I think Smith will surprise this year. Whilst I also prefer him forward he will have a permanent spot in the back 7 all year. 

Early chance to test the “system” with a little bit of different personnel. That said Hunt played it most of the season last year, Smith was pretty damn close to a GF spot. Perhaps the only eyebrow raising part is Harmes at HB. I thought we’d moved on from this experiment, that said I do know there are times that the coaches play funny nuggets with the line ups. 

we generally play a back 7 - may, lever, salem, bowey plus smith, hunt and... harmes? brayshaw? jordon?

be interesting to see who the final rotation will be

58 minutes ago, chook fowler said:

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

Think he would make a good half back.

I have no problem with Harmes being named at HB, after all they have names Viney in a forward pocket. Hunt on the bench, Kossie on the bench. Not fussed.

Back six are May, Lever, Salem, Smith, Hunt, Bowey with rotating cover from JJ, Brayshaw and Sparrow. 
 

the game to be won in the middle and I believe we have them covered there.

8 minutes ago, Pates said:

Early chance to test the “system” with a little bit of different personnel. That said Hunt played it most of the season last year, Smith was pretty damn close to a GF spot. Perhaps the only eyebrow raising part is Harmes at HB. I thought we’d moved on from this experiment, that said I do know there are times that the coaches play funny nuggets with the line ups. 

Just saw an Instagram post from the club taking at training today. They showed a couple of players taking set shots for goal, and Harmes was one of them. Only forwards were in the vicinity waiting their turn.

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

Just quoting this so that anyone who skipped to the last pages of the thread will still get to see it.

Very, very funny.

39 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 !

It's 6.30 Wadda but I'm going for an early arrival because I foresee ****ups with the ticketing set up!

1 hour ago, Deemac said:

How is Smith in 🤦🏾

In all probability, Smith would have a premiership medallion had he not been injured during the finals

Probably the wrong thread but I'm watching 360 -  FMD Gil looks like he's got a serious hangover!

1 hour ago, DubDee said:

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

break even in the middle and we will smash them 

That's what I reckon too. Their mids are the obvious strength but their rucks are suss, their defense isn't great (although they have some decent rebound) and their key forwards are slim pickings. To win they'll be relying on goals out of their mids and small forwards like Weightman and JJ.

If we turn up I think we win handily even given our backline.

 

@binmanwwell you were right about Smith, can't say I understand it but can't argue with facts. I should've known better than to question your judgement 😂

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

That's what I reckon too. Their mids are the obvious strength but their rucks are suss, their defense isn't great (although they have some decent rebound) and their key forwards are slim pickings. To win they'll be relying on goals out of their mids and small forwards like Weightman and JJ.

If we turn up I think we win handily even given our backline.

When the Dogs were on top in the GF, they weren't just dominating at stoppages. They were moving the ball too easily from the back half to their forward half. Remember that Caleb Daniel had something like 24 touches in the first half.

We kept Naughton quiet in all three games last year, but he's always a threat and with a weakened backline there's always a risk that someone clunks a few marks and it could be him.

I think too many here are seriously underrating the Dogs because of the GF blowout. Yet, we were incredible, but we can't expect to play like that every week, and for the 1.5 quarters leading up to the domination the Dogs were on top of us. 

We played 7 players through the backline last year with Brayshaw periodically floating back to help out

So 3 are out (Hibberd, Petty & Rivers) replaced with Joel Smith (Petty's role) & Hunt probably covers for Rivers on Langdon's side of the ground (Hunt & Langdon work well together)

So we're one backman short but are we?  Bowey will play more minutes you'd imagine and Brayshaw and/or Harmes & Jordon can help out occasionally across half back (if needed)

Which gives the team 6 backmen with possibly 3 others to help out covering for 1 permanent backman-type

So if Tomlinson plays (as well as Smith) we might have lacked some dash out of defence. A line-ball call but one had to miss out

It's a well balanced side and Dunstan probably gets the sub role ... remembering that we'll need the legs to offset some players getting gassed round 1

 

 

Dees by 38

Six dogs player to retire post game due to PTSD after hearing Freed to Desire again post game

Lachie Hunter to crash his car into Bevo's 

Edited March 15, 20223 yr by adonski

2 hours ago, wizardinoz said:

Tomlinson very stiff.

Im guessing they want to ease him in and give him some more practice games with the vfl or something or training. 

I think we're underestimating the loss of River's and Petty.

River's for me has that speed and power in being able to play on the likes of Weightman, Hannan and Johanisson. Not only that, we lose his dash and long kicking out of defence. Watch the GF and you'll see he won some very crucial one on one's and also made some critical spoils. Huge loss for our team.

Petty is the other that could play on Naughton and free up May, but also his reading of the play and intercept marking is so important for our defensive structure.

I'm going to admit that having Hunt and Smith in the same side is giving me some serious concerns for tomorrow night. Smith has already shown that on high pressure games (Brisbane final) he struggles with his lack of game awareness and tends to fumble during crucial stages of thr game. Hunt is just way to unpredictable. I did not like his game against Carlton at all and thought he was lazy at times in defending.

Just remember that this is a whole new year now. I think the doggies could win this comfortably and wouldn't surprise me if they do so. They would have taken some enormous learnings from the Grand Final and making sure it never happens again. 

Just feel like we're a tad unbalanced down back.

2 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Im guessing they want to ease him in and give him some more practice games with the vfl or something or training. 

You're probably right as he is coming off a serious injury.

However, his form in the 5 or 6 (?) rounds before that injury was outstanding.  Far beyond anything Smith has displayed in my opinion.

 

Not sure if anyone noticed but watching the Charlie Spargo interview they had the backline group in a huddle where Steven May was obviously giving a speech.

Angus Braydhaw was part of that back line group.

32 minutes ago, adonski said:

Dees by 38

Six dogs player to retire post game due to PTSD after hearing Freed to Desire again post game

Lachie Hunter to crash his car into Bevo's 

Thought Jack McCrae was the multi-vehicle pile up specialist.

Parking at the Whitten oval car park is at high risk and not recommended by the RACV.

 

Edited March 15, 20223 yr by Tarax Club
Don’t give’em keys for the jag!

21 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

When the Dogs were on top in the GF, they weren't just dominating at stoppages. They were moving the ball too easily from the back half to their forward half. Remember that Caleb Daniel had something like 24 touches in the first half.

We kept Naughton quiet in all three games last year, but he's always a threat and with a weakened backline there's always a risk that someone clunks a few marks and it could be him.

I think too many here are seriously underrating the Dogs because of the GF blowout. Yet, we were incredible, but we can't expect to play like that every week, and for the 1.5 quarters leading up to the domination the Dogs were on top of us. 

Not just the GF blowout. They were lucky to get over Brisbane in the Semi and dropped games to Hawks and Bombers in the run home to cost themselves top 4. They also got blown out of the water by the Tigers in the second half earlier last year and we touched them up in that Docklands game too. When the pressure goes up they tend to go missing.

Bruce is also a huge out for them structurally and they don't have JUH/Darcy ready yet to step in. When they were in top in the GF it was largely due to winning the ground ball inside 50 (goals to Treloar X3, Naughton, Bont). If our mids bring the pressure and don't let Bont, Macrae, Treloar off the hook I'm fairly confident we have their measure. Hope I'm not eating these words in 24 hours haha

11 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Not sure if anyone noticed but watching the Charlie Spargo interview they had the backline group in a huddle where Steven May was obviously giving a speech.

Angus Braydhaw was part of that back line group.

Hmm so Brayshaw to defence and Jordon to the wing. Seems like they have Jordon earmarked for a wing position so will be interesting how it plays out, not sure I like tinkering so much when we already have 3 premiership defenders missing and Brayshaw was crucial on the wing in two games against the Dogs last year.

1 hour ago, DubDee said:

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

break even in the middle and we will smash them 

That’s a big if. We got absolutely toweled against The blues and they are nowhere near as talented in the middle as the Dogs.

It’s too early to make any assessment on trends or read too much into the Carlton game but I’d hate to see the cockiness of 2018 seep back into the side. A little is ok, but expecting anything less than a brutal contest wouldn’t work out too favourable.

Hopefully the attitude is where it needs to be.

3 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Hunt and Joel Smith in the same baseline looks way too shaky for me.

Yep, worrying for me. Hunt was good last year with solid heads around him. Having Smith back there as well means we suddenly have two questionable decision makers in our back 6. 

If our midfield can get on top and our 18 man defence is switched on it probably won't matter, and Smith will provide flexibility to play on Naughton, Weightman or Schache. This will allow Lever and/or May to drop off.

Edited March 15, 20223 yr by A F

43 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

When the Dogs were on top in the GF, they weren't just dominating at stoppages. They were moving the ball too easily from the back half to their forward half. Remember that Caleb Daniel had something like 24 touches in the first half.

We kept Naughton quiet in all three games last year, but he's always a threat and with a weakened backline there's always a risk that someone clunks a few marks and it could be him.

I think too many here are seriously underrating the Dogs because of the GF blowout. Yet, we were incredible, but we can't expect to play like that every week, and for the 1.5 quarters leading up to the domination the Dogs were on top of us. 

Was listening to a replay of 3AW Sportday whilst driving home from work tonight. (I’ve been up since 2am for work so I want to re listen to the podcast, I’m bloody tired)Leigh Mathew’s was talking about the Bulldogs and went on to say things like “They fell into the 8” which isn’t quite true they finished 5th but they dropped a lot of easy games late in the season. Yes all teams dropped winnable games but it was the timing of their losing streak. “Whilst they are very strong in some positions the have some gaping holes in their list”. I assume the holes he refers too is their defenders and their forwards. He also went on to question Tim English’s ability to dominate the ruck. He said “whilst he can take a mark around the ground he has doubts about his ruck craft” and “Stef Martin is a battler that provides a contest”.