18 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Dogs are the same every year

Great fwd line, great midfield. Horrible defence

They look amazing for a few weeks then they come up against a solid team and their defence is exposed

How Bevo gets a new contract when he never fixes the obvious issue is beyond me

Same inside 50’s but one team has good key backs and one doesn’t.

Inaccuracy the main problem for them tonight

Dogs have been terrible.

15 minutes ago, BDA said:

Inaccuracy the main problem for them tonight

you don’t reckon their poor defence is an issue? Sure they missed some shots

plus they are getting smashed in clearances and contested possessions

Watson and Ginnivsn with a couple of blatant throws

13 minutes ago, DubDee said:

you don’t reckon their poor defence is an issue? Sure they missed some shots

plus they are getting smashed in clearances and contested possessions

Sure their defence could be better it’s just I don’t believe it’s their biggest problem tonight. They’ve missed a lot of very kickable goals.

Looking at Sydney v Gold Coast result and with every passing round it seems more and more like 2026 is the year of the goal-kicking midfielder.

It'll be interesting to see which clubs can figure out how to mitigate the effect of the top grade attacking midfielders over the course of the season.

Last season Kysaiah Pickett cam about six disposals short of being the first player since Steve Johnsons to have 20 disposals and 2 goals a game at the same time.

This season right now Heeney, Bontempelli, and Petracca are on track for that double stat, while some 30 players listed as midfielders are on target for 20+ goals for the season, compared to just 12 last season.

I can imagine that as he develops and gains a bit of confidence and does the small non-negotiables better, Harvey Langford will become one of the hardest midfield weapons to contain. On the other hand, how does this evolution of the game affect the value of Zak Butters, who has apparently decided that goals just aren't a thing for him?

27 minutes ago, BDA said:

Sure their defence could be better it’s just I don’t believe it’s their biggest problem tonight. They’ve missed a lot of very kickable goals.

Hawks missed 13 shots too

It’s been a smashing really

Dogs are no flag favourite. far from it

Gee I thought tonight's game would had been closer.

Gather round has really underwhelmed me

Feels like the Dogs have taken a hit to their top-4 credentials as strong as we have taken a hit to our top-8 credentials.

Sigh. If we'd just done the work, we'd be tidily up the ladder in a season which is looking wide open.

Bit troubling to see Hawthorn looking like they've got a bit of the Richmond attack going on - a couple of dependable key targets and a swarm of annoying and effective small and medium forwards. I'm just glad they don't have a gamebreaker on the level of Dustin Martin, and that the core of the team is in the mature 27-34yr old group. They did a lot of trading, and good value trading to be sure, to get themselves into a competitive position. They might steal a premiership in a season like this which seems pretty even at the top, but I can at least hope there's no prospect of a [censored] dynasty. You can definitely see why they went so hard after Merrett, and they'll probably chase every top-level free agent on the planet.

Fingers crossed they fall short and cook both their list and their salary cap in the process.