How does Eade assess this loss

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Would he concentrate on the fact that we ultimately could've won the game, or will a large part of the review focus around our 2 huge lapses in the 1st Qtr and 1st 10 minutes of the third?

I don't think he can gloss over those poor parts of the play, but on the flipside I think he has to harness the positives from the last 35 minutes of the game in order to get us to focus on next week's game and beyond.

Perhaps reinforcing to them that that last quarter and a bit must be the team benchmark that the group have to maintain from here on in. No less an effort, no less endeavour and no less execution of the skills shown in that period of play.

[Remi Moses]

Must turn around this turnover disease! We're continually giving sides goals:mad::mad:

[GVGjr]

I think some of the questions about certain players were answered tonight.

The same fountain of youth that Tredrea and Lade have been having a drink from has somehow been located by Akermanis (for the last few weeks) and Johnson (tonight). Even Eagleton put in a solid performance.
In summary there is still some life left in 'the old boys'

Minson is improving and works well with Hudson
Ward might have added another string to his bow and perhaps a role across half back awaits him.

Welsh, although quiet tonight, does a lot of grunt work in the forward line and once we get some more consistency from Cooney, who's still underdone, and Griffen we are still a top 4 side.

[Remi Moses]

Ryan Griffen needs to get a tank he always looks stuffed

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

I think some of the questions about certain players were answered tonight.

The same fountain of youth that Tredrea and Lade have been having a drink from has somehow been located by Akermanis (for the last few weeks) and Johnson (tonight). Even Eagleton put in a solid performance.
In summary there is still some life left in 'the old boys'

Minson is improving and works well with Hudson
Ward might have added another string to his bow and perhaps a role across half back awaits him.

Welsh, although quiet tonight, does a lot of grunt work in the forward line and once we get some more consistency from Cooney, who's still underdone, and Griffen we are still a top 4 side.

Agree. Johnno's performance was a welcome return to form. I wonder if Eade's question on SEN this week when asked about Aker's future and he turned it around and said "How come noone is asking about Johnno's future beyond this year?"...struck a chord with Johnno.
I thought overall Minson's performance tonight was very mature.
Aker's performance is one of the best 300th game's I've seen from a player.

[Happy Days]

Welsh, although quiet tonight, does a lot of grunt work in the forward line and once we get some more consistency from Cooney, who's still underdone, and Griffen we are still a top 4 side.

Does this make Hahn redundant?

He wasn't too great tonight.

Great effort by the boys tonight, could be happier, but couldn't be prouder.

[craigsahibee]

Ryan Griffen needs to get a tank he always looks stuffed

Agree. Is a burst player at the moment. Turned it on for the first half of the last quarter but ran out of gas.

Callan Ward will never play for Williamstown again after tonight.

[GVGjr]

I thought overall Minson's performance tonight was very mature.
Aker's performance is one of the best 300th game's I've seen from a player.

No knock on Hudson but we were a lot better when Minson was in the ruck. We seemed to get a run on when he was in the middle. As you say it was a solid effort.

Aker was once again just brilliant and he dominated a fair portion of the game even with all the attention David Johnston was giving him.

Rocket should be happy enough with both of these guys.

[Stefcep]

Agree. Is a burst player at the moment. Turned it on for the first half of the last quarter but ran out of gas.

Callan Ward will never play for Williamstown again after tonight.

What about Griffens low kicks at goal? Thats not new, I've seen him fail to clear the pack from 25 out and tonight he hit the post.

This match was the making of Ward.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Ward was absolutely sensational.

Higgins was brilliant too - he is clearly carrying a groin injury but I can't stress how good the guy was.

IMO this was the making of BOTH these players. Hopefully Higgo is OK though.

[bornadog]

Ryan Griffen needs to get a tank he always looks stuffed

Played a great game though.

[LostDoggy]

I think some of the questions about certain players were answered Minson is improving and works well with Hudson


I thought Minson was the best performed ruckman on the ground tonight, seemed to win a lot of taps to clear advantage freeing up Boyd, Cross et al to deliver forward. He also competed well in the forward line in the last quarter with a good contested grab and then a strong contest where he recovered his own ball.

It will be interesting to see if he can play that well against Ottens when he returns.

[LostDoggy]

Does this make Hahn redundant?

He wasn't too great tonight.

Great effort by the boys tonight, could be happier, but couldn't be prouder.

Hahn did some good things I thought -- definitely was present in many contests at ground level, won a 2-on-1 once, and kicked the ball to Johnno at the end there (although a classier forward ie. Aker would have snapped at goal and kicked it).

[LostDoggy]

Agree. Johnno's performance was a welcome return to form. I wonder if Eade's question on SEN this week when asked about Aker's future and he turned it around and said "How come noone is asking about Johnno's future beyond this year?"...struck a chord with Johnno.
I thought overall Minson's performance tonight was very mature.
Aker's performance is one of the best 300th game's I've seen from a player.

Topped only by Johnno's, surely.

[LostDoggy]

Eade's press conference is up on the Dogs site, check it out. Rocket is very disappointed.

[Mantis]

Eade's press conference is up on the Dogs site, check it out. Rocket is very disappointed.

What did he say?

[The Coon Dog]

Johnson not to blame: Eade (http://www.westernbulldogs.com.au/season2009/news/newsarticle/tabid/4112/newsid/77424/default.aspx)

http://mm.afl.com.au/Portals/0/images/AFL/AFL%20A-E/johnson-miss-l.jpg

WESTERN Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade refused to lay any blame at skipper Brad Johnson after he missed a set shot after the siren that would have won Friday night’s game against Geelong.

Johnson marked between the right-hand goal post and the behind post with four seconds remaining as the Cats led by three points.

The siren sounded as Johnson lined up and he opted for a right-foot checkside kick. But it slid across the face of goal for a behind to leave the Dogs as two-point losers.

“He was beating himself up a bit [after the game],” Eade said. “He takes that personally but it is not just one act that wins or loses you a game.

“That sort of kick he practises a lot, we practise goalkicking and different situations and different angles.

“I think he just rushed it a little bit. It is all ifs, buts, maybes after it has gone but after he heard the siren maybe he could have gone back; I don’t know.

“Anyway, it was certainly a tight angle but he didn’t kick it.”

Eade said it was the’ Dogs best performance of the season, given the opposition, but the side was still shattered to lose.

“We came here to win, we didn’t come here to have an encouraging loss and push the top side who have belted everyone else,” Eade said.

“It was disappointing, we could have won so there are some positives out of the game.

“Individually and as a team we worked extremely hard but probably a couple of 10 minutes bursts cost us.”

Eade also said errant kicking at goal during the third quarter had proved fatal.

“They were 37 [points] up and we kicked 3.5 for the rest of the quarter, four of those were set shots,” he said.

“We’ve just got to be able to kick those. We [also] hit the post a few times [four] but you can’t change that.”

The Dogs have one injury concern with defender Lindsay Gilbee facing possible scans on an injured leg.

But Eade was hopeful he would be okay to face Sydney Swans next weekend in Canberra.

He said the gap between the Dogs and Geelong was closing although the challenge was to keep up the intensity.

“We don’t believe we are far off teams in the competition, we believe we can compete with anyone,” Eade said.

“I don’t think we have as many stars as other teams, as many ‘A’ graders, but we are a pretty even side and we need that consistent effort across the board from every player, and I think we got that tonight.”

But he still had thoughts of the one that got away.

“Honourable losses don’t really count for anything on the scoreboard do they?” Eade said.

“If you play a great shot in cricket and get caught an inch off the ground doesn’t mean you played a good shot, it means you’re out.”

[lemmon]

A few have mentioned Welsh and even if he didnt get a lot of it tonight, what he did was very good. I hadnt realised how clean his hands were, those little gives and trapping the ball is absolute class.

[MrMahatma]

I think the first quarter and our continual turn overs need to be assessed.

A few come to mind, none more than Lake's dropped mark. There were a couple of others where guys just turned it over, 3 or 4 in the first quarter, and they led to goals.

If we don't do that we win. If we don't turn it over we're probably the best team going around.

[dog town]

Higgins was brilliant too - he is clearly carrying a groin injury but I can't stress how good the guy was.

IMO this was the making of BOTH these players. Hopefully Higgo is OK though. This is a huge positive. Higgins still had an impact despite being clearly hampered. I think we can expect more from Higgins in any rematch between the 2 sides.

[azabob]

What did he say?

Other than what is quoted in the article on this thread, he mentioned next weeks game is vital we must win it.
He thought Griffen's pressure early on was good and he really tore it up in the second half. Eade seemed happy with Griffen. He mentioned Cooney was poor early on but when we were 6 goals down he thought Cooney started getting into the game and moving well.

I couldn't get the last minuate to play so Im not sure what else he said.

[Stefcep]

Eade was at the game wasn't he? I would have put Cooney and Griffen second last and last respectively in our list of best players. I think they both put in about 3 minutes of effective play-between them.

[Desipura]

I thought we unsettled them with Minson in our fwd line in the last qtr, was calling for a tall much earlier. Aker went off late in the 3rd qtr after he kicked a goal. He did not return back onto the ground until the 15 minute mark, I thought at the time he should have come on earlier.

[boydogs]

I thought we unsettled them with Minson in our fwd line in the last qtr, was calling for a tall much earlier. Aker went off late in the 3rd qtr after he kicked a goal. He did not return back onto the ground until the 15 minute mark, I thought at the time he should have come on earlier.

He did a lot of Rob Murphy work along with Johnno. If Murph was playing we could have left him on and we would have won

[bornadog]

Eade was at the game wasn't he? I would have put Cooney and Griffen second last and last respectively in our list of best players. I think they both put in about 3 minutes of effective play-between them.

Are you serious about Griffen. Nine tackles, four inside 50's, two goal assists 18 quality disposals and kicked 2.1.

Interesting analysis by Buckley that Ablett may have had 26 handballs but the majority didn't hurt the dogs, its his kicks that hurt the opposition.

Cooney was poor in the first half but did ramp up in the third and final quarter.

[AndrewP6]

Are you serious about Griffen. Nine tackles, four inside 50's, two goal assists 18 quality disposals and kicked 2.1.

Interesting analysis by Buckley that Ablett may have had 26 handballs but the majority didn't hurt the dogs, its his kicks that hurt the opposition.

Cooney was poor in the first half but did ramp up in the third and final quarter.

Agree with these points... thought Griff actually worked harder last night than in recent times. Ablett had 38 disposals, but I didn't think tore the game apart. Coon did improve. Wonder how his knee/general fitness is?

[LostDoggy]

Are you serious about Griffen. Nine tackles, four inside 50's, two goal assists 18 quality disposals and kicked 2.1.

Interesting analysis by Buckley that Ablett may have had 26 handballs but the majority didn't hurt the dogs, its his kicks that hurt the opposition.

Cooney was poor in the first half but did ramp up in the third and final quarter.

Just goes to show how most supporters don't really yet know how to appreciate the hard grunt work that really gets a team going, and only notice the flashy stuff -- they're the same people who would value a Dale Thomas over a Scott West. Westy used to cop much of the same criticism too.

Griff was one of our most important players last night, make no mistake about it. The coach certainly knows it.

--

re: the point that Buckley was making -- I think he's missing the point about Geelong's style of play. The fact that Gablett handballs so much is also why he and the rest of the Cats are so hard to tackle, because they move the ball so quickly. It's not about penetration when they handball -- it's about getting a player free to dispose of the ball effectively. Not sure Bucks really knows what he's talking about here -- he was the classic 'every possession has to hurt the opposition' player, but if he doesn't really get Geelong's game style, I don't think it bodes well for him as a potential senior coach.

[ledge]

Abletts handballs are because he usually doesnt get time to get it on the boot, tagged by the best, its a matter of handballing as soon as its in your hands, a kick takes too long.
To see his effectiveness is to look where he he handballs it too, 95% would got to another Geelong player i would imagine.
Your spot on Lantern dont look at his handballs to look at his effectiveness look at what the next bloke who receives its position is.
Ablett is better and quicker than Greg Williams with his handballs.

[Stefcep]

Are you serious about Griffen. Nine tackles, four inside 50's, two goal assists 18 quality disposals and kicked 2.1.

Interesting analysis by Buckley that Ablett may have had 26 handballs but the majority didn't hurt the dogs, its his kicks that hurt the opposition.

Cooney was poor in the first half but did ramp up in the third and final quarter.

Well Griffen's stats are an example of when stats lie about a players influence on the game. Is Griffen on the ground to make tackles or win the ball in the center and set up the forwards? Where was he when Ablett, Selwood and co were running amok for 3 quarters? Quality disposals? Like bombing it into the forward line 50 meters up and 50 meters down to no-one. 2 Goals fair enough, but what about the low shot to an open goal that hit the base of the post? Overall I thought his disposal was ordinary. i was amazed that Griffens game was ranked higher than Akermanis's by the Herald Sun. Just my opinion.

[Stefcep]

Abletts handballs are because he usually doesnt get time to get it on the boot, tagged by the best, its a matter of handballing as soon as its in your hands, a kick takes too long.
To see his effectiveness is to look where he he handballs it too, 95% would got to another Geelong player i would imagine.
Your spot on Lantern dont look at his handballs to look at his effectiveness look at what the next bloke who receives its position is.
Ablett is better and quicker than Greg Williams with his handballs.

Abletts arms are hardly ever pinned to his sides: he lifts his arms up so that he gets tackled around the waist, leaving his hands free to hand pass. Secondly he can stand up in the tackle well beacsue of his leg strength. (thirdly the umps seem to give him a second prior opportunity whereas everyone else gets only one prior opportunity). Geelong players have a tactic where if they're tackled they handball out to space, and the team mates know this so they run to the space. Thats why very few freekicks for holding the ball go against them

[Stefcep]

Just goes to show how most supporters don't really yet know how to appreciate the hard grunt work that really gets a team going,


We have Cross to do the grunt work. Griffen and Cooney are there to dominate the game, to win the ball out of the middle with pace, sure hands and accurate passes to the forwards, and kick the occasional goals on the run. They're our Abletts, Selwoods, Mitchells. i don't give a fig about Griffens hardball, thats Cross's job, its griffens job to receive, or run onto a ruck tap, break the pack, and nail his pass or score the goal. yep its flashy, but thats why he's in the team.

I appreciate that S West was one of the most important player we ever had, but griffens not in the side to do what Westy did.

[FrediKanoute]

Does this make Hahn redundant?

He wasn't too great tonight.

Great effort by the boys tonight, could be happier, but couldn't be prouder.

Hahn is a worry. Haven´t seen a game this year, but based on peoples comments he seems to be struggling. Could he be a little bit of trade bait come seasons end with GC?

[The Coon Dog]

Hahn is a worry. Haven´t seen a game this year, but based on peoples comments he seems to be struggling. Could he be a little bit of trade bait come seasons end with GC?

I wouldn't think GC17 would be looking at someone like Mitch Hahn, plus it would be the end of the following year. They're more interested in players they can get at least 5 seasons out of I would have thought.

[Topdog]

Well Griffen's stats are an example of when stats lie about a players influence on the game. Is Griffen on the ground to make tackles or win the ball in the center and set up the forwards? Where was he when Ablett, Selwood and co were running amok for 3 quarters? Quality disposals? Like bombing it into the forward line 50 meters up and 50 meters down to no-one. 2 Goals fair enough, but what about the low shot to an open goal that hit the base of the post? Overall I thought his disposal was ordinary. i was amazed that Griffens game was ranked higher than Akermanis's by the Herald Sun. Just my opinion.

Watch the game again. Griffen was super important and played his best game of the year since Round 1.

Speaking of bombing it no where Aker did that about 5 or 6 times during the game. His disposal was down all night (bar shots at goal!)

[Sedat]

Are you serious about Griffen. Nine tackles, four inside 50's, two goal assists 18 quality disposals and kicked 2.1.
Because he's not gathering cheap kicks off half back and doing the old give and get, he's not being noticed by the majority of media cretins who simply look at the stats sheet. Griff was in our best 5 players again tonight and had a telling impact on most occasions that he was involved. His defensive work was terrific and his work in the clearances against the best midfield currently going around was fantastic.

[LostDoggy]

I appreciate that S West was one of the most important player we ever had, but griffens not in the side to do what Westy did.

I think you are digging a hole for yourself Stefcep.

The stats show that Griff put in a pretty good game. I dont really care how he gets his possessions as long as he does contribute.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Hahn is a worry. Haven´t seen a game this year, but based on peoples comments he seems to be struggling. Could he be a little bit of trade bait come seasons end with GC?

Fredi - In Hahns defence he looks to have been carrying something and I thought he was better on Friday night, a solid contributor. Perhaps he doesn't play the type of role where we expect high possessions and unfortunately his finishing is hit or miss. He got shots at goal Friday just didn't convert and his trademark bullocking work was good.

[Desipura]

Fredi - In Hahns defence he looks to have been carrying something and I thought he was better on Friday night, a solid contributor. Perhaps he doesn't play the type of role where we expect high possessions and unfortunately his finishing is hit or miss. He got shots at goal Friday just didn't convert and his trademark bullocking work was good.
that would be a cracked rib he is carrying.