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View Full Version : Round 18 Preview, Dogs v Roos.



Sockeye Salmon
29-07-2010, 10:00 AM
I’ve been handed the baton to write this week’s preview.

My first reaction was, “No problems”. Now I’ve started writing it has struck me that I don’t actually ever watch a game anymore that doesn’t involve the Dogs, which means I’ve seen the Roos play precisely once this year. Oh well, here goes.



Why we want to win
You don’t drop games like this in August and still finish top 4.

Why they want to win
With Sydney and Carlton playing Geelong and Collingwood, North have a massive chance to make up for their monumental balls up last week. North are just the one game out but their % is crap (that’s partly our fault). They do have winnable games coming up against Freo, WCE and Melbourne so they could still sneak in.


Last time they met

Us: P-lenty
Them: Bugger all.
(127-57 for those of you who are pedantic).

One of the most thuggish games of AFL footy seen in years. Behind the play sniping like you see in bush reserves footy but a very disciplined Dogs side put their collective heads over the ball and put North to the sword.

You might remember there was a tiny bit of publicity about that Hall bloke trying to choke to death a no talent hack named Thompson (which cost Baz 3 large). I admit I was very worried that our Hall experiment was going to end that day (possibly with Hall on murder charges).

The thing that amazed me most was the North supporters giving their side a standing ovation at half time when they were about 8 goals behind. Easily pleased, obviously.

Brian Lake broke the record for the most possessions for a defender ever and while Josh Hill kicked 4, we had 13 different goalkickers.


Form

We’re in a run as good as I can remember in years. We’ve won 5 out of our last 6 (by an average of more than 10 goals!) and our only loss was by 3 points to a flying Hawthorn (in a game we should have won).

We seem to have got over the obsession with kicking the ball to Hall every time we go forward and have had big numbers of goalkickers each week.

North have only won 2 of their last 5, dropping games against Essendon, Geelong and Sydney. Their two wins have been against Port and Richmond.


Team selections

Eade has already said Ward will miss and Jones will play. While it’s always exciting to see a new kid debut, I wonder how we will use Jones, Grant and Hall up forward considering our other usual forwards – Johnson, Higgins and Giansiracusa – aren’t exactly blessed with blistering pace. I wonder if Eade will do a Phil Davis and rest Grant as a reward for getting a rising star gong at last?

So where does that leave Everitt? I thought his first half especially was very good last week and only team balance would stop him from being the replacement for Ward. Jones is hardly a like for like replacement for Ward either so I have no idea what Eade has in mind.

What I do know, however, is Moles >>>>> Eagleton and any suggestion that Eagle should get a recall needs to be put to bed.

North are missing quite a few. Petrie, Wells, Anthony, Ziebel, McMahon, Thomas, Wright, Grima and perhaps Hansen and Campbell. They might have to start elevating rookies to be able to put 22 blokes on the park.


Matchups

This is seriously hard to work out; I don’t even know who will be in their side! Morris will probably get Edwards, Williams to Hansen and Lake to the ruckman, Hale (if he plays), Goldstein or McIntosh.

Picken usually gets Harvey (bad result for my Supercoach team) and Swallow is the only other North midfielder worth considering a tag. Perhaps Cross will be told to keep one eye out for him.

Rawlings will go to Cooney and Thompson will have another crack at Hall (with a bit of luck the maggots might pay attention for a change and Baz could get a soft one early to keep Thompson in line).

The bottom line is that it shouldn’t really matter too much about who plays on who. Even at their best North aren’t that scary, with the number of blokes they have missing this should really be all one way traffic.

Dogs will win by a lot.

stefoid
29-07-2010, 10:09 AM
Wow, norths injury list is large, we should beat them like a gong.

Grant is our quickest forward and is just as likely to crumb the ball as any player on our list - he wont be dropped.

Jones is interesting - where to play him? In the pocket and kick long to him one out, while Hall leads up the guts?

Ghost Dog
29-07-2010, 10:10 AM
Thanks for that. Hope the momentum keeps going for us and no players are injured against the Chickenboners.

Go_Dogs
29-07-2010, 10:25 AM
Short and sweet, good work SS.

Greystache
29-07-2010, 10:36 AM
Thanks SS

You're hardly on your own having hardly been to a North game this year, most of their supporters could say the same!

Mantis
29-07-2010, 10:48 AM
Good stuff SS.

Rawlings has been playing in defence most of the year so might not have first crack at Cooney, but I guess with the North taggers having been flogged by Jobe Watson last week and have been given a right royal beating by Cooney earlier this year it might eventuate.

Agree that we should put the under strength North team to the sword..... And after losing much respect for them over the tactics they employed earlier in the season it should be enjoyable to watch.

ledge
29-07-2010, 10:56 AM
Over the years Harvey has been our biggest problem, we shut him down they wont get near us.

Ozza
29-07-2010, 11:00 AM
Greenwood went to Cooney last time from memory. Didn't really work as Cooney was scintillating.
Hudson/Rough v McIntosh/Goldstein makes for an interesting battle. The ruck duo is definitely a strength for the Roos (I'm not sure they have many other strengths...).

w3design
29-07-2010, 11:10 AM
That's a terrible injury list. Kudos to North for being where they are on the ladder. I hope we smash 'em.

I'd to see Griff put in another great game too, it really brings the other midfielders into it when Griff and Cooney are on song because they are so damaging it opens up space for everyone else.

Mofra
29-07-2010, 12:30 PM
Grant is our quickest forward and is just as likely to crumb the ball as any player on our list - he wont be dropped.
Yep - he's probably our best and certainly our quickest "small" forward at the moment - he just "unfortunately" happens to have super-sticky hands and be 192cm tall.

comrade
29-07-2010, 12:36 PM
Yep - he's probably our best and certainly our quickest "small" forward at the moment - he just "unfortunately" happens to have super-sticky hands and be 192cm tall.

Yep, what a shame. :D

It's almost unbelievable how far he has come this year - from the kid who rarely bothered to lead and would gasp for air if he had to jog more than 20 metres, to a dynamic, and critical component of our best 22.

To think there were un-named people around here who wrote him off and wanted us to try and offload him in the Josh Kennedy trade. ;)

Mantis
29-07-2010, 12:41 PM
To think there were un-named people around here who wrote him off and wanted us to try and offload him in the Josh Kennedy trade. ;)

After watching him go half arsed in a pre-season game for Willi back in March I thought he was going to become just another waste of (immense) talent.

But I am happy to be proven wrong and look forward to his continued development as he will get better.

BornInDroopSt'54
29-07-2010, 12:51 PM
Congratulations and good luck to Liam Jones. Look forward to seeing him start his career in style hopefully.

bornadog
29-07-2010, 02:35 PM
Thanks SS, this is one game we shouldn't drop. Last time we won by 70 plus and it would be nice to repeat the dose.

stefoid
29-07-2010, 02:49 PM
Good stuff SS.

Rawlings has been playing in defence most of the year so might not have first crack at Cooney, but I guess with the North taggers having been flogged by Jobe Watson last week and have been given a right royal beating by Cooney earlier this year it might eventuate.

Agree that we should put the under strength North team to the sword..... And after losing much respect for them over the tactics they employed earlier in the season it should be enjoyable to watch.

I hope they play rawlings on grif. In fact I hope he gets the @#$@# tagged out of him every game until the finals. We need him firing with a tag, not just when he is allwoed to play on his own terms.

mighty_west
29-07-2010, 03:23 PM
Great work SS.

Lake will most likely spend time up forward again, and we can really stretch them for height big time, who would have thought that going back a few years.

Roughead can spend time up there, Hally obviously, Lake at times, Jones making his debut, if we start both Lake & Barry up forward again, i wonder who Thompson will take.

I also wonder if Rocket may give Jones some time down back for extra education?

Dogs by a country mile.

ratsmac
29-07-2010, 07:48 PM
I don't like it when I'm super confident going into games cos we normally end up losing, but like SS said, "bullgogs by alot," and thats being modest. We should smash the kangas but they have been mostly competitive this year so I hope for a good contest. Excited about Liam Jones too, he has something about him, looking forward to it.

chef
29-07-2010, 07:59 PM
Great preview SS, if North go for the ball instead of the man this time around they should get a lot closer than last time.

Bumper Bulldogs
29-07-2010, 08:24 PM
Great preview SS, if North go for the ball instead of the man this time around they should get a lot closer than last time.

Agree with that and think that North will set themselves for us this week. That said we are a far better side and will win by a lot but we will be close at 1/4 time.

I wouldn't be surprised that Thompson plays up forward... Cant see him wanting another dose of Barry

EasternWest
29-07-2010, 08:49 PM
Am I the only one that thinks there will be no niggle from Thompson this time? The umpires for once will be all over it, anything untoward and they'll pay it straight away.

Imagine if Ray Chamberlain were nearest to them and it happened? That little man would just go ahead and build a gallows, right there on the ground.

We should win comfortably. I think we're considerably better than them, and their injury list is pretty bad.

LostDoggy
29-07-2010, 08:52 PM
Great, concise preview SS - thanks! I will be happy to accept another 70 point win, but I'm thinking Norf will probably be a bit more competitive than our last encounter, although I didn't realise just how many injured players they have.

LostDoggy
29-07-2010, 09:15 PM
Thanks Akker for p*****g off and letting Jones get a AFL game under his belt, hope he does well.

Go Dogs........... 40+ points

BulldogBelle
29-07-2010, 09:55 PM
Well dfa4pm I agree with you that there will be no niggle from Thompson. Besides his coach telling him, "no more niggle", I hear that he said that his "life passed before his eyes".

Besides his keen marking skills Liam Jones has a good bit of pace.

In my book North can consider it a win if they lose by less than 10 goals.

mjp
30-07-2010, 04:30 PM
Am I the only one that thinks there will be no niggle from Thompson this time? The umpires for once will be all over it, anything untoward and they'll pay it straight away.


I think he will niggle away - not as much as last time, but he is a close checking, niggly type of player...that is what he does.

This game is a big test for us - it is all well and good flying the flag last week when there was such a point to be proved/made...this week, against a side beset by injuries and basically with its back to the wall it would be very easy to take the foot off the gas (throat?) and either go down or win but play poorly.

I am going to be very interested how this plays out.

LostDoggy
30-07-2010, 04:39 PM
Worried that we might have a let down( hangover) from last week ... need to get off to a good start

LostDoggy
30-07-2010, 07:12 PM
Good stuff SS.

Can see us winning this one, but probably around the 35-45 point mark. North always seem to play well against us, on most occasions & i think they will put up a gallant effort, yet fall well short.

Anyone else think we might see Jones spend time down back?

boydogs
30-07-2010, 10:15 PM
I can't see us having any trouble here. North are injury riddled and no chance of finals IMO. Should be a repeat of last time.

Rocco Jones
30-07-2010, 10:45 PM
In my book North can consider it a win if they lose by less than 10 goals.

Your book is holy.

Ghost Dog
30-07-2010, 10:48 PM
Main concern for key players to get through Injury free.
Would be really angry if one of the boys did an ankle on the Etihad turf-lotto or had their finals campaign marred by some Chicken- Boner upstart.

Remi Moses
30-07-2010, 11:10 PM
I'll take any win to be honest . I'd imagine a 5 -6 goal win,just hope there's no letdown from last week! Must admit tonights result has made me a little nervy.

:eek:

KT31
30-07-2010, 11:15 PM
Main concern for key players to get through Injury free.
Would be really angry if one of the boys did an ankle on the Etihad turf-lotto or had their finals campaign marred by some Chicken- Boner upstart.

Looked alot better tonight with the work they have done.

LostDoggy
31-07-2010, 10:06 AM
I will be happy with a two goal, injury free win. But likely to be ten...

LostDoggy
31-07-2010, 10:13 AM
Am I the only one that thinks there will be no niggle from Thompson this time? The umpires for once will be all over it, anything untoward and they'll pay it straight away.

Imagine if Ray Chamberlain were nearest to them and it happened? That little man would just go ahead and build a gallows, right there on the ground.

We should win comfortably. I think we're considerably better than them, and their injury list is pretty bad.

With a nickname like 'Razor Ray' he would build a guillotine.
Biggest case of Small Man Syndrome in footy.

lemmon
31-07-2010, 10:20 AM
Anyone else excited about seeing Jones on the big stage. I'm psyched for this debut, its not often the dogs produce their own genuine power forward but he looks well on the way.