Sam CHF and Tom CHB done.

Let's take a week to drive down to Melbourne For the granny rematch I said. We can stay at some nice b and B's and visit wineries I said.

Ok, she said that sounds nice.

Then all kinds of sh....t went down here in the northern Rivers 

We could still do a quick two day trip down. Catch the 5.30 out of Ballina and take you for a late supper in Fitzroy tonight I said.

Ok she said, I know you love the Dees.

Arrive at airport at 4.45, plane delayed by three hours. $10 a schooner and nowhere to sit in a packed lounge. Plane due to land about 11 tonight at Tullas (Thanks Deathstar).

Off to the local bottlo, we're now in the airport car park drinking stubbies of Sapporo and eating salt and vinegar chips for dinner.watching the sunset through the car windscreen.

she's a keeper

18 minutes ago, binman said:

And prove some of us right

He is STILL a Forward in my book!

50 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Bulldogs Team:

B: Ed Richards, Alex Keath, Bailey Williams
HB: Caleb Daniel, Zaine Cordy, Bailey Dale
C: Bailey Smith, Josh Dunkley, Lachie Hunter
HF: Cody Weightman, Josh Schache, Adam Treloar
F: Laitham Vandermeer, Aaron Naughton, Jason Johannisen
R: Tim English, Jack Macrae, Marcus Bontempelli
Int: Stefan Martin, Tom Liberatore, Mitch Hannan, Roarke Smith
Emer: Ryan Gardner, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Robbie McComb, Hayden Crozier

Bulldogs Depth is very very suss! Given emergencies!!

That backline still has its three best players and the others are ‘replacement players’ (US sporting term to denote those that are just as good as ‘the next man up’) with the exception of Petty for Smith.

Interested to see what they do with Bradshaw and Harmes. Both don’t like playing out of position but one can contribute and the other waits for Viney to get hurt…

Strong team and we should win. Looking forward to tomorrow. 

See you there Dees fans.

2 minutes ago, picket fence said:

An outrage, he has done everything right at training and in games practice!! Totally Mystifying!!

Harmes on  a HBF?????? Seriously give me a break!

Agree about Harmes. I think he is best in the forward half. They have Treloar and Weightman as HFF and they are both too quick. It is Hunts best possie so play him there. Possibly have Viney ( at first ) in the middle with Sparrow down forward and Harmes on bench.

42 minutes ago, wizardinoz said:

Tomlinson very stiff.

Tomlinson looked very slow and not agile to me in the Carlton game, and he was one of the few where that wasn't an effort issue - his body is just not there (yet), despite his claims he's never been fitter.

Smith is much more of a sure-thing at this stage, and I am no Smith fan.

Edited March 15, 20224 yr by Chook

I just noticed the emergencies and saw Dunstan who hasn't played any practice games.  So maybe Tomlinson becomes the sub so he might a bit of game time.

3 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I just noticed the emergencies and saw Dunstan who hasn't played any practice games.  So maybe Tomlinson becomes the sub so he might a bit of game time.

I could see that, and he'd be very versatile - he's played basically everywhere, though I wouldn't want him rucking with a mending knee.

I wouldn’t be surprised if JJ spends some time down back.

31 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I suspect Tomlinson is out because they don't think his knee is ready for a full on 120 minutes of football.  As it is, he has made an amazing comeback from an ACL in 8 months whereas it is usually 10-12 months.

Edit: @Roost it farhas correctly posted it is 10 months since he did his ACL. 

Suspect they don't want to take any chances with it.

Thanks for that. Makes sense now thinking about a 26 week season

7 minutes ago, dl4e said:

Agree about Harmes. I think he is best in the forward half. They have Treloar and Weightman as HFF and they are both too quick. It is Hunts best possie so play him there. Possibly have Viney ( at first ) in the middle with Sparrow down forward and Harmes on bench.

Absolutely need Hunt on the ground now.

The dogs have done nothing to fix their greatest deficiency- their defence. 

break even in the middle and we will smash them 

28 minutes ago, Brownie said:

Let's take a week to drive down to Melbourne For the granny rematch I said. We can stay at some nice b and B's and visit wineries I said.

Ok, she said that sounds nice.

Then all kinds of sh....t went down here in the northern Rivers 

We could still do a quick two day trip down. Catch the 5.30 out of Ballina and take you for a late supper in Fitzroy tonight I said.

Ok she said, I know you love the Dees.

Arrive at airport at 4.45, plane delayed by three hours. $10 a schooner and nowhere to sit in a packed lounge. Plane due to land about 11 tonight at Tullas (Thanks Deathstar).

Off to the local bottlo, we're now in the airport car park drinking stubbies of Sapporo and eating salt and vinegar chips for dinner.watching the sunset through the car windscreen.

she's a keeper

What a wonderfully romantic moment!

You cheap ( ......) !!!

Edited March 15, 20224 yr by Bitter but optimistic

11 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

I wouldn’t be surprised if JJ spends some time down back.

that's the interesting addition for me.

 

Dunstan to be the sub, just a very strong hunch

Ok so what time exactly is the Unfurling of the Flag? Got to drive down and dont want to miss it...

 

Its still too good to be true !

Flags are not won in March. I know that now because I saw us win one in September. So it’s true. 
We need to get more flexible on the wings and half back. So having a few injuries will help with that in a way. I’m interested to see how we play Harmes, JJ and Hunt to be honest. All 3 sort of don’t have what I would call a locked in role. 
 

Everyone seems to have forgotten that Hunt had a good season & played 20 games before getting injured just before the finals.

Would’ve been a premiership player if didn’t get injured 

5 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Ok so what time exactly is the Unfurling of the Flag? Got to drive down and dont want to miss it...

 

Its still too good to be true !

6.35.

With a 70,000+ crowd it could take a while to get in especially as this is the first time most will have used digital entry and/or haven't checked their mfc app to see if they are (correctly) set up.

And they will be checking the vax certificates.

So allow lots of time.

8 minutes ago, Wadda We Sing said:

Ok so what time exactly is the Unfurling of the Flag? Got to drive down and dont want to miss it...

 

Its still too good to be true !

3:30PM

 

 

 

 

 

Perf time.

Tommorrow 4.37 AM

I'm honestly very surprised at this.

We've lost three defenders (Petty, Rivers, Hibberd) and replaced them with two defenders (Smith and Hunt) and a midfielder (Jordon).

To maintain the same system as 2021, we have to take a midfielder and rotate them through the minutes we'd otherwise be giving Hibberd/Rivers in the backline.

2020-21 showed us that Harmes is a forward half midfielder, not a half back flanker. 2021 showed us that Brayshaw is a vital part of our team on a wing. And I'm not aware of Jordon playing in the backline over the pre-season (please correct me if I'm wrong).

It may be the case that Tomlinson isn't fit enough and that we don't have any other good enough defenders to bring in, but all the messaging coming out of the club was that Tomlinson was good to go so I'm not sure it's that.

It can't be the Dogs' short forward line - they're running the same forward line as the GF in which we had the extra defender.

Still, Jordon played every game last year, Hunt would have kept his spot if he hadn't been injured, and Smith's pre-season has deserved selection, so their inclusions all make sense. We will just see how we go with this many changes to our back line.

1 hour ago, Brownie said:

Let's take a week to drive down to Melbourne For the granny rematch I said. We can stay at some nice b and B's and visit wineries I said.

Ok, she said that sounds nice.

Then all kinds of sh....t went down here in the northern Rivers 

We could still do a quick two day trip down. Catch the 5.30 out of Ballina and take you for a late supper in Fitzroy tonight I said.

Ok she said, I know you love the Dees.

Arrive at airport at 4.45, plane delayed by three hours. $10 a schooner and nowhere to sit in a packed lounge. Plane due to land about 11 tonight at Tullas (Thanks Deathstar).

Off to the local bottlo, we're now in the airport car park drinking stubbies of Sapporo and eating salt and vinegar chips for dinner.watching the sunset through the car windscreen.

she's a keeper

Early favourite for post of the year. 

While Smith wasn't a creator last week he went really hard at the contest and played his role as asked, hence his inclusion.