BEATEN BY BULLDOGS IN BENDIGO - a not nearly as well alliterated report by Diablo

So it was on the afternoon of February 29th, the girlfriend and I made our way up to Bendigo to have a look at the Dees taking on the Doggies at the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Oval. I had high hopes for this game, even against a strong Dogs' lineup, as another posse of front-liners returned to the team. Even as, a couple of hours before the bounce, we made our way to the Rifle Brigade across the street to take in a few bevies and a meal, I was pumped.

As we took our place in the main Grandstand at the park, it wasn't overly surprising to see that the Dogs' supporters heavily outnumbered us. What was mildly disappointing was that the Dees didn't appear to have any sort of merchandising or membership tent at the ground. I could be wrong, of course, but the Doggies' one was glaringly obvious as it was plonked right in front of the main gate. It does seem ridiculous that we wouldn't at least have a small setup somewhere, so I'll put it down to poor eyesight on my behalf.

Anyway, the first quarter began and my positive attitude (a rarity for me, I'll admit) was vindicated as the Dees FLEW out of the blocks. After a few wayward efforts from both teams, including Will Minson missing an absolute pudding from 15m out, Robbo won a free kick and goaled from 25m out in the pocket.

A lovely kick from Flash to a leading Neitz set the skipper up for his first kick in anger of 2008, and he didn't disappoint, drilling it from a tight angle in the right pocket.

Chook got amongst it in his first hit-out for the year, gathering a couple of touches and taking a strong grab at half-forward, but it was Jones, Davey and Bate who were impressive from the get-go. Jones racked up touches and Davey's pace and skills were on display all night, whilst Bater was by far our best forward, leading hard and linking up the play.

Bater kicked a sausage, some good interplay with Yze led to a running goal for Davey, and then good hands from Weetra and then Morton in traffic released Bate to kick a big bomb for our fifth. We were playing all over the dogs at this stage and they didn't look like getting near us. Then fate conspired to screw us into the ground yet again.

The last 2 goals went to the Dogs after soft free kicks, and a 50m penalty. Now, before I go any further, I want to get the umpiring off my chest. To be fair, I'm just going to say it was poor, when in fact I felt like they castigated us. Without replays, it's hard to totally criminalise the umps, but suffice to say there were about four very tiggy touchwood 50m penalties, and I can't think of more than 3 Bulldog goals that were not from free kicks. It was exceptionally frustrating, but I won't dwell. Reading the commentary this morning, I can see I wasn't the only one who thought the maggots were in rare form last night.

So, quarter time rolled around and we were still comfortably ahead, 5.4 to 2.3. Jones, Bate, and Davey had been our best, with Sylvia also getting amongst it late in the term. Moloney was solid coming off half-back and through the middle, and Miller and Carroll had repelled everything that it was in their power to deal with. All in all, a great opening.

The first goal of the second term went our way, with Jones delivering the goods after some swash-buckling, tackle-busting run and carry that would please even the cynics.

That's when the wheels fell off. Apparently delighted that they had finally managed to use run and carry effectively, after failing to do so for the entirety of last season, the boys went into hibernation. Jones and Beama, both good contributors in the middle, came off, and the Dogs finally got the ascendancy. Sylvia had a great quarter though, tearing through the middle with strength and pace.

The Dogs had a good portion of help from the umpires, but they swamped us and whilst the backline, at least, battled manfully, they couldn't halt the tide. We were able to spoil virtually every time, only for the umpires to penalize us for some innocuous infringement. I've got no doubt that some of them were warranted, but some of them were bloody rubbish… Sorry, forget the umpires.

Anyway, we conceded six goals with no answer, and the tables were not only turned, but well and truly lying on top of us at half time, as we went in 6.6 to 8.4 down. Our tackling and ferocity, which had been prominent early, had evaporated and we looked lackluster for much of the second quarter.

The second half began as the first had ended, with the Dogs goaling from a free kick straight away. It seemed to wake us up, however, and we fought back strongly, hitting the post twice before Davey snapped truly after a ball up. Neitz jagged his second shortly afterwards.

More free kicks, 50m penalties and the inevitably-ensuing goals to the Dogs left us 3 goals down, before Robbo took a fine grab and bagged a sausage from a tight angle.

After that, things went very sour for us pretty quickly. Aker, who had cut us to ribbons all night, had a party in the rest of the third and what was played of the last. Robbo was reported after sending a Dog defender base over apex, though it looked a soft report at worst. Not too many positives for us to take from the second half really, though Jones, Davey and Sylvia all battled to the death. Cale Morton found a bit of the ball and had some good touches. Unfortunately, our forward line was more stagnant than a stubbie in a Mosque. The match ended in (for us, anyway) suitable ignominy, as the lights at the ground took a dump and the umpires finally cut us some slack by ending the game early.

All in all, it was not a diabolical performance by Melbourne, but after the first quarter, I was expecting a bigger effort. Our first quarter was excellent, however, and our third quarter was also competitive, and saw us well within striking distance at the last change. Unfortunately, we capitulated in the final term, and the Dogs surged ahead of us. They may have just, on the balance of play, deserved to win the game, but the umpires gave us a bath.

Western Bulldogs 2.3.15 8.4.52 11.7.73 14.9.93

Melbourne 5.4.34 6.6.42 9.9.63 9.9.63

Goals

Western Bulldogs Akermanis Murphy 2 Boyd Eagleton Griffen Hahn Johnson Minson Mulligan O'Keefe Ward Welsh

Melbourne Bate Davey Neitz Robertson 2 Jones

Best

Western Bulldogs Akermanis Eagleton Higgins Hill Cooney Johnson

Melbourne Jones Davey Bate Sylvia Miller (Get out of town, Diablo, surely ye jest? Maybe, but he battled hard and had some fine moments), Valenti (I know I haven’t mentioned him; he bobbed up at times throughout the game with plenty of poise and is just naturally able to read the play. Get this boy on the senior list ASAP)

Reports R Robertson (Melbourne) for charging J Mulligan (Western Bulldogs)

Umpires M Head C Kamolins J Mollison.

Crowd 7000 (approx) at Queen Elizabeth Oval, Bendigo

Excellent work D. Thanks for the report, much appreciated.

I've liked the little I've seen of Valenti and the reports about him. As the last rookie selected you could do a lot worse than taking a bloke who just knows how to find the pill. Would seem an absolute monty for promotion to the senior list now in the advent of any long term injury because he's cherry ripe to play seniors right away.

On a completely separate note watching a bit of the St Kilda and Bombers game it looks like a long season for backmen given the way the preseason is being umpired. You simply can't afford to grab your opponent at all. Hands in the back - is a bit iffy, but I don't agree with the chopping the arms rule unless its clearly a sweeping motion of the arm.

Thanks Diablo for your efforts and observations.

Graz, I thought the same thing about the push in the back rule. Its going to be dynamite if backman are inept or crude when 2nd in line for a contest.

I've got a few points of my own from the game I'd like to add in no particular order

1. Yze looked good mopping up in the backline, Good to have him as a small to help about. BUT, his disposal but foot was shocking, spraying it all over the place at times.

2. Any time you have Robbo on the half back line you must surely be experimenting. As soon as I saw this in the the third i thought it was game over. (Should get off the charge too IMO)

3. I stood right behind the bulldogs bench, they were pulling silly experimental moves like that too. Johnson in the back pocket and Street on the wing and one point in the the last spring to mind.

4. When playing into the wind our disposal wasn't nearly good enough and too much clogging of the wings. One turnover

and bang, back into the backline it went.

5. Isn't John Barnes the worst runner in the league? Getting sent off for interferring in the midfield was justified and copped a huge spray (especially from me!!)

6. They kicked at least 5 goals from stupid free kicks, and the two from 50m penalties are exactly why the umpires are the "white scum"

7. I thought it wasn't a bad game in all. Both sides could take away some good and some bad things from the game. The crowd was great although a little too boganish for my liking. Great little ground, surface was good too, probably as good as Gosches Paddock.

I would have been able to write my own report but left the pen in the car and the kids took a little too much attention away from the game. Plus it had been a long day and they were pretty grumpy by the end. Best on ground for us i would say were Jones, Sylvia, Flash, Bate. Can't wait for the game at Cranbourne next weekend.

a thougt that just occurs.. . we all tend to think of the game from the players impact perspective. Im thinking there is an other world going on.. the 'testing " of coaches.. i.e looking for reactions and thinkings. That is..."if I do this...what will they do"..file that one away... if I do this..they do ?? file that away etc.

Theres an old adage .."dont ask a question you dont know the answer to" do we have a case also that coaches want to know the likley outcomes of moves by their opponent coaches ?

So it was on the afternoon of February 29th, the girlfriend and I made our way up to Bendigo to have a look at the Dees taking on the Doggies at the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Oval. I had high hopes for this game, even against a strong Dogs’ lineup, as another posse of front-liners returned to the team. Even as, a couple of hours before the bounce, we made our way to the Rifle Brigade across the street to take in a few bevies and a meal, I was pumped.

First off, great effort by you D.

To get your girlfriend to go with you to watch a practice match in Bendigo is a massive effort.

If you or ucanchoose tell us who did Adem Yze play on? How good was he defensively and did his opponent have any influence? Is he any good at 2 way football?

a thougt that just occurs.. . we all tend to think of the game from the players impact perspective. Im thinking there is an other world going on.. the 'testing " of coaches.. i.e looking for reactions and thinkings. That is..."if I do this...what will they do"..file that one away... if I do this..they do ?? file that away etc.

Theres an old adage .."dont ask a question you dont know the answer to" do we have a case also that coaches want to know the likley outcomes of moves by their opponent coaches ?

I think you're on the right track B. Though to my way of thinking It's not so much the opposition coaches they're asking questions of, rather their players and seeing what they'll deliver. I've been very impressed with Bailey. In Canberra he made the point of saying when you train players you push them beyond their comfort levels, bring them back then push them again. My impression is that besides a competitive hit out, Bails see the practice matches as an extension of training. A lot on here can't see the forest for the trees, they're worrying about the scoreboard in games where the scoreboard doesn't matter. He's asking questions of the list and getting answers.

I tend to agree... these matches are very much part of his training agenda.

Nothing matters much til the 23rd at 4.40 !!

yes.. i defintely feel a game of cat and mouse here..lol

I think turnng the lights out was carrying it a bit far though !!

First off, great effort by you D.

To get your girlfriend to go with you to watch a practice match in Bendigo is a massive effort.

If you or ucanchoose tell us who did Adem Yze play on? How good was he defensively and did his opponent have any influence? Is he any good at 2 way football?

Thanks mate, haha.

I couldn't tell you who Yze played on. I'm inclined to think he was given a free role off half back, drifting through the middle at times. Officially he was probably matched up against a half-forward flanker who was playing in the middle. He didn't have much involvement defensively. As for 2-way football, I think he needs to work on one-way football at the moment. As ucanchoose has said, his disposal was appauling throughout. It really was disappointing from a bloke who used to be an ace user of the ball.

I'll add that defensively I thought we were solid. There were very few occasions when we were caught out by Dogs players in space up forward; most of their shots came from contested grabs or, more commonly, free kicks.

I think you're on the right track B. Though to my way of thinking It's not so much the opposition coaches they're asking questions of, rather their players and seeing what they'll deliver. I've been very impressed with Bailey. In Canberra he made the point of saying when you train players you push them beyond their comfort levels, bring them back then push them again. My impression is that besides a competitive hit out, Bails see the practice matches as an extension of training. A lot on here can't see the forest for the trees, they're worrying about the scoreboard in games where the scoreboard doesn't matter. He's asking questions of the list and getting answers.

Yeah, but does he like the answers he's getting?

Yeah I'd say that he had an opponent at the bounce and that was about it. Did give up one mark for a goal but was clearly pushed in the back in the process.

Yeah, but does he like the answers he's getting?

ahh...now thats the "money' question !!!

Yeah, but does he like the answers he's getting?

He'd like some, others would need more time to be answered and others - well... IMO if clubs aren't delisting/trading out at least five blokes at the years end (not counting rookies) then they're not fair dinkum.

There's been little said about James Frawley who was selected in the squad. How did he go?

Also, I notice that Collingw&%$ were flogged by Pt Adelaide yesterday. Before that they lost by 81 points to Adelaide in front of the most knowledgeable Collingw&%$ home crowd ever in Dubai and to the Eagles last week. That's three pre season defeats in a row. I suppose the pundits have them as equal favourites with us for the spoon. Is Eddie slashing his wrists and why aren't they showing us the AFL ladder?

There's been little said about James Frawley who was selected in the squad. How did he go?

Played a pretty average game. Nothing good, nothing bad.

Thanks Diablo - a stirling effort.

I'm not too concerned about our preseason so far. I was at the Colling@#%$ vs Port Adelaide game yesterday and the Pies lost by 6 goals, but they didn't look bad. They haven't won a game this preseason either, but (unfortunately) I still expect them to finish top 8 this year.

I don't think we can read too much into our performances. But I do think it is a bit concerning that we kicked 5 goals in the first quarter, and managed only 4 goals in the remaining three quarters.

Btw, does anyone know how Ricky Petterd performed? Did he play?

Thanks Diablo, a well written report

the reaction on this thread is certainly a lot more reasoned and sensible than the main one

I was just happy to hear we showed a bit of fight and fluency, even if it was just in patches

Bails got to try a few more things out, a few more players got a game in their legs

Miller showed a bit of promise, and Sylvia seems to be spending a bit of time on the park (touch wood)

It sounds like Flash is playing with a bit more freedom after knee surgery, hopefully he can string some consistent players together

This time last year us and the doggies were the two best performed vic teams, and collingwood and port were dead certs not to make the eight. A lot changed between the off-season and September last year, I think we'll surprise a few teams this year

Btw, does anyone know how Ricky Petterd performed? Did he play?

Aker flogged him, unfortunately. But fair enough, Ricky normally plays as an attacking half-back flanker. He didn't have the experience or the tank to go with Aker and was often caught out. A learning experience indeed.