15 minutes ago, fndee said:

At the end of the match I had that uneasy feeling that the Dogs were celebrating their premiership. It was the same feeling I had watching the Demons and their celebratory lap after their win over Port in Adelaide. Swans in a canter next week I think

Disagree. Beveridge has bucked the trend a bit by outwardly saying that it's all about winning the premiership from week 1 of the finals. Since he took over, he's never put any limits on the players as far as what is achievable.

If the Dogs can neutralise the Swans mids in the 1st quarter, it's game on. Swans also have a lot of inexperienced players. I reckon it will be a cracker of a GF.

 

Attendance of 21,790 must be one of the lowest at a Preliminary Final for decades and I reckon more than half travelled interstate and barracked for the Dogies.

Be interesting to see what the TV audience was.

 

1 hour ago, pineapple dee said:

She's a bit of alright , mrs libba. I would like to have been wrestling her too. 

I'll  bet Libba is half the man you are PD.

I wonder if she refers to him as "the other half"?

The last time that Sydney played in a grand final was two years ago when it started red hot favourite against Hawthorn after destroying North Melbourne in a preliminary final while the Hawks fell in against Port Adelaide by a point.

History shows that Hawthorn thrashed the Swans but of course, that team was a lot better than the Bulldogs and I don't think they had to go into the grand final with many injury worries.

I think Sydney are entitled to go into the game as the strong favourite and the experience of 2014 will be very much at the back of their minds. As courageous as they've been over the journey, I just can't see the Doggies beating them.

58 minutes ago, fndee said:

At the end of the match I had that uneasy feeling that the Dogs were celebrating their premiership. It was the same feeling I had watching the Demons and their celebratory lap after their win over Port in Adelaide. Swans in a canter next week I think

They were mental after last weeks win as well. Someone talked about it on one of the radio pre games before last night. They thought the doggies had played their granny last week and GWS would win because of it... Bevo and the dogs footy dept seem to be able to get them up every week.

dogs are so good to watch.

 

the bont is unbelievable. i watch him play and pray that petracca can be as good; same with brayshaw as a comparison to macrae.

If the Doggies win and I think they will, it will give hope to clubs like ours showing that it can be done and you don't need a massive supporter base, untold facilities, endless cash and all the help that the AFL can give you.  They've done it all on their own and that shows that we can too.

We are a couple of years behind them and need a few more players to top up but we can do that by the draft and if, as DA says, Track and Gus come on we will give it a shake.

 

 

14 hours ago, Return to Glory said:

As long as they don't wheel out Les Twentyman I'm on the dogs all the way

I used to belt Les all over the park. That was after having a piece of toast while he completed his run-up - Les was a spritely Under 16 lad- when I opened the batting for Sunshine against Sunshine United. 

14 hours ago, bush demon said:

Couldn't believe that Easton-Ellis mark, channeling Merv Hobbs 'mark of the century' in Footscray's last prelim - over our very own Tassie Johnson.

It was Trevor Johnson...

14 hours ago, SaberFang said:

Something I'm noticing watching the replay, the Dogs disposal actually isn't that great. Players generally renowned for being good kicks being pretty average, but the key here is players who just mop up the mess and get on with it.

They really do play like a team who look after each other, despite the mistakes. They take risks regardless of whether or not they pay off, because they know their teammates are looking out for them.

And most important of all, you never see teammates hurling abuse or showing poor body language to each other. They get on with the job. Once again, lessons our team could learn from.

Their disposal has been spot on till last night. Just the sheer pressure of the game, not to mention the unmitigated thuggery of GWS. Their inaccuracy could have cost them as well...

The Bulldogs give me great confidence in Melbourne direction. Get everyone on board and work on development and improvement in each and every player on the list. I also saw a bit of what the Bulldogs do in Melbournes use of quick handballs. The difference being the Bulldogs always try and put it out in front of the player to the position where they should be rather than to a stationary flat footed target. 

So happy for a foundation club like the doggies & reward for their supporters who have stuck by them for decades with very little success & no GF appearances. They were not gifted with so many early picks & millions thrown at them like GWS! May struggle to beat the swans as the 3 finals thus far have been very taxing & 2 road trips will have an impact on them .. Just on the AFL hypocracy    on allowing GWS to host a home final & denied Geelong twice a home ground final ..

Edited September 25, 20168 yr by Hogan2014

Amazing result for football. Finally!

The Dogs lost so many players both to the franchise clubs and through injury. It is a credit to them to make the GF from 7th spot!

Watching them win last night made me realize that with some talent and a whole lot of will, anything is possible. 

If that was Melbourne playing last night I would have had a heart attack. Then cried on the siren. 

4 hours ago, DemonAndrew said:

dogs are so good to watch.

 

the bont is unbelievable. i watch him play and pray that petracca can be as good; same with brayshaw as a comparison to macrae.

Salem / Tyson or the Bont?

3 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Salem / Tyson or the Bont?

Based on evidence thus far you'd have to go the Bont.

 

If Salem can ever perform to his best at afl level I'd go the other way, but at the moment he's been unable to do so in his career thus far.

4 hours ago, dieter said:

I used to belt Les all over the park. That was after having a piece of toast while he completed his run-up - Les was a spritely Under 16 lad- when I opened the batting for Sunshine against Sunshine United. 

Les presented me with the only thing I ever won at school 

A three months Gym membership at Brendon Edwards Gym in Sunshine 

Problem was that by the time I could use it Fred Cook had taken over management of the place

So as you can imagine not much management going on

8 hours ago, dieter said:

It was Trevor Johnson...

Thanks for the correction dieter. I actually just read tassie off the age news article on friday or saturday. never actually knew who it hobbs took the speccy over.

5 hours ago, Jaded said:

Watching them win last night made me realize that with some talent and a whole lot of will, anything is possible.

Today reminded that we still lack will.

1 minute ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Today reminded that we still lack will.

well naturally, clint, will was playing for them in the ruck

10 hours ago, Biffen said:

I'll  bet Libba is half the man you are PD.

I wonder if she refers to him as "the other half"?

If he's 3 ft 1 and 52 kgs, he is half the man I am.

Not sure if it has been raised here and I haven't realy seen it anywhere else but the two teams that had the week off in the prelims got beaten. Surely they will be squealing about the bye.

The Dogs are the first team from either 7th or 8th to make a GF and while that is good for finals (ie every team has a chance) the top 4 teams have arguably earned their week off and will be disappointed they no longer have an advantage of a rest.

IMO after having 3 teams winning something like 8 of the last 11 GFs it is a good thing that a team from the bottom half of the eight has a chance to win.

Thoughts?

 

3 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Not sure if it has been raised here and I haven't realy seen it anywhere else but the two teams that had the week off in the prelims got beaten. Surely they will be squealing about the bye.

The Dogs are the first team from either 7th or 8th to make a GF and while that is good for finals (ie every team has a chance) the top 4 teams have arguably earned their week off and will be disappointed they no longer have an advantage of a rest.

IMO after having 3 teams winning something like 8 of the last 11 GFs it is a good thing that a team from the bottom half of the eight has a chance to win.

Thoughts?

 

to have any statistical meaning you'd need a lot more data than than one particular season

else it is all pure speculation and as danny would say "not worth the paper it is written on"

8 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Not sure if it has been raised here and I haven't realy seen it anywhere else but the two teams that had the week off in the prelims got beaten. Surely they will be squealing about the bye.

The Dogs are the first team from either 7th or 8th to make a GF and while that is good for finals (ie every team has a chance) the top 4 teams have arguably earned their week off and will be disappointed they no longer have an advantage of a rest.

IMO after having 3 teams winning something like 8 of the last 11 GFs it is a good thing that a team from the bottom half of the eight has a chance to win.

Thoughts?

As dc said its hard to know if the bye hurt winners of the first round of finals.  However, what is absolutely certain is that it helped WBD immensely. 

Without the bye they would have had 2 trips to Perth in 6/7 days.  Without the bye they would not have had the likes of Libba, Roughhead and a few others fit to play the elim final in Perth.  Without the bye they would have had some 6 day breaks in the finals (if they had beaten WCE).

With the bye they had 11 days between the Perth trips, 8 days to 2nd semi, 8 days to prelim and they got all their preferred players back into the team.  The bye (and scheduling) has given them maximum recovery time between games.

I would go so far to say that they would not still be in the finals without the bye. 

1 hour ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

As dc said its hard to know if the bye hurt winners of the first round of finals.  However, what is absolutely certain is that it helped WBD immensely. 

Without the bye they would have had 2 trips to Perth in 6/7 days.  Without the bye they would not have had the likes of Libba, Roughhead and a few others fit to play the elim final in Perth.  Without the bye they would have had some 6 day breaks in the finals (if they had beaten WCE).

With the bye they had 11 days between the Perth trips, 8 days to 2nd semi, 8 days to prelim and they got all their preferred players back into the team.  The bye (and scheduling) has given them maximum recovery time between games.

I would go so far to say that they would not still be in the finals without the bye. 

So by your definition it disadvantaged the teams playing the Dogs.

Geelong and GWS had 1 game in a month. That can't be good for momentum...

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

So by your definition it disadvantaged the teams playing the Dogs.

Geelong and GWS had 1 game in a month. That can't be good for momentum...

where does this 1 game in a month come from? they had 2 weeks not playing. that's 2 games in a month