Our Last 4 Weeks - first halves

[bornadog]

In the last four weeks we have kicked very few goals to half time:

Saints: 3.4

Blues: 4.4

Gold Coast: 3.3

Cats 3.4

This is a worrying sign for us although we have come back into the game in the second half and we got away with 3 wins out of 4 and could easily have been 4 out of 4.

Better teams will annihilate us.

What has gone wrong compared to earlier in the season?

[Sedat]

In the last four weeks we have kicked very few goals to half time:

Saints: 3.4

Blues: 4.4

Gold Coast: 3.3

Cats 3.4

This is a worrying sign for us although we have come back into the game in the second half and we got away with 3 wins out of 4 and could easily have been 4 out of 4.

Better teams will annihilate us.

What has gone wrong compared to earlier in the season?
We're not the lone ranger there - quite a few teams are racking up pitiful half-time scores. When teams continue to play boring, defensive football that results in stoppage after stoppage, goals aren't exactly going to flow freely.

We're young and still prone to lapses in skill execution and decision-making. Factor in the opposition structuring up to deny us our run from half-back and you have a recipe for low scores, especially early in matches when the opposition is at their fittest.

[Ozza]

We're not the lone ranger there - quite a few teams are racking up pitiful half-time scores. When teams continue to play boring, defensive football that results in stoppage after stoppage, goals aren't exactly going to flow freely.

We're young and still prone to lapses in skill execution and decision-making. Factor in the opposition structuring up to deny us our run from half-back and you have a recipe for low scores, especially early in matches when the opposition is at their fittest.

I think that is a very important point. We got under the guard of some teams earlier in the season, but now that they've had a good luck at us - oppositions are able to implement plans to stop us playing our style quite so much. I was thinking about this in the context of next season also. Most supporters will just expect that if we finish (say) 8th this season, that we should finish 6th or higher the following year. The reality is that we are still an inexperienced side, teams will combat our half back run and our forward press a lot better, and we will have to improve significantly to be able to improve our ladder position.

What IS encouraging, is that we have won 4 of 5 since the bye even though we haven't been playing as well as earlier in the year, and were far from disgraced in the loss on the weekend.

Will be good for us to get an 8 day break and get back under the roof for a few weeks.

[Cyberdoggie]

It is a worrying trend but it is not just us.

Seems to be a trend in most games where the scoring has just dried up.
Whether it is the increased pressure and presence around the ball that causes so many stoppages
or just the negativity imposed by this type of play that affects players minds when they finally get the ball moving, not sure probably both.

Hopefully clubs realize that it's not going to win you many games and only helps to lower your chances of being slaughtered.
That doesn't advance you as a club. Attacking football does.

Just see the showdown game in Adelaide, that's how football can be played.

[Twodogs]

Good thread.

It has been a problem for longer than the last month of football. Even our overall starting of games, let alone the first halves, has been pretty slack. Apart from one game that we slipped out of the barrier pretty well (Carlton?) we've been pretty slow to realise that a footy match has broken out around us.

Is it a mental thing or a experience thing or what?

[F'scary]

Our over using the handball through the middle hurts us. Some nice long kicks to position on the forward line would go some way to improving our scoring, provided we structure up to provide targets with support.

[bornadog]

Some stats from AFL.com.au

The Bulldogs have lost more quarters than they've won in 2015 (27 won, 32 lost), but their first quarters have really set the game up for them. Being the competition's fourth youngest side is probably a contributing factor to why they've struggled in final quarters, as young bodies tend to run out of steam. But in a quirk, the Dogs' barnstorming round 15 win over the Suns saw them kick the season's second biggest final quarter score.

First quarters
Won: 8
Score: 50.36 (336)
Differential: +66
AFL ranking: 4

Second quarters

Won: 6
Score: 38.42 (270)
Differential: -23
AFL ranking: 12

Third quarters
Won: 8
Score: 52.52 (364)
Differential: +71
AFL ranking: 5

Fourth quarters
Won: 9
Score: 47.34 (316)
Differential: -43
AFL ranking: 13

Scoreless quarters, 2015: None

Goalless quarters, 2015: One, last quarter v Hawthorn, round three

Best quarter, 2015: 10.2 (62), last quarter v Gold Coast, round 15

Best quarter since 2010: 10.3 (63), first quarter v Port Adelaide, round 22, 2011

Quirky stat

Jason Johannisen ranks 52nd in the competition for effective metres gained in first halves, but he ranks second in the competition across second halves behind Heath Shaw. - Ryan Davidson