While it is fun to see Gold Coast currently ahead of Collingwood, and threatening to put Richmond back in 9th (all it would take is for us to give the Tigers a good thrashing on sunday... haaa ha... hrmmm), I was particularly interest to take a closer looks at the Bulldogs' situation.

Same wins as us, but against a slightly better overall standard of opponent and for the most part better margins, including a very 'plucky' effort against Geelong.

Minson, Cooney, Griffin, Cross, Boyd, Giansiracusa, Murphy, and Goodes all had solid or good games against Gold Coast today. Or, perhaps more accurately, they were all among the Dogs' better players on the day.

More experience there than the Demon's whole team on the field, and some genuine quality amongst it.

I guess all I'm saying is, given a flat choice I'd rather be a Demon's supporter for the next few years than a Bulldog. One thing you can't say about the Demon's is that they are being held together by their good stock of veterans!

Stringer, McRae, Libba, Wallace, Dalhaus. They have some good young kids coming through and some good senior players to teach them.

They have better mids than us, we have better backs and forwards, we are both crap.

  On 18/05/2013 at 09:59, Gorgoroth said:

They have better mids than us, we have better backs and forwards, we are both crap.

Merge?

Just kidding.

They have one decent advantage over us. A home ground advantage, which they can build on (slooooowly), at Shytihad. They always beat US there and tend to play ok there against other bottom bouncing clubs.

Sadly we don't even have that anymore and even the Blues are knocking on our door to take a slice

The doggies are in trouble in the near future. They're still being carried by the same senior group who are all close to retiring. They have one player in the mid-range age bracket who is worth the effort and their kids aren't that great barring Stringer. The loss of Harbrow and Ward really hurt them in that respect, given that they would both be in the mid-age bracket and starting to lead the club by now. Once their senior players turn over they have a pretty bleak outlook.

Bulldogs have been bloody respectable this year compared to the mfc circus

  On 18/05/2013 at 14:11, RalphiusMaximus said:

They have one player in the mid-range age bracket who is worth the effort and their kids aren't that great barring Stringer.

Which of our youngsters do you rate ahead of Liberatore or Dalhaus?

Bulldogs have been up the top and were unlucky not to make a GF. Now they are a rabble without any decent reliable big forward to kick goals week in & week out. They do have some promising young talent but they are struggling big time and it was the case when they were a decent team as well. Meaning they kept falling short from making the GF and got Barry Hall but that was a short term fix. Remember when they used to rely on Johnson as the key forward , so they still haven't address this issue for years now.

Last year they were after Gumbleton but he decided to stay at Essendon. They need to trade something decent to land a big forward otherwise they are going nowhere fast. Cooney , Murphy , Gia will be finished soon , so the dogs will have tough times ahead. It's probably time that the media gets stuck into McCartney and gives Neeld a spell because they are going no better than Melbourne.

I think they have 1 win in 18 games which includes last year obviously so they deserve the heat now.

Their coach has always reminded me of Bailey.

They lack goal kicking midfielders and there is a gulf in the list between their ageing core and youngsters with potential. McCartney will rightly start to cop some heat for the 1/18 stat.

That said, they'd pound us at the moment, their kids are as good as any of ours and despite the scoreboard they actually have a crack. McCartney may or may not last and the Dogs W/L ratio is no better than ours but he will leave something better than a smoldering ruin for his successor. That is more than can be said for our own nutty professor.

  On 18/05/2013 at 20:24, Clint Bizkit said:

Their coach has always reminded me of Bailey.

He reminds me of an old farmer.

  On 18/05/2013 at 13:23, Rusty Nails said:

They have one decent advantage over us. A home ground advantage, which they can build on (slooooowly), at Shytihad. They always beat US there and tend to play ok there against other bottom bouncing clubs.

Sadly we don't even have that anymore and even the Blues are knocking on our door to take a slice

You ate being too specific regarding their HGA - EVERYONE beats us at Badlands and has for what the last 8 or 10 years. Even when we were doing ok around 2005-6.

  On 18/05/2013 at 16:32, P_Man said:

Which of our youngsters do you rate ahead of Liberatore or Dalhaus?

Evans, Toumpas, Viney once they have played the same number of games, both Libba and Dalhaus are inconsistent, we are looking for consistency

  On 19/05/2013 at 01:04, Satyriconhome said:

Evans, Toumpas, Viney once they have played the same number of games, both Libba and Dalhaus are inconsistent, we are looking for consistency

Stringer is the one though 'Sat', along with McRae they have picked up a couple of good ones there.

I think they have a bit more time to rebuild than us as they are only going through it for the first time, we are on our second. That's why the spotlight is on us and not them.

Inconsistent....

Libba is averaging 22 disposals a game this year. At 21 years of age, his rankings in the AFL, that is the ENTIRE league, are as follows:

- 3rd for clearances (averaging 7.5 a game)

- 7th for total tackles

- 6th for total contested possessions (averaging 13.8 a game)

What i would give for that kind of "inconcistency". And you rate Michael Evans and Jimmy T ahead of him. Based on what exactly?

If we're going to be critical of another team's list or players, can we at least make it evidence based or within the realm of somewhat reasonable? Saying Stringer is their only talented youngster is complete nonsense.

  On 19/05/2013 at 02:26, P_Man said:

Inconsistent....

Libba is averaging 22 disposals a game this year. At 21 years of age, his rankings in the AFL, that is the ENTIRE league, are as follows:

- 3rd for clearances (averaging 7.5 a game)

- 7th for total tackles

- 6th for total contested possessions (averaging 13.8 a game)

What i would give for that kind of "inconcistency". And you rate Michael Evans and Jimmy T ahead of him. Based on what exactly?

If we're going to be critical of another team's list or players, can we at least make it evidence based or within the realm of somewhat reasonable? Saying Stringer is their only talented youngster is complete nonsense.

They are three years younger?????....I think they (Libba and Dal) are and will be great players...Just saying...

  On 19/05/2013 at 02:31, Bossdog said:

They are three years younger?????....I think they (Libba and Dal) are and will be great players...Just saying...

Seriously Boss, you need to get that question mark key looked at. It's clearly busted.

Yes they're younger, and I have faith that they can become good players, but Toumpas has done literally nothing yet and whilst Evans' performances in a struggling side have been admirable, rating him ahead of Liberatore is frankly laughable.

You've hit the nail on the head, they ARE already excellent players, and some are saying they won't be any good. They already are ffs, 3rd in total clearances behind Matt Priddis and Josh Kennedy. They have the runs on the board to show their quality. We are merely hoping the likes of Toumpas and Evans will get to that level.

When you add Wallis, Macrae, Roughead etc..the idea that the Dogs don't have any decent youth is garbage. I understand the need to make ourselves feel better about the [censored] truck Neeld is currently driving, but c'mon.

  On 19/05/2013 at 02:45, P_Man said:

Seriously Boss, you need to get that question mark key looked at. It's clearly busted.

Yes they're younger, and I have faith that they can become good players, but Toumpas has done literally nothing yet and whilst Evans' performances in a struggling side have been admirable, rating him ahead of Liberatore is frankly laughable.

You've hit the nail on the head, they ARE already excellent players, and some are saying they won't be any good. They already are ffs, 3rd in total clearances behind Matt Priddis and Josh Kennedy. They have the runs on the board to show their quality. We are merely hoping the likes of Toumpas and Evans will get to that level.

When you add Wallis, Macrae, Roughead etc..the idea that the Dogs don't have any decent youth is garbage. I understand the need to make ourselves feel better about the [censored] truck Neeld is currently driving, but c'mon.

Mate I'm not arguing with you.......I am just saying they have had, what 4 years in the system??(sorry for the ?) where as our young blokes haven't....That's all...

  On 19/05/2013 at 03:00, Bossdog said:

Mate I'm not arguing with you.......I am just saying they have had, what 4 years in the system??(sorry for the ?) where as our young blokes haven't....That's all...

Fair enough.

I like the dogs. Everyone talks about their lack of forward line but I think it's a bit misleading. Young Jones is a nice prospect and compares pretty equally with Chris Dawes and has a lot of improvement left. They'll need to find another but you can win a lot of games with less. Also Roughead down back is doing a very nice job. Again they'll need another key back but I wouldn't despair.

Where they are miles in front of us is in the midfield: Cooney and Griffen should stick around for a while as Boyd and Cross go and they are bringing through Stevens (nice depth midfielder), Libba (Very good clearance player), Wallis (again reasonable depth mid), Clay Smith, McRae, Stringer (forward/mid type), Dahlhaus (forward/mid) and Hrovath.

If there is one place they are equal with us though its how much tripe is on their list. They've got their own Tom Gillies and co in spades. Find me an AFL player out of:
Grant, Veszpremi, Williams (What happened to him), Addison, Markovic, Campbell, will Ayce Cordy even make it?, Tutt (3 goals on debut then never seen), Christian Howard is their Sam Blease - all talent, no output. That's 9 guys or a quarter of your list. If you divide a list into best 22, 9 for depth and 9 development kids then their depth has very little potential.

Their rookie list - Mark Austin (Carlton reject), Jack Redpath (country footballer), Lin Jong (the Asian Majak?), Greenwood who I don't know and the best of the lot in Goodes who is 28 or whatever. I mean it screams the kind of desperation that we keep going for.

Another problem for the dogs is that 2 players who should be at their peaks and adding class to the backline and forward line in Easton Wood and Shaun Higgins are perpetually injured.

  On 19/05/2013 at 03:09, the master said:

I like the dogs. Everyone talks about their lack of forward line but I think it's a bit misleading. Young Jones is a nice prospect and compares pretty equally with Chris Dawes and has a lot of improvement left. They'll need to find another but you can win a lot of games with less. Also Roughead down back is doing a very nice job. Again they'll need another key back but I wouldn't despair.

Where they are miles in front of us is in the midfield: Cooney and Griffen should stick around for a while as Boyd and Cross go and they are bringing through Stevens (nice depth midfielder), Libba (Very good clearance player), Wallis (again reasonable depth mid), Clay Smith, McRae, Stringer (forward/mid type), Dahlhaus (forward/mid) and Hrovath.

If there is one place they are equal with us though its how much tripe is on their list. They've got their own Tom Gillies and co in spades. Find me an AFL player out of:

Grant, Veszpremi, Williams (What happened to him), Addison, Markovic, Campbell, will Ayce Cordy even make it?, Tutt (3 goals on debut then never seen), Christian Howard is their Sam Blease - all talent, no output. That's 9 guys or a quarter of your list. If you divide a list into best 22, 9 for depth and 9 development kids then their depth has very little potential.

Their rookie list - Mark Austin (Carlton reject), Jack Redpath (country footballer), Lin Jong (the Asian Majak?), Greenwood who I don't know and the best of the lot in Goodes who is 28 or whatever. I mean it screams the kind of desperation that we keep going for.

Another problem for the dogs is that 2 players who should be at their peaks and adding class to the backline and forward line in Easton Wood and Shaun Higgins are perpetually injured.

A much more realistic assessment. The point is that they have a core group of proven talented youngsters to build upon.

They would surely have some concerns about Jones. He takes an excellent contested grab but his yips in front of goal are something shocking. Granted if he can get his kicking sorted he will be an extremely damaging player.

  On 18/05/2013 at 13:23, Rusty Nails said:

They have one decent advantage over us. A home ground advantage, which they can build on (slooooowly), at Shytihad. They always beat US there and tend to play ok there against other bottom bouncing clubs.

Sadly we don't even have that anymore and even the Blues are knocking on our door to take a slice

Is Fitzpatrick trying to ease us out,,, & down to Docklands, to replace the Blue Hues? & they want to make price fix park into a boutique stadium. making them even more powerful.

... whats the chance if we go down to 'The Wheel' @ docklands E-state, that we could end up with a dog on our Colours?

don't trust the commission! we do not have a representative there.

  On 19/05/2013 at 03:09, the master said:

I like the dogs. Everyone talks about their lack of forward line but I think it's a bit misleading. Young Jones is a nice prospect and compares pretty equally with Chris Dawes and has a lot of improvement left. They'll need to find another but you can win a lot of games with less. Also Roughead down back is doing a very nice job. Again they'll need another key back but I wouldn't despair.

Where they are miles in front of us is in the midfield: Cooney and Griffen should stick around for a while as Boyd and Cross go and they are bringing through Stevens (nice depth midfielder), Libba (Very good clearance player), Wallis (again reasonable depth mid), Clay Smith, McRae, Stringer (forward/mid type), Dahlhaus (forward/mid) and Hrovath.

If there is one place they are equal with us though its how much tripe is on their list. They've got their own Tom Gillies and co in spades. Find me an AFL player out of:

Grant, Veszpremi, Williams (What happened to him), Addison, Markovic, Campbell, will Ayce Cordy even make it?, Tutt (3 goals on debut then never seen), Christian Howard is their Sam Blease - all talent, no output. That's 9 guys or a quarter of your list. If you divide a list into best 22, 9 for depth and 9 development kids then their depth has very little potential.

Their rookie list - Mark Austin (Carlton reject), Jack Redpath (country footballer), Lin Jong (the Asian Majak?), Greenwood who I don't know and the best of the lot in Goodes who is 28 or whatever. I mean it screams the kind of desperation that we keep going for.

Another problem for the dogs is that 2 players who should be at their peaks and adding class to the backline and forward line in Easton Wood and Shaun Higgins are perpetually injured.

Good assessment 'Master'. I don't think we are in any position to be critical of how the dogs are handling their list and as you point out they have a core of senior players to help in developing the younger ones coming through.

The Bulldogs really aren't much better than us.

One area they are clearly focusing on is contested possession and clearance work; even when they aren't in the game, they seem to always be competitive in these stats.

McCartney seems to be doing what Neeld is trying to do - teach them how to play their long term, flag-winning gameplan now, and sacrifice short term results for long term success. I think he's drilling in the effort, tackling, contested ball and that kind of thing now, with the hope that their youth will help bolster their speed and scoring over time.

Will it work? Only time will tell. But as far as their list goes, theirs is about the only one in the league I wouldn't say is definitively better than ours.