2 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Yes i wasn't a fan originally

but was wrong. Anyone should have a chance in the 8

While it is great that the Dogs won, I don't think that it is desirable that any team in the top half of teams has an increased chance, otherwise we are not rewarding team that have performed better all year.  If the finals were only a top 4 I'd be more in favour.  Who would favour all teams in the top 12 say, having a similar chance of winning the flags in finals?   That said, I'm not sure if the bye was a big factor in levelling things out in the finals.  The Dogs were just relentless.

Picken was best on ground in any reasonable decision excluding hairstyle.

On 10/1/2016 at 7:01 PM, Sir Why You Little said:

Throwing the ball is officially a rule now. 

It's been that way for 4-5 years now Wyl ... as soon as congested footy became the norm, it's been in vogue (incorrect disposal)

2 ways to fix it ... pay an extra 20-30 free kicks per game or reduce the amount of players on the ground.  In conjunction with a further reduction in rotations.

Otherwise, we'll just have to put up with it.

Edit: Did a quick search and found this comment about incorrect disposal from 4 years ago ... incorrect disposal

 

1 hour ago, Sigil said:

Dees to do list;

Outside run plz k thx?

Well done to the doggies too!

Relentless fast outside run pls.

Very good grand final.

Dee's really need some more run and carry. JJ and the dogs really showed that today

Fantastic win and a victory for all small foundation clubs who don't get regular AFL handouts and advantages. 

Anything is possible. I have hope after watching this win!

1 minute ago, Flamingdees said:

Dee's really need some more run and carry. JJ and the dogs really showed that today

Then the first thing to do is not draft a Toumpas ahead of a MacRae.

I know I shouldn't be mentioning it, but it is just so damaging to the list going forwards.

An incredible day. Not just a win for the Dogs, but a win for football.

Premierships can be won from outside the top 4, from outside the "big 3" clubs, from outside the "big 4" Melbourne clubs. 

Sydney's forward line was non-existent today. Franklin had to do it all himself. Papley, RIchards and Hewett had great debut years but had no impact in the game - in fact, other than Heeney I thought all of Sydney's young players were rubbish. I've long considered Tippett to be the most overrated player in the league and today was no exception.

Watch Sydney target/buy a key forward this off-season as they really need someone to support Franklin (and it's not Tippett).

As for the Dogs - no absolute A-grade star performances but 22 contributions. An amazing game, capping off the best September I think we have ever seen. Wholly deserved.

Let's hope some/all of our players were watching today and can draw some believe for 2017.

3 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Then the first thing to do is not draft a Toumpas ahead of a MacRae.

I know I shouldn't be mentioning it, but it is just so damaging to the list going forwards.

Sure is. No doubting that. 

11 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Fantastic win and a victory for all small foundation clubs who don't get regular AFL handouts and advantages. 

Anything is possible. I have hope after watching this win!

Agree with all that except the Dogs aren't a foundation club. I've seen this falsehood a number of times.  They joined the existing league just like GWS did.

30 minutes ago, sue said:

While it is great that the Dogs won, I don't think that it is desirable that any team in the top half of teams has an increased chance, otherwise we are not rewarding team that have performed better all year.  If the finals were only a top 4 I'd be more in favour.  Who would favour all teams in the top 12 say, having a similar chance of winning the flags in finals?   That said, I'm not sure if the bye was a big factor in levelling things out in the finals.  The Dogs were just relentless.

giving them all a bye before finals start doesn't give them all an equal chance by any stretch

dogs at 7 had to play 4 teams in a row all above them on the ladder and on their home grounds. that's hardly an equal chance

nothing wrong with the bye. affects all teams equally and helps all teams get as many players as possible at the fittest which is only a good thing

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

It is hard to win a premiership when you don't make the finals.

Lol! Top 4 is what I meant!

7 minutes ago, Fifty-5 said:

Agree with all that except the Dogs aren't a foundation club. I've seen this falsehood a number of times.  They joined the existing league just like GWS did.

I see what you mean, but "expansion" is a modern term generally referred to the expansion of the league outside of the traditional heartland. Bulldogs I consider a traditional club, not "foundation", but still in the same league as all other VFL teams.

It's a lot different to GWS.

2 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Bit out of order BBO

Heart and soul of Doggieland. A FAIR and Best player. 

Naughty bin for you

 

1 hour ago, S.R.J said:

What a weak [censored] of a thing to say. Guess you must be jelous.

No you guys I'm not jelous  I loved what the bullies achieved and I recognised it in an earlier post. But my first and only love is the demons so I need to spew out a little dose of bitterness when another side achieves what we haven't.

Best Grand final ive experienced in many a year.

2 hours ago, sue said:

While it is great that the Dogs won, I don't think that it is desirable that any team in the top half of teams has an increased chance, otherwise we are not rewarding team that have performed better all year.  If the finals were only a top 4 I'd be more in favour.  Who would favour all teams in the top 12 say, having a similar chance of winning the flags in finals?   That said, I'm not sure if the bye was a big factor in levelling things out in the finals.  The Dogs were just relentless.

They won 4 finals convincingly. 

They deserved it. 

Without the bye i doubt they would have made the GF. But we will never know. 

How [censored] refreshing was that? Pretty bloody nice when it isn't Hawthorn, or a club who has everything handed to them on a silver platter.

A win for the battlers and there needs to be more of this in years to come if the AFL actually wants to grow, rather than remain stagnant with the same big clubs winning every [censored] year. Maybe the AFL will perk up and actually realise that ALL teams getting to experience success rather than just the rich clubs is actually the best thing for the comp.

Nobody wants to see an endless stream of rich clubs buying themselves a premiership every year. This is a win for the blue-collar clubs of the league who don't have a silver spoon in their mouth.

9 hours ago, Rod Grinter Riot Squad said:

The head tells me I am crazy, but genuinely think the Dogs will win this by about 20 points. If they are within 3 goals at quarter time they will win it. Am also tipping some Buddy inaccuracy will burn the swans and Johanison (sp?) to get Coleman

Assuming you meant the Norm Smith, you are a prophet!

Each to his own, I suppose, and by God I wish it had been us, but for me, that was the most moving event I've seen in Australian sport since Cathy Freeman's gold.

 

i grew up in the west, and know so many battlers of all ages who are going to bed happy tonight. 

 

And to to whoever was mocking Murphy...jeez...

Great to see that a club can win a flag through ingenuity and hard team work overcoming a large number of serious injuries to key players, over a club that is mollycoddled by the AFL with salary cap overs, and first dibs on the local 'academy' players.

Wait for the Swans (and GWS, GC, Brisbane) pleading for more assistance to help overcome the likes of the hard working Dogs. 

PS gratifying to see that attempts at purchasing the icing on the Franklin cake by way of Tippett failed.  

Out guys at all levels in the club should have to watch the Bulldogs finals campaign over and over just to see that a coherent team that back each other up can beat a privileged team of stars. 

Well that was just a great game of football.  Both teams had a good hard crack at it, neither were overly aggressive outside the rules and the umpires were imperfect but not drastically so (more on that in a moment).

Absolutely thrilled that the Doggies got up.  This is what the game has been needing for years.  Finally one of the "Have-Nots" of the game have managed to break through and win the flag.  The fact that they beat both of the favoured children in Sydney to do it is perfect.  It just shows that with the right development and team-wide buy-in it can be done without the many advantages enjoyed by the usual suspects.  I really hope our entire squad was watching and taking the lesson to heart. 

On the Umpires, one thing I did note was their refusal to pay contact below the knee.  There were three obvious incidents today that should have been called, the third of which resulted in a knee injury.  Had they called the first two there's every chance that the third wouldn't have happened. 

And finally the real issue from the game:  How the Hell did JJ get the Norm Smith?  He was terrible today.  Honestly, the only thing that could have made his numbers look good was a red and white jumper.  I had him as one of the Doggies' worst due to his uncanny ability to pick out Sydney players with his kicks.  I thought it was a toss-up between Boyd, Picken and Kennedy for BOG (I give it to Boyd).  I have to conclude that this is yet another example of so-called "experts" having no feel for the game and being fooled by big numbers without actually looking at the impact on the game.  7 rebound 50's and 9 inside 50's sound great until you look at how many of those went straight to the opposition. 

OK, that's the rant done for the moment. 

Great win Doggies.  Our turn in two years. 

3 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

An incredible day. Not just a win for the Dogs, but a win for football.

Premierships can be won from outside the top 4, from outside the "big 3" clubs, from outside the "big 4" Melbourne clubs. 

Sydney's forward line was non-existent today. Franklin had to do it all himself. Papley, RIchards and Hewett had great debut years but had no impact in the game - in fact, other than Heeney I thought all of Sydney's young players were rubbish. I've long considered Tippett to be the most overrated player in the league and today was no exception.

Watch Sydney target/buy a key forward this off-season as they really need someone to support Franklin (and it's not Tippett).

As for the Dogs - no absolute A-grade star performances but 22 contributions. An amazing game, capping off the best September I think we have ever seen. Wholly deserved.

Let's hope some/all of our players were watching today and can draw some believe for 2017.

Agree, they had heaps of passengers. Didn't think much of Mills, though he & McVeigh probably weren't fully fit, which makes their selection (& probably leaving out Aliir) a huge blunder. Mitchell got a heap of ball, but barely registered on hurt factor.

Another huge disappointment was Luke Parker - seems perhaps he's got a lot of mileage out of being the 3rd or 4th mid, when oppositions concentrate on Kennedy & Hannebery. However, when the opposition has 4 mids that are better than you, your shortcomings really get shown up, and they did today.

What gets me about the Dogs is they seem to make heaps of disposal mistakes - so often kicking & handballing to the wrong places - but when they do, they just try three times harder to win back the ball. If they handball to someone under pressure, they just scrap harder to keep possession & not give away a free. If they turn it over, their pressure is more relentless than if they'd hit their target. 

And they use the long bomb very differently too. Rather than looking to a big pack mark, they aim to get the ball into a dangerous position and just get it to ground and let their crumbers do the rest. By kicking the ball high and giving it lots of "hang time", their midfielders get lots of time to run towards the drop of the ball.

3 hours ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

 

No you guys I'm not jelous  I loved what the bullies achieved and I recognised it in an earlier post. But my first and only love is the demons so I need to spew out a little dose of bitterness when another side achieves what we haven't.

Fair enough. Just that you picked possibly the most inappropriate player in AFL history to be the target for your Trump rant thing. 

Having been lucky enough to be there today, it was just a great gf to watch live and to witness. The dogs were magnificent. Who would have thought Tom Boyd would help his team win a flag before Buddy. He was brilliant today. 3 goals and wonderful contested marks. 

JJ being at the game did do well with the ball specially in the last half when he just ran with it. Instead of backing him for the 1st goal kicker should have out it on the norm smith instead. 

Franklin now has lost more gf than he has won. 2 losses in sydney colours. I know he said last week he didnt need to justify his contract with a flag but he kind of does. I mean the swans got him and Tippett to help achieve this not to just swan around Bondi. Buddy today just tried to charge through the dogs and got tackled every time. 

But wow the doggies were just brilliant today and well done to Luke Beveridge who created a culture that the players wanted to buy into. Fell for Murph but he didnt mope around this week he got behind the boys and nice how he was up on stage today. 

Nice win for the battlwers today. Now just need the storm to win and its been a great weekend. 

Oh yeah, the Dogs got the double - AFL & VFL. Seems to have escaped notice in all the excitement of today.

How long has it been that one club has got the firsts / reserves premiership double?