Our inability to stop midfielders

[Topdog]

Is really starting to piss me off.

Was anyone even pretending to play on McViegh yesterday?

[Mantis]

Was anyone even pretending to play on McViegh yesterday?

Cooney was pretending to play on McVeigh yesterday... Must say he did a good job at it... Pretending that is.

[bornadog]

Is really starting to piss me off.

Was anyone even pretending to play on McViegh yesterday?

Does it really matter, as long as we win.

What is pissing me off is that Cooney and Griffen and to a lesser extent Cross and Boyd arenot getting therir hands on the ball. If you look at the stats, no one in the past two weeks has had over 30 disposals, with Cooney and Griffen barely having 20.

[Topdog]

Does it really matter, as long as we win.

What is pissing me off is that Cooney and Griffen and to a lesser extent Cross and Boyd arenot getting therir hands on the ball. If you look at the stats, no one in the past two weeks has had over 30 disposals, with Cooney and Griffen barely having 20.

Yes because if we dont find a way to stop midfields then we will be in trouble in the finals. We need to find a way to limit the effect that these players have instead of just relying on our forwards to keep kicking a winning score.

[Go_Dogs]

Does it really matter, as long as we win.

What is pissing me off is that Cooney and Griffen and to a lesser extent Cross and Boyd arenot getting therir hands on the ball. If you look at the stats, no one in the past two weeks has had over 30 disposals, with Cooney and Griffen barely having 20.

Yes, need to be more prepared to play tough defensive footy when they aren't having a massive influence with the offensive game.

[bornadog]

Yes because if we dont find a way to stop midfields then we will be in trouble in the finals. We need to find a way to limit the effect that these players have instead of just relying on our forwards to keep kicking a winning score.

I agree with you Topdog, what I am saying is I am not worried about individual feats like McVeigh, I am more concerned overall.

We have to win the contested balls and the clearances overall, and make other teams chase us.

[Sedat]

I thought Ray did a good job curtailing the influence of O'Keefe yesterday, who still got a lot of it but mostly under duress and in areas that didn't hurt us. Can the bald Eagle possibly assist in this lock-down area? Would be nice to have another lock-down option at our disposal.

I'm not bothered we don't have 30+ possession winners when we have such an even spread across the board, like we did yesterday. Whilst they had McVeigh burning it up he had precious little support yesterday. By contrast we had half a dozen above average contributors in our midfield yesterday.

[Topdog]

The thing is Sydney only had McVeigh yesterday that could really do damage and he killed us. Last week against Carlton they had Setvens, Judd, Gibbs and Murphy who can do quite well and we let them run riot for pretty much the whole match.

I know in the end they only got on top cos we tired out but really Carlton aren't an A-grade side and I'd like to see us with a dominant tagger again.

[LostDoggy]

Not a great problem
McVeigh got some gift umpiring.
More concerned about Johnno and Welsh getting raped but few frees.

[Mantis]

Not a great problem
McVeigh got some gift umpiring.
More concerned about Johnno and Welsh getting raped but few frees.

But kept running to create an option. Too many of our midfielders were still standing in the square when McVeigh was running into an open goal.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

It's a problem, and certainly when in a few weeks time we'll be squaring off against Mitchell, Hodge, Sewell etc.

The last two weeks I blame the coaching staff.

Judd wasn't tagged; he was left free to 'roam' around and although he missed a few opportunities early, he eventually kicked a couple & set-up more. Cooney was opposed to him for the night, no?

Again on the weekend, McVeigh was allowed to run at the ball freely with next to no attention at all. For a midfielder to kick 6 goals, that's quite embarrassing, no matter how good he might be which consequently, although McVeigh is a very good footballer, he's not 'elite'. Cooney was opposed to him, too, and for the second week was slapped around silly.

Perhaps they're experimenting a little, which in that case is understandable/reasonable to a degree, but I would hope Boyd would be sent to the best player from now on because clearly the other ideas are a dead set fail.

[hujsh]

Is it possible they're trying Cooney on good mids to try to teach him to be more accountable in finals where there a few mids who can't hurt you

[Sedat]

I know in the end they only got on top cos we tired out but really Carlton aren't an A-grade side and I'd like to see us with a dominant tagger again.
Their midfield is.

[dog town]

Its just a tactic Cooney needs to work through. Other teams are playing more dangerous players on him because he can be a little unaccountable at times. Its not the first time that teams have done it to him. I dont think its a big deal though. Its just another step in his football development. Its not as if he isn't prepared to do the defensive stuff because he is a fantastic tackler. Coons has been the main ball winner in pretty much every side he has played in since under 10s so its not natural for him to think about what his opponent is doing unless its a stop play and the opposition has the ball. He will work through it and so will the coaches.

I think he is more advanced than say Ablett was at the same age so he is going along well. Easy to forget its only his 5th season and he is being asked to lead the midfield assault in a top 3 side.

[LostDoggy]

It's a problem, and certainly when in a few weeks time we'll be squaring off against Mitchell, Hodge, Sewell etc.

Man to man we are better than that lot, and on a par with Geelong.
I'd back our midfield at their best against any team in the comp.

We lost games because we stopped running not because we couldn't tag certain players.

[bornadog]

Man to man we are better than that lot, and on a par with Geelong.
I'd back our midfield at their best against any team in the comp.

We lost games because we stopped running not because we couldn't tag certain players.

Yes agree with this. The past couple of weeks the guys that have been training the hardest have been the midfield. This is part of their conditioning for the finals. Heard Aker tonight mention he also was training hard but now realizes at his age his body is not the same. He was off to a meeting tonight with the fitness guys, to discuss the next steps and basically whether he needs to be rested.