don't know what's going on with the knee, it could be a legitimate excuse. Still some short bursts in there I don't think would be that taxing on him. Again though that is having no knowledge of what's going on with his injury.

[Greystache]

1. Our skill level isn't improving.

2. While our recent recruits look the best we've had in years they're 3-4 years off being able to regularly win us games.

3. We are an incredibly difficult team to watch.

[Bulldog4life]

1. Melbourne plays better under Craig than Neeld.

2. The MCG in winter is very cold...

3. It is boring driving home not listening to the after match talk.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

1. Our skill level isn't improving.

2. While our recent recruits look the best we've had in years they're 3-4 years off being able to regularly win us games.

3. We are an incredibly difficult team to watch.

We also lack:
1. Quality forwards
2. Genuine pace across the ground
3. Physical strength. Picken Young and Stevens would help.
We have one quality player in Griffen which isn't enough.

[Sedat]

We have one quality player in Griffen which isn't enough.
I reckon Bob is elite quality, but he doesn't impose himself in games for long enough or often enough. I love Bob as a player but I want and expect more influence and output from him as one of our most experienced and talented players.

[Ozza]

1. We desperately need more pace in the line up.
2. At the end of their careers, Griffen will have been better, overall, than Cooney (that's not a dig at Cooney).
3. Its so important to keep the ball in your own half....when its in the oppositions half, and you lose your structure...its very hard to get out of the cycle.

[LostDoggy]

1. We clash with Melbourne's jumper, should have worn white.
2. Most of the time when we are on the wrong end of the free kick ledger we lose.
3. We don't play enough games at the 'G'.

[AndrewP6]

3. We don't play enough games at the 'G'.

We don't play well enough, nor have enough fans who turn up, to make it worthwhile. 18k there on Saturday, they're not going to give us more games there.

[bornadog]

We don't play well enough, nor have enough fans who turn up, to make it worthwhile. 18k there on Saturday, they're not going to give us more games there.

21k actually.

[AndrewP6]

21k actually.

Really? I got bad info - and I was there! :o
Still, they're not numbers that can command more games there.

[bornadog]

Really? I got bad info - and I was there! :o
Still, they're not numbers that can command more games there.

Pretty sparse for such a big ground.

[LostDoggy]

We don't play well enough, nor have enough fans who turn up, to make it worthwhile. 18k there on Saturday, they're not going to give us more games there.

Not saying we deserve more games there just we don't play very well there because we don't play there often enough.

[LostDoggy]

1. We either have a non-existent plan for kicking in from behinds or the plan is to stand completely still and hope Minson can outmark three opponents.

2. There is a genuine argument for a return to suburban grounds in Victoria. Seeing one of, if not the greatest sporting venue in the world at one-fifth capacity is plain embarrassing and damaging to the code.

3. Ryan Griffen will be spoken of in the same breath as Charlie Sutton and Ted Whitten by future generations. Absolutely bleeds red, white and blue and is an out and out superstar.

[Mantis]

At the end of their careers, Griffen will have been better, overall, than Cooney (that's not a dig at Cooney).


I would already have Griffen ahead of Cooney and I can't see Adam bucking the trend.


We either have a non-existent plan for kicking in from behinds or the plan is to stand completely still and hope Minson can outmark three opponents.



It's been like it all year... Even Melbourne had a plan, and it worked.

But pretty much all across the ground (except around the clearances) we have little or no system or plan that actually works... Makes you wonder what they do from 9 to 5.

[SonofScray]

1. We clash with Melbourne's jumper, should have worn white.


Amen. What a ridiculous scenario, to end up in that scenario when we have the best two alternate shirts in the game. I wish the Club would make a definitive stance on how we use those uniforms. Surely an away game against Melbourne is the exact type of situation where we go with it.

[bornadog]

Amen. What a ridiculous scenario, to end up in that scenario when we have the best two alternate shirts in the game. I wish the Club would make a definitive stance on how we use those uniforms. Surely an away game against Melbourne is the exact type of situation where we go with it.

for 100 years we used black and white shorts, can't see the problem

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

21k actually.

The 21k included 7,500 who attended the women's curtain raiser. A poor return between two Melbourne based clubs but given our ladder positions not surprising.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

I reckon Bob is elite quality, but he doesn't impose himself in games for long enough or often enough. I love Bob as a player but I want and expect more influence and output from him as one of our most experienced and talented players.

I also believe that at Murph's stage of his career, he is regularly used between, half back, wing and half forward to become a stop gap player. IMO needs to become more settled and ideally at half forward given the lack of quality and experience in attack. I like you am a great admirer of Robert Murphy who has been one of our class acts for a long time.

[lemmon]

I also believe that at Murph's stage of his career, he is regularly used between, half back, wing and half forward to become a stop gap player. IMO needs to become more settled and ideally at half forward given the lack of quality and experience in attack. I like you am a great admirer of Robert Murphy who has been one of our class acts for a long time.

I'm not so sure, at times he has gone missing when played predominantly as a forward, at least throwing him around gives us some quality where its most needed at the time. We all love Bob but a dominant player he isn't, he's silk when he has quality around him and he is fed clean footy but in a struggling team as an outside utility he is bound to struggle. I do think he would be the ideal sub in some ways

[always right]

I also believe that at Murph's stage of his career, he is regularly used between, half back, wing and half forward to become a stop gap player. IMO needs to become more settled and ideally at half forward given the lack of quality and experience in attack. I like you am a great admirer of Robert Murphy who has been one of our class acts for a long time.

I'm not surprised they put him in defence against Melbourne. We needed someone who could run it out of defence and deliver with some precision. Our kicking into the forwardline was a bad as I've seen it. What we really needed was Bob Murphy streaming out of defence and delivering a pass to a leading Bob Murphy.

[Ozza]

I would already have Griffen ahead of Cooney and I can't see Adam bucking the trend.



It's been like it all year... Even Melbourne had a plan, and it worked.

But pretty much all across the ground (except around the clearances) we have little or no system or plan that actually works... Makes you wonder what they do from 9 to 5.


I tend to agree on Griffen. Particularly with his peerless record in finals for the club.

With regard to kick ins - we've been more or less the same for 3 years now. Goodes is at least reasonable at the kick ins - but we have to endure 1 or 2 really bad errors game - which isn't entirely his fault. For the kick in taker - they are only really as good as the options in front of them.

[Greystache]

With regard to kick ins - we've been more or less the same for 3 years now. Goodes is at least reasonable at the kick ins - but we have to endure 1 or 2 really bad errors game - which isn't entirely his fault. For the kick in taker - they are only really as good as the options in front of them.

Agree it's been a problem for 4 years. Our previous strategy consisted exclusively of kicking it long to Minson on the boundary near the 50m line and Williams going third man up to punch it out of bounds to force a throw in. It was utterly uninspiring stuff.

[LostDoggy]

21k actually.

It was Melbourne's home game, so how many Dogs fans just said, “We're playing shit footy, and I only have a home game membership, so I'm watching it on TV”?

I think it's more a reflection on Melbourne's situation than ours, and they get games there (yes, I know the MCC makes it a different situation but hey, they're making money with 21k at the G).

If the AFL was serious about giving us some equalisation leg-up — biggest if in the southern hemisphere — they'd give us the home game against Collingwood at the G. Pies would be happy as they get one more game at the G, and the Dogs get the gate takings. Even if we split it with the Pies in return for letting their home game members in at half price, we'd be better off than hosting them at Etihad. I'm sure arrangements can be made with some common sense, unfortunately, it's the AFL and sense ain't all that common…


Agree it's been a problem for 4 years. Our previous strategy consisted exclusively of kicking it long to Minson on the boundary near the 50m line and Williams going third man up to punch it out of bounds to force a throw in. It was utterly uninspiring stuff.

Nobody running hard enough to give an option. They (Melbourne) just ran harder than us all day. Simple as that. You could have had Ben Graham kicking it out and we'd still have been toast.

[Bulldog Joe]

If the AFL was serious about giving us some equalisation leg-up — biggest if in the southern hemisphere — they'd give us the home game against Collingwood at the G. Pies would be happy as they get one more game at the G, and the Dogs get the gate takings. Even if we split it with the Pies in return for letting their home game members in at half price, we'd be better off than hosting them at Etihad. I'm sure arrangements can be made with some common sense, unfortunately, it's the AFL and sense ain't all that common…




This is something to learn ( and definitely not restricted to AFL)

From my life experience....

If you find something of SENSE it will not be COMMON

and if you find something COMMON it will not be SENSE......

however it could easily be BUREAUCRATIC STUPIDITY.

[SonofScray]

for 100 years we used black and white shorts, can't see the problem

Historical approach doesn't cut the mustard for me.

Quite a few things that were around 100yrs ago aren't appropriate anymore, or have been improved as the game has developed. The introduction of clash strips in professional sport is one of those improvements. We have them, we should be using them.

From the obvious fact it is easier for fans to distinguish right through to the longer bow to be drawn; that it gives the players a more definitive target, given it exists, the white strip should have been used.

[Sedat]

Historical approach doesn't cut the mustard for me.

Quite a few things that were around 100yrs ago aren't appropriate anymore, or have been improved as the game has developed. The introduction of clash strips in professional sport is one of those improvements. We have them, we should be using them.

From the obvious fact it is easier for fans to distinguish right through to the longer bow to be drawn; that it gives the players a more definitive target, given it exists, the white strip should have been used.
Could not agree more. If we are the away team against a team with dark colours, FFS use the white jumper (or the red one). I hate this ridiculously stubborn attitude of having to wear the same jumper that was worn 100 years ago, which is complete BS in any event as every single club's jumper has had multiple changes made to it over the course of history (including the filth). As with most issues, the AFL show bugger-all leadership when it comes to clash jumpers.

[whythelongface]

Could not agree more. If we are the away team against a team with dark colours, FFS use the white jumper (or the red one). I hate this ridiculously stubborn attitude of having to wear the same jumper that was worn 100 years ago, which is complete BS in any event as every single club's jumper has had multiple changes made to it over the course of history (including the filth). As with most issues, the AFL show bugger-all leadership when it comes to clash jumpers.

In regards to the wearing of clash jumpers is it strictly at the determination of the AFL if a clash jumper is to be worn? As we have two clash jumpers does the club have a say as to whether we should wear the red or white jumper?