Chewie

I think it was Hulett who missed that shot. Anyway, there has been a bit of niggle in the game with Terlich heavily involved. No surprise he instigated the dust-up on the way to the sheds.

Nut

I think you're spot on- they want them to play a particular way (you referenced Hawthorn as an example) and within that there is only so much the coaching staff can change mid-game. In his press conference, Roos commented on the fact that we were unable to control the contested ball situations and that is where they tried to make some adjustments.

Sorry, I should have qualified what I meant regarding the Essendon game. We should never have lost to them- they are barely an AFL standard team. At this stage in our development, I hope that we beat other mid- and lower-table teams, but I don't EXPECT it. I feel your comparison in the way they scored their goals (although I have conveniently purged the Ess game from my memory) is valid. Other posters have mentioned this already, but in summary I think the 3 most telling factors were: - we looked flat (or are extremely slow, which would be a greater concern) - we could not control the ball defensively at the contest (tackle numbers indicate this, the amount of times they were able to release the ball when 'tackled' and then run away with it was very disappointing) - they were prepared to move the ball quickly, either around or over the press I think what the last 3 weeks have shown is when the opposition moves the ball slowly enough to allow us to set up defensively we will be very competitive, but quick and skillful teams will cut us to bits. I fear this is part of the journey, and that ultimately the group will be learning from these losses. And also on players being up and down- there should be no excuse for it with the more experienced guys but I think we will have to grin and bear it with the new guys. I was ready to give up on Hunt (fumbling and missing tackles) at half time, but I thought he kept trying- look at that effort we he went for a run, turned it over and then stuck the tackle- I hope he learnt from that passage of play. Compare that to Lumumba's efforts at about the same stage of the game- do you think he analyzes and learns from those errors? Evidence would suggest not.

Thanks to everyone, lots of great, generally level-headed commentary on here. We still have a way to go, and although we lost today folks comparing it in any way to the Essendon game need to have a cup of tea and a lie down. My observation: when we did manage to score, it was frustrating how many times we allowed them to score back almost straight away, especially from centre clearances.

The week Melbourne play a game in Hobart, Col is dropped. Fair to say he'd be disappointed. Anyway, interested to see how the senior blokes lift, as North are, if anything, a hard- bodied and mature team.

I had a bit of a laugh to myself today and also last week when on a couple of occasions our kick into the forward 50 was punched back out so far that it almost got to the centre circle. Surely someone would think, "Hang on, I'm not sure this is working".

efa

I could only stay until three quarter time, so it was a bit of a shame that I missed a nail biter. My opinion on how the boys went: Weideman was a presence up forward, marking or jumping into packs to create a contest. He was obviously a bit nervous with the set shot, which is a shame because his routine is very nice. H played well- got plenty of it from half back and wing, and only went on one of his crazy runs out of defence before being pinged for holding the ball. His overlap run and willingness to create was noticeable. I didn't think Mitchell White or ANB had good days. ANB looked off the pace. Apparently White got a bit of it but from what I saw he didn’t use it well. The same goes for Terlich. An example from the 3rd quarter: Terlich gets the ball on half back flank and runs towards the grandstand side wing. The forwards lead to him, he gets ready to kick, then dummies, stops, weaves, etc. Forwards have now stopped leading, he runs a couple more steps and kicks a nice high one off his left. It goes over everyone and is mopped up by Port at their half back. Either trying to do too much or not having an instinctive footy brain, I don’t know, but it is frustrating. Brayshaw was great, Michie and Stretch were good. In some ways Stretch was generally the opposite of Terlich, creating with evasive runs, but then kicking to his teammates’ advantage. Dunn was good in defence, he generally used it well but did manage to fluff a couple of rebounding efforts with poor decision making. Hulett presented well, but couldn’t hold his marks today. Granted, conditions weren’t ideal. Oscar was quiet, he did his bit in defence but didn’t do much on the rebound. Smith is still learning- I hope he has a thick skin because he has to put up with Dunn screaming at him the whole game. The two Kings competed well in the ruck and went forward for parts but didn’t really contribute there. In the 2nd quarter Casey gave away 6 free kicks in their defensive 50- Stretch, White, Lumumba, and Hutchins (2) all holding the ball (they were all there too), and Oscar put the kick-in out on the full. If Port were able to kick a bit straighter, the game could have been over at half time. Most of the MFC coaches were there (I think I saw everyone except Roos). Players that were there: M. Jones, Tom Mc, Gawn, and Tyson. I stay in one spot so there were probably others there too.

Apologies if already posted; quarter by quarter replay: http://www.afl.com.au/video/2016-03-07/nab-bulldogs-v-demons-q1 http://www.afl.com.au/video/2016-03-07/nab-bulldogs-v-demons-q2 http://www.afl.com.au/video/2016-03-07/nab-bulldogs-v-demons-q3 http://www.afl.com.au/video/2016-03-07/nab-bulldogs-v-demons-q4 And for a bit of light relief: http://www.essendonfc.com.au/team/james-hird-academy

It seemed on his hands, but his hands weren't positioned like for an overhead mark, out in front of his face. They were positioned like a chest mark, but instead of bringing the ball into his chest, he marked it away from his body on his hands. As I said, I was a long way away and his technique may have looked fine from up close, but as I watched I thought that it looked quite odd. Hopefully someone who had a better view can tell me I'm dreaming. And it was just a minor thing. It certainly wasn't wasn't the worst thing I saw today- that would have been Tom Mc calling for and receiving an absolute hospital handball from Tyson after the latter had just won a free-kick in the middle of the ground!

I’ll try not to repeat what has already been mentioned, reports from tappysquads, deeznutz (my eyes thank you for the edit binman!), Deespicable, Dee-licious, et al have summed it up really well. A few other observations: I actually love Christian Salem, for someone who gets as much footy as he does, and under pressure, his disposal is sublime. And he’s an excellent mark for his size. I’ve read the thread on bigfooty as well, and Grimes was certainly not as bad as what has been suggested. He did exactly what Roos said and moved between wing and half-forward, and on today’s effort he was better than Stretch, ANB, M. Jones and even Kent (who did a couple of good things but was reasonably quiet). He wore no. 27 after halftime and was the one who kicked a goal by getting on the end of some good ball movement (as far as I could tell Hulett didn’t play). Tyson had a dog of a first half. Sometimes he tries to look for the second or third option when he just doesn’t have the time. To his credit he kept at it and was much better after half-time. I’m not sure how he is regarded within the inner sanctum of the club, but based on what happens on-field, VDB is my sneaky for the leadership group. He is very vocal around the ground, particularly at stoppages, and you can tell that he has played a lot more ‘senior’ footy than many of his younger teammates. In my opinion, his willingness to work both ways and actually make a physical impact when the ball is in his vicinity is why he will be one of the first picked every week. Jack Watts was ok as the link man/third tall forward. His disposal moving the ball forward was impressive as usual. He took one mark today (granted it was on the opposite wing to where I was standing so I didn’t have the best view) that was exactly how I’m trying to teach my son not to mark the ball. It was like one of those really casual chest marks where you catch it on your hands away from your body- the sort that you don’t see in a game situation because if you drop it you look like a dill. As I said, I was a long way away from it so maybe I’m overstating how poor it looked. Garland was good as the most experienced backman on the a-team. He was also very vocal working to position blokes like Hunt and Oliver when setting up the zone and at stoppages. He did get caught out on a couple of ‘fast breaks’, but his disposal was good and he was able to make some effective spoils to stop the other team moving the ball forward. Although Gawn did win the majority of the hit-outs, not too many were to his teammates’ direct advantage- this may have been because N. Jones and Bernie were missing. Despite what happened last year against St Kilda, he still loves that tap over his head, and at one point it was interesting to hear VDB and Max having a decent ‘discussion’ about positioning. The best bit of ruckwork today was actually a centre tap from Frost to Viney that I think led to a goal. That being said, Pedersen seemed to generally have the better of Frost in the ruck when they were opposed to each other. There was not much shirking going on- there were quite a few loud thwacks where players met head-on, as Joel Smith can attest. All in all, it was a good hit-out and it is obvious to see that the skill level and decision making of the players has developed and is still improving. To go with the work that has been done on contested ball and defensive positioning over the last two years, I am tentatively optimistic about the season.

While I agree that it is extremely frustrating I think it is part of the natural progression of a young and developing team. I personally would much rather they concede goals by actually trying something, making the odd mistake and learning from it than playing like they did against Carlton, Essendon and even Brisbane last year. 'Learning from it' being the operative part here. The issue will be if they have the confidence to keep at it- after a long period where a few mistakes led to them shutting up shop for the day, hopefully the way in which the team won some of their games last year will help to instill a sense of belief in the game plan and each other. And although it is only match sim and the pressure is clearly not the same, it is still a step up from the 9 vs 7 and other whole ground drills with only 'implied' pressure that they have done so much of in the last couple of years. There is a bit more space on the outside if you can get it there, but the pressure around the ball is real (guys like Viney, Jones, Brayshaw, Bugg and even Michie make sure of that) and the fact that they are playing shorter quarters with no subs and no proper stoppages keeps them moving, as well as thinking about where they need to be and what they need to be doing. Don't worry, I'm as pessimistic as they come, but I see the groundwork being laid ala Hawthorn circa '05-'07. I'm not predicting we'll win 4 flags in a row or anything, but it would be nice to jag one before the decade is out.

By the time I arrived at Gosch’s at 10:30 the boys had been training for 45 minutes, so I missed the warm up and drills that followed. However, I did get to see the start of what was essentially an intra-club match (match sim) for the rest of the session. Three ‘quarters’ of approximately 20 minutes each with two AFL umpires officiating, one with curly hair and some other guy. Firstly, I didn’t sight Dawes, Vince, Oliver, Newton, White, or Petracca- not to say that they weren’t there earlier or were on the other side of the ground. Max King, Lumumba and Trengove were in the rehab group in front of where I was watching, over on the Punt Rd side of the ground. The remaining players were split into two teams- Green bibs: Hogan, Watts, Frost, Garlett, Kent, Kennedy-Harris, Gawn, Tyson, Viney, M. Jones, Grimes, Stretch, Hunt, Garland, Wagner, Jetta, O. McDonald. No bibs: Pedersen, Weideman, Hulett, Mitch King, Kennedy, Spencer, N. Jones, vandenBerg, Brayshaw, Michie, Harmes, Bugg, Neal-Bullen, Dunn, T. McDonald, Salem, Terlich. I may have got a couple of those mixed up because I wasn’t taking notes but they’re pretty right. Saty and ProDee have summed it up well. A few other things I noticed: JKH started ‘on the bench’, came on to a contest in the goal-square and went straight off with something wrong with his upper leg/groin. He lasted less than 5 minutes. Terlich was good at buttering up and running out of congestion. A couple of less players on the field seems to suit a player like him. Garland turned the ball over a couple of times- missing kicks to dangerous spots that resulted in rebound goals. As ProDee pointed out, both teams were guilty of this but I guess the one positive was that conversely they were able to take full advantage of the error and quickly move the ball forward for a goal. vandenBerg knows where to run when his teammates have the ball. Gawn continued his great preseason, working hard up and down the ground. Although he may have dropped a couple of marks, he did take a nice contested mark in the goal-square and also took a nonchalant one-hander running into goal on the end of a good passage of play. Hunt and Harmes were good- they tried hard and although they made a few mistakes they kept backing themselves and taking the game on. Selection for the first few rounds is going to be very interesting. Weideman uses his body well in marking contests but just couldn’t hang onto the ball today. Hulett shows promise- he is a natural forward. Viney’s tackle on T.Mac was beautiful. Tommy, as he does quite often, took too long to kick and Viney grabbed his wrist and right hip and just pulled him to ground. Not as brutal as the tackle on Tuesday, but as effective.

Concur with what Die Hard and George have said about the session- they are definitely willing but will need to continue to improve to compete with the best sides in the league. Not to make a big deal out of it, but I only saw Trenners snapping around the corner on his right. I think the real test for him, and he admitted this in an interview when they were on camp, is when he gets into full contact work, with tackling and bodies crashing. I don't talk to the staff or players, so these are only observations, but Salem came off about halfway through the session concerned about his left hamstring, and Oscar Mc came off after a bump to the knee at the start of the match simulation. He was strapped and tested it, but went to the rooms shortly after.