PDA

View Full Version : Match Preview- Round 21 - Western Bulldogs VS Geelong Cats



dog town
18-08-2009, 10:38 PM
This game promises to be one of the best games of the season. The cats will be desperate to make a statement and win back some much needed aura and momentum before the finals. We simply have to win to make sure we get the double chance.

Recent Form: Both teams have been below strength and struggled to get up for games. The feeling is that both tams are now on the up though.


Last Time:Last time was as even as it comes. Brad Johnson missed a shot after the siren handing the cats victory. Both teams were missing several key players. Ottens and Mooney missed for the cats while Hargrave and Murphy missed for the dogs.

How we can beat them:

Relentless pressure: Any side that beats Geelong does it by winning the ball back off them through overwhelming pressure.The cats will back themselves to move the ball in numbers through the middle of the ground. It is perhaps the greatest strength they possess but it can be turned against them. It is a style that relies on extreme confidence in each other to support and execute, maybe just maybe that confidence and trust in that style is starting to fade. We need to hit them hard early and keep that doubt strong in there minds. If they overuse the ball once they need to be made to pay for it otherwise the confidence that has evaporated will return quickly given they are returning to full strength now. The other bonus to getting this part of our game right is that we can attack quickly and catch the cats defenders one out. When they turn it over they can often be out of position.

Hit targets inside 50: Everyone knows how well the cats defenders read the play and support each other. It is brilliant to watch but good kicking sides can pick holes in that type of set up. They will finally get something close to there best back 6 up and running this week. They work really well as a unit but we have started to find a way through them over our last 2 encounters. The key is obviously to keep our forwards one out as much as possible. The best way of doing this is to lead at angles and for the player kicking inside 50 to receive on angles which pretty much tells our guys where to lead. If we hesitate and allow them to close us down they will pick us off. Johnson, Higgins,Welsh and co will be the main targets inside 50. Murphy is a huge key for us leading up because he effectively gives us a man to work our attacks off. He will lad up creating space behind him and then hopefull either he or a receiving player can spot up a target. Had Murphy been physically capable of kicking (effectively) in last years preliminary final it is my belief we would have made the grand final. If David Johnson goes to Aker than I would push him deep. I dont think he feels comfortable on Aker when he cant keep him in traffic.

The cats put a lot of faith in Harry Taylor and he has done well for them. That said I think he is vulnerable against our mobile forward line. If he goes to Brad Johnson or Murphy or whoever we need to get them one out opportunities against him. Scarlett will likely be freed up on a Welsh or Minson so they will largely try and pull him deep. Mackie is the general for the cats and calls the shots in the back half. He is good in the contest but runs a direct line down the ground as well. The cats will often sweep the ball wide to him running off half back. His run from behind needs to be cut off.

If we cant find the one out target then we have to be prepared to scrap goals. In a couple of games against strong opposition we have looked like we havent had the stomach for a scrap inside 50. I would like to see us get more goals from entries that are less than perfect.

Expose the cats forward line: This is where we will win the game. We basically want a replay of the preliminary final in this area. We shut down the main smalls in Johnson and Chapman, kept Mooney up the ground while Lake made his opponents look silly inside defensive 50 giving us enormous impetus on the rebound. We can repeat this on friday night. I think Hargrave will take Johnson when forward. He has the runs on the board and Morris will be required elsewhere. Johnson runs very hard and gets most of his goals running back towards goal. Morris will play on Mooney in what is an unbelievably important match up. Mooney is the only player in the side who genuinely leads up and presents hard at the ball.

Most of there forwards Johnson, Stokes, Byrnes, Varcoe, Rooke are all players who either like it kicked long over the top or get a lot of ball running at there own goal from front and square balls/handballs/kicks to space. If Chapman plays forward it throws out our balance a little bit. Gilbee may be forced to take a better player than we would like but IMO keeping Lake on Hawkins/Lonergan or whoever they play deep is a big plus for us. Even if Mooney goes deep I have no problem with Lake going to him. Personally I would bring Callan. I would have faith in him to play on guys like Rooke or Chapman if he had to. We want Harbrow to continue taking the game on but he needs to be wary that the cats think they can expose him. He will be very important if he can maintain his run while also stopping the likes of Stokes and Byrnes.

Win the stoppages: We murdered them at the stoppages last time. Ottens didnt play and we had one of our best centre bounce performances for the year. We can repeat the dose even if Ottens plays. We are well organised in the middle and cover our zones well. We have a step of speed on them in and around the bounces and hopefully if Minson and Hudson fire we will get first hands on the ball. We are better drilled in this area IMO even if they are better man for man.

How they can beat us:

Tag Cooney: I think we can mark it down that Cooney will be tagged. With Griffen out Cooney is the main threat to the cats in the middle. He broke away from stoppages last week and that would concern the cats. They have a good record against Cooney and I think it looms as a win for them if Ling shuts him down. Hope I am wrong.

Expose our defenders: Earlier in the year they were really good at turning our defenders around and isolating the likes of Harbrow and Tiller (think it was him) deep. I recall Stokes in particular got hold of Harbrow earlier in the game and took some marks on him. They come at you a different way to some teams and can break out of the congestion so quickly that they can easily get 10 meters goal side of you if you are not careful.

Pure Midfield Brilliance: I think more than ever they are starting to fall back and rely on the brilliance of Ablett, Bartel and Selwood. I dont think we will tag any one player for the entire game. Picken can go with any of those 3 and I think they are all important in ways. I think we will do a bit of mixing and matching but Boyd, Cooney and co have to match them. They still have the strongest onball division man for man in the competition IMO. I think with Cross and Griffen out Picken might have to be released to win a bit more footy. Ward becomes more important as well.

I dont think we can stop Ablett with any individual tagger. This week is about team defense for us. We just need to make him kick and not allow the cats runners to sting long groups of handballs together. The cats will certainly back themselves to punch holes through our zone given what we have put up of late.

David Johnson will probably go to Aker if he stays in the side. He has done the job many times but struggles a little more when he has to play deep. I would have looked to bring Aker into the midfield mix this week but I think they may struggle for a match up on him.

Amazing backline: As pointed out earlier they are brilliant down back. They cut off leads, mark the ball and generally help each other out at all times. Scarlett will get freed up if they can manufacture it and he will try and set up attacks much like Lake for us. Scarlett plays the Maxfield role pretty well and its something we dont cope with unless we are switched right on. They do have weaker links in that set up though if we are good enough to expose them.

Look for the cats to try and make a statement in this game. They are starting to get players back and nothing but our a game will get us the points. Scoreboard pressure is most important against the cats. They hate the game being alive it stops them from playing with instinct and causes them to second guess some of the things they are doing. If we get them doing that then we have them.

bornadog
18-08-2009, 10:53 PM
DT, I seem to say this every week, but its true, you have once more raised the bar with your preview. Better than any crappy website or newspaper preview.

Callen played against Geelong last time, and really wasn't in form, however, he has more games on the board now, even though its at VFL level, so can be very useful on some of those Geelong smalls. If Tiller comes in then who goes out? Perhaps Wood will be the unlucky one.

Our midfield will have to rely on Boyd, Cooney and a bunch of inexperienced tough nuts in Ward, Reid and Picken.

Hargrave must go to Stevie Johnson, Morris was beaten on him, last time we played them and doesn't have the agility of Hargrave. Not sure if Hargrave has been playing a different role over the past few weeks, as he is not getting the possessions he did earlier on in the year, or is he down on form?

The important players in our forward line are Murphy and Mitch Hahn, they need to fire up like last week when they took 13 and 12 marks respectively.

This game is the start of our finals campaign and should be a cracker.

Happy Days
18-08-2009, 11:04 PM
Abolute corker of a preview DT, well done.

Pressure is paramount when playing Geelong. Like Collingwood showed last year, the way to restrict their gleam through the midfield is to tackle them to the ground and make them dirty. Combine this with our natural class through the middle and we'll go a long way to beating them.

Also, as you said, we will need precise foot skills going into our 50, as if we try that bombing long rubbish against Scarlett, Mackie, Harley (as the 3rd man up), etc., we will be decimated.

I know you said that we shouldn't bother tagging Ablett, but I think Picken should at least have a crack. Corey is not fully firing this season, and Bartel/Selwood are more inside types. It's at least worth a crack for the first quarter, and if it doesn't work, we could put Ablett head to head with Boyd, and send Picken on to Corey, whom he is more than capable of shutting down.

Sedat
18-08-2009, 11:20 PM
Fantastic preview Dog Town, just a pleasure to read through.

I missed the Brisbane game - was DFA used in the Michael Osborne defensive forward type role again? I think he would be better suited to this role against the Cats than he was against the Eagles. The Cats defenders peel off their designated opponents more often than not, so they can be caught out of position if our incoming midfielders raise their eyes and spot up the free players inside 50. We really need the defensive efforts in our forward line to match and even exceed the other contenders, and DFA has the tools to provide this effort up forward for us.

Also I think you'll find Varcoe is out injured this week. And Stokes has really been treading water over the last few weeks and is in nowhere near the form he was earlier this season. Harbrow and Ward really enhanced their credentials in the last qtr against the Cats earlier this season - both have improved significantly since the last game. We also need Shaggy to recapture his white hot mid season form as well. Will be very interesting to see how Geelong structure up - will they risk Ottens? And if they do, who will be sacrificed out of Mumford and Blake? Massive opportunity for Hudson and Minson to stamp their authority on the ruck contests.

ratsmac
18-08-2009, 11:36 PM
Great preview!!
For us to beat Geelong we need 22 contributors, and thats it in a nutshell. When we play poorly there's too many players that go missing. Thats what make good teams great, ie Hawthorn 2008.

dog town
19-08-2009, 06:32 AM
.

I know you said that we shouldn't bother tagging Ablett, but I think Picken should at least have a crack. Corey is not fully firing this season, and Bartel/Selwood are more inside types. It's at least worth a crack for the first quarter, and if it doesn't work, we could put Ablett head to head with Boyd, and send Picken on to Corey, whom he is more than capable of shutting down. Purely my opinion only. I am sure he will run with him at some stage but I just think its risky playing a midfielder in a purely negating role when we already have Griffen and Cross out. Takes away a lot of our ball winning capacity particularly if they sit Ling on Cooney.

Go_Dogs
19-08-2009, 08:55 AM
Great read DT, thanks.

Mantis
19-08-2009, 09:02 AM
Great work dt, but the 'Maxfield role'... what the?? As bornadog mentioned I think we are very lucky to have so many knowledgeable posters on this site who give us a great insight into upcoming games. In terms of tactical discussion the bar has been raised again.

As you mentioned we cannot afford our defenders to be turned around as often as they where as last time around. Stokes & Johnson both caused us problems through overhead strength & agility on their respective opponents, we can't allow such advantages this time around.

The midfield battle will again be the key, really looking forward to seeing Ward going head to head with Selwood again, Callan really took it up to Joel after the 1st qtr of our game earlier in the season and I would like to see much of the same.

Akermanis & Johnson loom as important players, they both played excellent games last time around and they don't seem to have logical match-up's, but in saying that we need a contribution from all of our forwards. Our forwards will rely on quick & clean ball movement so hopefully our players upfield can provide this.

As 'ratsmac' posted we need an even contribution across the board this week, we can't afford any passengers. Both teams will be looking to make a statement in the lead up to the finals, I hope our statement is more pronounced.

LostDoggy
19-08-2009, 09:08 AM
Very incisive preview DT.

As you mentioned, Stokes got at Harbrow last time in the air where Harbrow has little knowledge of how to use his body (what there is of it) in the marking contest.

They will seek a repeat of that irrespective of who plays down there. I trust that the coaches have been working with Harbrow in this area.

We must transition back to the forward line and maintain our structure to avoid the the ball being bombed to a host of Cat defenders with no oppposition.

Our failure to hold our structure when we zone back has been one of our key weakneses this year.

Scraggers
19-08-2009, 11:19 AM
Great preview DT :)

Mantis
19-08-2009, 11:25 AM
We must transition back to the forward line and maintain our structure to avoid the the ball being bombed to a host of Cat defenders with no oppposition.

Our failure to hold our structure when we zone back has been one of our key weakneses this year.

Agree with that EJ.

One area of particular concern is from the oppositions kick out after a point. Our defenders push up the ground to help with the zone, but if the ball is moved quickly they do not have time to get back. This was particularly evident against WC who exploited this to a tee with Hurn's long range bombs. It must be said we didn't help the cause by kicking 11 points in a row.

anfo27
19-08-2009, 12:36 PM
Great work with the preview DT, enjoyed reading it. I have been a member for nearly 2 weeks & i have to say i am very impressed with the knowledge people have on this forum. Its quite refreshing to read such knowledgeable posts from fellow bulldogs people, really pleased i found this forum. Great work guys & keep it up its enjoyable reading.

I just hope our pressure is on from the start. Whenever our defensive pressure is spot on & we hunt the opposition everything else seems to follow suit. Its time to stand up & be counted , leave nothing behind boys.

bornadog
19-08-2009, 02:35 PM
The form of both teams:

Geelong

has won just four of its past seven matches and three of those wins have by less than a kick against Hawthorn, Adelaide and last week against Sydney at ANZ Stadium.

Bulldogs

We have also only won 4 of the last 7 with losses to Collingwood,1 point, Westcoast 5 points and Saints.

LostDoggy
19-08-2009, 02:50 PM
The form of both teams:

Geelong

has won just four of its past seven matches and three of those wins have by less than a kick against Hawthorn, Adelaide and last week against Sydney at ANZ Stadium.

Bulldogs

We have also only won 4 of the last 7 with losses to Collingwood,1 point, Westcoast 5 points and Saints.

Very interesting stat, i like it!
Close wins for the cats, and near misses for the dogs.

dog town
19-08-2009, 05:01 PM
Great work dt, but the 'Maxfield role'... what the?? . My bad ;) Meant to read Maxwell, I think Harley and Maxwell play pretty similar roles and even lead in a similar fashion.

Raw Toast
19-08-2009, 09:29 PM
Great preview DT.

I agree that the Cooney v Ling contest is likely to have a huge bearing on the game. Cooney played his heart out for Eagle last week, but he has been known to drop his head... At half-time against West Coast I complained that Cooney wasn't taking the opposition on and trying to create like he did so well last year - I thought maybe his body wasn't up to it this year, but he started bursting away in the second half, and then did it against Brisbane, so there is some hope there.

Last time we tried Ward against Selwood - he was toasted early, but came back into it. Be interesting to see if he gets that role again. Selwood is actually the one I would tag if we were going to tag anyone, I reckon he's the one that stands up more than any of their other players when the game is there to be won.

Be interesting to see how many players they bring back for this game. We ran them ragged last time, and if they have too many underdone, we might see them succumbing to a few soft-tissue injuries in the second half.

We should have a fitness edge, but I hope we use it by taking them on and trying to run them off their feet again, rather than by playing defensively for the first half to three quarters, and then opening them up in the last. That said, if we can match them around the ball and turn the game into a hard-fought scrap, I think we'll wear them down like we have to a few teams in the past two seasons (eg Sydney in the finals last year).

Be interesting to see which, if any, of our forwards stand up and take their chances. Aker was obviously on fire last time, and Johnno was very good until that last kick. A part of me thinks that Minson is not too far away from a break-out game against a contender, and if he can take a big mark early and convert, our forward structure will be much more dangerous (Scarlett is a bit undersized, and if we could force him onto someone like Johnno that would be great - I know this is probably a bit too optimistic).

Who will make way for Ottens if he comes in? Will they stock up on runners, or just bring him in for Varcoe? Tenace is a change for a game I think.

And can we stop them slicing through the middle of our zone? This is where I think Tiller might be a useful inclusion - I'm not sold on him, but we need someone who can stick some early bone-shattering tackles in the midfield, and Tiller has shown he can do this.
I agree though, that Callan should come in for Williams.

LostDoggy
20-08-2009, 10:15 AM
Good work on the preview!

I think we may struggle in the midfield..we have no Griffin for them to be distracted by..

Will Sam Reid get a tagging job? and who will he go with?