Game day - Bulldogs vs Cats

[GVGjr]

This is the discussion thread for tomorrow nights blockbuster game.

Who's you tip to kick the first goal for us? I'll go with Robbins

Who gets the match-ups on Ablett Junior, Chapman and Johnson? Do the smaller forwards of the Cats pose a bigger problem for us than the talls?

[BulldogBelle]

First goal this week will be kicked by Akermanis.

[LostDoggy]

Got to go for Cooney to kick the first goal. ;)

[bornadog]

I will go with Johnno, to kick the first of six this week and set the pattern from the opening bounce.

[LostDoggy]

I'm going for Johnno to kick the first of many too :)

Those 3 small Geelong forwards you mention GVGjr are a really worry - our backline is going to have be on their toes and inventive.

[Go_Dogs]

I'll pick Eagleton for our first. Can't wait for this one.

[Dry Rot]

I'm going for Johnno to kick the first of many too :)

Those 3 small Geelong forwards you mention GVGjr are a really worry - our backline is going to have be on their toes and inventive.

Aside from playing four quarters of good footy for once, what other specific things do we need to do to beat the current best team in the comp?

[Mantis]

Aside from playing four quarters of good footy for once, what other specific things do we need to do to beat the current best team in the comp?

I think our forwards need to cut down the run from defence, be accountable for there opponents, expecially Mackie and Scarlett. Our backline has to play well, they have to compete well with there opponent and use the ball when in possession, cant afford to turn the ball over as much as we have in recent weeks or Geelong will cut us to shreads, looking at you Harris and McMahon in particular. We need to play hard accountable in the midfield, win our share of contested ball, but more important apply pressure to Geelong when they have it. If they are given too much space our to run and carry the ball they will cause soem serious headaches for our defenders.

Important players I see for us are Giansiracusa, Hahn, Eagleton, Hargrave and McMahon. We need good performances from our almost 2nd tier of players, if all these guys play well we will give Geelong a very good run for there money.

[Bulldog Revolution]

I will go with Johnno, to kick the first of six this week and set the pattern from the opening bounce.

I see Robert Murphy kicking the first of six as he cuts a merry dance around Mackie

[Dry Rot]

We got absolutely fried tonight - any positives? Williams? Everitt and Boyd?

[LostDoggy]

Everitt was a positive I took from tonight's thumping. The only other, ever so slight, positive was the third quarter when we managed to slow Geelong's scoring down for a while. I know Geelong are in top form, but that was a very disappointing game.

I watched Mitch on the bench - he looked devastated before being taken down to the rooms.

What happened to Morris?

The temperature at the ground always feels a few degrees colder when you're losing.

[southerncross]

Cats bite Bulldogs - hard (http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/cats-bite-bulldogs--hard/2007/07/20/1184560046946.html)



GEELONG 8.2 13.6 15.11 20.18 (138)
WESTERN BULLDOGS 3.1 4.4 6.8 9.9 (63)
Goals: Geelong: C Mooney 4 D Johnson 2 J Corey 2 A Mackie 2 P Chapman 2 J Selwood 2 M Stokes 2 S Johnson G Ablett C Enright C Ling. Western Bulldogs: B Johnson 3 A Everitt 2 R Hargrave 2 N Eagleton R Murphy.
Best: Geelong: G Ablett C Enright J Bartel D Milburn A Mackie P Chapman C Ling J Selwood. Western Bulldogs: A Everitt B Johnson S West M Boyd
Umpires: M Vozzo S McLaren M Avon
Injuries: Geelong: M Scarlett (illness) replaced in selected side by D Johnson. Western Bulldogs: D Morris (hamstring tightness) replaced in selected side by C Wight.
Official Crowd: 44,688 at Telstra Dome.
Geelong might win this year's AFL premiership but the Western Bulldogs won't.
The Cats extended their winning streak to 11, their best run since 1953 as they dismantled the Bulldogs in the first half to win 20.18 (138) to 9.9 (63) at Telstra Dome tonight.
Brownlow Medal favourite Gary Ablett continued his stunning form with 35 disposals and Cameron Mooney kicked four goals for the Cats.
Going on tonight's form, it will take a massive improvement from the 'Dogs over the last two months of this season to reach Geelong's standard.
After making last year's semi-finals, the Bulldogs came into this season with great expectations.
They had won four of their last five games and tonight shaped as an important test of their bona fides.
Instead, the Cats are two games clear at the top of the ladder and the Bulldogs could drop out of the top eight this weekend.
Geelong killed the game off with an outstanding first half, that featured eight unanswered goals from midway through the first term until late in the second.
That gave the Cats a 56-point lead at the main break.
The Bulldogs tried to restrict the Cats in the third term and Geelong failed to kick a goal for the opening 14 minutes of the second half.
But the 'Dogs only managed one goal in that period and Geelong eventually extended their lead by a point in the term.
Geelong finished the game off with the same ruthless intensity as it had started, kicking the last four goals.
The only setbacks for the Cats came tonight when full-back Matthew Scarlett was a late withdrawal through illness and David Wocjinski hobbled off in the second term with a leg injury.
Geelong kicked the first goal inside the first minute of the opening and second quarters, setting the tone early.
The Bulldogs also had a late withdrawal, when defender Dale Morris pulled out with hamstring tightness.
Cameron Wight came in for Morris and David Johnson replaced Mooney.
Johnson came into the side tonight for the first time since round eight and was in Geelong's best, kicking two goals.
Bulldogs midfielder Adam Cooney was best afield last week, but Cats stopper Cameron Ling claimed him as another scalp.
After Cooney had 31 disposals in last week's win over Essendon, he did not gain his first possession tonight until three minutes into the second term.
Ling had 15 disposals for the night and Cooney finished with 12.

[southerncross]

Dogs thrashed over paddock
21 July 2007 Herald Sun
THAT was No. 11 and it told us more about the losers than it did the winners.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,1658,5576672,00.jpg Rocket blast: Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade addresses his shell-shocked chargers at quarter-time at Telstra Dome last night. Picture: Wayne Ludbey
Geelong's apparent date with destiny marched on unopposed last night, a knee injury to the unpredictably damaging David Wojcinski the only concern.
Rodney Eade and his cattle dogs should be so lucky.
And they were cattle dogs. They ran around like chooks without heads, gave more yelp than bark and their run and game against teams as meek as sheep was blown away by the best team in the competition.
The Cats are a mighty unit, reminiscent of Essendon of 2000, which lost just one game, and of the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba during the vintage three-peat years.
The Cats steamroll the opposition. They demoralise with their run and sharing of the ball and brutalise with their intensity at the contest and waves of tackling pressure.
They make teams panic and from there the natural talents take over.
Hence the eight-goal first quarter, 5.4 in the second and 39 shots at goal last night.
The halftime lead was 56 points. It was a nonsense second half. The Bulldogs tightened up and the Cats dilly-dallied.
In the first 22 minutes of the third quarter, the Cats had 101 disposals for just two goals. Their first 13 goals came from 217. It was a shellacking.
Long-time observers couldn't remember an Eade-coached team so mesmerised in the first quarter.
The Cats had four goals in 10 minutes, Cameron Mooney three on Brian Harris in six.
It was as if the Bulldogs players forgot who their man was or what was required of them.
Joel Corey had 14 touches on Matthew Boyd and Jason Akermanis. That's what the stats sheet said, but to be honest, after Boyd was moved to a rampant Gary Ablett, not even Corey knew who he was playing on.
Bartel had as many as five opponents run near him in the first quarter -- Boyd first -- and there was never any real ownership after him. Bartel finished with 38 touches for the match. Thirty bloody eight.
And let's not forget the Brownlow favourite. Gazza had 35 and 10 marks.
The signs in the first minutes were obvious.
Eade saw red with Nathan Eagleton and took him off after five minutes. By that stage, his opponent Corey Enright had a goal and was on the way to 27 touches.
Throw in another scalp for Cameron Ling -- this time Adam Cooney, who went zip in the first quarter -- and the Bulldogs midfield was a dog's breakfast at the first break.
Daniel Giansiracusa, Peter Street, Mitch Hahn, Jarrod Harbrow, Farren Ray and Matthew Robbins were also non-existent which, in a big game, isn't good enough.
At halftime, Ablett had 19, Bartel 19, Chapman 15, Corey 17, Enright 16, Mackie 15 and Selwood 13.
It was a disaster for Eade and his players.
They had Grant, Griffen, Cross and late withdrawal Dale Morris out of the team.
Gilbee departed just before halftime with a calf injury, West was affected by his groin, but still, the Dogs were exposed as pretenders and by the end of the weekend could be out of the eight. Even if they sit in eighth spot, it doesn't matter.
The cattle dogs' season is lurching so badly, it's almost collapsing.
They have West Coast next week at Telstra Dome, a host of injuries and key players out of sorts.
Luke Darcy, at one stage, had four kicks in seven minutes. Three were turnovers, and one dropped short of a teammate on the lead.
He will hate watching the review of this match and his mate Peter Street will hate it even more. Just two handballs for him.
The positives came in Tom Williams, who is skilled and backs himself, and Andrejs Everitt who, in his third game, took the ball on the wing, took two bounces and kicked a goal from 50m.
And West worked hard on Corey after quarter-time.
The rest can get in behind.

[Go_Dogs]

All I want to say regarding the game, is that it was arguably the worst performance I've seen us turn in, for at least a few years. We've been thumped by Adelaide and a few sides, but those have been away games with heavily depleted injury lists last year for example. Last night, we had a reasonable team and couldn't impose ourselves on the game at all. I've never counted so many turnovers by hand or foot, our decision making was sub par and our return pressure back on them, was WAY below what it needed to be. Too often Ablett would have 3 or 4 seconds to spot up a pass into the forward line. Why? Time is one thing we cannot give them.

Their execution, desire and workrate showed us up all over the field.

[bornadog]

All I want to say regarding the game, is that it was arguably the worst performance I've seen us turn in, for at least a few years. We've been thumped by Adelaide and a few sides, but those have been away games with heavily depleted injury lists last year for example. Last night, we had a reasonable team and couldn't impose ourselves on the game at all. I've never counted so many turnovers by hand or foot, our decision making was sub par and our return pressure back on them, was WAY below what it needed to be. Too often Ablett would have 3 or 4 seconds to spot up a pass into the forward line. Why? Time is one thing we cannot give them.

Their execution, desire and workrate showed us up all over the field.

Totally agree, I couldn't believe our decision making, both coming out of the backline and getting run down numerous times as well as the decision making when we were in the 50metre arc in the forward line. It was as if we didn't want to kick the goal but hesitated to see if we can hit a player closer to goal, even when we were 30 to 40 metres out. Several times, McMahon, running towards the forward line didn't have a ping but rather tried to pass it off and the ball ended up with Geelong, who then took it all the way down to goal. But it wasn't only McMahon, Eagleton, Ray, also the same hestitation, only to be caught, or the ball being smothered. At one stage there in the last quarter, the stats showed we had actually been in the foward 50 almost as many times as Geelong, but didn't capitalize due to poor decision making, poor disposal, or just bombing it in hoping Johnno can mark it. Everitt showed with his long kicking what can be done and we do have alot of good long kickers of the ball.

I heard Grant say today that he would most likely play in the forward line next week. Lets hope so.

[LostDoggy]

I remember looking at the stats on the screen at half time and there really wasn't much difference - except the all important goal tally. Why, why, why? Just goes to show that stats don't often mean much.

[firstdogonthemoon]

Too often Ablett would have 3 or 4 seconds to spot up a pass into the forward line. Why? Time is one thing we cannot give them.



It has been pointed out to me (by a great man from another board) that time slows down when Gary Ablett gets the ball. It really does look like it sometimes. He just keeps going at normal spped and has way more time than any mortal should.

It works the other way for Peter Street too, he gets the ball and time slows down, but only for him.

To me the game looked like an episode of Bewtiched. They got all the bounces, the ball stuck, the passes worked, they intercepted seemingly at will.

For us, just the opposite. It was either magic or alien technology.

We really were horrid.