Three things you've learned finals week three 2021 v Port Adelaide

[Twodogs]

OK. Give us three.

[bulldogtragic]

1. Best half of footy we might have ever played.

2. Imagine how well we could’ve done if SA Health let us train

3. Schache & Hannan announced themselves tonight. They are confidence players and gee, they can go into a Grand Final confident to play well again.

4. When Bailey Smith makes good decisions and executes them, he’s fun to watch. May the trend of 1, 3 & 4 Goals continue to grow each week.

[Mutz]

1. The strategy for the forwards was simply genius; spread the targets and trust the crumbers. Kudos to the coaches.

2. Hannan's confidence to take strong contested marks has soared; finally using his 190 cm frame.

3. Martin was absolutely crucial to our dominance; not only did he neutralise Lycett but he gave us the opportunity to win at ball-ups. Any clearance from them came off a lucky bobble.

[whythelongface]

1. Bevo is a genius. Serious genius.

2. Our midfield when on rocks. Great move having Martin in the team. Clearly allowed us to gain the upper hand.

3. Macrae is the best player in the game. Just unbelievable.

[westdog54]

1. There's some justice in football after all. The two best teams for the year by a mile are playing in the Grand final.
2. Bailey Smith is an insanely good footballer. He's skillful, he's fast, he's smart and his work rate is phenomenal.
3. Bevo's faith in his players is his greatest strength, and that faith was repaid tonight by the likes of Hannan, Roarke Smith, Treloar, Schache and Cordy.

[Testekill]

1. Bailey Smith is a player that can dominate in the big games.

2. Hannan looks like he belongs out there and his forward pressure was very good.

3. Schache was instrumental to negating Aliir, you gotta force interceptors to defend their direct man to blunt their impact. I hope that Schache gets the gig on Lever next week

[westbulldog]

1. This team, this Club is unstoppable whatever ridiculous hurdles are placed in our way.
2. The idiots in the SA Health actually galvanized us by taking no notice of negative tests conducted in WA 24 hours earlier, and denied us having a light run at Adelaide Oval on Friday evening.
3. The trains out of pleurisy park were packed before the start of the last quarter.........

[Twodogs]

1. We got our training run at Adelaide Oval after all.
2. That makes it clean sweep for Bevo. He's coached final wins in every state.
3. This group is mentally stronger than any other group of players I've seen from any club.

[angelopetraglia]

1. This footy team has enormous spirit
2. The resurrection of Shaq is almost complete. Just needs a big game in the GF.
3. Bevo is a genius

[macca]

1. Martin is so important for us. His listed as 198cm and 99 kg, but he plays taller and matches with other big men in the comp. His unbelievable strong and knows how to holds his ground. Umpiring was rubbish tonight penalizing him for holding when Ports ruck were doing the same

2. This team is resilient and has immense self belief to play exciting brand of footy. Everyone wants to be in the team for the GF.
Great to see Hannan, Schache, Roarke , Gardner and Scott on the ground tonight and having an influence.
Just play out of your skins next game boyz, only 1 game to go.

3. If there is an escape room to get footy out, Libba would have to be one of the best snap shot goals in small spaces. His goal was brilliant tonight.

[hujsh]

1. Martin is so important for us. His listed as 198cm and 99 kg, but he plays taller and matches with other big men in the comp. His unbelievable strong and knows how to holds his ground. Umpiring was rubbish tonight penalizing him for holding when Ports ruck were doing the same

2. This team is resilient and has immense self belief to play exciting brand of footy. Everyone wants to be in the team for the GF.
Great to see Hannan, Schache, Roarke , Gardner and Scott on the ground tonight and having an influence.
Just play out of your skins next game boyz, only 1 game to go.

3. If there is an escape room to get footy out, Libba would have to be one of the best snap shot goals in small spaces. His goal was brilliant tonight.

How about that tight pass to Treloar for the running goal? Or the pin point drop into Shaq's lap?

Oh while I'm at it it was good to see Shaq take a couple of marks running back with the flight of the ball after he copped a lot of heat for dropping one last week?

[Vred]

1. The quick tap, pass, block, shepherd, handball game from the start of the season is back, and everybody has bought in. Great to see the team REALLY geling as one

2. Bailey Smith, need I say more?

3. Hannan and Schache really showing that they deserve premiership medals around their necks.

[jeemak]

1. An understated projection of the future, that is considered and based on evidence about your playing list is the right way to go, versus telling the world you expect to win the premiership. How's the latter course of action going for you now Ken, mate?

2. One third of the ground is irrelevant if we get the other two nailed. Our defence will always battle manfully, but if we win the middle, the contest and move the ball forward with consideration we take the pressure of our back six. Our back six has good players but it isn't star studded. Win the forward battle, suck the ball forward by considered movement around the middle of the ground and we're fine

3. Our forward mix is the most dangerous in the competition. It's genuine nightmare stuff for Melbourne. We have Naughton, Shcache, English (who battled but didn't actually do anything!!!!!), Weightman and the lowly Hannan. Melbourne are so *!*!*!*!ed next week it's not funny.

[SonofScray]

1. Harambe cannot be reanimated. I thought for a brief moment this week the another Prelim would be a test of the hypothesis that since 2016, Prelim heartache, in the Doggiest of forms might slide back on like a pair of old trackies. But that monkey is well and truly dead.

2. On an upside down world, we gave the most upside down, dominating performance. The game was won by our bottom five players. I think that might end up the magic of the story here.

3. Our best > your best, confirmed.

[AshMac]

1. Not even the SA government could stop our run!
2. A ruck is our #1 trade target - Martin changed our entire dynamic
3. We deserve this! The two best teams of the year will showdown

[Ghost Dog]

1. Tim English is going to be the player we imagined him to be. No longer a diamond in the rough. A diamond.
2. Bailey Smith is the new Brad Johnson.
3. Following a small club can be like buying shares in a company. It was pay day for the patient investors, more patient than me, who have been following this club since their childhood. When, it would have been really easy to choose another club. Reward for faith.

[Go_Dogs]

1. Amazing how quickly the media narrative has returned to us being one of the two best teams all year. It’s true. Just shows how fickle things get, and how quickly people can jump off. Persistence and faith being rewarded now.

2. Our forwards and forward coach, execute a plan last night that was exceptional. We created space, one v ones, lead, blocked, crumbed, ran forward with confidence and most importantly we kicked straight when the game was on the line (which with hindsight was the first 10 minutes only, not that i started to Feel comfortable until Q4).

3. While Martin was quiet, and not as effective as he’s been, he nullified and made our boys walk taller around the clearance and contest. Next week will be harder as Gawn will make him work back and defend the aerial ball. But his experience and confidence he gives us critical.

[Ghost Dog]

1. Amazing how quickly the media narrative has returned to us being one of the two best teams all year. It’s true. Just shows how fickle things get, and how quickly people can jump off. Persistence and faith being rewarded now.

2. Our forwards and forward coach, execute a plan last night that was exceptional. We created space, one v ones, lead, blocked, crumbed, ran forward with confidence and most importantly we kicked straight when the game was on the line.

3. While Martin was quiet, and not as effective as he’s been, he nullified and made our boys walk taller around the clearance and contest. Next week will be harder as Gawn will make him work back and defend the aerial ball. But his experience and confidence he gives us critical.

Good point.
Port missed some straight forward set shots.

[azabob]

1. Last night is was quite evident we have slightly shifted our kick to handball ratio which allowed us to get the ball in quickly to our forward line, have repeat entries and we also chose to just keep pushing the ball forward rather than take the extra handball backwards which invites the oppositions pressure.

2. Bontempelli will go down as not only our greatest player, but potentially our greatest captain.

He played one of the all time low key games since the 2016 GF. Not sure he will feature in the votes here or in the media but his game last night appeared so clean and damaging especially considering he looked odds on not to play.
20 touches, 2 goals, 446 meters gained, 10 inside 50's, disposal efficiency at 80% and only 73% game time.

3. Aaron Naughton is better without Josh Bruce in team.

[ratsmac]

1. The Dogs can absolutely win the flag this year

2. Our relentless pressure around the ball is back baby. No coincidence that big Stef was back making sure the ball either dropped in close or never got ripped out the ruck and booted away.

3. Melbourne thought they served an ace but the mighty bulldogs just returned serve! Game on toffs

[DOG GOD]

1. We won convincingly without Bont being dynamic. He will be 100% in 2 weeks.
2. The #1 ruck spot is our most important position. Martin made our midfield stand tall and deliver.
3. Bailey Smith could win the Norm Smith

[Mofra]

1. With 92 wins and 2 GFs, Bevo is now officially our greatest ever coach

2. We can carry a 70% TOG Stef Martin due to our running power

3. October 2014 is barely a distant memory anymore

[Mantis]

1. We won convincingly without Bont being dynamic. He will be 100% in 2 weeks.
2. The #1 ruck spot is our most important position. Martin made our midfield stand tall and deliver.
3. Bailey Smith could win the Norm Smith

20 touches, 2 goals and led them team in inside 50’s and clearances… all whilst having his feet up for the bulk of the last qtr.

He played a damn good game considering the injury cloud and the fact he’s been down on form.

[comrade]

1. Bazlenka served up some humble pie to the haters like me. Last night he played his role to perfection, just charging up and down as a high half forward. No centre bounce attendances at all which is the first time in at least 10 weeks, which also shows the importance of Dunks coming back. The midfield is humming now, great timing.

2. I asked myself who will be our 2021 prelim version of Clay Smith/Tory Dickson and it turned out to be Mitch Hannan. He was just insanely good last night, particularly when the whips were cracking in the first half and he was in everything. I'm excited to see what he can do on GF day against his old mob.

3. The ability for Martin to physically compete just shows how important a big bodied ruck is for our group. Not once did the oppo ruckman get a clean look at a clearance against him, no pulling it out of the air and driving it forward to put our defence under pressure. I hope he recovers really well over the next fortnight and has 80-100 minutes of footy left in him.

[dog town]

20 touches, 2 goals and led them team in inside 50’s and clearances… all whilst having his feet up for the bulk of the last qtr.

He played a damn good game considering the injury cloud and the fact he’s been down on form. If he plays the last qtr you assume he ends up with 24-27 and might have even cashed in on scoreboard. Excited to see what he can do on the big stage with a two week rest.

[bornadog]

1. Who would ever have thought Schache, Roarke, Gardner would be so important and get us into a GF

2. I was wrong about Hannan, I thought he was a good player, but questioned why we needed to recruit him. He is a very good medium sized forward.

3. I have never wavered from backing Bevo, and he has proven what a great coach he is

[Dry Rot]

1. Hannan CAN play

2. Our bottom six again played well

3. Smith is turning into one of those explosive, highly dangerous, goal kicking mids