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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

Everyone seems to have forgotten that Hunt had a good season & played 20 games before getting injured just before the finals. Would’ve been a premiership player if didn’t get injured

Ever since grand final night I've wanted to see Tommy's reaction on the siren, and after he knows the goal is goingthrough. For obvious reasons, we've never seen it (there may have been bigger things going on). We got both in that clip, and I was so rapt for him.

Jesus.. Its ridiculous how extremely cool and calm Goody was even in the 3rd when we were 19 points down. He called it immediately after that Fritsch goa that we were back on when most of us were probably still a nervous wreck (I certainly was). We're incredibly lucky to have Simon Goodwin leading this club. In matter of fact how lucky are the playing getting to play under his guidance.. "Great day to be alive lads"

Tomlinson very stiff.

Tomlinson looked very slow and not agile to me in the Carlton game, and he was one of the few where that wasn't an effort issue - his body is just not there (yet), despite his claims he's never been fitter. Smith is much more of a sure-thing at this stage, and I am no Smith fan.

Dogs aren't exactly flush for key forwards. May takes Naughton, Smith takes Schache and Lever takes Hannan. Martin isn't a factor up forward, so if English plays deep, Max will push back. Tomlinson is only 8 months from his ACL. This will be a white hot game. I can understand why he hasn't been selected.

I suspect Tomlinson is out because they don't think his knee is ready for a full on 120 minutes of football. As it is, he has made an amazing comeback from an ACL in 8 months whereas it is usually 10-12 months. Edit: @Roost it farhas correctly posted it is 10 months since he did his ACL. Suspect they don't want to take any chances with it.

I also reckon anyone putting any stock in the Mick Warner hit job on Goodwin should just look at the genuineness of his relationships with the players, evident both during the game, as the siren approached and after the siren.

This was so great. I love how Goodwin never stopped encouraging the players. Telling them to smile. To enjoy it. Even when we were down by 19 he said we will get our chance. Internally I’m sure he was worried but he never projected that to the players. Absolutely fantastic vision. I also loved Tmac’s little fist pump on the siren. Still have no idea how he composed himself enough to kick it. I would have thrown it in the air and run.

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

https://www.afl.com.au/ondemand/original/501407/sound-the-alarm?episode=1#2021-afl-gf Here it is: Awesome! 4 quarters of magic.

Dropped on form? More like buckled at the knee's.

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

What a difference coaching from the bench rather from inside the box. Feedback, praise and instructions were immediate. Naturally, most of the focus was on the winning coach but Beveridge didn't feature at all in part 3 (after the address) and in part 4 only for a few seconds when he decided it was over. Would have liked to have heard what was happening in the bulldogs box in the second half.

Listening to Ben Gibson on Gus & Gawny he stated a documentary on Goodwin mic’d up during the GF will premiere tomorrow night on AFL, by AFL I’m guessing on AFL live. About 36 minutes in duration and this would definitely be worth a watch for insights. Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere and wondering if anyone else has any details or heard about this.

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

What a wonderfully romantic moment! You cheap ( ......) !!!

I questioned the selectors many times last year and they proved me wrong everytime (2019/2020 a different story ). I'll back them in.

Terrific! I don't know what sort of turmoil Goody must have had internally but ......jeez externally ... he was one cool cat!

Nar mate, Dog's in for a Spankin!! Im happy if Foghorn Leghorn is our Supersub!!

Every Picture Tells a Story

The boys talked the talk last year from pretty early on and then proceeded to walk the walk. They've talked the talk again and now it's time to walk the walk ... Again. I remember Nietas speech after losing the GF in 2000. Said he "Hooped we'd be able to get back here one day for another crack" or something similar. Was thinking at the time ... "No, thats not what I want to hear." I wanna hear we'll be back next year and win this forken thing. I prefer the noise coming from the club now than then.

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.

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

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.

That was a key strategy taken from the review at the end of 2020. It was put in place by the club that Yze would be in the box and Goody at ground level, and they would have very defined separate responsibilities so that Goody was able to be more player support and feedback focused and Yze more tactics and strategy focused. We've talked about it a bit, but really that review and how Goody took it on board has been the making of both him and a premiership.

Think he would make a good half back.

The dogs have done nothing to fix their greatest deficiency- their defence. break even in the middle and we will smash them

Tomlinson is now 10 months from his ACL. Doesn’t matter, we’ll unfurl the flag, have a beer or 2 and watch our boys head back to the top of the ladder…….. Go Dees, looking forward to losing my voice

And prove some of us right

I reckon out of respect/fairness to him and the Dogs they chose not to show what was going on in their box. Just a focus on the winners and the positivity. Although I agree with you, I'd loved to have beard Beveridge respond to what we were doing in the middle after the Fritsch x 2 and Brown goals. Overall I loved the four videos because I am a sucker for this behind the scenes sort of stuff. I just want more!

Wow. In that 3rd quarter Goodwin was so calm. We slowly wrestled the momentum back and got things going our way, and then played the best 5 minutes of attacking football that’s ever been played. Still makes me pump my fist in delight. It’s magical.

Excellent, can't wait to watch this tonight. The build up to round 1 has been fantastic, can't wait for tomorrow night.

Early favourite for post of the year.

I'm honestly very surprised at this. We've lost three defenders (Petty, Rivers, Hibberd) and replaced them with two defenders (Smith and Hunt) and a midfielder (Jordon). To maintain the same system as 2021, we have to take a midfielder and rotate them through the minutes we'd otherwise be giving Hibberd/Rivers in the backline. 2020-21 showed us that Harmes is a forward half midfielder, not a half back flanker. 2021 showed us that Brayshaw is a vital part of our team on a wing. And I'm not aware of Jordon playing in the backline over the pre-season (please correct me if I'm wrong). It may be the case that Tomlinson isn't fit enough and that we don't have any other good enough defenders to bring in, but all the messaging coming out of the club was that Tomlinson was good to go so I'm not sure it's that. It can't be the Dogs' short forward line - they're running the same forward line as the GF in which we had the extra defender. Still, Jordon played every game last year, Hunt would have kept his spot if he hadn't been injured, and Smith's pre-season has deserved selection, so their inclusions all make sense. We will just see how we go with this many changes to our back line.

That backline still has its three best players and the others are ‘replacement players’ (US sporting term to denote those that are just as good as ‘the next man up’) with the exception of Petty for Smith. Interested to see what they do with Bradshaw and Harmes. Both don’t like playing out of position but one can contribute and the other waits for Viney to get hurt… Strong team and we should win. Looking forward to tomorrow. See you there Dees fans.

I too am not thrilled with that backline but you need to work with what you have. I don’t think Harmes being named half back means anything. Hunt is named on the bench and he will simply play at half back while Harmes plays half forward and mid. Gus will stay on the wing hopefully. He only goes back in case of emergency like when we had no Salem either. I don’t mind us naming an extra mid. We know this is the strength of the Dogs and we might have specific roles for JJ or Harmes anyway. Who do we think will be the sub?

I’m told the Bulldogs didn’t give much and the Dees gave a lot except some tactical stuff.

Very enjoyable, so much to like. One of the best scenes for me was Goody early in the 4th telling T Mac on the bench he had one in him. T Mac on the siren just added another layer of special on the cake.

Goody being as cool as a cucumber all game but then going bananas at Oliver's goal got to me. What a moment.

ANNND the Price keeps rising at the BOWSER!

Good to see Jesse confront and deal with his inner demons: how-speaking-up-helped-giants-star-clear-his-head Will always have a soft spot for him. Hope he has a good year and builds his confidence. 'Sliding doors' has prevented him playing finals when his team has, so hope he gets that chance with GWS.

Thanks for the info. As long as our 'Generals' (May, Salem and Lever) are fully fit (they all missed one practice game) I'm pretty confident our back line won't miss a beat. Bowey is still in. Tomlinson is a strong addition and Smith/Hunt can be the role players. I just hope we don't put Gus down back like against the Carlton game.

For anyone wondering what exactly this documentary is here is an example below of what to expect.

Listening to Gus and Gawny, Jack is in for a very big year. Unlike the last 4-5 years, his foot is in great shape, he has barely missed a training session and has become an elite runner. Scary!

I didn't like her insinuation either that many of the coaches and people from other clubs would have frowned upon what was said by Kate. i heard snippets from her speech and thought it was fantastic. I think Kate is very well spoken and her passion shines through. Nothing arrogant about anything I ever hear her say. Seems like Caro was making something out of nothing.

I got a message during the week on our Facebook page from one of the guys involved in producing it and he said it's amazing.