POSTGAME: Rd 19 vs Western Bulldogs

[DubDee 26,675]

We are no longer a 11-1 team. We have 2 wins in the past 6 and have pretty much the worst form of any team in the 8. 

blokes like Harmes need to be dropped. Oliver and Trac can’t do everything. We have so many players out of form and plenty of talent in the twos. Time for some changes 

[ANG13 2,110]

Wow that was frustrating and boy do we have somethings to work on. We have so many issues I am worried we don’t have enough time to resolve them all. 
 

Opposition teams are roving Max that well Max looks confused on what he actually should be doing. I personally don’t have an issue with Max grabbing it out of the ruck and kicking it, but it’s a hopeless tactic if Spargo and ANB are the ones trying to mark those kicks at the top of the 50. I almost feel we would be better at centre bounces with someone else. 
 

Our goal kicking is costing us games and could well cost us a top four spot. 
 

Where going to struggle for the rest of the season if our bottom six players continue to not contribute. 
 

I also feel our decision making is letting us down far too often, we don’t have enough skilled players to cover so many poor decisions. 
 

I am certainly not writing the season off yet because where still very much in the mix if we can turn it around. But if we don’t sort it out it’s going to be some waste of a year. 
 

 

[layzie 34,528]

Gave it a good hour cool off. Can sum it up with two good sides, one didn’t convert their chances, other one did, team that didn’t certainly didn’t lose through lack of effort, better team won. 

Tried our best, didn’t get over the line. Probably need 3 wins of 4 to get top 4 and need to run the table for top 2. It’s fickle stuff this football caper,near enough isn’t good enough. 

Letting Bont roam free at the back of the contest twice for 2 goals didn’t help. Dogs were much the better side tonight but my word they had some great help from the umpires. Never usually one to look at that stuff but 25-11 was absurd and hurt us in crucial areas. 

Smashed the hit outs, not the clearances. Plenty of inside 50s for not enough scoring shots. It was like the worst of our problems in the last 4 years in one at times.

Thats pretty much it from me, it’s up for grabs now. Season could end in glory, could fall out of the 4, the season could get canned altogether, who the hell knows. I’m not quite as annoyed about it though as other ones this year. I still want to live a good life.

Good evening all. 

 

[Nascent 9,345]

13 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

'Unified team'

Harmes goes into bat for Gus after the Hannan goal (no one else does), then gets ragdolled to the ground and no one comes into bat for him... Not a big deal, and just the huff and puff, but just little things like that are noticeable sometimes.

This has been bothering me for years.

[Stiff Arm 4,420]

47 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

The MoJo has gone 

Just cannot score enough. The efficiency is terrible 

 

Agreed. Conversion has been poor all year. Now its catching up on us. We are incredibly wasteful of the great work our backline has been doing

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

44 minutes ago, loges said:

I can go back to one of the early Pink Lady games several years ago they got 2 clear goals of ours overturned and there wasn't even video review back then. Ever since I've kept an eye on the free kick stats when we play them and can't remember one time when we've come out ahead. Posted in one of the pre game threads , get ready for free kick Bulldogs. But it's not just us if you look at their stats they're the umpires darlings. Questions need to be asked.

Go look at the 2016 GF! Got an armchair ride that day too, Swans supporters on Bigfooty still furious about it.

[Webber 10,650]

22 minutes ago, A F said:

we dominated them for 4 quarters

Did you mean to write this AF, because it’s patently not true. 

[The heart beats true 18,201]

20 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Also noticed no one really got around Viney when he kicked that goal.

Real weird vibes.

Have noticed this for 3 years. He’s not one of the lads Jack, or at least he doesn’t appear to be on the field. It’s all very workman like around him, not joyous.

[Skuit 10,031]

lol - we'll get them on the flip-side.

[Nascent 9,345]

I'm not sure what the answer is to our form issues but I think we may be suffering from some selection hubris with the lack of team changes over recent weeks.

Consistency and cohesion is great, but when players are in poor form for multiple weeks and nothing changes we start having a problem. Complaceny may creep in if players no longer believes their spot is in jeopardy and it must be disheartening for reserve players trying to work their way into the team and not be rewarded.

Edited July 24, 2021 by Nascent

[titan_uranus 25,255]

10 minutes ago, Watson11 said:

We lost 1 last quarter in the first 9 rounds. We have lost 6 last quarters of the last 9. Our run at the end of games has gone missing.

Bont played 88% game time tonight. We played the last 15 minutes and won the game for them. Petracca played 98% game time. He played the last 15 minutes and did nothing.

We didn't get overrun in the fourth though.

We just didn't take our chances. We kicked two goals to one point by the 18-minute mark when the margin was 4 points. I'd love to know how many inside 50s we'd had to that point and the time in forward half stat. I'd reckon both were heavily in our favour.

If we'd managed another goal or two, taken the lead from our hard work, who knows how the rest of the quarter plays out.

But instead Bont gets a goal from a stoppage because Harmes and Viney are ball chasing not defending, instead of being in front we're 10 points down, and our belief sags.

All I'm saying here is that this wasn't a situation of us being outrun in the fourth. it was very close and had a couple of things gone our way, we could and I think would have seen a very different result.

9 minutes ago, SPC said:

I think we have lost the fabric that made us a good side:

1. Selflessness 

2. Few players competing for the same ball

3. Unpredictability going forward

4. Short efficient kicking going forward

5. Small mark/kicks forward keeping possession 

There's been too many instances of too many mids going to the ball in the last month.

After the win vs the Dogs in Round 11 Petracca did an interview talking about trusting the tackler and not having two go to the ball carrier.

It's frustrating that this is creeping back into our game. I think it is in part because when we fall behind too many of our mids try to be the hero. It also doesn't help that Viney and Harmes are players who seem to be incapable of standing off at stoppages.

I wonder whether we simply cannot play both Harmes and Viney in the same midfield.

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

28 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

'Unified team'

Harmes goes into bat for Gus after the Hannan goal (no one else does), then gets ragdolled to the ground and no one comes into bat for him... Not a big deal, and just the huff and puff, but just little things like that are noticeable sometimes.

Also noticed no one really got around Viney when he kicked that goal.

Real weird vibes.

Would you rather they fly the flag and gift another goal to the Dogs? That's exactly what Footscray was trying to do suck us in to give away another free.

[Adam The God 30,735]

10 minutes ago, Webber said:

Did you mean to write this AF, because it’s patently not true. 

They didn't look like scoring for large chunks of every quarter. Basically it was a pattern. We'd dominate them for the first 15+ minutes of each quarter, fail to capitalise on enough of our work and then we'd let them get an easy entry for an easy goal that kept the lead at 2 to 3 goals. We didn't dominate them for 100% of the game, but IMV we dominated them in every quarter for large spells. It was like 2018 Melbourne at times.

Edited July 24, 2021 by A F

[Lord Nev 13,512]

Just now, Dr. Gonzo said:

Would you rather they fly the flag and gift another goal to the Dogs? That's exactly what Footscray was trying to do suck us in to give away another free.

You can certainly 'fly the flag' without giving away a free. I mean, it's exactly what the Dogs were doing at the time...

[dazzledavey36 56,336]

18 minutes ago, praha said:

Was a solid game of footy, awful umpiring aside. Dogs are a great team, we ran them off the field at Marvel and they beat us in a good contest at the G. We played okay but tbf I don't rate us as a top 4 side. We are thereabouts with Port imo and could go either way. Lions will make their way into top 4.

We neither.

I've seen enough now to think it'll be Doggies or the Cats who'll win it this year. Good teams simply don't continue to lose to bad teams like Hawthorn,  Adelaide and Collingwood.

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

17 minutes ago, SPC said:

I think we have lost the fabric that made us a good side:

1. Selflessness 

2. Few players competing for the same ball

3. Unpredictability going forward

4. Short efficient kicking going forward

5. Small mark/kicks forward keeping possession 

6. Pressure inside 50

[titan_uranus 25,255]

4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Would you rather they fly the flag and gift another goal to the Dogs? That's exactly what Footscray was trying to do suck us in to give away another free.

2 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

You can certainly 'fly the flag' without giving away a free. I mean, it's exactly what the Dogs were doing at the time...

That was a free kick to Harmes.

We got one on ANZAC Eve vs Richmond for a similar thing.

Add it to the list of decisions that went against us.

[Lord Nev 13,512]

Just now, titan_uranus said:

That was a free kick to Harmes.

We got one on ANZAC Eve vs Richmond for a similar thing.

Add it to the list of decisions that went against us.

Yep should have been.

My point is more that not one of his team mates cared.

[Mel Bourne 4,541]

Dees are looking sluggish. Intensity just wasn’t there in the second half. We need to rest a few crew if we’re going to give ourselves half a chance in the finals. 

I don’t think we’re cooked, and still think a GF appearance is very possible  I don’t think a GF victory is likely however, because we seldom keep cool heads in high pressure situations. 

ANB and Hibberd could do with a spell. Bring in Lockhart and Sparrow. Sparrow has shown promise with his few set-shots. 

Pickett is a bit lost at the moment, but given the options (Melksham?) it’s probably best to leave him out there and hope he sorts it out in real time. He, Rivers and Jackson have put in great seasons, but I fear their youth is catching up with them from a fatigue point of view and come finals time, they will have worryingly-empty tanks. 
 

 

 

 

[D4Life 2,584]

Dogs stars and team had a good night.

Umpires gave them an armchair ride!

Demons relied on half a dozen players, carried a dozen players, looked a little flat, missed opportunities yet still got within 4 points in the last.

We’re far from dead yet, but need to pick it up from here, give a few boys a rest, and a couple of others an opportunity!

[Dr. Gonzo 24,468]

Is it just me that can't stand Weightman? Looks like such a little smartarse, would love to seem him cleaned up (fairly)

And how good was Kozzies tackle on Richards that put him out of the game? Reminded me of the one from his draft year, head down spear tackle

[chook fowler 19,774]

Goodwin needs a kick in the rear for letting Daniel run amok. Our half forwards were loose and ineffectual. 

[Webber 10,650]

1 minute ago, A F said:

They didn't look like scoring for large chunks of every quarter. Basically it was a pattern. We'd dominate them for the first 15+ minutes of each quarter, fail to capitalise on enough of our work and then we'd let them get an easy entry for an easy goal that kept the lead at 2 to 3 goals. We didn't dominate them for 100% of the game, but IMV we dominated them in every quarter for large spells. It was like 2018 Melbourne at times.

Not sure what you mean by dominate, but the way I saw it, we had a few minutes (at best) of possession and attack dominance each quarter, which they quickly snuffed out, then added to. The Dogs never looked like they’d lost control or would succumb, not even when we got within 4 points. The truth is they’re beginning to peak beautifully, where we’ve retreated to bottom 6 form. Funny old game, and we all so hoped it wouldn’t be the case, but the ‘April-May premiers’ jibe is sadly proving true for this team. 

[faultydet 7,623]

For those who have been scoffing at everyone who dared to bemoan our garbage recent form, saying all was good because we always beat the top sides, what do you have to cling to now?

Losing to bottom 4 teams is a klaxon that we do not have our mental side sorted, and this loss was the manifestation of that crap form. We can't play below our best and keep beating the real contenders.

 

Our skills generally under pressure are laughable

Our inside 50 entries are abysmal

Our kicking for goal is under 15 level

 

We are being exposed as pretenders. The writing has been on the wall for almost 2 months now.

 

 

 

[dazzledavey36 56,336]

I must have watched a completely different game because I thought Viney was simply poor once again tonight..