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Fixture analysis: Bulldogs and Dockers facing tough runs,...

Check out your club's run of fixtures across the next five weeks

Apparently we've had the second hardest draw to start of the season given 4 of our 6 opponents (Geel, Ess, GWS, GC) have winning records thus far and Freo had a winning record before the weekend.

We are projected to have the 3rd easiest fixture in the coming 5 weeks which also makes sense given 3 of our opponents have losing records and Hawthorn have been a little vulnerable over the last fortnight.

We should be aiming for 3 out of the next 5 (Rich, WC, Syd), then give the Hawks a red hot crack and who knows? Meanwhile Brisbane is out of the question at the moment.

4-7 would be a decent recovery and would get us out of the bottom 4 doldrums and we could realistically look to finish around the 10th-13th mark. This would make Essendon's first pick more palatable.

5-6 would actually get us back into the hunt.

Why are we even remotely concerned about what pick Essendon get from us in the draft?

What's done is done and in the whole scheme of things, it doesn't matter

Besides which, they gave us their 1st round pick last year and we drafted Lindsay with that pick

Remember it's just a number and at least 3 of the top 10 picks each year are busts. And that's factual, not an opinion

And Lindsay looks like he will be a fine player anyway

Don't sweat the small stuff

Lindsay is currently 9th in Rising Star betting, not a bad guide to how highly rated he is. Happy to take him against whoever the Bombers might take..

On 19/04/2025 at 17:06, dees189227 said:

Impressed with koltyn today. He used the ball well & led up for it.

Good call. Unheralded game.

I've been surprised to hear so many on here talk about him in the same breath as Windsor, Langford and Lindsay. I haven't seen anything close to that. But I really liked his game on Saturday.

Six possies is low, obviously, but as you said, kept presenting hard outside 50 and made smart decisions when he got it.

8 minutes ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Lindsay is currently 9th in Rising Star betting, not a bad guide to how highly rated he is. Happy to take him against whoever the Bombers might take..

Lindsay's disposal efficiency is going at 81.1% for the season. Which is excellent for an 18yo in his first year player

It's hard to not get carried away but he looks a goodin. The kid hits targets at speed and looks to have excellent vision

Lindsay will be an A grader. Either at half back, on a wing or even through the midfield.

He's got leadership pedigree, beautiful skills, a decent tackler (although missed a few on the weekend) and he has pace.

What's not to like? The ceiling is high.

2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

afl.com.au

Fixture analysis: Bulldogs and Dockers facing tough runs,...

Check out your club's run of fixtures across the next five weeks

Apparently we've had the second hardest draw to start of the season given 4 of our 6 opponents (Geel, Ess, GWS, GC) have winning records thus far and Freo had a winning record before the weekend.

We are projected to have the 3rd easiest fixture in the coming 5 weeks which also makes sense given 3 of our opponents have losing records and Hawthorn have been a little vulnerable over the last fortnight.

We should be aiming for 3 out of the next 5 (Rich, WC, Syd), then give the Hawks a red hot crack and who knows? Meanwhile Brisbane is out of the question at the moment.

4-7 would be a decent recovery and would get us out of the bottom 4 doldrums and we could realistically look to finish around the 10th-13th mark. This would make Essendon's first pick more palatable.

5-6 would actually get us back into the hunt.

Interesting because we started wit the 2nd easiest draw

14 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Interesting because we started wit the 2nd easiest draw

For the season I think that was.

The article is referring to the first 6 rounds.

Given of the 6 teams we've played only the roos and bombers won't make finals it's probably not far off the mark in terms of the difficulty of the draw.

Time on ground stats were interesting for a few

• Melk 65% (only on the ground 2/3rds of the game but 13 possessions and competed hard)

• Fullarton 60% (therefore 40% on the bench)

• Kolt 68% (Fair enough)

• Langdon 75% (that's a surprise, is he carrying something?)

• Turner 46% & Sharp 40% (one replaced the other)

15 minutes ago, Macca said:

Time on ground stats were interesting for a few

• Melk 65% (only on the ground 2/3rds of the game but 13 possessions and competed hard)

• Fullarton 60% (therefore 40% on the bench)

• Kolt 68% (Fair enough)

• Langdon 75% (that's a surprise, is he carrying something?)

• Turner 46% & Sharp 40% (one replaced the other)

We noticed Lingers coming to the bench too. I wondered whether they are finally managing our players a little better.

When you've got so much dynamic running required as opposed to aerobic up and back, it might allow Lingers to be fresher and therefore better with disposal. His DE is really good this year. Might have something to do with it.

Just now, Adam The God said:

We noticed Lingers coming to the bench too. I wondered whether they are finally managing our players a little better.

When you've got so much dynamic running required as opposed to aerobic up and back, it might allow Lingers to be fresher and therefore better with disposal. His DE is really good this year. Might have something to do with it.

I vaguely recall that he has gone as high as 97% but that might have been a few years ago ... but it was often a high percentage anyway as it was a talking point back then

It was a mild surprise that Fullarton played just over half a game but it looks like that's how the FD are going to play it ... JVR was 75% T.O.G as the 2nd ruck against the Bombers

Edited April 22Apr 22 by Macca

1 minute ago, Macca said:

I vaguely recall that he has gone as high as 97% but that might have been a few years ago ... but it was often a high percentage anyway as it was a talking point back then

He was still doing 100% game time as of this year still.

1 minute ago, Macca said:

I vaguely recall that he has gone as high as 97% but that might have been a few years ago ... but it was often a high percentage anyway as it was a talking point back then

He's done 100% TOG before. He's incredible.

2 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He was still doing 100% game time as of this year still.

Yep, 100% against the Bombers, so you're right

Down to 75% against Freo

27 minutes ago, Macca said:

Time on ground stats were interesting for a few

• Melk 65% (only on the ground 2/3rds of the game but 13 possessions and competed hard)

• Fullarton 60% (therefore 40% on the bench)

• Kolt 68% (Fair enough)

• Langdon 75% (that's a surprise, is he carrying something?)

• Turner 46% & Sharp 40% (one replaced the other)

Sparrow was also at 89%, despite averaging 79% for the season.

Just saw the coaches votes for the game and staggered Viney didn't poll.

9 Gawn

9 Pickett

5 Bowey

3 Petty

3 Bolton

1 Tom McDonald

Salem made a few errors but he was far more creative with his kicks ... and with that creativity comes the odd error

Kicking it down the line or sideways or backwards is often necessary but when we take a chance through the corridor or whatnot, there's a risk involved

But no risk, no reward

Mistakes/errors/errant kicks/ fumbles happened 113 times in our game

But often the overall number is much higher

As a last resort, long bombs to a pack needs to be replaced with the lower high velocity kick forward. Hang time kicks into the forward line are score killers

4 hours ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Lindsay is currently 9th in Rising Star betting, not a bad guide to how highly rated he is. Happy to take him against whoever the Bombers might take..

And Langford is on the 5th line of betting (and shortening) for the Rising Star

Top 4 ... Ashcroft, Lalor, O'Sullivan & Reid

4 hours ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Lindsay is currently 9th in Rising Star betting, not a bad guide to how highly rated he is. Happy to take him against whoever the Bombers might take..

Not bad, he hasn't been nominated yet.

1 hour ago, Swooper1987 said:

Just saw the coaches votes for the game and staggered Viney didn't poll.

9 Gawn

9 Pickett

5 Bowey

3 Petty

3 Bolton

1 Tom McDonald

His opponent had 7 score involvements and 27 touches. If he was doing a tagging job, I wouldn't have thought he did a great job.

Thought his game was pretty overrated, but the most pleasing thing was (aside from early on), his ball use was better.

2 hours ago, Adam The God said:

His opponent had 7 score involvements and 27 touches. If he was doing a tagging job, I wouldn't have thought he did a great job.

Thought his game was pretty overrated, but the most pleasing thing was (aside from early on), his ball use was better.

His hardness and outside game was what impressed me.

I liked the move early on but Serong definitely came into the game in the 2nd half.

3 hours ago, Swooper1987 said:

Just saw the coaches votes for the game and staggered Viney didn't poll.

9 Gawn

9 Pickett

5 Bowey

3 Petty

3 Bolton

1 Tom McDonald

Interesting in a 10-point, equal-scoring-shots game.

One rather pleased coach and one not so much...

Thought Andy Bray might sneak in

"Kossie pickett" i see you shai and I will top you. Lol

So, it has taken us 6 rounds to get on the board and me until Tuesday morning my time to get around to posting a few observations about the game against Freo. I don't feel so bad about that as Easter was very busy.

Not too busy that I did not watch the game live starting at 5.20am and then steal some time to watch a replay a bit later on. The replay was blurred a bit by an excellent red.

My observations:

• Very good lift in pressure on the ball/ball carrier. There was also more attention paid to possible secondary receivers.

• Pressure in forward 50 was [censored] good as you are going to see. We were keeping it very tight at the contest. Early on watching it live I thought that Langford was a bit hesitant at the contest but on second viewing he was letting his team mate in the contest do his work and looking to the next receiver. It is what we used to do in the past. Trust in our players to do the job. if they do not succeed, then the next in line steps up. Don't over commit.

• The midfield looked better balanced. with a greater variety of players attending. I want to see Petracca in there consistently as he will always attract a to p notch opponent and make the job easier for others.

• Midfield bested the Freo midfield without domination from Petracca and Oliver. Pickett cut them up but the balance was very good. won the center bounce clearances well.

• Bowey is in the best form of his life. Just looks so confident and assured with the ball.

• Salem looks a bit slower than he was in his prime. McVee to replace him? Be a big call.

• The coaches to be commended for the use of Viney as a tagger. He seemed to love the responsibility of the role on Serong and it is the best game he ha played in a while.

• We finally fluked a forward setup that gave us a good return. Going into the game I was not confident in the patchwork nature of our forward setup, or, for that matter the patchwork defence we cobbled together. Both worked better than I expected.

• The coaching team ran the game well on Saturday made the moves and played to the developing strengths. However, it needs to be asked "Why did it take so long to react to players in bad form?" Fristch and JVR should, in my opinion, have been dropped at least 2 weeks ago. Any change would have made the intent clear.

That game sets the base standard that we need to bring to each and every game for the rest of the season. A 0-5 start has not completely destroyed our ambitions for the season. It has made it a hell of a lot more difficult to realise our ambitions by increasing the pressure on the team, and coaches to perform.

May and McVee to come back into the defence. There might be a bit of shuffling of the players but I could see Sharp dropped and May replacing Turner.

Now the question is, "Can we play two good games in a row?"