Game Day - Bulldogs vs Saints

[GVGjr]

This is the discussion thread for todays game and it will be another good test for us.

Riewoldt is obviously the danger guy and I hope we can control him.

Akermanis to get the first goal (tempted to say Ward) and the Dogs by 24 points with Gilbee BOG.

[wimberga]

Dogs by 39

Welsh first Goal

Cooney BOG

[lowedog]

Heard a rumour yesterday, Riewoldt might be in some doubt. Only a rumour though.

[The Coon Dog]

Dogs by 49 points & first goal to Mitch Hahn.

[The Underdog]

Dogs by 20.
Minson first goal.
Cross BOG

[bornadog]

Aker 1st goal.

Griffen BOG

Dogs by 33 points

Must have a good start and big win.

[Max469]

Real test and they are not going to let us get away with this game too easily.

Dogs by 13 points

Big Will - 1st goal

Aker - BOG

[Go_Dogs]

Dogs by 40+ for mine today (hoping we play really well).

Ray for the first, Griffen BOG.

Luckily Port have a twilight game, so the Dogs are on TV down here.

[1eyedog]

Oh boy dogs by up to 10 goals, probably 42 points I'd say but possibly a lot more. Adam Cooney will be B.O.G and Hahn for the first goal.

[bulldog]

dogs by 10 points gonna be a close one
johnno first goal plus 5 4 the day
cooney/cross bog

[Mantis]

Dogs by 22pts, Will for the first.

Hoping we can get on top in the middle and use the ball well going forward.

Danger game if we allow players like Montagna, Dal Santo, S.Fisher and Goddard to run free.

[whythelongface]

Dogs by 79 points

Hahn will kick first goal.

Welsh, Johnno and Aker will each kick 4.

Gilbee BOG

[GVGjr]

After getting beaten in the first quarter (like last time) we were never seriously challenged at all after that. This has been a good win for us because the Saints had a fair bit of extra incentive and we answered the challenge easily.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

After getting beaten in the first quarter (like last time) we were never seriously challenged at all after that. This has been a good win for us because the Saints had a fair bit of extra incentive and we answered the challenge easily.

Agreed.

Ward looks a player, composed, good in the contest and consistently gets his hands free to handball away & good skills. He's going to be a player to watch over the next two years.

I was very, very pleased with Williams & Everitt. I thought they were absolutely fantastic and probably the best games they've played. Williams is really looking like a solid CHB capable of even swinging forward - he did well all day and if he can continue to play like that, it makes us a FAR better side. Everitt needs more fitness, he was buggered a couple of times, but he did well - took some good strong marks and made some great spoils. Made himself an option and was clean.

Really pleased with their efforts, whilst Gia was outstanding too. He kicked 3 but it was his hard running and contested style of play that was most impressive, he threw himself at everything and was inspirational. Aker was brilliant; what more can be said? 6.4 and was back to his Brownlow days, what a year he's having!

Boyd & Cross both played really well too, especially in the second half, and certainly made up for Cooney's & to a lesser extent Griffens lack of impact.

Last quarter a bit disappointing that they scored 6 goals, even if the game was over, but I think The Dogs did well today in pretty much every facet of the game. Answered the challenge, and easily, as Gary said.

[Topdog]

Good guess with the result GVGjr only 3 points off, although you have Eade to thank for that. Could have won by 60+ if we wanted to.

[GVGjr]

Good guess with the result GVGjr only 3 points off, although you have Eade to thank for that. Could have won by 60+ if we wanted to.

It seemed like we took the foot off the pedal but clearly we were at least a 50 point better side than them today. The times are a changin. :D

How good is it to bring in Ward and Everitt today and for them to perform well but to also have West due to come back soon, Murphy from suspension and having a host of players, especially Hill and Stack, performing well for Williamstown?

[GVGjr]

I was very, very pleased with Williams & Everitt. I thought they were absolutely fantastic and probably the best games they've played. Williams is really looking like a solid CHB capable of even swinging forward - he did well all day and if he can continue to play like that, it makes us a FAR better side. Everitt needs more fitness, he was buggered a couple of times, but he did well - took some good strong marks and made some great spoils. Made himself an option and was clean.

Really pleased with their efforts, whilst Gia was outstanding too. He kicked 3 but it was his hard running and contested style of play that was most impressive, he threw himself at everything and was inspirational. Aker was brilliant; what more can be said? 6.4 and was back to his Brownlow days, what a year he's having!


Having both Williams and Everitt gaining experience and game time is very important for us because it will allow players like Hargrave and Gilbee the opportunity to be get up the ground and drive the ball into the forward line more. I'm pretty sure Hargrave did a great long kick into the forward line in the first term that set up a goal for us.

Giansiracusa is possible having his best ever season for us and has become an impact player and difference Akermains has made has been enormous.

[LostDoggy]

I have to say I don't like this playing with our form stuff in the last quarter. In '97 we were trashing the Swans in the qualifying final and let them kick the last few goals of the game and win the last quarter. I'm sure we didn't think that much of it until two weeks later when the bad habit of letting teams kick five goals in the last ten minutes of the game came back and bit us HARD.

Having said that, it was a good win.

[hujsh]

Really liked Williams today, backed up his effort last week.

Everitt was ok as well.

Glad to just get the result

[LostDoggy]

27 points is a little bit dissapointing after the 2nd and 3rd quarter efforts.
But, we got the points i suppose!

[The Coon Dog]

27 points is a little bit dissapointing after the 2nd and 3rd quarter efforts.
But, we got the points i suppose!

I agree, but am happy enough with the result.

[LostDoggy]

Score really did flatter the saints should have kicked straighter but I am happy with another win in the bank.

[Rach]

A little disappointed with the last quarter and the Dogs kicking for goal. But overall, I am happy with the result. Will take that any day!

[bornadog]

A little disappointed with the last quarter and the Dogs kicking for goal. But overall, I am happy with the result. Will take that any day!


Will take NINE WINS, one Draw from 11:D:D, sorry can't stop smiling:)

[Rocket Science]

Really liked Williams today, backed up his effort last week.

Couldn't agree more, really pleasing to see Williams finding his feet in rapid fashion.

He made some ballsy contributions today, resolute when it counts and looking more confident with each possession and appeared keen to take the bit between the teeth during Lakey's brief absence. Absolutely love this bloke being a regular in the squad and we're a much more formidable outfit for it.

[1eyedog]

Can anyone see that Dylan Addison's disposal is going to maim one of our other players. How many times does the kid do halfway handballs as if he is in two minds all the time. Someone mentioned the other week that if Addison could kick he would be a gun. I must agree on this.

He gives his all no two ways about it but on two occasions he was under pressure and hand balled only halfway to his team mates and both times (Cross and I think Hahn) had to dive head first into the pack to win back a ball they should have never had to contest. I know that is the way Mitch and Crossy play but if it was any other bloke if they didn't have the same level of commitment and hesitated? St. Kilda would have won the ball from an Addison mistake and he would have had egg on his face.

If he keeps disposing like this he is going to seriously injure one of our guys, geez I nearly cringed a few times. I do like his endeavour, I must admit and this is not a personal attack. I thought he had a reasonable game, his first decision though probably needs to be the one he goes with. Just saw all the discussion about Addison's disposal on the other thread somewhere, so it was noticed today and not just me. Gee the kid has a go though, can't really fault him.

[NoseBleed]

Having been 47 points up at one stage, that could have been a better win, but really, it's like suggesting that a good night in bed could have been better.

The NoseBleed family were in unfamiliar territory having reserved seats. With 3 generations of family spanning 64 years, it's always hard getting a decent enclave of seats on Level 3 at away games, so this week we all lashed out and had 5th row Level 3's in section 39. Apparently we were "Way to loud" for the various Saints fans in front of us. 5 left at 3/4 time, and the rest of the 13 seats in front of us were empty well before the final siren. Imagine if all 20 of us had been there.

Great game by Aka, Cooney's on fire, huge effort from the backline, what crap from umpire S(c)H(m)IT and "The CombOver".

This 42 year old really really really enjoyed remembering Bernie Quinlans torp goal outa the center many moons ago when Guido threw a torpy onto his boot on the run from inside the centre square, one bounce , Goal.

Never gonna lose after that!

NoseBleed.

[dog town]

I was horrified with our start. It was such an important game for us with the run we have coming up and we were clearly not switched on. Little things can give it away early in a game and I saw plenty of things to suggest we were not all that sharp early. When you watch AFL footy now the players are so good and the tactics so important that you can sometimes forget that it is still a sport of desire and intent. If you dont want to be first to the ball or run hard to get to a contest then you wont. In the first quarter their was maybe a dozen times where you could just see our player think before he went in 100%. A few people didn't go back with the flight or didn't get in low and hard at ground level. In footy if you think then you are gone. The appetite for the contest has to be natural and thats where the desire comes in. In the first quarter we didn't have it which was dissapointing. The skill errors and fumbling also pointed to us being a little bit off our game.

I also thought the saints had been quite clever by flooding the midfield. Without Murphy and his lateral leads that made it hard to penetrate half forward particularly when the only time we could get our hands on the ball was from Stkilda turnovers in our defensive half. After quarter time we got a bit more honest and started to win some contested ball which sort of nullified that midfield congestion and once we broke them they were less disciplined. I thought Matty Boyd instigated the turnaround with the contested ball. He went in really hard early in the second and forced some very clean take aways. We started getting numbers around the ball and got some deeper forward 50 entries which brought Aker and Minson into the game. In the first quarter alot of our 50 entries were quite shallow. We got some better delivery to Hahn, Guido and Welsh across half forward as the game opened up in the last 3 quarters as well.

Another factor after quarter time was our backline which I thought did pretty well early as well. We were able to pressure the ball carrier enough that our defence could take alot of third man up marks . This generated alot of run and probably helped Gilbee get the better of Shane Birss. Lake was extremely good and will only benefit from having Tommy Williams in the side. The common sight yesterday was the bombed kick to a crowd of players and then Morris mauling Reiwoldt off the ball with Lake floating across to take an easy mark. Very Geelong like in alot of ways. Hargrave was a vote getter again in my eyes also.

I was pleased that we turned it around after quarter time. It is a good sign that we can do that but I am not sure what to make of our start.

Boyd- A real leader I think at the moment. Staggering improvement from the pudgy and slow rookie who couldn't pick the ball up below his knees. Now he is a ball carrier and in some ways a bit of a general out on the ground. He is very versatile as a midfielder and uses the ball very well. He signalled our intent in the second quarter IMO.

Aker- He can just get you in so many ways. Kicked genuine crumbing goals and then burnt his opponent on the lead. I am also enjoying his smart leading in terms of giving space to other people. Twice he lead up the ground to leave an open goal square and urged the player to kick over his head. Guido got a goal from it and Griffen should have. Leadership is a real bonus from him as well.

Cross- Consistent as ever. He is one guy who rarely has a bad start. He is always switched on and never goes in half hearted.

Lake- Such a good player when he has a bit of freedom to take marks and run. He made Kosi look silly yesterday at times. He could almost play short spurts on the ball at the moment the way he is moving. Would be a dangerous player around the ground. Something to look at if we are ever in real strife. I really feel he is going to come into his own now as a defender with Williams in the side. Could have a ripping second half to the season.

Morris- Was his annoying best as always. Also benefited from the team performance from our back 6. Was able to hold Reiwoldt out alot. Only player to spend the whole game on the ground pretty much sums up his importance.

Griffen- Pretty good again. Another one who attacked the ball strongly early in the second quarter. Needs to finish a little better. Good to see him drifitng forward again later in the game.

Hahn- Was more important than the stats say. Held the ball up well and made contests all day. Getting good at holding his man out to protect the space in front of him then working off him and taking the mark. Probably could be a bit more selfish at times and use his long kicking. Amazingly he had 13 touches and 12 of them were contested. He is our Aaron Hamill.

Welsh- A bit quieter but always needs a good opponent.

Minson- Not great stats but had an impact. Set up a few scoring shots by leading his man to a ground level ball. It shows he is reading the game pretty well as a forward now. I still expect him to keep improving in that role. Lost the plot a bit at one stage which we haven't seen from him in a while. Eade needs to monitor that.

Cooney- Looked a bit flat but worked into the game. Perhaps should have gone forward a bit more often.

Addison- Awareness can be a problem for him especially given he is not a really quick player. Definetly has plenty to work with though.

Hargrave- I am sure there will be no threads started about him or anything but he was clearly in the best 4 or 5 on the ground. Murdered his opponent who in terms of scoreboard output has been the saints best player this season. Not only completely blanketed him but ran off and gave plenty of drive to.

Williams- Very impressive performance. I love the depth in his kicking and his versatility is going to be enormous for us given the attributes he has. Once you start seeing guys zone off to help out other guys and taking uncontested marks you know they feel comfortable at that level.He did that and more yesterday.Now all we can do is pray he doesn't get injured.

Everitt- A little bit rusty. Needs more game time into him. Made some obvious fumbles and struggled with the pace. Did some nice things though.

Hudson- I thought he was very good again. Put his big frame about and pushed hard back to help out which was great to see.

Tiller- Thought he was a bit dissapointing. Had a fair bit of time on the ground and only 9 disposals with 6 of them coming in the last.

Johnson- Very good I thought. Seems very hungry to lay tackles when a guy is in his zone now. That is a new feature of his play and probably reflects where we are at as a team now.

We play one of the better drilled teams in the comp next week. They get massive numbers around the contest. We would want to be on from the start.

[hujsh]

Lake- Such a good player when he has a bit of freedom to take marks and run. He made Kosi look silly yesterday at times. He could almost play short spurts on the ball at the moment the way he is moving. Would be a dangerous player around the ground. Something to look at if we are ever in real strife. I really feel he is going to come into his own now as a defender with Williams in the side. Could have a ripping second half to the season.


Kosi was clearly injured. Lake ran off him and Kosi couldn't even chase




Cooney- Looked a bit flat but worked into the game. Perhaps should have gone forward a bit more often.

TV showed him throwing up quite heavily just before the start of the match (on the ground)

[dog town]

Kosi was clearly injured. Lake ran off him and Kosi couldn't even chase



TV showed him throwing up quite heavily just before the start of the match (on the ground) That would just be nerves. Its extremely common for guys to do that. I would say most teams would have 2 or 3 who do that at any level.

[The Coon Dog]

That would just be nerves. Its extremely common for guys to do that. I would say most teams would have 2 or 3 who do that at any level.

Brad Wira used to do it regularly, hence his nickname; Spewy!

[Raw Toast]

Great report DT, just a couple of things.

Johnson's field kicking continued to be very good apart from that awful up and under that was swept up the other end for a goal. His kick to Williams was very impressive, forcing him to run out into the only space available to him. Williams' response to it also suggested to me that he might become a forward one-day as he read where Johnno was kicking the ball and got there beautifully (pity about the kick for goal that followed).

Agree that Johnson has really started to step up with his tackles, and he also gave a beauty of a shepherd to Griffen that allowed him to skirt around the boundary and hit the post. I can't remember Johnno doing something like this before, and I expected him to peel off for the handpass, but this was great and it should've been a goal assist.

Also I think that one of the things which might set Williams apart from Croad is his ability to move through traffic and help set people up. He showed he could feint a bit and create some space to run and hand off to others in one play yesterday, and reports from training last year were that he could at times slice through the middle of a fairly big group of players (our pressure skills weren't great then though:)). In other words, I reckon he might be able to move laterally well in traffic, as well as in straight lines. I've tried to keep a lid on it, but I'm starting to get excited about him again now. That said, he still needs heaps of work on his hand-passing, as shown a bit yesterday and more in previous weeks.

Everitt impressed me a couple of times yesterday. He obviously had that awful moment when his legs were gone and he couldn't pick up a difficult ball and then gave a weak hip-and-shoulder instead of tackling. But he came back from it strongly, reading the play and attacking the ball the next time he was on, and winning possession well. I was also encouraged by his nice contested mark late in the game. That's one of the things he can bring to us, and he slotted in better than I thought he would after a so-so preseason and nothing special at Williamstown.

One of the things I've noticed lately about Boyd is the composure over the ball he's developed. Yesterday there was a passage of play where I can't remember the specifics, but he stuffed up and immediately showed he was determined to learn from it and not do it again, which might be another indicator of how he's been able to improve so much.

[dog town]

Great report DT, just a couple of things.

Johnson's field kicking continued to be very good apart from that awful up and under that was swept up the other end for a goal. His kick to Williams was very impressive, forcing him to run out into the only space available to him. Williams' response to it also suggested to me that he might become a forward one-day as he read where Johnno was kicking the ball and got there beautifully (pity about the kick for goal that followed).

Agree that Johnson has really started to step up with his tackles, and he also gave a beauty of a shepherd to Griffen that allowed him to skirt around the boundary and hit the post. I can't remember Johnno doing something like this before, and I expected him to peel off for the handpass, but this was great and it should've been a goal assist.

They were both brilliant pieces of play.





Also I think that one of the things which might set Williams apart from Croad is his ability to move through traffic and help set people up. He showed he could feint a bit and create some space to run and hand off to others in one play yesterday, and reports from training last year were that he could at times slice through the middle of a fairly big group of players (our pressure skills weren't great then though:)). In other words, I reckon he might be able to move laterally well in traffic, as well as in straight lines. I've tried to keep a lid on it, but I'm starting to get excited about him again now. That said, he still needs heaps of work on his hand-passing, as shown a bit yesterday and more in previous weeks.
Yeah I more make the comparison to Croad because of the rugby background. They are both great power athletes that love to tuck the ball under the arm and kick long. I did notice a bit of traffic management from Williams yesterday that was pretty impressive and unexpected. He came through the middle of the ground a few times and was able to search his way laterally into some space to feed the ball off.

I dont think the lid will be on much longer with him. He was bloody impressive yesterday. I think he will be a more than capable forward but a better defender. Defence will probably be best for him as a player but the team might require him to play a different role. Time will tell. Can think of plenty of guys who had good careers as forwards who would have been superstar defenders. Just the way it goes sometimes. Getting a few marks on the lead certainly gives the indication that he will be a handful up forward. The only guys with similar attributes to him are really guys like Kouta, Richo, Franklin, Reiwoldt, Goodes and the like. That is what I keep telling myself anyway :)





Everitt impressed me a couple of times yesterday. He obviously had that awful moment when his legs were gone and he couldn't pick up a difficult ball and then gave a weak hip-and-shoulder instead of tackling. But he came back from it strongly, reading the play and attacking the ball the next time he was on, and winning possession well. I was also encouraged by his nice contested mark late in the game. That's one of the things he can bring to us, and he slotted in better than I thought he would after a so-so preseason and nothing special at Williamstown.

. He took some nice grabs where he read the play very well and generally used the ball fairly well. Body language wasn't great at times which is concerning I suppose. It makes it a tall and versatile backline with he and Williams in it. I would play Everitt into form in the AFL side. He is an important player if we can get him up and running.

[Mantis]

That would just be nerves. Its extremely common for guys to do that. I would say most teams would have 2 or 3 who do that at any level.

Cooney is a serial spewer. If you watch him closely he will spew almost every week. Had a couple of ripper's down in Tassie last week.

[Mantis]

I was horrified with our start. It was such an important game for us with the run we have coming up and we were clearly not switched on. Little things can give it away early in a game and I saw plenty of things to suggest we were not all that sharp early. When you watch AFL footy now the players are so good and the tactics so important that you can sometimes forget that it is still a sport of desire and intent. If you dont want to be first to the ball or run hard to get to a contest then you wont. In the first quarter their was maybe a dozen times where you could just see our player think before he went in 100%. A few people didn't go back with the flight or didn't get in low and hard at ground level. In footy if you think then you are gone. The appetite for the contest has to be natural and thats where the desire comes in. In the first quarter we didn't have it which was dissapointing. The skill errors and fumbling also pointed to us being a little bit off our game.



A big problem was the way we butchered the ball when going forward. For me this was due to 2 reasons.

1/ No Murphy - We had no lead up players giving an option and presenting to the ball carrier.

2/ We were left with our poor users of the ball kicking into the 50. On occassions we had Morris, Cross and Eagleton (on his right) delivering poorly into our 50. We have to try and make sure we have the ball is in the hands of a reliable kick when we stream out of defence.

[Go_Dogs]

A big problem was the way we butchered the ball when going forward. For me this was due to 2 reasons.

1/ No Murphy - We had no lead up players giving an option and presenting to the ball carrier.

2/ We were left with our poor users of the ball kicking into the 50. On occassions we had Morris, Cross and Eagleton (on his right) delivering poorly into our 50. We have to try and make sure we have the ball is in the hands of a reliable kick when we stream out of defence.

Our past month has been pretty disappointing in this regard, so I wouldn't read too much into Murph's absence, although he has helped hide the problem a bit. When we have moved the ball quickly we need to kick into space more often, and not be scared to force the forwards to work a bit harder. We still tend to bomb long to contests where the ball lands on our players heads and because of this our guys often look flat footed in the contest and sometimes do subsequently struggle to find good position once the ball drops.

The pleasing thing is the amount of ball we're controlling in our forward half. Once we get the movement of the ball a bit cleaner, we'll be near unstoppable.

[LostDoggy]

Cooney is a serial spewer. If you watch him closely he will spew almost every week. Had a couple of ripper's down in Tassie last week.

POWER SPEW!

I think it was a good team effort yesterday, it was fairly solid.
Nice to see Gia stand up in Murphy's absence.

[hujsh]

Crossies chase in the 1st quarter was great. Too bad they managed a goal still

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Cross seems to be making one or two real costly mistakes a game, giving away a goal or two, but his second half was brilliant - desperation was second to none, threw his body all over the place.