Game Day - Bulldogs vs Demons

[GVGjr]

This is the discussion thread for todays game and despite the Demons position on the ladder, they are a team with plenty to prove

Murphy to get the first goal, and the Dogs by 41 points with the 100 gamer Cross BOG.

[The Coon Dog]

First goal to Johnno in a 74 point win.

[The Pie Man]

74 Coon Dog? Was about to say I'm not that optimistic, but yeah, why not?

If Harbrow starts on the ground, I'll give him a chance at first goal - Aka BOG

[bulldog]

dogs by 68 points
cooney first goal and bog
does anybody know if there is a change as wight did not play for willi yesterday

[The Coon Dog]

dogs by 68 points
cooney first goal and bog
does anybody know if there is a change as wight did not play for willi yesterday
On the Williamstown thread GVGjr mentioned that he heard Welsh would be replaced by Wight.

[bornadog]

CROSS BOG in his 100th - congratulations

First goal Murphy

Dogs by 35points

[wimberga]

Dogs by 35
Minnow for the first
Gilbee BOG

[LostDoggy]

Dogs by 52pts
Murph First Goal
Cooney BOG

[Max469]

Dogs by 30 pts

Morris BOG

Murphy 1st Goal

[Mantis]

Dogs by 37pts.

Aker first goal.

[Go_Dogs]

Dogs 20 points, Lake BOG, Gia for the first goal.

Looking forward to it - hopefully we can clean up big time.

[Dry Rot]

Disappointing last quarter.

I hope Blight is wrong about poor last quarters and how a team plays the following week.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Disappointing last quarter.

I hope Blight is wrong about poor last quarters and how a team plays the following week.

Poor game overall.

Lot of mistakes, the skills were incredibly bad and the decision making wasn't much better. Stuffed around with the ball for too long as well. If we were playing any other side then we probably would've lost today.

Probably the most boring/lacklustre football game I've been to.

Hopefully they're primed for Geelong.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

On a good note, I thought Harbrow played pretty well. He showed plenty of zip and was one of few who had some intensity and purpose about their game. Pressured really well and caused Melbourne to turn it over a few times.

[Dad1]

we must do heaps better, even without Ling and Ablett they will be hard to beat on todays effort

[LostDoggy]

Very lacklustre game. Delivery into the forward line was terrible.

[Mantis]

Pretty ordinary performance, we seemed flat after the week off.

We were beaten all day around the packs due to weight of number's on Melbourne behalf. The lack of effort in this area was very disappointing to say the least.

Hopefully we put in a better performance next week because if we play with that sort of intensity we will get slaughtered.

[lowedog]

I'll take a win against a poor team, playing like that to get it out of the way. You could tell they were thinking about next weeks game today. They just weren't there. Still got the bickies, and thats important.

[Dad1]

Pretty ordinary performance, we seemed flat after the week off.

We were beaten all day around the packs due to weight of number's on Melbourne behalf. The lack of effort in this area was very disappointing to say the least.

Hopefully we put in a better performance next week because if we play with that sort of intensity we will get slaughtered.

yeah we really missed Griff and Welsh, lets hope alls well next week

[Sockeye Salmon]

I think we'll play well next week, after all, it seemed their minds were on next weeks game already.

I don't think we fumbled or used the ball that badly in the Rohde years.

[GVGjr]

I'll take a win against a poor team, playing like that to get it out of the way. You could tell they were thinking about next weeks game today. They just weren't there. Still got the bickies, and thats important.

I know what you are saying....but the Cats never let up against the Dockers. We should have won by well over 4o points.

[Stevo]

I know what you are saying....but the Cats never let up against the Dockers. We should have won by well over 4o points.

I'll be the first to admit I wasn't comfortable with this result. They were cherry ripe for the picking today and at times we struggled. We must improve enormously to overcome the Cats. Injuries or not they will take a power of beating.

The positive was the form of some of the younger guys. Ray, Hill, Harbow and Addison all performed above expectations and have come along way this season. The other good thing about this win was that we weren't just carried by Hahn, Murphy and Johnson.

[Go_Dogs]

Interesting game - thought the umpiring was pathetic, Ray and Harbrow were great. We NEED Griffen in the side.

Eagleton is doing himself no favors imo - few early goals but went missing for ages, and some of his defensive efforts left a lot to be desired - Hill too.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Interesting game - thought the umpiring was pathetic, Ray and Harbrow were great. We NEED Griffen in the side.

Ray's kicking was poor, in particular his two shots for goal. He'd be a much more dangerous player if he learnt to finish off. His carrying of the football is handy though.

[Go_Dogs]

Ray's kicking was poor, in particular his two shots for goal. He'd be a much more dangerous player if he learnt to finish off. His carrying of the football is handy though.

The second one he pulled on purpose because he wasn't confident enough to take the shot. I actually think he has been a pretty good and proven finisher for goal on the run over the past year or so - just a shame he missed an early one today and lost his confidence.

[LostDoggy]

Speaking of Confidence...

Cross at one stage, 3rd quarter i believe didnt back himself from 45m out, kicking to the lockett end..ended up trying to centre it but Melbourne were all over it.

Love Crossy as a player, but his kicking is frustrating and the fact he doesn't kick when its needed. Im not having a go at him but he needs to learn to back himself and go for a goal and put his foot right into it!

[strebla]

Today was the first time i can remember feeling so flat after a win . I was very interested to note that most bulldogs fans were the same .I think we are just used to winning now we did did what needed to be done on the day .
.

[ledge]

I personally think the team had a bit of an eye on next saturday, also Melbourne did play one on one at every chance.

[Dogs 24/7]

Today was the first time i can remember feeling so flat after a win . I was very interested to note that most bulldogs fans were the same .I think we are just used to winning now we did did what needed to be done on the day .
.

Same here. Ok we don't need a percentage boost but we took the foot off the pedal a bit and I left the ground feeling a bit flat.

[Mantis]

I personally think the team had a bit of an eye on next saturday, also Melbourne did play one on one at every chance.

Which is the way Geelong play isn't it?

[LostDoggy]

Yeah im in agreeance, in some ways it felt like a loss but walked away with the 4pts..

Could of been worse though, coulda lost or won and had some injuries so you'll take that kind of win today any day of the week.

Any top 8 side would have smashed us if we played like that against em though..

[Sedat]

I don't think we fumbled or used the ball that badly in the Rohde years.
It looked to me as though we attempted to simulate the Geelong 'play on at all costs through the corridor' game plan which resulted in some turnovers and missed targets - the collective brains of the team seemed to be working half a step ahead of their bodies. There were several occasions where we played on immediately from a mark or free kick despite the man on the mark being hot on our heels. Strange game of football.

[Happy Days]

Eagleton is doing himself no favors imo - few early goals but went missing for ages, and some of his defensive efforts left a lot to be desired

Spot on.

The thing that stuck out most to me was his lack of courage. On more than one occasion he looked to have shirked a contest.

[macca]

We did look flat in the first quarter. Josh hill looked like he had just woken up, and was a step behind the play, and started to realise he had to chase some opponents. Melbourne won a lot of the clearance in the first quarter but kept coughing it up at half forward.

For Tiller, at least twice, he lead hard on the wing as the ball game out of defence, 20 m in the clear and they did not kick it to him. I was pretty disappointed because he ran his guts off, and I could see he looked pretty unhappy. I hope the coaching staff pick up on this. He is trying, and he did take a good leading mark in the last quarter.

Minson has still no idea how to protect the space when the ball is coming in , and really struggles to get front position. But on a good note, he took a good pack marka ( from behind) in the 2nd quarter which was not allowed because a free was given against someone in the square, and in the last quarter he took another good grab.

Cam Wight- he worries all supporters when he gets it, but took the ball in the corridor in the lasts quarter and sent it into 50. If only he backed his instincts, and took the first instinctive option. His running into the right spaces so he knows how to find the footy and read the play.


Umpiring was pathetic today. So many frees given which no one had any idea.

Harbrow had some zip and guts, and did some good pressure things. I rate this kid, and hope he gets some more time in the team.

Everitt looked flat for most of the match. Lack of match fitness ?

I do not believe we can play Geelong trying to wake up in the first quarter.

Very flat performance for the day.

[LostDoggy]

The team looked more heavy than flat. There was a lot of mental effort but the bodies didn't seem to want to do the right thing on more than one occasion.

The team has been put through a tough two weeks on the training track to get miles into the legs while there was a rare mid-season opportunity to, which does explain the lethargy, especially in the final quarter when the team was just running out of collective steam. This next week will be a refresher on the training track -- mostly tactical and skill-work -- to get the Dogs primed for Saturday. It will be a very different team out there next week.

You could also tell that the team was smart in not getting too caught up in the physical stuff Melbourne were dishing up -- there was no point retaliating against the bottom team who had nothing to lose. We have bigger fish to fry (and not just next week), and there was no point getting injuries or suspensions from trying to break even physically against a team that, in the end, the Dogs still beat by over 5 goals while playing only maybe at 30-40%.

--

And the umpiring was shocking. Inconsistent from contest to contest -- I just don't get how a player running out of defence being tackled and dropping the ball without kicking or handballing it isn't pinged, and there was more than once where the ump was making finicky calls while caught 50 metres behind play and blindsided. Some AWFUL decisions.

[strebla]

The team looked more heavy than flat. There was a lot of mental effort but the bodies didn't seem to want to do the right thing on more than one occasion.

The team has been put through a tough two weeks on the training track to get miles into the legs while there was a rare mid-season opportunity to, which does explain the lethargy, especially in the final quarter when the team was just running out of collective steam. This next week will be a refresher on the training track -- mostly tactical and skill-work -- to get the Dogs primed for Saturday. It will be a very different team out there next week.

You could also tell that the team was smart in not getting too caught up in the physical stuff Melbourne were dishing up -- there was no point retaliating against the bottom team who had nothing to lose. We have bigger fish to fry (and not just next week), and there was no point getting injuries or suspensions from trying to break even physically against a team that, in the end, the Dogs still beat by over 5 goals while playing only maybe at 30-40%.

--



And the umpiring was shocking. Inconsistent from contest to contest -- I just don't get how a player running out of defence being tackled and dropping the ball without kicking or handballing it isn't pinged, and there was more than once where the ump was making finicky calls while caught 50 metres behind play and blindsided. Some AWFUL decisions.

Tottally agree on the umpiring what did bobby murphy do tp deserve 2 of the worst decisions i have seen

[The Coon Dog]

Tottally agree on the umpiring what did bobby murphy do tp deserve 2 of the worst decisions i have seen
What about the one Will got when Johnno pushed a Melbourne defender in the back? Agree about the Bobby ones, also can't recall the Demon tackled near you Strebla who was spun around in a 720 & didn't get pinged for 'ball'!

[bornadog]

With Cooney well held (17 disposals), no Griffen, we really lacked in the midfield with some speed and agility that these two show. Throw on top of that, Eagle 14 disposals, Murphy, 15 disposals, no Scott Welsh, Mitch Hahn 6 disposals and the forward line not looking dangerous at all, no wonder we had a lacklustre win.

[ledge]

Murphs problem was, he was doing the old stand behind ,hold your ground and make the opponent go under the ball, the only problem with that nowadays is the umpires rule it as in the back, I did see Murphy go off after the second one and would think Rocket would have pointed it out to him.
Not saying Murph had much choice, as sometimes you try and double back because your opponent has got you covered on the lead or up the ground is crowded and nowhere to lead.
I detest the hands in the back rule and think it should go back to PUSH in the back.
Body positioning is important in our game, this rule has made a mockery of some of these moves.

[Sedat]

What about the one Will got when Johnno pushed a Melbourne defender in the back? Agree about the Bobby ones, also can't recall the Demon tackled near you Strebla who was spun around in a 720 & didn't get pinged for 'ball'!
It was Sylvia - laughable non decision.

[Rocket Science]

Re: the umpiring, how about Farren being pinged for interfering with a his opponent on the wing after a mark had been taken and conceding a 50 which directly resulted in a set shot goal?

Can't recall who the Demon was, they're an anaemic non-descript bunch, but his opponent edged Farren under the ball and took a legitimate overhead mark from behind as Farren slid to his knees...Seeing his opponent on the deck and given he was goal-side of Farren, the Demon player immediately took off with 3-4 concerted steps to shrug loose in a clear attempt to play-on, to which a still-grounded Farren lunged out and hugged his midriff with a half-arsed tackle...then suddenly WHISTLE!...50 metres...goal.

Woeful decision.

You see this stuff routinely these days....If ever a rule was crying out for some discretion in terms of its enforcement it's this one.

[Twodogs]

Murphs problem was, he was doing the old stand behind ,hold your ground and make the opponent go under the ball, the only problem with that nowadays is the umpires rule it as in the back, I did see Murphy go off after the second one and would think Rocket would have pointed it out to him.
Not saying Murph had much choice, as sometimes you try and double back because your opponent has got you covered on the lead or up the ground is crowded and nowhere to lead.
I detest the hands in the back rule and think it should go back to PUSH in the back.
Body positioning is important in our game, this rule has made a mockery of some of these moves.



Theres nothing wrong with the rule-if you're in a marking contet your hands sould be in the air going for the ball and not anywhere near your opponenets back. The problem is the umpires are guessing and assuming that contact is with the hands when it's been good body positioning instead. All umpires have to do is blow the whistle when a player uses his hands, not second guess.


Having said that Minson went for a ruck contest in Melbourne's forward 50 and his intention was to clear a path for Wight. He didnt put his hands up to contest but neither did he infringe-he had a Melbourne forward with his arms around his neck holding his arms down. The free went against him but I still cant figure out why.

[aker39]

Having said that Minson went for a ruck contest in Melbourne's forward 50 and his intention was to clear a path for Wight. He didnt put his hands up to contest but neither did he infringe-he had a Melbourne forward with his arms around his neck holding his arms down. The free went against him but I still cant figure out why.


Have a closer look.

Will puts his hand out to fend off the Melbourne player, and puts his hand straight in the Melbourne players face. It happens well before Will is taken high.

[Twodogs]

Have a closer look.

Will puts his hand out to fend off the Melbourne player, and puts his hand straight in the Melbourne players face. It happens well before Will is taken high.



There's no need to bring common sense into it!

[dog town]

Have to be fairly concerned with the performance. I know they are entitled to the odd off day but given where we are trying to go it doesn't send the greatest message. I just thought we lacked our usual intensity and sharpness. In the first half the only 2 who really looked like they wanted to be out on the ground were Wight and Harbrow (apologies to Boyd and Cross). Those 2 might not have had as much influence as others but they were playing like it meant something to them. I am probably being a bit over the top but I really thought we played pretty poorly.

The forward line has lost a bit of its efficiency at the moment although I am not sure why. Fair enough Welsh was out yesterday and Hahn was obviously pretty restricted but we just dont seem as dangerous right now. Minson had his best game for a few rounds but Johnson, Murphy, Hahn and Aker were all a bit down.

Hargrave was very good again.

Daniel Cross was incredibly brave a few times. Never tire of watching this guy play footy.

Wight was very good when on the ground I thought although he will probably have to make way.

Harbrow gave us a bit of spark and was one of the only guys who looked to be going flat out.

[dog town]

Forgot to mention that Ray was alot better yesterday. Still infuriates me that he holds onto the ball until the absolute last second but his run and carry was pretty valuable yesterday and his decision making was alot better. Just wish he would carry the ball clear of traffic and then use that space to make sure we still keep the footy. At the moment he bursts into space and then holds onto the ball until he is under pressure again.

[The Underdog]

Was incredibly disappointed with both our delivery into the forward 50 and the lack of movement inside the forward 50. Both contributed to the appalling nature of the other. Seemed to miss Welsh a lot. Minson consistently played behind his man as did Hahn although Mitch was injured so that may be an excuse. Problem was if anyone did make a lead it was ignored to kick to a contest.
Tackling was very good but our ball movement and decision making were ordinary.
Oh yeah and what the hell's going on with Johnno? Nowhere near the kind of performance you'd expect from him.

[ledge]

I actually wondered why Johnno wasnt in the forward line, Gia went for 2 marks that i am sure Johnno would have gobbled up.
Tiller made some leads but was ignored as was said in an earlier post.
Forwards were there but we made wrong decisions when delivering.

[Mantis]

I actually wondered why Johnno wasnt in the forward line, Gia went for 2 marks that i am sure Johnno would have gobbled up.
Tiller made some leads but was ignored as was said in an earlier post.
Forwards were there but we made wrong decisions when delivering.

Johnson couldn't lift his arms above his head.

Wasn't it ironic that the 2 player's (in bold) who had a crack at Aker about his handstand played liked prima donna's yesterday.

[Dry Rot]

Minson had his best game for a few rounds but Johnson, Murphy, Hahn and Aker were all a bit down.

.

I wonder if the others being down and Welsh absent gave Minson more space?

[ledge]

We only got 5 minutes of Aker time this week, he usually gives us a quarter. Funny at 1/2 time i mentioned to my mate we are ok , only 20 points up but no Aker time yet and what do you know, sure enough Aker time!!

[strebla]

It was Sylvia - laughable non decision.

Not wrong i may have said quite a few not so choice words to the umpire at the time

[LostDoggy]

Have to be fairly concerned with the performance. I know they are entitled to the odd off day but given where we are trying to go it doesn't send the greatest message. I just thought we lacked our usual intensity and sharpness. In the first half the only 2 who really looked like they wanted to be out on the ground were Wight and Harbrow (apologies to Boyd and Cross). Those 2 might not have had as much influence as others but they were playing like it meant something to them. I am probably being a bit over the top but I really thought we played pretty poorly.

The forward line has lost a bit of its efficiency at the moment although I am not sure why. Fair enough Welsh was out yesterday and Hahn was obviously pretty restricted but we just dont seem as dangerous right now. Minson had his best game for a few rounds but Johnson, Murphy, Hahn and Aker were all a bit down.

Hargrave was very good again.

Daniel Cross was incredibly brave a few times. Never tire of watching this guy play footy.

Wight was very good when on the ground I thought although he will probably have to make way.

Harbrow gave us a bit of spark and was one of the only guys who looked to be going flat out.

A heavy two weeks on the track over the break meant you could see guys trying to do the right thing but missing any zip to actually pull it off, especially crumbing and getting to the fall of the ball in the forward 50 and block the ball in. Ran out of legs and accordingly lost the last quarter.

Stated in a post some weeks back that the coaching staff will have to try to prepare the team for September over the midseason and will see an according drop-off in legs across the team. I assumed they would stagger the heavy workload and corresponding taper across the team, but the coaching staff chose to use the break to run most of the team through it (the players interviewed in the Victory Room before and after the game all spoke of the extra heavy two weeks) probably assuming (rightly as it turned out) that the bottom team would be the right team to take the risk against.

That we still won by 31 points playing at less than half-pace with four/five key players out is a credit to the week-by-week conditioning management over 26 weeks by the coaching and playing staff. This is a team priming itself for September.

[dog town]

A heavy two weeks on the track over the break meant you could see guys trying to do the right thing but missing any zip to actually pull it off, especially crumbing and getting to the fall of the ball in the forward 50 and block the ball in. Ran out of legs and accordingly lost the last quarter.

Stated in a post some weeks back that the coaching staff will have to try to prepare the team for September over the midseason and will see an according drop-off in legs across the team. I assumed they would stagger the heavy workload and corresponding taper across the team, but the coaching staff chose to use the break to run most of the team through it (the players interviewed in the Victory Room before and after the game all spoke of the extra heavy two weeks) probably assuming (rightly as it turned out) that the bottom team would be the right team to take the risk against.

That we still won by 31 points playing at less than half-pace with four/five key players out is a credit to the week-by-week conditioning management over 26 weeks by the coaching and playing staff. This is a team priming itself for September. Ok that is fair enough but I would have thought not having a game last week might have made up for any extra training work load.

[dog town]

I wonder if the others being down and Welsh absent gave Minson more space? Perhaps but we probably used him a bit more I thought. He is going along ok though.

[LostDoggy]

Ok that is fair enough but I would have thought not having a game last week might have made up for any extra training work load.


Not having a game last week and then playing Melbourne meant that they increased the training load considerably to ease off and be fresh THIS week for the Cats. It was essentially a mini-preseason (albeit midseason) to prepare for a two and a half month run to late September. This is common practice is some parts -- the most famous local example would be Melbourne Storm (but these plans have been hit somewhat this year with their heavy representation in Origin -- have to get creative and to be seen how the Storm go in finals). The usual practice would be to stagger the finals preparation through your list so you can manage the home-and-away fixtures and not lose too many along the way, but the Dogs have just gone and done the whole list at once over the split round.

It was a risk to push most of the players (barring those with their own recovery programs) through it at once but the coaching team looked at the draw and decided that it was worth it considering we were playing the bottom side.

Considering the result you would have to say it was well worth the risk since we won comfortably but would now have the physical baseline to hit the rest of the season hard.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Not having a game last week and then playing Melbourne meant that they increased the training load considerably to ease off and be fresh THIS week for the Cats. It was essentially a mini-preseason (albeit midseason) to prepare for a two and a half month run to late September. This is common practice is some parts -- the most famous local example would be Melbourne Storm (but these plans have been hit somewhat this year with their heavy representation in Origin -- have to get creative and to be seen how the Storm go in finals). The usual practice would be to stagger the finals preparation through your list so you can manage the home-and-away fixtures and not lose too many along the way, but the Dogs have just gone and done the whole list at once over the split round.

It was a risk to push most of the players (barring those with their own recovery programs) through it at once but the coaching team looked at the draw and decided that it was worth it considering we were playing the bottom side.

Considering the result you would have to say it was well worth the risk since we won comfortably but would now have the physical baseline to hit the rest of the season hard.

Is 2 weeks long enough for this to have any effect?

Didn't Neil Craig hit the Crows with 6 weeks of it a few years back? (We all know how well that worked).

[dog town]

Not having a game last week and then playing Melbourne meant that they increased the training load considerably to ease off and be fresh THIS week for the Cats. It was essentially a mini-preseason (albeit midseason) to prepare for a two and a half month run to late September. This is common practice is some parts -- the most famous local example would be Melbourne Storm (but these plans have been hit somewhat this year with their heavy representation in Origin -- have to get creative and to be seen how the Storm go in finals). The usual practice would be to stagger the finals preparation through your list so you can manage the home-and-away fixtures and not lose too many along the way, but the Dogs have just gone and done the whole list at once over the split round.

It was a risk to push most of the players (barring those with their own recovery programs) through it at once but the coaching team looked at the draw and decided that it was worth it considering we were playing the bottom side.

Considering the result you would have to say it was well worth the risk since we won comfortably but would now have the physical baseline to hit the rest of the season hard. Yeah I know what you meant and all clubs at most levels do a similar thing but I wouldn't really use it as an excuse given that having a week off the niggles you get from a game. Would have thought it would pretty much balance out.