What was the biggest surprise to you in Round 1?

[mjp]

Didn't play well, lost by a few goals, Bevo clearly distracted and feeling 'pressure'...Williams appeared to have forgotten he was playing a team sport, we saw the worst of the Shack, Libba appears gone, Bont was, well...

What was the biggest surprise to you in Round 1?

[Mantis]

Cordy playing as a key forward... like what we were expecting would happen?

[mjp]

Cordy playing as a key forward... like what we were expecting would happen?

See - I didn't include that as I can't imagine this surprised anyone??

[mjp]

Cordy playing as a key forward... like what we were expecting would happen?

By the way - you know you responded before I even finished the poll? That's pretty good!

[Mofra]

Libba appears to be hitting the cliff, I didn't expect it. Schache had a shocker. Williams using his pace & agility to run into Pickett was poor.
Shooting Bambi's mother moment, but I though Keath was poor early too until he remembered he was Alex Keath and started playing like Alex Keath.

TBH I thought the most surprising things were Marra being selected as the sub, and the complete avoidance of any semblance of a tag on Petracca.
Letting a guy who went 39 & 2 in the GF go 38 & 2 the immediate game after was.... odd.

[Mantis]

See - I didn't include that as I can't imagine this surprised anyone??

Given how badly he performed in that role in our practice game against the Lions I couldn't see how they would try the move again... I guess forced into it due to a lack of viable options.


By the way - you know you responded before I even finished the poll? That's pretty good!

Yep... there was no poll up when I hit 'post'

[Grantysghost]

I went with Bont.

As the captain after a GF loss there's been a lot of talk all pre-season and I expected him to come out breathing fire and hit the first contest like a mad man.

But he really didn't inspire at all. That first quarter we could've easily been 7 or 8 down without reply.

Special mention to Bevo.

.

[bornadog]

Didn't play well, lost by a few goals, Bevo clearly distracted and feeling 'pressure'...Williams appeared to have forgotten he was playing a team sport, we saw the worst of the Shack, Libba appears gone, Bont was, well...

What was the biggest surprise to you in Round 1?

Bont was injured and was hobbling around, must have received a knock of some sort, so you can't really say he looked disinterested. Not sure why he went back out, but I guess 60% Bont is better than 100% of some players.

My biggest disappointment was the turnovers, just giving the ball back so easily.

[The bulldog tragician]

Can I vote all of the above except the result?

A lot of players looked unfit / underdone. I’m hoping we have another level once they run into fitness but Melbourne are clearly a superior team to us at present.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

For me it was the lack of passion and physical presence, especially early.

After all the talk, I expected some heat.

[Vred]

All of the above

[soupman]

Tbh half the above are hardly surprising for us.

Beveridge has always been terrible with how he handles any criticism from the media, this was surprising in how far he went but not unexpected at some point.

Schache is always just biding his time until he pulls out one of these games.

Forward half cohesion is not something we have half the time anyway.

Libba often does look old when he is asked to play as a link up forward.

And Bont can often go missing early in games before he turns it on and blows it apart at some point (which the ankle held him back from).

Williams though is one I am astounded by. His reputation has completely fallen in my eyes, from composed and cool to being terrible under pressure in two games. His Grand Final was arguably the most disappointing performance of anyone on the field, and he made zero progress in restoring the faith last night.

My nominations for other surprises are:

English actually held his own and was solid in the ruck. Big game against a very good performance and thought he should be very happy with how he went.

Weightman is offering nothing to the team atm, and hasn't contributed anything to the sides performance since pre-finals aside from free kicks. I get small forward is tough, and obviously he has "earnt" enough frees to have an impact at stages, but his complete inability to win the footy anywhere through any other means is concerning from a player who should be one of our most dangerous forwards.

[mjp]

Weightman is offering nothing to the team atm

Is this REALLY surprising?

He is an interesting player. I'm still not sure his skillset is best suited to being a 'small' forward...yet when he is battling (like yesterday) he seems welded to the F50 and - well, I'm not sure what he's supposed to do??

Even when he kicked 4 vs Essendon, he didn't really WIN a lot of the footy...

[GVGjr]

For me it was the lack of passion and physical presence, especially early.

After all the talk, I expected some heat.

Remember how we capitulated in a final against GWS where they went strong at us from a physical sense.
Over the pre-season the club talked about it being a motivator for the next season.
Game one of the next season we failed to answer the challenge.

The upshot is that what we perceive as motivation doesn't always guarantee the switch will be flipped.
It must be a huge challenge for the coaching team.

[Mofra]

Can I add one more? Our use of Hunter.

MCG - big ground, lots of space.
Melbourne - use Ed Langdon, arguably the best runner in the AFL.
Hunter - our best runner who seemed to be on the opposite wing to Langdon all night. Roarke seemed to be running with (behind) Langdon a fair chunk of the night

Surely - surely - you give the guy who's not in is best form (Hunter) a simple task that plays to his no 1 strength? Run with Langdon?

[bornadog]

Can I add one more? Our use of Hunter.

MCG - big ground, lots of space.
Melbourne - use Ed Langdon, arguably the best runner in the AFL.
Hunter - our best runner who seemed to be on the opposite wing to Langdon all night. Roarke seemed to be running with (behind) Langdon a fair chunk of the night

Surely - surely - you give the guy who's not in is best form (Hunter) a simple task that plays to his no 1 strength? Run with Langdon?

That was a bad coaching error. Smith wasn't up to it

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Remember how we capitulated in a final against GWS where they went strong at us from a physical sense.
Over the pre-season the club talked about it being a motivator for the next season.
Game one of the next season we failed to answer the challenge.

The upshot is that what we perceive as motivation doesn't always guarantee the switch will be flipped.
It must be a huge challenge for the coaching team.

I haven't been overly dialled into footy since last year for a number of reasons, but I mean, that was a real surprise. After everything that happened, I didn't even see a push and shove.... it was bizarre.

The majority of our players looked spooked and quickly went into their shells.

It's a real problem that I didn't anticipate because I thought we had evolved from that GWS final, but evidently not. For mine, last night wasn't so much about winning/losing - of course we WANT to win - but our response to the GF in a physical sense WAS important ... and we looked meek.

[Grantysghost]

Can I add one more? Our use of Hunter.

MCG - big ground, lots of space.
Melbourne - use Ed Langdon, arguably the best runner in the AFL.
Hunter - our best runner who seemed to be on the opposite wing to Langdon all night. Roarke seemed to be running with (behind) Langdon a fair chunk of the night

Surely - surely - you give the guy who's not in is best form (Hunter) a simple task that plays to his no 1 strength? Run with Langdon?

Great call; Langdon was instrumental especially early.

What a pick up he's been, another one of Ross Lyon's casualties at Freo.

[Mantis]

Can I add one more? Our use of Hunter.

MCG - big ground, lots of space.
Melbourne - use Ed Langdon, arguably the best runner in the AFL.
Hunter - our best runner who seemed to be on the opposite wing to Langdon all night. Roarke seemed to be running with (behind) Langdon a fair chunk of the night

Surely - surely - you give the guy who's not in is best form (Hunter) a simple task that plays to his no 1 strength? Run with Langdon?

Hunter was in the forward line for large chunks of the night... which was the case for much of 2021.

If he doesn't play on the wing he probably doesn't play given his skill-set.

[Go_Dogs]

I went overall result.

Bont was a bit sore and still had Bont moments.
Schache did what he does.
Williams had some moments, but I am beginning to wonder if he belongs further up the field.
Forward cohesion also predictable.
Libba - we have many mouths to feed and he looked flat. Not writing him off. Silly.


We should’ve won, we had them on the ropes again.

[Go_Dogs]

Hunter was in the forward line for large chunks of the night... which was the case for much of 2021.

If he doesn't play on the wing he probably doesn't play given his skill-set.

Yep. Wing or nothing.

[Mofra]

Hunter was in the forward line for large chunks of the night... which was the case for much of 2021.

If he doesn't play on the wing he probably doesn't play given his skill-set.
I'm a big fan of playing players to their strengths.
I don't think Hunter in the F50 is doing that at all.

[bornadog]

I went overall result.

Bont was a bit sore and still had Bont moments.
Schache did what he does.
Williams had some moments, but I am beginning to wonder if he belongs further up the field.
Forward cohesion also predictable.
Libba - we have many mouths to feed and he looked flat. Not writing him off. Silly.


We should’ve won, we had them on the ropes again.

I went overall result as well.

I mentioned the turnovers, and that also restricted our own goal scoring. 3 goals in 2 1/2 quarters just wasn't good enough.

The good signs were we had more disposals, more clearances ( especially centre), but just didn't use the ball well.

We really missed Bruce's marking up forward.

[SonofScray]

I sat on the fence for the first time in years near the race and actually made the comment about Libba looking old. Every bit the veteran. Bit worried about him on that performance but he has enough credits in the bank, wonder what the pathway is for him to have more influence though?

That was the most stark thing I observed.

The other was an interaction between Hunter and Tim Watson when asked if he was playing or not. Was low key hostile, sort of funny buggers in his response. Given how the press conference went, seems like there was a bit happening behind the scenes in the lead up.

JJ looked very distraught coming off during the warm up, surprised me how emotional he was.

[Danjul]

I went overall result as well.

I mentioned the turnovers, and that also restricted our own goal scoring. 3 goals in 2 1/2 quarters just wasn't good enough.

The good signs were we had more disposals, more clearances ( especially centre), but just didn't use the ball well.

We really missed Bruce's marking up forward.

Could not agree more about the turnovers. They destroyed any chance of a win.

But why did so many of the players turn the ball over? That’s the most important part of the game’s analysis.

Three stand out in my memory.

1. a Dogs player near the wing and originally under no pressure kicks across his body to an opposition player 20 m away who sent the ball deep inside their forward zone. (1 goal extra for them). The Bulldog player had a team mate 35 m up the field and in the clear at the time but never looked in his direction.

2. One of our players takes a good mark and instead of kicking an easy goal attempts An immediate hand pass and turns the ball over (1 goal off for us). Actually did this more than once.

3. One of the Dogs gets the ball wide on the 50 m arc. Hand passes sideways (fair enough) to someone who handpasses sideways etc. After 5? handpasses the ball is turned over and Melbourne runs it down the middle of the ground. (1 goal off for us). Nobody had any thought of taking responsibility and kicking a score.

In all three cases (and many other times) the dog’s only thought is to move the ball a minimal distance, preferably by hand. I want to see a lot of greed in future. “Stuff the others, l’m going to win this game “ is the attitude that will improve this team by 25%

[comrade]

The only surprising option is Bont appearing disinterested. None of the other options surprise me in the slightest.

[The bulldog tragician]

Could not agree more about the turnovers. They destroyed any chance of a win.

But why did so many of the players turn the ball over? That’s the most important part of the game’s analysis.

Three stand out in my memory.

1. a Dogs player near the wing and originally under no pressure kicks across his body to an opposition player 20 m away who sent the ball deep inside their forward zone. (1 goal extra for them). The Bulldog player had a team mate 35 m up the field and in the clear at the time but never looked in his direction.

2. One of our players takes a good mark and instead of kicking an easy goal attempts An immediate hand pass and turns the ball over (1 goal off for us). Actually did this more than once.

3. One of the Dogs gets the ball wide on the 50 m arc. Hand passes sideways (fair enough) to someone who handpasses sideways etc. After 5? handpasses the ball is turned over and Melbourne runs it down the middle of the ground. (1 goal off for us). Nobody had any thought of taking responsibility and kicking a score.

In all three cases (and many other times) the dog’s only thought is to move the ball a minimal distance, preferably by hand. I want to see a lot of greed in future. “Stuff the others, l’m going to win this game “ is the attitude that will improve this team by 25%
That one was excruciating especially if my memory is correct and two of the players involved were Crozier and Ed, both of whom are well capable of kicking on the run from 50.

I wish we were only debating these things instead of waiting apprehensively for what comes next after the Bevo explosion.

[bornadog]

The only surprising option is Bont appearing disinterested. None of the other options surprise me in the slightest.

He had an ankle injury

[Grantysghost]

He had an ankle injury

It happened during the game though - I thought he started flat.

He wasn't on his Pat Malone but he's the guy I expected to lead the way like he has so often.

[bornadog]

It happened during the game though - I thought he started flat.

He wasn't on his Pat Malone but he's the guy I expected to lead the way like he has so often.

Saying he was disinterested is just plain wrong. Some of the tackles he put on - (Salem found out) were superb. He ran from one end to the other taking marks in the backline. He was good in the second quarter and instrumental in the 6 goals we kicked.

The first 15 minutes, Melbourne came out as premiers and very few teams could have stopped that.

He had the ankle issue in the 3rd and that is when we didn't kick a goal.

[Grantysghost]

Saying he was disinterested is just plain wrong. Some of the tackles he put on - (Salem found out) were superb. He ran from one end to the other taking marks in the backline. He was good in the second quarter and instrumental in the 6 goals we kicked.

The first 15 minutes, Melbourne came out as premiers and very few teams could have stopped that.

He had the ankle issue in the 3rd and that is when we didn't kick a goal.

I don't think he was disinterested but was disappointed with his start so went with that.

[EasternWest]

I thought Bont was ok. Not great, but certainly didn't think he was the problem.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Saying he was disinterested is just plain wrong. Some of the tackles he put on - (Salem found out) were superb. He ran from one end to the other taking marks in the backline. He was good in the second quarter and instrumental in the 6 goals we kicked.

The first 15 minutes, Melbourne came out as premiers and very few teams could have stopped that.

He had the ankle issue in the 3rd and that is when we didn't kick a goal.

Yeah saying Bont was disinterested is a bit of a weird comment.

He was average and his ball handling was poor even before his injury, but he was still putting in effort.

[comrade]

I took the Bont option in the vein of ‘Bont wasn’t great’ which is the only surprise out of the available options so therefore I chose that one. Everything else was pretty much expected (including Bevo flying off the handle in a presser).

[Happy Days]

As someone born on the exact same day as Libba I personally thought he looked cool and hot and young.

Seriously though - we aren’t calling him finished after one game are we? When he’s allegedly coming off the COVIDs and was not put in any position to play to his strengths?

My biggest surprise was the lack of composure from the back 6. Keath in particular seemed like he was determined to kick the ball onto the roof.

[comrade]

As someone born on the exact same day as Libba I personally thought he looked cool and hot and young.

Seriously though - we aren’t calling him finished after one game are we? When he’s allegedly coming off the COVIDs and was not put in any position to play to his strengths?

My biggest surprise was the lack of composure from the back 6. Keath in particular seemed like he was determined to kick the ball onto the roof.

Libba has many more credits in the bank, but you have to feel for guy. He got shoehorned into a forward pocket more often than not due to being one of 17 mids selected.

He needs to play in the guts.

[EasternWest]

As someone born on the exact same day as Libba I personally thought he looked cool and hot and young.

Seriously though - we aren’t calling him finished after one game are we? When he’s allegedly coming off the COVIDs and was not put in any position to play to his strengths?

My biggest surprise was the lack of composure from the back 6. Keath in particular seemed like he was determined to kick the ball onto the roof.

The issue for me was he looked like he was running on ice and turning like the titanic.

I'm not writing him off - he's earnt the right to prove it was a one off, and maybe he's still not 100% over covid, but he didn't look great at all.

[bornadog]

The issue for me was he looked like he was running on ice and turning like the titanic.

I'm not writing him off - he's earnt the right to prove it was a one off, and maybe he's still not 100% over covid, but he didn't look great at all.

To be honest, I was surprised he played this week.

[DOG GOD]

Libba for mine. Geez. He’s hit a wall.

[mjp]

Yeah saying Bont was disinterested is a bit of a weird comment.



I thought he LOOKED disinterested.

I have no idea if he was disinterested or not...I saw no fire or drive and I wanted more...This is the first q I am talking about when it was 4 goals to zero.

Take that out and we win (despite all the other crap that happened later...

The fact that he was good when we were good...great. We need him to be great when we are POOR...

[GVGjr]

I see the forward line got a mention. Has the new coach had enough time to restructure it?
Missing JJ might not have helped as as much as we love the spirit VDM brings he looked a mile off what we actually need.

[Testekill]

I went with Williams, he's usually a pretty good user of the football but he was just abysmal.

[FrediKanoute]

What is interesting is that the choice that is leading the poll so far is the event that happened after then game not the events during the game itself. Suggests to me we all saw most of this coming. Personally I haven't seen yet how we are going to cover Bruce. Solve that riddle and I think a lot of other things will fall into shape.

[Grantysghost]

I thought he LOOKED disinterested.

I have no idea if he was disinterested or not...I saw no fire or drive and I wanted more...This is the first q I am talking about when it was 4 goals to zero.

Take that out and we win (despite all the other crap that happened later...

The fact that he was good when we were good...great. We need him to be great when we are POOR...

Nodding so hard my neck is hurting. Petracca has gapped him the last two games. (splitting champs)

[Mantis]

I see the forward line got a mention. Has the new coach had enough time to restructure it?
Missing JJ might not have helped as as much as we love the spirit VDM brings he looked a mile off what we actually need.

The major change in terms of personnel was bringing in Cordy as our 2nd tall forward to partner Naughts... If our new line coach has spent all pre-season working on Zaine to be a potential answer to our issues up forward, then our line coaches tenure might be short-lived.

[Mantis]

Nodding so hard my neck is hurting. Petracca has gapped him the last two games. (splitting champs)

Bont was comfortably BOG in the GF 1/2 way through the 3rd qtr... went for a spell on the bench and the game flipped on it's head by the time he returned.

[Jam Donuts]

It happened during the game though - I thought he started flat.

He wasn't on his Pat Malone but he's the guy I expected to lead the way like he has so often.
His first 3 kicks were on his right foot, i mentioned to the boss that he has an injury.