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Bump. Just want to make a positive post - It's easy to forget our Kozzie is only in his second season. I continue to be in awe of the talent we have at our disposal with this young man. He's electric with or without the ball, forward pressure is off the charts and tackles to hurt. Left or right foot on the run, it doesn't matter. The way he glides across the turf is brilliant to watch. Couldn't be happier with his development this season. Hats off to Kozzie!!

Listening to King on Whately this morning was interesting. Tactically, Bevo implemented and succeeded and what continues to trouble us is inaccuracy, poor skills and our poor midfield connection between Gawn and our mids. I wish Goodwin would take the same leap of faith as Bevo and get more players exposed to our game plan and change the team up. IMO he doesn't do it nearly enough and over the last month I've seen the same culprits bring their worst footy to games. ANB, Harmes, Hibberd and Salem, Langdon Jackson were all poor on the weekend and a number of other players again were just so wasteful with ball in hand. It's incredibly frustrating. We had so many chances. I would much rather blood a guy like Bowey and bring back Melksham and Jones for players like Harmes, ANB and maybe give Jordan a rest. These next four weeks are absolutely vital and will be season defining. We've lost mementum, form and therefore confidence and teams around us are have easier draws and are playing much better footy. As a Melbourne supporter, it's hard not to think of the worst against the Suns next week. It's a game we simply cannot lose and I want Goodwin to drop some players who just seem to be incapable of being clean and efficient with the ball like Harmes and ANB. Their inconsistency is just unbearable. Harmes is killing me. One hand pick ups, clumsy tackling and trying too hard to look hard and not play hard and do the basics well.

Surely we can’t be so lucky as to play them at Marvel in dry conditions. My MFCSS says we will play them in Horsham in a lightening storm and BB’s hair will catch on fire.

Not always. West Coast in 2018 went 3-2 through their final five games. The Dogs in 2016 went 3-3 through their final six games. Sydney in 2012 went 1-3 in their final four games. Obviously we'd rather be winning in our last month than not, but it's not necessarily the end of the world.

I'll lead off with that my belief is that it is impossible to sustain 22 week's of form (be it as a team, or an individual) and then get into the 'real' season and maintain it. Thus, I'm not in favour of the notion that the players were down or not up yesterday - they made errors, [censored] it, so did the Dogs, they just converted. Whilst some folk find Goodwin 'expressionless' in his conferences, the clue for us all is how he frames things. Irrespective of a win (he down plays it) or a loss (he also down plays it) because it's always about 'resetting for the week ahead'. For all of those in the ecosystem that is the AFL industry - it does not help to get emotional about the wins and losses... and that fact [censored] supporters to tears. He isn't about pumping up players, or jumping on them, because if you teach players that you can only win when you feel good or confident, what happens to performance when you are not feeling good or confident, or fatigued? You move away from games plans, you play more insular (sure weve seen it from individuals this year) and it impedes performance. And...how on earth would you feel on Grand Final Day in front of 100k... not sure about you... but I'd have a squeeky little bum.} It's a time of high anxiety and high stress... and Goodwin drives the team (as do most coaches) from a position of knowing that this is the emotional landscape of football. Having to front up to it, is exhausting. But it stands to reason that this has been our most consistent season in almost living memory. Some of the players are 5 years under his tutelage, others are 1, or 2 or 3. They're on a journey of psychological and physiological development. As supporters we can find the language too corporate, too naff, too disconnected from what we traditionally want to hear (give em a rev up etc etc), but he is speaking the language of the eco-system of the club... well not just our club, its all clubs. I'd argue its not about getting the players up , they know what their game plan is, they'll get themselves up...they weren't down yesterday either... They were up against the Dogs, as it were... but if you count WINS as the only indicator of being 'up', then you're missing the bigger picture....and also being unrealistic and unfair on the playing group. Loading, periodisation, whatever you want to call it, is real and it impacts on performance outcomes in the here and now, for the planning of the future.

Come on mate, season sunk? We're second on the ladder and I've seen nothing to convince me that any side is much better than us (except for when you factor in score conversion, which we can easily turn around). We are still a huge chance this year, don't let past experience get the better of you. We could use some fresh legs so I'd certainly be keen to bring in Bowey, perhaps Chandler or Bedford and Melksham should probably be in the mix too. Some of the lads may need a breather before the finals, i.e. Kozzy, Jackson, Jordon.

No mention of all the hot topics of Demonland either! Loading Poor coaching Arrogance Mental Fragility

Surely about time we get #freekickbulldogs trending. It’s out of control now.

Yes it does, old dee. Most of the rest of us haven't given up on the season just yet, given we're 13-1-4 and 3rd on the ladder.

It's genuinely depressing seeing how much concerted effort some posters put in to twist everything into a negative light.

Thanks to all, really like this thread makes me sound smart when I repeat some of it. Really thought we fumbled the ball, no clean pick up, I do think the wet helped them in that regard, and we looked a little tired , in that I cannot see any or much enthusiasm when going for the ball. Some players just looked down in that respect. Got excited when we got to 4 points and thought we were a chance, but then those last few goals by the dogs were very deflating. I have not re looked at that last quarter, cannot remember how they got the goals, Hannon just stood there and marked I remember, were we just done for the evening. Really do like this, no abuse, no angst, and not much outright dislike for individual players. Just discussion, almost as good as the banana thread. Go Dees

Hi @BW511. I feel as though you are putting your own supporters narrative onto the players. I disagree quite strongly. As one example - if there were resilience issues, then there is no way we would get back within 4 points. In 4 and half months, we've lost 2 games by under 4 straight kicks (one a quarter) We've lost one by an umpiring decision This is not the Melbourne of old, we don't get blown out of the water, we may not be perfect however. Your confidence may be erased, and it's probably not the players experience that theirs is erased either.

I would like someone to explain what happens between the 2 half's. If I have this correct: First Qtr frees; 4 to 14, Second Qtr frees; 4 to 7. Entire 2nd half frees; 3 to 4. I suppose I should be grateful that the first half trend didn't continue but what changed and is this the norm? How do you go from 29 frees payed in the first half to just 7 in the second? Did Melbourne suddenly become more skillful? I would think that fatigue might cause more frees in the second half but that obviously wasn't the case. To answer your question; in the first half the dogs got an additional 13 free possessions and it was like having an extra player out there. Those extra possessions resulted directly in a number of clearances and forward entries and at least 3 goals. I'm stunned we only went down by 20pts and managed to get it back to 4 at one stage in the last.

Like your changes, go more mobile in the forward line. No use replacing Jackson with weideman, it's just replacing one player who's involvement has dropped off with another who's likely to not have much involvement either.

I've watched Viney carefully at stoppages for essentially the last year, since @Axis of Bob wrote that brilliant post about our stoppage set ups and Viney'sdefensive importance to them, but at this stage I just have to completely disagree. He ball chases. He doesn't trust his team mates to tackle and our midfield is noticeably unbalanced when he's in there. I'd even argue our dip in form as a team has coincided with his return. That's a loads things, but his return has also totally ruined whatever midfield synergy we'd developed over so many successful weeks. I'd take a fresh JJ over Viney as defensive midfielder just about every day of the week. JJ is a brilliant tackler, but is also beautifully clean below his feet and makes good decisions by hand and foot. He also stays within his wheelhouse and doesn't play hero. Viney forward on the other hand, I believe, is a completely different proposition. He overpowers small to medium defenders, even key position players at ground level, and makes good decisions, and his kicking shortcomings (mostly penetration) aren't an issue when he plays high half forward and deep forward 50. I wouldn't rule Jack out of the midfield necessarily in a final, particularly in bursts, but during the regular season I think he can add much more pressure to our forward half (to compliment Kozzy) without creating this bees to the honeypot effect in the midfield and leaving us exposed going the other way. Anyway, each to their own and I can't see them playing Viney permanent forward, but he and we IMO looked a lot better earlier in the season when he was playing more forward than constantly on the ball.

I don't mind him keeping ANB if he's bringing the consistent pressure etc tbh, but I think where we're falling down a bit is we haven't evened up the balance of quality ball use. It would probably be not so bad if Spargo was getting the ball more, but as it stands we have Spargo, ANB, Harmes and Viney all providing 'pressure' without enough quality delivery or scoreboard impact, so when Oliver, Petracca, Langdon and Gus don't deliver to their absolute peak (as we're seeing currently) we fall down a bit in the forward half. Get Melksham in, get Viney back to forward/mid, get Harmes out, get Spargo more involved with the ball and I think that could lead to more goals, and maybe even some super easy set shots that will help to build confidence in our goal kicking. Then all we have to worry about is the midfield disconnect and the problems in the back half when the ball is on the deck...

Inject three more quality ball users and decision makers into this side and I believe we could be anything. It's our only weakness. The lack of ruthlessness and clinical finishing comes down to having too many similar types of players with a similar skill level all too often. Not the only factor, but a big one. Inject one on the wing where Gus is right now. Another at half-forward in ANB's spot. And one more through the midfield. Take Harmes out of the midfield, ANB from half forward and one of Hibberd and or Jordon out and Gus can be rotated through the guts and at half back. Even if we played Bowey as a Caleb Daniel type player in place of Hibberd and move Riv to a back pocket and play a real negating role. Over the off-season I'd love to replace Harmes and ANB's spot with some real point of difference players who bring quality use and decision making. Would make the world of difference.

I think we need to cop 1 or 2 of Melksham's half hearted defensive efforts in exchange for the offensive rewards he can provide going the other way. Yes, if he fails to impact then he's gone for good, but we need to mix things up a bit. The Dogs are the best side in the league and they make 4 changes a week.

Agree with all that. I like your ins in Melksham and Jones. Bring in some veterans to help us get to the rd 23 finish line. LJ and JJ to be rested completely from footy. Jackson has had 3 kicks in 2 weeks and one of them went straight to his opponent in Tim English. Jordon looked off the boil on the weekend and was a far cry from the cool and composed player we've seen this year. Harmes was just plain bad.

What's he actually saying here? "It's really about maximising opportunity and being efficient when you need to. Clearly we had our chances tonight to kick a bigger score, there's no question about that" - we didn't maximise opportunity and weren't efficient inside 50, such that we could have kicked a bigger score. Everyone agrees with that, don't they? "Would we like to score more? Of course we would. But it wasn't a major issue. We had our chances tonight" See above "We sit here confident" - this may be true, and if it is, is that a problem? I'd rather us be confident than to have lost all our confidence. And being confident doesn't mean we don't appreciate we need to improve "They kicked six goals from their forward-50 stoppages, and normally in a game it's one-to-two, so that's a big differential and it's an anomaly" - we lost by 20 points where our opponent kicked 6 goals from forward 50 stoppages, against an average of 1-2. So in a 4-goal game we conceded 4 more goals from that source than normal. So in other words, he's squarely addressed our problems whilst maintaining confidence in the players and our system. Which, when we're 3rd on the ladder, half a game off the top, with four games to go, isn't anything other than reasonable.

Might be something in this. Prior to being managed for general soreness (was it?) in Rnd 11, my view is he was taking the game on more with his passes by foot Ollie. I could be imagining this but since then he appears to be just laying off to anyone free within 15 / 20 odd meters much more often than prior to being managed. Not taking the more risky 45 kicks or switches as often that require a more forcefull kick of at least 25/30 meters plus. Pure speculation though as i have no data with his kicks to back this up. However meters gained might be one loose indicator and he is down here over 40% per match on average after returning! (see below). Also his turnover numbers are down. Might suggest he is not turning over as much due to not pulling the trigger as often? His intercept numbers are also way off the first nine rounds! Not working as hard as first nine rounds or something NQR? Time on ground (TOG) also supports this theory playing 13% less TOG.....suggesting he is either NQR or being managed (see below). Below is a sample of some (publicly available) aspects of his statistical form with the figures showing the difference between his first nine rounds (1 to 9) and his last 9 rounds (11 to 19) averages... Contested possessions: 7.1 / 3.8 -46.8% Uncontested possessions: 17.4 / 15.8 -9.5% Effective Disposals: 20.8 / 16.8 -19.2% Disposal Efficiency: Was 75.6 (AFL ave approx 73%) vs 70.9% Marks i50: Zero prior and just the 1 after but not expecting much here given he is a defender* 1% ers: Unchanged @ 1.22 Contested Marks: 0.3 / 0.0* Clearances: 0.9 / 0.8 -12.5% (obviously not a strong suit given role so not taking too much out of this) Rebound 50s: 5.6 / 5.1 -8.0% Inside 50s: 2.8 / 1.0 -64% Tackles: 2.4 / 1.7 -31.8% Score Involvements: 4.7 / 2.9 -38.1% Meters Gained: 498.2 / 297.0 -40.4% Turnovers: 4.8 / 3.4 -27.9% Intercepts: 7.7 / 4.2 -44.9% Time on Ground: 88.0% / 75.6% Taking a weighted average score from some of the above, his last nine rounds were statistically 24.7% worse than his first nine indicating he appears to be way off his earlier season form. Could also (partly?) be the opp putting more time into him (and/or better defensive forwards?) vs earlier this season.

To people really believe that he’s not concerned about our efficiency? All he’s trying to do is absorb the pressure on behalf of the players, so it doesn’t become an even greater psychological issue.

I should add that these conspiracy theorists are mostly either paranoid or delusional, and they believe vaccine production is part of a world takeover by "Big Pharma". What's more, they believe they can control diseases by allowing their children to contract them, use "natural therapies" to remediate and they will therefore become immune. Like I said, you can't argue with their irrationality.

The protestors are QAnon or conspiracy-following adherents who still believe Covid is a hoax perpetrated by a dangerous world order, and that the rest of the population are sucked-in "sheeples". Trying to argue rationally about risk and science with people who are basically irrational is pointless.

Really nicely put synopsis there @Lord Nev

I like the article's stats: the AFL doesn't scores from turnover (as far as I know, anyway), so it's interesting to see we're down 15.7 points per game on that metric. Funnily enough, we're going to the boundary less from defensive 50 than we were earlier in the season. Doesn't really support the recent comments on here that we've become "more boring". I'm not sure what you're suggesting here. Our goal accuracy has dropped from 45.9% to 37.5%. Doesn't that help explain why our goals per inside 50 have dropped from 23.6% to 17.8%? Are you arguing that the relative drop (13th to 18th, compared with 7th to 17th) means there is more to it? If so, I'm not sure if that's the right conclusion to draw because our ranking is relative to other clubs, whose form is largely independent of ours. Or have I missed something here?

Same problem the coaching staff have.

Well, there's a lot of good technical talk going on here as usual, so what I'm going to say may be a bit ordinary, mundane, prosaic, some adjective that isn't coming to mind.... With a lot of jobs I do, I get to about 3/4 quarters through and it really begins to drag. There's that sense that it's never going to end, even though I know it must. Tough times. I can see the finish line, but I know it's a way off yet, and there's so many problems to fix, I being to ask, was it worth beginning this dumb idea in the first place? But then, there's really no other choice but to grind on. I mean, what am I going to do, give up? Nah, I just have to put the shoulder to the wheel and work the problems out one by one, apply tried and true techniques and a little individual flair and look forward to the day energy returns and I can begin something more satisfying.... And then sudenly I'm at the end. The project comes into focus, I'm tweaking and detailing, and a weight is lifted from my shoulders as I realize the thing is all but finished. There's a sprint then to the finish line and I'm there, dancing just for a moment. Sure, the work is never perfect, but it's done. Next job, please. In other words, I reckon this is where we're at: That dark and heavy place. It's a long season, after all.

I doubt they did anything strategic with the ruck: without Martin they don't have a ruck on their list capable of competing with Gawn in hit outs, so IMO it's not as if they had an alternative plan of trying to win hit outs but chose not to go with it. I think like many sides, once they know they can't compete with hit outs they focus on what to do with Gawn's hit outs but for a side whose 2021 strategy has clearly been to beef up their midfield to unprecedented levels of quality, it's hardly surprising they were able to shark the taps. The "chaos ball" forward of centre point is interesting - they may have taken the ball away from May and Lever to an extent but I felt our guys were very much still in the game and if they weren't marking it they were spoiling it out of bounds or killing contests pretty well. And I felt like Libba killed us when he was in the middle but otherwise wasn't too damaging (whereas Bontempelli and Smith were noticeably dominant on the spread). My view is that the Dogs did nothing surprising tactically to beat us, they backed in what they're good at (smart delivery off half-back from Daniel and Dale and a dominant midfield) and we failed to do what we needed to do to compete with that (forward half turnovers, laziness at defensive stoppages, and missed shots on goal that we need to be kicking). I may well be unreasonably optimistic about it all but my view remains that all of our losses/the draw, except the Collingwood loss, are more attributable to our mistakes than our opponents' strategic successes.

Pickett's season has impressed me greatly. His ability to create forward pressure is exciting to watch and he is one of our few forwards who can kick goals out of nowhere. He does have the occasional game where he goes missing but I'm sure he'll become more consistent when he has more experience. 28 goals in 18 games is not a bad effort for a second-year small forward.

Kozzie was one of a few positives from the dogs loss, he seemed to have his bounce back and thrust for putting pressure on. Occasionally he goes a little too far (pushed in the back following a chase) but mostly it causes the opposition to worry themselves into making mistakes. He did some excellent smothers and pressure acts all night. Couldn’t believe it when I heard David King suggest he could be looked at for his tackle that resulted in the concussion of the dogs player. He went low and the dogs player ducked his head, not sure what Kozzie can possibly do in that situation.

Gold!!!! Ariarne Titmus immense!! You beauty!!

Short answer is i don't think we should change our set up much. Some tweaks perhaps. And one i would consider is Meksham in an and playing some mid time. Perhaps at the expense of Harmes. I have always liked the idea of Viney as defensive forward, but i think it is easy to under rate his importance to our set up as a defensive mid. His tackle numbers and pressure is going up each week and come finals his heat around the ball will be critical. I was calling for them to rotate resting the young guns (and anyone else who needed a chop out) through the bye phase, but they have clearly made the decision to not rest players. The only time they have 'managed' anyone this season is Salem. And then only for a week. They haven't even taken the opportunity to give injured players extra recovery time eg bringing may, fritter and Viney back in ASAP. They seem to be using game time as tool to manage loads given the fluctuation in game time for our young players (many of who are only in the 50s and low 60s TOG percentage range) Continuity and consistency is obviously an important concept for goody and his team of coaches. Makes sense in such system, role focused team. Particularly one with 5 young players who have played less than 40 odd games and are in our best 22. They have lot to learn in a short time. Agree JJ is looking very tired but i'm sure he'll come good. And when he does he can play the same role he did early in the season - an outside players, who can can also win contest, who helps with our transition. And given he spent a good block of games replacing Viney, can be thrown into he midfield mix when required and with confidence. Not resting players is a calculated gamble. The price we've paid is the loses against Pies and GWs and the draw against the hawks i reckon. And possibly the loss against the dogs. If we don't make top four it will be gamble we have lost. If we do make top four, the reward should be a team that is fit, fresh and better able to run out games than the teams we play.

Well said dd. Quality ball use and goal sense and kicking is the number 1 fix needed. Its killing us more than anything else. The only quick fix with 4 games left is now melksham and jones in now . Settle the team and hope for the best.

Chandler and Bedford have shown they are not up to AFL standard. Bedford isn't exactly banging down the door and Chandler is just so so. I'm in the Melksham camp now. We are at the pointy end of the year now and I think experience and hardened bodies is crucial for us. Melksham and Jones would be two I'd look to potentially bring in alongside Jackson. Jackson, Jordon, Rivers.. they've all had a good run. Time for a spell. They need to now earn their spot back like the rest of his teammates have.

Could well be. Although I think the way we are setting up and defending is making it very hard for a team to blow us out of the water, our games aren't high scoring affairs and that is by design. We got within 4 points, but we were comfortably beaten all night. I understand that we have eliminated the blowouts, however we've lost 3 of the past 6 games and escaped with a draw in another, the margin doesn't change the result

This has been a huge factor to overcome, setting up more individual plays than team plays as it is uncertain in the players' minds when the hard work, effort and decisive winning of the ball will be interrupted - even though the opposition has been unable to turn the tide their way without umpire support. Suddenly, through the whistle, the Demons are in trouble.

I think people who demand that Viney hits every target don’t understand what his strength is. He can use the ball well enough when he wants. I challenge anyone to shrug off a tackle and then hit a pin point pass. He gets caught to often but, the reward out weighs the risk. The recent choir on Demonland that has been critical of him, are the first to go silent when he delivers.

Agree on most of this. Harmes is not good enough right now to be in the 22 IMO. That's the opening for Melksham, I reckon, if we want to give that a go (I'm no Melksham fan and his 2019-20 form was terrible, but if we can get something like 2018 Melksham into this side it will make a huge difference). I don't think he's capable of resisting the urge to be Dustin Martin. Viney's best football yesterday was in the forward half and his worst was at defensive stoppages. I think that's the signal anyone needs as to his best role in the side.

The Dogs had 20 scoring shots last night, their equal second-lowest for the season. Two weeks prior Port had 15 scoring shots and 55 points, their lowest number of scoring shots and second-lowest score for the season. We're averaging 68 points against post-bye. We averaged 72.5 points against pre-bye. The Dogs' 20 scoring shots against us last night is the most we've conceded post-bye. Meanwhile post-bye we've had at least 20 scoring shots in every single game we've played.

I think we need to seriously rejig our midfield. Why are we persisting with JJ at the moment? I’m not sure how many CBAs he had, but I don’t recall him in there. As for around the ground, he didn’t really seem to attend stoppage. He effectively played the Sparrow half forward role, but looked fumbly and tired. JJ is one of my favourites and his tackling in stoppage and around the ground, as well as his cleanness, was IMV a key reason why our midfield defended so well in the first half of the season. Give JJ the week or two off and get him fresh for the last few weeks prior to finals. Bring in Sparrow and reward his good form this year. I’d keep Gus on the wing with Langdon, but I’d keep Viney as a permanent forward. He can attend stoppage if it’s inside 50, otherwise he should play as a pressure “speed forward”. He’s dangerous around goal with his attack on the ball carrier, it protects his foot for finals (if we want to revert to Viney as a mid, which could well work in finals) and enables JJ to take his place as the defensive mid. Harmes isn’t playing brilliantly, but I prefer him in our midfield to Viney, providing he remembers he’s not Dustin Martin. Take the right option. I think we use JJ and Harmes as our defensive mids and rotate them forward and to the bench. They wouldn't be strictly defensive of course, because both can get it on the outside too and attack from stoppage. Petracca needs to play somewhere between 80% mid, 20% forward IMV. We just don't have the midfield depth to leave it all to Clarry. Speaking of which, Oliver should be in there just about every time. I’d also like to see us use Kozzy more often as an attacking mid from stoppages. And as much as it pains me to say it given how he treated MFC supporters in Sydney last year, and frankly his bruise free form, I think, as you intimate, we need to find a way of getting Melksham’s ball use into the team, so I’d add him very occasionally to centre stoppages as well if we can find a place for him in the team. Who for though??? So centre bounce mids would be Oliver, Petracca, Harmes, JJ, Kozzy and Melksham. Viney should attend forward stoppages as an inside slider or pure defensive mid and Gus should attend defensive stoppages as a width receiver or ground ball get player. Anyone feeling any of this?

One of the great myths of football is that wet weather is an equaliser. Bollocks. It puts pressure on technique and those with great techniques become more influential. And wet weather exacerbates poor technique. And so many of our players have woeful technique. Accriss the board, the skill gap in terms of kicking is huge between us and the dogs. And it is a canyon between our best two mids, tracc and Oliver, and their best two, bont and mcrae.

First place versus second on the ladder promised to be a precursor to what can be expected in the coming finals race. However, it was the Demons who faltered and gave the Bulldogs a bone to feed their hunger just weeks out from the end of the season. The win also sent the Dogs to the top of the ladder, a position they are unlikely to cede in the coming weeks, given their fixture. While Melbourne may now struggle to keep a spot in the top four with its draw and will likely depend on the results of other games, a familiar situation for the fans. The game itself was an enthralling battle starting in torrential rain, and it was the Dogs who quickly found their feet to open up a 10 point break at the first change. In what has become a familiar scenario to the fans, the Demons couldn’t kick straight with very gettable chances to Ben Brown and Kysiah Pickett going missing. The same continued in the subsequent quarters with the final result being decided ultimately by their ongoing problem with inaccuracy in front of goal. Once again more behinds kicked than goals, but it is the set shot kicking that continues to let the side down, and we now have a series of losses defined by a kick or two either way. And in this game the coach afterward summed it up with the phrase “we had our chances”. Never was a truer word spoken. Except it was all too familiar to the fans. Make no mistake, the Bulldogs changed their game-style in this contest. Normally, they depend on waves of half-backs sweeping past their mids to deliver to the big forwards. They adjusted this, partially because of the Melbourne defensive structures, but in this match they relied more on their midfield powerhouse to do the work. In a good example of statistical meaninglessness, Christian Petracca had 31 touches, Clayton Oliver 38, Jack Viney 19. But the opposition with Bontempelli 31 touches, Macrea 38, and Liberatore 27. Gawn had an incredible 52 hit-outs, but the Dogs won the clearances, particularly around the ground. It was a head to head battle, but these stats don’t show the outcome. That being the Melbourne mids could only produce 2 goals between them (after a single last week) while the Dogs mids doubled that with four. For Melbourne this was the same as last week when the Hawks mids scored 4 to 1 and is becoming a familiar story to the fans. Bringing Harmes into the middle as a tagger for Liberatore was an unmitigated disaster. Not only did he fail to quell Libba, he was relieved of duties on him in the second half with Viney forced to pick up the slack. Unfortunately, that took out another one of our skilled players, leaving Bontempelli to do his damage without the close checking that Viney had provided in the first half. Bontempelli kicking critical goals toward the end of a game. The Melbourne fans are familiar with that. Just as equally disappointing was the performance of the Melbourne half forwards. It is all well and good running around, corralling opposition players but this opposition are the best. If you don’t tackle they will deliver and with Caleb Daniel getting 34 touches, Bayley Dale 24 including 20 kicks and Duryea 17 it was a recipe for disaster. The blowtorch must now be applied to these players, and their value to the side, particularly when they bring limited football skills and live off their athletic abilities. The match continued in a slog of a battle, with the weather finally easing so that both sides could show their true wares. Nine goals in the 3rd quarter after Melbourne scored the first 2 only to see the Dogs reply similarly, presaged a ripper of a final quarter and it was to be. The 14 point differential at the ¾ time break was pulled back by the Demons with Brown and Fritsch kicking truly at last to reduce the margin to 4 points with seven minutes to play. All the momentum was with Melbourne and this was blown away with fundamental skill execution by those same players mentioned before. The Bulldogs responded quickly given these opportunities, and blew the final margin out to 20 points. There are plenty of actions the coach has to take in the few remaining games. One of which surely has to be resting players, particularly the younger ones who have hit the wall in terms of output. Luke Jackson has had 3 kicks in the past 2 weeks, and 66% game time. Trent Rivers only had 65% game time. James Jordon 64%. They just need a week away, and we have the players available to fill their spots. Old, tried and true, maybe not as skilled, but able to provide more than these kids can at this point of the season. Even Max Gawn needs a proper back-up. A mere 2 marks for the whole match, none of which was contested. Yet contested marks for him is an essential part of our plan to move the ball from defence at kick-outs. Majak Daw is the perfect replacement for Jackson and with Gold Coast having no true ruck available to them, this is the week to do it. Nathan Jones is the man to provide more mid-field grunt, while Tom Sparrow surely has had enough time observing the game from the bench. This game is what finals football is all about. The very best sides will match it with each other with their talented players, but while the side is populated with limited skill players, the whole match will come down to just a couple of episodes where those players concede the ball to the opposition. We have lost or drawn enough games this year to know how close the margin is between success or failure. If the coach has devised a game plan built for finals, he must concede that these players cannot be part of it. Or the result will be the same as this game, the one that the fans are becoming familiar with. MELBOURNE 1.4.10 2.7.19 7.9.51 9.11.65 WESTERN BULLDOGS 3.2.20 6.4.40 10.5.65 13.7.85 GOALS Melbourne Brown Fritsch Pickett 2 McDonald Petracca Viney Western Bulldogs Bontempelli Bruce Hannan Naughton 2 Daniel English Smith Ugle-Hagan Weightman BEST Melbourne Oliver Petracca Neal-Bullen Lever Gawn Hunt Western Bulldogs Bontempelli Daniel Macrae Smith Hunter Liberatore Schache INJURIES Melbourne Nil Western Bulldogs A. Keath (hamstring) E. Richards (concussion) REPORTS Melbourne Nil Western Bulldogs Nil SUBSTITUTES Melbourne T. Sparrow (unused) Western Bulldogs A. Scott (replaced A. Keath) UMPIRES: Chris Donlon Nathan Williamson Craig Fleer Official Crowd 0 at The MCG

I always find that "Sheeples" thing quite sad. The only 'Sheeples' are QAnon followers. All the hallmarks of a cult. Blindly following that which has no evidence to back it up...not only that, all pronouncement and predictions they have made haven't come to pass. Mindless fools.

We were In it all night. Midfield matched the dogs, Gawn dominant. We were wasteful in attack, again, they were not. We missed several gettable shots, they did not. We failed to take our difficult chances, they did not. We got a rough ride from the umpires, they did not. Game over...