The road to the GF - Game 1 Brisbane - Game 2 StKilda

[angelopetraglia]

So we are down to six teams.

The GF will now be Saints, Dogs or Lions Vs Cats, Pies or Crows.

The road for the WB to the GF is get past Brisbane then StKilda.

Brisbane - our record against them is very good. We have 5 out of the last 6 including a good win on their home soil a few weeks ago. They are also struggling with injuries. If we bring our best footy we should win. Going out in straight sets would be humiliating and set the club back years.

StKilda - a completely different proposition. We have only won 2 out of our last 9 games (also one draw). However our last 8 games against them have been at Docklands. We have not played them at the MCG since 2005. Just can't see us beating the Saints with their twin towers up forward and also the amount of defensive pressure they have been able to apply tp us in two games this year.

[LostDoggy]

Tough ask, but who knows?

[LostDoggy]

Tough ask, but who knows?

Guess we need to use the old line.......one week at the time..........if we get over Brisbane and play well, then who knows?

[Dry Rot]

Should do the Lions, especially with their injuries, then lose again to Saints.

[Mantis]

Should do the Lions, especially with their injuries, then lose again to Saints.

Doesn't matter much that we are a 4 to 5 goal better side than them anyways.

[DOG GOD]

I'm quietly confident against the Lions, but we are no hope against the saints, with the twin towers and their defensive pressure. Our fwd line will be eaten alive by their defense.

[AndrewP6]

I'll do my best to enjoy the game vs Brisbane... if we can get up, that'll be our last win for '09...

[LostDoggy]

I'll do my best to enjoy the game vs Brisbane... if we can get up, that'll be our last win for '09...

+1

Will sit there on Friday night enjoying the win (hopefully), then watch us drop another pre-lim.

[Max469]

You know what - we played crap -catch up footy again yesterday and it did not pay off.

I am just like everyone and hate it when we don't win and do stupid things when we could have won the game.

Well we didn't win it and next week is another game.

I hope the players don't think like the Media and the members of forums do as they may as well not even line up next week against Brisbane, as it they think it will be a lost cause even if we win the game.


Well may be it will be and maybe it won't be. A week is a long time in Football.

The weeks break does not always go down well with some teams - who knows that maybe the case with the Saints.

Yes, they need to hit their targets, win the clearances and tackle but if any of the DOGS players are reading this or any other forum - DON'T GIVE UP - YOU CAN DO IT.

I don't care if no one else agrees with me - I LOVE THE DOGS - WIN OR LOSE and I have followed them for 40 years. So I have seen the ups and downs too.

COME ON DOGS _ DO IT!!!!!!!!!

[boydogs]

We have not been great frontrunners, but lets see what we can do against the Saints as underdogs - might just bring out the best in them

[LostDoggy]

Can someone please tell me why next weeks game is at the MCG rather than Ethiad stadium?????? If Brisbane had finished 3rd the dogs would have to travel to the GABBA!
Why can't we play at our home ground?????? We earned it!

[LostDoggy]

P.S I know the GF is played on the MCG so the experience would be for the better, but just throwing the question out there.

[1eyedog]

Kosi and Riewoldt are not as big of concerns as St. Kilda's mids. I reckon we will beat Brisbane and also St. Kilda to get into the Grand Final. It's a toss of the coin how we will go against the Cats.

[LostDoggy]

Kosi and Riewoldt are not as big of concerns as St. Kilda's mids. I reckon we will beat Brisbane and also St. Kilda to get into the Grand Final. It's a toss of the coin how we will go against the Cats.

I too reckon we will play the cats on the last day in september.

[The Coon Dog]

Can someone please tell me why next weeks game is at the MCG rather than Ethiad stadium?????? If Brisbane had finished 3rd the dogs would have to travel to the GABBA!
Why can't we play at our home ground?????? We earned it!

Because the Melbourne Storm are playing there on Friday night. Mantis mentioned it earlier in another thread.

Last year we smashed them at the MCG.

[BulldogBelle]

I too reckon we will play the cats on the last day in september.

I agree, never lose hope.

[lemmon]

I watched the St Kilda game today and their pressure on Collingwood coming out of their back half was insane. For the Pies it was bomb it and hope only for the Saints to mop up and come in from a differant angle. Honestly the only side I could possibly see standing up to that is the cats, I hope I'm wrong but its a massive ask.

[cambo]

You know what - we played crap -catch up footy again yesterday and it did not pay off.

I am just like everyone and hate it when we don't win and do stupid things when we could have won the game.

Well we didn't win it and next week is another game.

I hope the players don't think like the Media and the members of forums do as they may as well not even line up next week against Brisbane, as it they think it will be a lost cause even if we win the game.


Well may be it will be and maybe it won't be. A week is a long time in Football.

The weeks break does not always go down well with some teams - who knows that maybe the case with the Saints.

Yes, they need to hit their targets, win the clearances and tackle but if any of the DOGS players are reading this or any other forum - DON'T GIVE UP - YOU CAN DO IT.

I don't care if no one else agrees with me - I LOVE THE DOGS - WIN OR LOSE and I have followed them for 40 years. So I have seen the ups and downs too.

COME ON DOGS _ DO IT!!!!!!!!!

could not agree with you anymore, I to have followed doggies for 40 years, to be the best you must beat the best, if the boys turn up with there a grade game we can do it!!

[The Coon Dog]

I watched the St Kilda game today and their pressure on Collingwood coming out of their back half was insane. For the Pies it was bomb it and hope only for the Saints to mop up and come in from a differant angle. Honestly the only side I could possibly see standing up to that is the cats, I hope I'm wrong but its a massive ask.
What did Essendon & North Melbourne do that others have failed to do?

They're not over the line just yet. Who knows, they might be just a touch complacent.

[lemmon]

What did Essendon & North Melbourne do that others have failed to do?

They're not over the line just yet. Who knows, they might be just a touch complacent.

Im not sure it was what North and the Dons did but rather what St Kilda didnt do. They had top spot in the bag and so put the cue in the rack. Its hard to be that desperate when theres nothing to play for.

[Stefcep]

Lets not get ahead of ourselves talking about why we'll lose against the Saints-there's still Brisbane to beat. It won't be as easy as people seem to think.

[LostDoggy]

When Essendon played St Kilda, that put big frontal pressure (i think thats what they call it) on the ball carrier. They didn't allow there backs and midfielders to run the ball, every time a St Kilda player got it, there was a Essendon player right there to block any movement.

This is the only chance we have got against the Saints, strong hard pressure on the ball carrier & do it for four quarters.

[boydogs]

This is the only chance we have got against the Saints, strong hard pressure on the ball carrier & do it for four quarters.

I think the way you beat the Saints is to out-defend them. They really don't have much scoring firepower, despite their intimidating tall forwards. Despite losing only two games all season, they have averaged less than 100 points a game. If they keep you to 10 goals, you just have to keep them to 9.

If you can stop them scoring for long periods, much like in cricket, then they will start to get desperate, take risks and turn the ball over. The problem is Riewoldt and Kosi, in the game today you could see Collingwood were on top and St Kilda were wondering where the next goal would come from, enter Riewoldt and suddenly the Saints were back in front and happy to close things down and slow the game again

You will score more goals from centre clearances and turnovers than coast to coast out of defense. As soon as you acknowledge this you stop running yourself into a corner and turning the ball over in dangerous positions where they can score their goals rather than taking risks themselves. Kick the ball long down the line and beat them in contested situations. Pressure their ball use to create the opportunities to score yourself

[jazzadogs]

Saints have lost 4 prelims in the last 5 years. Coming off the greatest home and away season in their history, gonna be a fair bit of pressure on them. We have the ability, just got to use it.

But anyway...Brisbane.

[LostDoggy]

The Saints are beatable. They are front runners and they showed that against North, they started arguing amongst themselves. We looked lost at the G, so the run can only do us good. Griffen will be better for the run, and we need to get better at the clearances. The Saints and the Cats have shown, you get beat at the stoppages around the ground, you are going to get beat. Keep the faith comrades, we can still win it!

[The Coon Dog]

Im not sure it was what North and the Dons did but rather what St Kilda didnt do. They had top spot in the bag and so put the cue in the rack. Its hard to be that desperate when theres nothing to play for.

Nothing to play for? The first team ever to go through a season undefeated & create a unique piece of history is something I thought they would have up for.

[LostDoggy]

Should defeat Brisbane, St. Kilda is a tough ask they would either have to be off the boil a little bit or we would have to play exceptionally well.

[ledge]

Sounds like you have all thrown in the towel, i think we are a big chance to beat the saints, we only lost because we missed a few goals, it means we are as good as anyone we just missed shots at goal, if we get them this week and next week we will win.

[mighty_west]

We can beat any of the teams remaining if we bring our A game, if Brisbane bring their A game this week against us, like they did aginst Carlton and show the same intensity & fight, we will have to play damn good footy to beat them as well, don't worry about teams with a few injuries, Johnson & Rooke are 2 of Geelongs better players, Brisbane had 3 or 4 players playing on one leg on the weekend.

That said, i can't see why we cannot win the next 3 games.

[LostDoggy]

Obviously we need to beat brisbane first but theres nothing wrong with us supporters
hypothesizing about how we will go against the saints..I think we will have learnt a lot
from the last time we played them, and will have more room to work playing them at the G.

Also our form line (assuming we get over brisbane) will be very good going into the prelim,
much better than it was last time we played the saints. We will have played a top side every week for the last month and a half by the time we reach the saints and won all but one.

I wont be looking forward to watching it though. I can watch nearly anything but the dogs v saints game from round 17 i find nearly unwatchable. I keep trying to sit through it but its just stoppage after stoppage ....

[LostDoggy]

We are not sure to beat the lions but we are not certain we would lose to the saints.

Stranger things have happened in football.

I still believe. ...but I will spit the dummy in a big way if we lose to the Lions.

[BulldogBelle]

If we focus (the players) too much on the game against the Saints we wont beat the Lions....one week at a time...but for the purposes of this forum here is our magic formula to beat the Saints

How do we beat the Saints?
-Frontal pressure
-Play ugly football ie crowd the ball, create stoppages, flood back
-Run harder than they do into space as soon as we have the ball on the rebound
-Hit them hard and slam them into the ground every time we tackle them
-Have a man dropping in front of Riewolt on the lead...ie a ruckman or Welsh, and block his path to lead
-RUN RUN RUN into space to create opportunity's when we have the ball