2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Tom liberatore and Tom Boyd are set to play this weekend.

libba on viney,  there's a good matchup.

6 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Tom liberatore and Tom Boyd are set to play this weekend.

Swinging tyre on Tom Boyd.

Dogs are going to play a very young side if you believe the posts on their site.  They did last year up at Eureka in Ballarat and so did Essendon in NAB3 the following weekr.  We fell over the line against the Dogs and were pipped at the post by the young Bombers, notwithstanding fielding reasonable sides.  

We should play our best side (or close to it) and fully expect / demand to monster them and start to ingrain from the earliest opportunity the concept of winning these sorts of games as an expected outcome.

 

Hard to find much laurel in this group to rest on.

 Hawthorn we ain't .

7 hours ago, dee-luded said:

libba on viney,  there's a good matchup.

Not for Libba 

  yes, hopefully.

On 2/28/2016 at 11:31 PM, Deespicable said:

Ok, hopefully the title got you reading, but here's my 50 cents worth as to why we should ditch our policy of playing our best available side this week and rest up Gawn, Hoges and Salem.

I think last week Roosy stated how he would be playing his best side each week of the NAB Challenge because he felt we needed the confidence that comes from being competitive.

But the Port game just changed that. We now know we are going to be competitive this season, it's just a matter of whether we have most of our star players available each week and are committed on the day/night and our coaches aren't out-thought etc.

The three listed above for a rest are, IMO, the three most important to our line-up for Rd 1.

Gawn, as we saw on Sat, is clearly now among the best six ruckman in the league - Goldy, Nic Nat, Sandi, Jacobs and Mummy are the others - and realistically, he now should monster any ruckman he's up against - the exception being when he's up against the Fab Five big boys at NM, WC, Freo, Adelaide and GWS.

He's mega fit (it's almost like watching Mottram run against the Kenyans in the sprints at the moment) and he's now had two practice matches - one internal against Spencer. So what point is there to take another risk in a game that is not for premiership points against a ruckman like Minson and Campbell, both of whom will try and negate him and potentially hurt him. A rest will help stop the hype about him (at least for a week) and he can still play our last practice match against St Kilda and be perfect for a shot against Mummy in Rd 1. A rest will also allow Spencer (assuming his foot's right) or King (to get a development run). Spencer dominated the Dogs in our MCG win last year and needs a good hit out against a ruckman (Minson) who is more his standard. And our midfield needs to get used to occasionally not winning the tap - it will happen a bit against Mummy, no matter how well Gawny goes against him.

We all know without Hoges we don't have a key forward - although Pedo did well against Port. So why again would we risk him. We need to beat St Kilda because it's our last practice match and this week we are heading to Craigieburn where the surface is never going to be as good as an AFL venue. If we beat the Dogs and he gets injured in the process, are we going to say great, we beat the Dogs. There is now just no need for us to pick our best side and this is the last chance we get to rest anybody. It also gives Weed a chance to play - even though he clearly is a while off being ready to dominate at this level. 

The final player I want rested this week is Salem. He copped a couple of knocks late in the game against Port and he's our key man down back because he can split a defence apart with his kicking - just like Hodgey does at Hawthorn. His absence will allow Wagner, who was a revelation when he got on in the second half against Port, to have a real go. He may even play on Stringer, if our heirarchy wants to test him out to see where he's at. He's got the pace to go with him and he spoils well, we may as well find out if he's ready to play Rd 1 or whether he's someone who will need a handful of VFL games before being promoted.

Sure you can make a case for T-Mac being rested too, but he may as well get used to being under seige after the unusual situation of not having to do much in the second half against Port.

Viney can also be eased back a bit this week - sharing time with Nat Jones and Vince, assuming they're back. We also need to give Neal-Bullen a rare go in the middle after his omission last week.

I guess my overall point of contention is that we got a glimpse of where we are at against Port. We now are one of the quickest sides in the comp - just two years ago we were clearly the slowest - and as a result we can play a forward press that has a chance of working. So just like Hawthorn and the otehr top sides, we can afford to play the safety before Round 1 game properly and save our stars and test out our fringe players and in the Weed's case, our future.

The following week against St Kilda, we go back to our best side and we attempt to make sure the Saints know that they no longer have the  wood on us. Another week off and then the real stuff begins.

 

  

   

  

 

Wow, from one inconsequential NAB practice match. One swallow and its summer. Personally I would like to see some consistency from our team. 

6 minutes ago, Samael said:

Wow, from one inconsequential NAB practice match. One swallow and its summer. Personally I would like to see some consistency from our team. 

Exactly.

I'm going bush. Helicoptered in to some remote part of some bushland. For 25 days.  No newspapers.  No phone. No food.  I'm gonna make myself need to hunt for my food.  Bear Grylls style.  The idea I have in mind is to make myself so busy and preoccupied with having to survive that all of a sudden it's March 26th 1.40pm.  No more waiting.

I would hate to be the one telling Big Max he wasn't playing. He would pick me up and eat me. He needs to play, as do the rest of them. Injuries are a risk that just has to be coped with. If the boys can manage another two wins before R1 they will start the season with a lot of confidence and they need that.

40 minutes ago, Redlegs said:

I would hate to be the one telling Big Max he wasn't playing. He would pick me up and eat me. He needs to play, as do the rest of them. Injuries are a risk that just has to be coped with. If the boys can manage another two wins before R1 they will start the season with a lot of confidence and they need that.

Well do you not give Spencer a game before R1?

or what about giving Frost, Pedersen and perhaps King, some exposure to see which of them can handle the ruck work when required? Sorry but the policy of picking the best team in every NAB match is not one being followed by any other club so far as I can see

1 hour ago, Redlegs said:

I would hate to be the one telling Big Max he wasn't playing.  He would pick me up and eat me.  He needs to play, as do the rest of them.  Injuries are a risk that just has to be coped with.  If the boys can manage another two wins before R1 they will start the season with a lot of confidence and they need that.

.... well,,,,   yep.   reckon I can understand that,  for sure !

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On ‎29‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 6:20 PM, Moneider96 said:

Bulldogs fans reckon they will rest a lot of their players (all the good ones). I hope not...

I smell a wager coming up....

For a team that hasn't won much in 10 years. I think it is important to get that winning feeling, even if they are only NAB games. If this means playing our best side for the rest of the NAB cup, then so be it.

On 2/29/2016 at 8:02 AM, Nasher said:

Who the hell is "The Package"? I clearly don't watch enough Fox Footy. What happened to the good old days of just referring to people by their actual names?

I'm with you on this nonsense of not referring to people by their actual names, Nashmeister...

Not picking Gawn wouldn't necessarily be to 'rest' or 'protect' him.  It would be because he has had a great pre-season, performed to a high standard in NAB1 and we need to look at our other ruck options and our ability to still win clearances without winning the hitouts.  The NAB series is a tool to prepare the entire squad for the season proper, not just your best 22.

Leaving Gawn and Viney out this week in order to make the room required to keep preparing other members of the squad that need it more is good management.  NAB3 should be the real dress rehearsal for Round 1.

Might not mean much but we sure got some momentum happening that year.

One of Hogan or Gawn maybe, Salem no. Salem needs runs out on the park, I'm backing him to be our big improver but he had a solid game on the weekend no more. I would look at playing close to our best line up this week and then give a few who've played the first two a week off. 

I'm not going to speculate about who they'll give rests to though, I think week one they worked it well handing the midfield over to mostly youth, so I'll back them to make the right calls on who comes in for week 2 and 3. I will say this, if we can build on the win in week one then bringing that winning feeling into the season proper will be of great benefit to the team. 

Smart decision to rest Hogan I think. 

He was only going at about 80% on the weekend and getting frustrated. Give him a week off and bring him back for a tune up in week 3, then let him get in to the real stuff.

Bugger, was hoping to see Hoges up close and personal at Crazyburn, oh well, hopefully this means he wont need a rest mid year.

 

I know the work rate of professional AFL football is very different to premier division football in the Sydney AFL, which i played. 

But, i use to always find the week off made me more prone to injuries, then when i played week in, week out. 

Just the physical side of a game always felt like it kept the body hard. 2 weeks between a game softened me up. 

I know a fair few of here played. Do you agree?

Edited March 3, 20169 yr by alias275
Typo

18 minutes ago, alias275 said:

I know the work rate of professional AFL football is very different to premier division football in the Sydney AFL, which i played. 

But, i use to always find the week off made me more prone to injuries, then when i played week in, week out. 

Just the physical side of a game always felt like it kept the body hard. 2 weeks between a game softened me up. 

I know a fair few of here played. Do you agree?

I do agree, but I find it irrelevant to this decision due to AFL circumstances and also time frame considerations. It's completely different. For example, most local footy teams haven't even started practice matches yet, so it's not the same as a week off mid season.

I'm keen to see how Frost, Pedersen, Watts and Vanders function as a group and in particular to see if either of the first two can impress.

1 hour ago, alias275 said:

I know the work rate of professional AFL football is very different to premier division football in the Sydney AFL, which i played. 

But, i use to always find the week off made me more prone to injuries, then when i played week in, week out. 

Just the physical side of a game always felt like it kept the body hard. 2 weeks between a game softened me up. 

I know a fair few of here played. Do you agree?

Don't know the answer, but I sure trust the club now to manage the player loads better than any other time over the last 10-15 years