What a difference a week makes.

[Dancin' Douggy]

VFL. Big win with Honeychurch and Stringer going ballistic.
AFL. We beat the Pies and Liam Jones looks a million bucks.
Bonti wins the rising star.

We are nowhere near wooden spoon territory.

I have a game to watch on repeat.

Enjoy the week woofers.

[boydogs]

It's a very even competition. No-one's really at the bottom of a rebuild this year, I wouldn't be surprised if 6 wins got you the spoon. Brisbane & St Kilda will finish bottom 4 but in other years sides of their calibre would be above that. The expansion sides are beyond their formative years, Richmond & Carlton are better than their ladder positions suggest and us & Melbourne are on the way up.

The Brisbane loss wasn't the disaster that everyone thought it was, even though they lost to GWS this week

[bornadog]

A week certainly does make a difference, even on WOOF

[jeemak]

It's amazing what some quick ball movement can do.

I don't think we're any better than what we were a few weeks ago. I still don't think we're anywhere near where we want to be in terms of being able to move the ball forward with system on a consistent basis, but what I was really pleased with was the intent shown by our players to work hard at pressuring the opposition, and making the most of our clearance capacity with hard running away from the contest to make space.

Yes, the win was excellent, and yes I am extremely happy with the way we played. Four quarters of effort can bring out team some good results in the second half of this season even if we are a work in progress in many areas across the ground.

What I want to see in the second half of this year is the same intent and will to win that was on display yesterday. If we can do that, we'll account for ourselves very well.

Good point on the evenness of the competition gogriff.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Things are never as bad as they seem, and things are never as good as they seem.

Worth remembering as we rebuild our once great team

We've got to find some more players but the weekend featured good displays from both teams playing far more purposefully

[lemmon]

It's a very even competition. No-one's really at the bottom of a rebuild this year, I wouldn't be surprised if 6 wins got you the spoon. Brisbane & St Kilda will finish bottom 4 but in other years sides of their calibre would be above that. The expansion sides are beyond their formative years, Richmond & Carlton are better than their ladder positions suggest and us & Melbourne are on the way up.

The Brisbane loss wasn't the disaster that everyone thought it was, even though they lost to GWS this week
It's a very good point and is reflected at the top of the ladder as well. Any of the top 6 could beat each other on any given day, even Gold Coast has scalps at home. I genuinely think whichever of the very good sides that fall to 5 and 6 could still give the flag a shake, it won't be a fight among the top four this year.

[1eyedog]

It's a very even competition. No-one's really at the bottom of a rebuild this year, I wouldn't be surprised if 6 wins got you the spoon. Brisbane & St Kilda will finish bottom 4 but in other years sides of their calibre would be above that. The expansion sides are beyond their formative years, Richmond & Carlton are better than their ladder positions suggest and us & Melbourne are on the way up.

The Brisbane loss wasn't the disaster that everyone thought it was, even though they lost to GWS this week

St. Kilda are a basket case. A percentage of 58 is a key indicator of this. They are getting absolutely hammered and will continue to do so for the remainder of the year.

[Remi Moses]

St. Kilda are a basket case. A percentage of 58 is a key indicator of this. They are getting absolutely hammered and will continue to do so for the remainder of the year.

There getting some grace with the new coach and the rebuild.
It's alarming that their best players are still Riewoldt and Hayes.The Tom Lee subbing during the second term was interesting, as he looked even a million miles away at VFL level a few weeks ago.They've got a mantra that they are going to have 3 picks in the first 20 for the next two years.
Can't see who they're going to trade now to get another first rounder.

[boydogs]

St. Kilda are a basket case. A percentage of 58 is a key indicator of this. They are getting absolutely hammered and will continue to do so for the remainder of the year.

They still have the Hayes, Riewoldt, Montagna generation there keeping them in most games and winning them a few. They will be worse next year than they are now, a very deep rebuild ahead

[w3design]

2 games to watch on repeat actually. 1 on iview for vfl and the othe on AFL.

[always right]

It's a very even competition. No-one's really at the bottom of a rebuild this year, I wouldn't be surprised if 6 wins got you the spoon. Brisbane & St Kilda will finish bottom 4 but in other years sides of their calibre would be above that. The expansion sides are beyond their formative years, Richmond & Carlton are better than their ladder positions suggest and us & Melbourne are on the way up.

The Brisbane loss wasn't the disaster that everyone thought it was, even though they lost to GWS this week

Whilst we all feel wonderful about our performance on Sunday, we should never accept performances like the Brisbane one. It was putrid.

[boydogs]

Whilst we all feel wonderful about our performance on Sunday, we should never accept performances like the Brisbane one. It was putrid.

Take out the 2nd quarter and we won the game by 25 points. Our biggest win for the year is 27. Brisbane beat Carlton the week before and played well against us

[Dancin' Douggy]

Whilst we all feel wonderful about our performance on Sunday, we should never accept performances like the Brisbane one. It was putrid.

Correct. But that was LAST week.
I'm enjoying THIS week.
Then, of course there's NEXT week.................
So consider it a little holiday.
Then back to the grindstone next week.

[LostDoggy]

It took a shocking loss to Melbourne last year to kick start our season. Maybe last week was the equivilent!

[LostDoggy]

Take out the 2nd quarter and we won the game by 25 points. Our biggest win for the year is 27. Brisbane beat Carlton the week before and played well against us

Can you write to the AFL and ask them for three points then GG? ;-)

[boydogs]

Can you write to the AFL and ask them for three points then GG? ;-)

Indoor cricket actually works by that system. I quite like it as it gives teams something more than percentage to play for when the game is over early. 1 point for winning each quarter and 3 for winning the game

[Greystache]

Indoor cricket actually works by that system. I quite like it as it gives teams something more than percentage to play for when the game is over early. 1 point for winning each quarter and 3 for winning the game

Sounds like cricket in England. You don't play for wins necessarily but for batting and bowling points. A team can bat for 90 of the 100 allocated overs in a one day game, be 0/100 and declare leaving the other team with 7 overs to face and be rewarded for it. Doesn't make for a good spectacle, and is painful to play when the opposing captain is ultra conservative. I'll take win or loss at the end of a game every day of the week.

[Twodogs]

There getting some grace with the new coach and the rebuild.
It's alarming that their best players are still Riewoldt and Hayes.The Tom Lee subbing during the second term was interesting, as he looked even a million miles away at VFL level a few weeks ago.They've got a mantra that they are going to have 3 picks in the first 20 for the next two years.
Can't see who they're going to trade now to get another first rounder.

Have they still got compo picks for Goddard and umm somebody else up their sleeve maybe?

[boydogs]

Sounds like cricket in England. You don't play for wins necessarily but for batting and bowling points. A team can bat for 90 of the 100 allocated overs in a one day game, be 0/100 and declare leaving the other team with 7 overs to face and be rewarded for it. Doesn't make for a good spectacle, and is painful to play when the opposing captain is ultra conservative. I'll take win or loss at the end of a game every day of the week.

Indoor cricket is 4 x 4 over partnerships, if you get out you lose 5 runs but keep batting. That makes it comparable to quarters in footy

[BornInDroopSt'54]

I just got a DVD in the mail from an old mate I see about twice a year. He's a rabid Collingwood supporter who lives in Bairnsdale now and the DVD is of the game on Sunday. Class act.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

It's amazing what some quick ball movement can do.

I don't think we're any better than what we were a few weeks ago. I still don't think we're anywhere near where we want to be in terms of being able to move the ball forward with system on a consistent basis, but what I was really pleased with was the intent shown by our players to work hard at pressuring the opposition, and making the most of our clearance capacity with hard running away from the contest to make space.

Yes, the win was excellent, and yes I am extremely happy with the way we played. Four quarters of effort can bring out team some good results in the second half of this season even if we are a work in progress in many areas across the ground.

What I want to see in the second half of this year is the same intent and will to win that was on display yesterday. If we can do that, we'll account for ourselves very well.

Good point on the evenness of the competition gogriff.

I was fascinated by the fast ball movement. It was like just move the ball forward to save your life and it worked because we did it as a team. It was like that Barrassi inspired Carlton (I need to brush my teeth now) grand final when they won by handballing at all costs, a discovery on the spot of a new system. I hope we develop it. Maybe the Socceroos will use it tonight to beat Holland.

[jeemak]

I was fascinated by the fast ball movement. It was like just move the ball forward to save your life and it worked because we did it as a team. It was like that Barrassi inspired Carlton (I need to brush my teeth now) grand final when they won by handballing at all costs, a discovery on the spot of a new system. I hope we develop it. Maybe the Socceroos will use it tonight to beat Holland.

Unfortunately I think the talent differential in the FIFA WC is a bit greater than the talent differential in the AFL between 6th and 15th, or whatever it was between ourselves and the Filth on Sunday.

Australia's going to go down 4-1 (OG) at best.

We saw ourselves easily account for a few sides at the end of last year because of our willingness to move the ball quickly. We kind of caught the competition by surprise in that area during that time. Most teams this year have done really well to slow us down and get involved in a slog, allowing their mature talent to beat us when we have had our inevitable lapses in concentration and effort.

Against Richmond we were easily able to get in front of them due to their lackadaisical defence like we did to teams last year, but once they switched on they were able to get into the game because of our drop in concentration in the second half. We were lucky they're in terrible form and allowed us to revert back to quick movement and win the game in the end.

The great thing about this week's game was our ability to ensure the effort was there, but also as you point out, make sure the next step was taken with players working for each other to provide options in a more team oriented and smarter way. If you look at the lead up to Tutt's sealer, he ran a good 70m to put himself in a dangerous position to receive the ball from Bonts, and he was probably knackered by that stage. The impressive thing about that run was his awareness to push forward to provide an option when quick ball movement wasn't required and a second option was. Where we have struggled this year is when the first quick option is not taken, and no players are able or willing to work to create the second and third options to keep things moving.

[always right]

Unfortunately I think the talent differential in the FIFA WC is a bit greater than the talent differential in the AFL between 6th and 15th, or whatever it was between ourselves and the Filth on Sunday.

Australia's going to go down 4-1 (OG) at best.


Stick to Aussie Rules:)

[jeemak]

Stick to Aussie Rules:)

Mate, I know nothing about Aussie Rules either.

What an effort from the Socceroos. Shame they couldn't ice it when they had a perfect chance to do so.