Welcome back Bob Murphy

[always right]

Been a difficult start to the year but a highlight has been the form of Bob Murphy who surely must be leading our best and fairest. His dash and creativity off the back line is a thrill to watch. Surely he must be kept there in the interest of extending his career as long as possible. A fit and firing Bob Murphy is one of the great sights in footy.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

He's been pretty good, but his disposal at times is quite ordinary. Also thought he was too predictable with his kicks in tonight. Kept playing on and then booting it to the same spot on the ground. For a player with class and a good football brain, I still think Murphy makes too many mistakes.

However, he's been better than most so far this year.

[lemmon]

Has been fantastic but it just makes you wonder what we're missing without him on the forward line. At times when we've fallen over around half forward just makes you think whether his sharp leads and good disposal might have been the tonic.

[Jasper]

He's been pretty good, but his disposal at times is quite ordinary. Also thought he was too predictable with his kicks in tonight. Kept playing on and then booting it to the same spot on the ground. For a player with class and a good football brain, I still think Murphy makes too many mistakes.

However, he's been better than most so far this year.

Don't know if you saw Paul Roos' analysis but Murphy kicked it to exactly where Roos said is the spot to in order to beat the Pies' zone. So you may want to consider that Murphy was kicking to that spot under instruction.

[always right]

Has been fantastic but it just makes you wonder what we're missing without him on the forward line. At times when we've fallen over around half forward just makes you think whether his sharp leads and good disposal might have been the tonic.

I love him up forward but I'm resigned to the fact that if I want to watch him play footy for theft few years, it will be off a back flank.

[always right]

He's been pretty good, but his disposal at times is quite ordinary. Also thought he was too predictable with his kicks in tonight. Kept playing on and then booting it to the same spot on the ground. For a player with class and a good football brain, I still think Murphy makes too many mistakes.

However, he's been better than most so far this year.

If only we had a few more with his ordinary disposal.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Don't know if you saw Paul Roos' analysis but Murphy kicked it to exactly where Roos said is the spot to in order to beat the Pies' zone. So you may want to consider that Murphy was kicking to that spot under instruction.

Didn't see it but thanks for pointing it out.

Still, when you do something over and over, it's pretty easy for the opposition to wake up to it and adjust - which Collingwood did.

I can imagine Murph playing for Collingwood though. He'd be amazing.

[w3design]

Don't know if you saw Paul Roos' analysis but Murphy kicked it to exactly where Roos said is the spot to in order to beat the Pies' zone. So you may want to consider that Murphy was kicking to that spot under instruction.

It was very evident this was the plan and well executed by Murph. I thought he was great tonight. He seems to be playing with a lot of confidence and looks nimble on his feet. If only we could clone him...

[w3design]

Didn't see it but thanks for pointing it out.

Still, when you do something over and over, it's pretty easy for the opposition to wake up to it and adjust - which Collingwood did.

I can imagine Murph playing for Collingwood though. He'd be amazing.

:eek:please retract this dreadful idea!!

To my mind 'bohemian bob' is quintessentially bulldog. I feel ill at the idea of him wearing those dreaded black and white stripes alongside Didak, Swan and other bogans!!

[stefoid]

He's been pretty good, but his disposal at times is quite ordinary. Also thought he was too predictable with his kicks in tonight. Kept playing on and then booting it to the same spot on the ground. For a player with class and a good football brain, I still think Murphy makes too many mistakes.

However, he's been better than most so far this year.

Yeah, thats our game plan. He doesnt have a choice.

We need creative run out of defense and he is one of the few that can deliver it. He must stay back there and we have to get games into the forwards we do have - grant, jones, sherman, maybe even vezpremi and skinner.

[The Underdog]

I love him up forward but I'm resigned to the fact that if I want to watch him play footy for theft few years, it will be off a back flank.

If he played up forward I don't think we'd be getting to watch him at all. His body got killed playing a lead up role all the time. It's good to see him fit, he looks a thousand times more agile than he did last year.

[LostDoggy]

Love the boy!

[ReLoad]

If he played up forward I don't think we'd be getting to watch him at all. His body got killed playing a lead up role all the time. It's good to see him fit, he looks a thousand times more agile than he did last year.

I totally dig that, and it happens to CHF's thier body falls apart, turtle, Brown up in Brisbane etc etc. its a real suicidal place to play. BUT.....

This year in all of our losses we have failed to execute around the CHF line, it was especially clear against collingwood. So what im asking is, is the team success and winning more important than the individuals long term survivability?

I'm not taking this question lightly, as Bob is one of our great guys, players and leaders at the club, but we need to ask the question: "do we play bob in the back half and extended his career, and not win as many games, or does he play at CHF, get smashed around and retire earlier but we win more games?"

[Mantis]

I
This year in all of our losses we have failed to execute around the CHF line, it was especially clear against collingwood. So what im asking is, is the team success and winning more important than the individuals long term survivability?



We are caught in a bit of a quandry. We have no Wood & Hargrave in defence so are lacking their run which Murf has been able to cover, but with no Higgins or Gia on the weekend and Grant struggling we had no players presenting across HF, the fact we couldn't get the ball didn't help this matter.

We rolled the dice in the last quarter and put Murf forward, but we couldn't get the ball forward after the 5min mark.

[LostDoggy]

Don't know if you saw Paul Roos' analysis but Murphy kicked it to exactly where Roos said is the spot to in order to beat the Pies' zone. So you may want to consider that Murphy was kicking to that spot under instruction.


Didn't see it but thanks for pointing it out.

Still, when you do something over and over, it's pretty easy for the opposition to wake up to it and adjust - which Collingwood did.

I can imagine Murph playing for Collingwood though. He'd be amazing.

I think this raises a good point, which I think definitely applies to Bobby in this particular instance: He's kicking it to the right spot. It's another player guilty of not being in the right place to receive. Many turnovers I'd attribute to guys not leading and not following the game plan — he can't mark his own kicks…

[always right]

I'm not taking this question lightly, as Bob is one of our great guys, players and leaders at the club, but we need to ask the question: "do we play bob in the back half and extended his career, and not win as many games, or does he play at CHF, get smashed around and retire earlier but we win more games?"

unfortunately playing Bob up forward may simply result in him getting injured this season. We would possibly lose him for the longer term and still not win games in the short term.