Game Day Finals Edition #3- Bulldogs vs Cats

[GVGjr]

This is the discussion thread for tonight's important clash against the all conquering Geelong side

My predictions is the Dogs by 3 points, Murphy BOG and Johnson for the first goal.

[The Coon Dog]

Dogs by a point!!!! Me to have a heart attack.

A ball up with scores level & Crossy 3rd man up punches it through for a point with seconds remaining.

First goal to Murphy & Gia to be BOG.

[Go_Dogs]

Dogs by 2 goals. After starting ok, the Dogs pressure, and tackling is too ferocious for the Cats and by the end of the game they are overwhelmed and ran off their legs.

Griffen for the first, Cooney BOG.

[Topdog]

Cats by 31 points. Gia our best and Mitch to kick our first.

[LostDoggy]

My head says Geelong by 39pts, My heart says Doggies by 10pts :confused:
Johnson first goal and Cross our best

[Ozza]

Geelong by 41.
Welsh for 1st goal.
Murphy our best.

Prove me wrong dogs...prove me wrong....

[1eyedog]

Ah heck with it. If we win we'll win by a few goals at least. I think once you get in front of Geelong and look comfortable, well, as Collingwood showed anything can happen. Who cares who kicks the first goal or gets BOG as long as we WIN!

[bulldogtragic]

Gun to my head - Cats by under 37.5 pts.

Heart - 19 point win.

Simple for me. If we have the guts, skill and desire to win this week, we will win the premiership.

[LostDoggy]

The Mighty Western Bulldogs to win by 27

BOG - Cooney

First Goal - Johnno

FINGERS CROSSED!

[aker39]

Dogs by 2 points after being down by 37 points at 1/2 time.

Looking at the clouds in the city, I think any realistic chance we had of winning is about to be washed down the drain.

[bornadog]

First Goal - Hahn

BOG - Cross

Dogs by 11 points

[Topdog]

Either team under 15.5 is paying around $4-5 off memory for those that believe it will be close

[westdog54]

Cats by 18.

Minson first Goal

Cross our BOG.

This is it Dogs. Now or never.

[LostDoggy]

Dogs by 24 points

Hudson BOG

[SonofScray]

The nerves have kicked right in, despite my staunch confidence all year that the flag will wag. Even the bravado is taking a bit of a knock as all the horror stories flow back, like my mind is making my body react to events yet to pass.

How must a guy like Johnno feel right now? I feel he can make a statement and really use the pressure as positive but gee it is going to be intense early and we simply have to get involved early and settle into a match winning rhythm.

Dogs by 2 goals. Please, it simply has to be our shot.

[bulldogtragic]

The nerves have kicked right in, despite my staunch confidence all year that the flag will wag. Even the bravado is taking a bit of a knock as all the horror stories flow back, like my mind is making my body react to events yet to pass.

How must a guy like Johnno feel right now? I feel he can make a statement and really use the pressure as positive but gee it is going to be intense early and we simply have to get involved early and settle into a match winning rhythm.

Dogs by 2 goals. Please, it simply has to be our shot.
Great point.

If we give 100% and come up short. I will accept it, not like it...

If we play like we did two weeks ago, i will a have a furious off-season.

[Rocket Science]

Cats by 34 points

The rest is incidental...

[strebla]

I can't belive how nervous I am is it our turn can someone fast forward to tommorow I want it so bad I can taste it .We must win tonight we WILL win tonight by how much I don't care but what means I don't care I just want to win Ppplllleeeeaaaasssseeeee

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Pretty nervous at the moment.

Quietly confident we'll put up a very good showing.

Desperately hoping we win.

Dogs by 5 points.
Hahn/Aker BOG.

[bornadog]

Pretty nervous at the moment.

Quietly confident we'll put up a very good showing.

Desperately hoping we win.

Dogs by 5 points.
Hahn/Aker BOG.

I am finding it very difficult to concentrate and work.

[The Underdog]

Dogs by 40 points
Griffen BOG
Aker first goal

Then I wake up and AAAAAARRGGHHH

[Mofra]

Dogs by 12 points.
Welsh to lead the goal kicking
Griffen to just shade Crossy for the BOG

[Go_Dogs]

I am finding it very difficult to concentrate and work.

Agreed, luckily my office is dead. :D

[bornadog]

Agreed, luckily my office is dead. :D

I work from home, so my office is full of nerves:D

[G-Mo77]

Thanks for talking about work guys, my mind is in so many other places right now I almost forgot to ring in sick. DONE!

[bornadog]

Thanks for talking about work guys, my mind is in so many other places right now I almost forgot to ring in sick. DONE!

hahahaha, thats funny, sorry I am sick in Melbourne at the G:D

[The Pie Man]

I've got the forum page minimised at work, and yeah it is extremely difficult to keep any kind of focus.

Don't want to jinx us tonight by calling the result, but I do have what former Carlton president Elliott would call a 'funny feeling' about tonight.

Higgins for first goal

[Topdog]

Yep very much not focused on anything related to work at the moment.

[G-Mo77]

hahahaha, thats funny, sorry I am sick in Melbourne at the G:D

It's been hard. I have had 2 Supervisors ask me this week if I am going. I said no to and both one smiled at me and gave me a wink the other I think bought it. Last night I did have a splitting headache so I made sure everyone knew about it. I'll probably be called in for a please explain but at this point I don't really care. :p

[strebla]

So gald I had today off they asked me to work afternoon shift i just laughed and hung up the phone

[bulldog]

dogs by 7 points go u good things

[Topdog]

The rain is here! Pretty heavy by the looks of it too.

[Mantis]

Geelong by 5 goals+

I just can't see us keeping pace with them over a full game, I hope we can.

Go Dogs!!!

[Happy Days]

Minno after the siren, from 45 out on the boundary...
Dogs by 1..at quarter time :D

Then we go on to lose by 20-odd :(

[Bumper Bulldogs]

Dogs by 12 points with a truly gutsy win that the cats will not see coming.

best on ground Mitch - wet weather oh yeah

First goal - Mitch that's what starts him off

c u all next week at the parade!

[Bumper Bulldogs]

Geelong by 5 goals+

I just can't see us keeping pace with them over a full game, I hope we can.

Go Dogs!!!

it's not going to wash up well for the big guys - go Tiller, would love westy out their ;)

[DOG GOD]

Cats by 38 pts. :(

PLEASE NO!! PLEASE NO!! PLEASE god i will never sin again.

[Bumper Bulldogs]

Cats by 38 pts. :(

PLEASE NO!! PLEASE NO!! PLEASE god i will never sin again.

I had respect for u!:(

[DOG GOD]

I had respect for u!:(

I WAS joking.

[Bumper Bulldogs]

I WAS joking.

Just checking:D

[Topdog]

Seems to be a good tight game early. Envious of those at the ground. Pissed off that 7 aren't showing this live.

By the sounds of it Aker has started well.

[Topdog]

Higgins is killing it.

5 possessions, 2 marks, 2 goals 2 behinds

[Topdog]

Gia injured.

We are up by 11 points, 20 minutes into the first

[ledge]

Happy with first quarter, trying theyre guts out and tackling is great.

[LostDog]

starting 2 worry

[ledge]

Ablett will win Brownlow by a mile, umpires couldnt be further up his arse, tackled , and did a 360 and play on?

[hujsh]

Ablett will win Brownlow by a mile, umpires couldnt be further up his arse, tackled , and did a 360 and play on?

I've not seen his disposal under so much pressure as tonight. Hard to tackle but sent him back and held onto him.

[GVGjr]

A lot of the predictions were pretty accurate with the Cats winning. So how did you think we performed? Positives? Negatives?

[Happy Days]

Our tackling pressure and our backline were excellent...but some players, and im not going to name names (lets just say his name starts with N and finishes with an athan Eagleton) were an overwhelming negative...

Our kicking for goal and forward line werent too flash either.

[The Coon Dog]

Gee the effort was fantastic, all you could ask for really. Made Geelong look almost human at times.

I think the difference in the end was the quality of depth. Geelong's last few players would be able to get a game with most teams regularly.

We really lacked a big physical presence up forward. How handy would a Barry Hall type of player been tonight?

I thought our backline was terrific tonight, they competed & made the Geelong forwards work for every kick.

I loved seeing Jarrod Harbrow take them on, he well may be given more time in the midfield if is able get a bigger engine.

Murph was a bit of an enigma tonight. he got alot of it, but it wasn't his best effort kicking wise.

Anyone know what the free was paid for against Adam Cooney in our goal square early in the final term? There were a number of dodgy ones that seemed to favour Geelong tonight. I may be wrong but I'm sure Ernie will know.

There were 2 significant periods that had an enormous impact upon the game.

The last 7-8 minutes of the first quarter when we surrendered a 2 goal lead to trail by a goal at 1/4 time & the six misses for goal late in the 3rd quarter & early in the last.

I guess there are a lot of if's, whatever's & maybe's, but the scoreboard shows we came up short.

We could have easily been belted, but we weren't, little consolation, I know.

A really bloody tough decision needs to be made by Rocket. Do we persist with what we have up forward? Granted we were one of the highest scoring teams this year, but it seems to be an Achilles Heel come finals time, or do we make a play for a big power forward during trade week & if we do, how do we engineer it?

[hujsh]

The two best moments of the game.

1. Minson contested mark

2. Harbrow treating Rooke like a little child by shrugging him off.

[Bulldog Revolution]

The backline performed superbly: Lake, Morris, Hargrave, Callan, Tiller, Gilbee all played really well, they competed superbly in the air, covered the ground, combined well and were composed when we had it.

The kids; Harbrow, Tiller and Higgins all very good, yes I think Tiller deserves two mentions for his finals series

The midfield were pretty good and tackled fiercely in patches but we lacked a bit of magic through there, an injured Cooney and Hudson, plus Griffen getting a lot of attention never got the space to set us up, nor did Aker. We needed a bit more drive and dash out of the middle.

The disappointing were our skills when we had opportunities to make things happen. We didn't use the ball well enough, and we didn't convert well enough.

The effort and application was very good, but our skills let us down, and perhaps the odd lull in intensity.

[G-Mo77]

Obviously really gutted tonight. They had their chances to take this one out but some brief lapses late in the 1st and most of the 2nd quarter as well as some poor shooting at goal in the 2nd half really made it an up hill battle. Our back line was absolutely fantastic tonight! I can't praise them enough.

Hopefuly 2009 we can go that extra yard!

[Sockeye Salmon]

Anyone know what the free was paid for against Adam Cooney in our goal square early in the final term?

I just watched the replay and the umpire said it was for taking it out of the ruck and not disposing of it.

YOU ****ING MORON, JOHNNO WENT UP IN THE RUCK AND IT CAME OFF HIS HANDS TO COONEY!!!!

[bornadog]

We were really smashed in the ruck by Ottens and Blake, which gave first use of the ball to the Geelong midfielders and therefore the clearances. Hudson only had 5 disposals and 10 hitouts, (I believe had an injury but not sure), Minson had 6 hitouts, compared to Ottens 22 and Blake 10.

We really lost this game out of the centre where we couldn't get any drive.

[The Coon Dog]

I just watched the replay and the umpire said it was for taking it out of the ruck and not disposing of it.

YOU ****ING MORON, JOHNNO WENT UP IN THE RUCK AND IT CAME OFF HIS HANDS TO COONEY!!!!
Thanks SS, I couldn't work it out at the time & am even more staggered now as I felt that a) Cooney was taken high & b) he wasn't tackled to the degree he was ********.

That ******** is r e t a r d e d , strange how it filters it!

[dog town]

I said the other week that I didn't agree with the media always portraying us as this run and gun, full of skill team. I also said that IMO we are now a more workman like team and relied on a sustained effort from a large number of players. Last night was a perfect illustration of what I was talking about. It was not our pace or skills that got us into a winning position. It was our dogged workrate and defensive efforts that gave us a chance. The thing that let us down was the very area that is supposed to be a strength of ours. Our skills errors were a massive problem all night. Entering inside 50 and kicking at goal were both areas that we kicked ourselves out of it.

I thought our backline was absolutely incredible. Eade got the match ups right but the boys didn't give an inch and ran the ball amazingly well.

Eade had a very good night. Hargrave-Johnson, Lake- Lonergan and Morris-Mooney were all the right moves. Many of us suggested some of these during the week and it was pleasing to see Eade learn from the last time we played Geelong. Lake was able to become an attacking force and also left his man to support brilliantly.

The midfield match ups all worked and allowed us to basically break even. We actually got better numbers around contests particularly in the second half which is why we had our foot on their throat.

The forward line didn't work but it was as much about execution as anything. Rob Murphy had 23 touches as a lead up CHF but turned over more than half of them. Had he executed better I am backing the result may have been different.

We had 3 periods of dominance that we did not capitalise on. In the 1st term we were up 4 goals to 2 and butchered a few forward 50 entriies. We missed a vital chance to put scoreboard pressure on them.

In the third term we had them rattled. We were beating them for pure workrate and hardness and they were feeling it. The 5 massive shots at goal we missed were compounded by some horrible ball use coming inside 50. This is where we let the game slip. It was almost as if we were scared to win it. The hawks did the same against them i round 17.

We also had our chances early in the last but could not take them.

We could go either way from here. They could use this as a valuable learning experience and proof that we can physically match it with the best in finals footy. We could also easily forget how hard we worked and think we will just come straight back to that position next season. I hope they use it as a spur.

Murphy- He was so close to being the match winner. His skills let him down as they have most of the second half of the year.

Cross- Huge workrate and never stopped going.

Boyd- Massive third term. Only had 8 touches in that term but was in everything.

Hargrave- Almost AA in my opinion. Gave Johnson a drubbing and was a damaging rebounder. Does not get the praise he deserves.

Lake- Best player on the ground. Is a better kick than some think and controlled our defensive 50. Good move by Eade to play him on Lonergan.

Morris- Great duel with Mooney. Got a hand in where he had no right a few times.

Callan- Brilliant all night.

Tiller- Had a pretty good finals series. Doesn't have a massive amount of ability so will need that intensity with his spoiling and tackling to be a regular part of his game.

Harbrow- Changed the game a bit. Took the cats on and wasn't intimidated. Loved his dont argue on Scarlett.

Welsh- Injured in the last few games? Hard to say but he didn't add much.

Cooney- Apparently playing with a cracked knee cap. Tried hard but couldn't shake Ling. Meant someone else wasn't getting tagged though.

Higgins- Started well then faded. Good effort to get back from injury.

Johnson- A little bit dissapointing. Should have got that free kick but also should have marked it. Worked hard but cant do what he used to.

Guido- Nice consistent game. Very brave to come back from what happened to his arm and still be in everything.

Griffen- Game was crying out for him to take control but never happened. All the tools are there but he doesn't have the natural football nouse to use them.

[Topdog]

Thanks SS, I couldn't work it out at the time & am even more staggered now as I felt that a) Cooney was taken high & b) he wasn't tackled to the degree he was ********.

That ******** is r e t a r d e d , strange how it filters it!

Yeah can be used in a good way as above. Can be used in other ways as well. Filter ain't smart enough to know context :o

[bornadog]

Welsh- Injured in the last few games? Hard to say but he didn't add much.

Apparently Welsh was used in a negative role ie to take Scarlett's influence out of the game. I thought he did that at times pretty well.

[dog town]

Apparently Welsh was used in a negative role ie to take Scarlett's influence out of the game. I thought he did that at times pretty well. Yeah he seemed to keep him away from the contest. When he was required to be involved he was not up to scratch IMO. I like what Welsh brings but his last third of the season was pretty dissapointing.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

I haven't read too much of last night, I don't really want to, but I will say I am very proud of the boys. They played some seriously good football last night and deserve credit where it's due - but we need to build upon this. We know where we need to improve and we need to try and address these issues. Harbrow, Higgins and Tiller were all fantastic - the improvement from these three has been great.

The backline played as well as I've ever seen - Gilbee, Lake, Morris, Hargrave and Callan were superb.

Cross - does anybody work harder? Unbelievable how much he ran.

Our forward line is ordinary though. Murphy had plenty of it but turned it over. Hahn, Minson, Eagleton and a few others all choked when they had an opportunity to really stick it up Geelong in the third quarter/last quarter. That was extremely disappointing and the reality is that Eagleton should not be on our list for 09.

We can take a lot of positives out of this game, but we need to still make some select calls on our list and continue to improve. We should of won last night and we blew it - we've got to go one step further next year.

Proud of them but still disappointed - it's a strange feeling all mixed into one.

[bornadog]

Yeah he seemed to keep him away from the contest. When he was required to be involved he was not up to scratch IMO. I like what Welsh brings but his last third of the season was pretty dissapointing.

I mentioned on a different thread that he should have been dropped for this game, but was shot down.