titan_uranus

This game was there for Port if they hadn't been so awful in the first half. Dogs have kicked 3 goals since half time, and look nowhere near as slick as the first half.

No he didn't? 10 disposals, 5 marks. They were rucking him at times, ridiculously.

Stefan Martin's the Dogs' worst player tonight, by a mile. The question is whether he improves with a week off. If this is his effort in the GF, I'll gladly take that match up. Keath will replace Gardiner or Cordy. They'll bring Weightman back but if Martin holds his spot, they'll have to drop Vandermeer or Johannisen.

Why? They're no taller than Geelong was last night.

Port have dominated this quarter for 2.3. This could have been so much more interesting if Port had kicked 5.0. The margin would be 30 points but the feel of the game would be so different.

In Round 11 Naughton kicked 1.1 from 14 disposals and 5 marks. In Round 19 Naughton kicked 2.1 from 9 disposals and 3 marks. Tonight to half time he has kicked 2.1 from 7 disposals from 6 marks. In other words: twice this year, we've curtailed him.

Well at least we get an extra hour to plan for our GF opponent.

Dogs are +26 in contested possessions and +9 in clearances. Hard to beat them with that level of midfield dominance.

That was disgraceful. Three Port defenders watched the ball whilst Johannisen actually went and got it.

They'll destroy Martin and English, too. But we've lost games this year despite dominating the ruck. Gawn and Jackson are part of the broader picture - midfield dominance. We won't beat the Dogs without it.

You just can't have asked for a better crack at it the last two years, though. Top 2 both years, win the QF both years, home prelim both years with opponents who have been all over Australia in the weeks prior. And this year, no injuries at all. They have their entire full list to choose from tonight I believe, except maybe Georgiades.

Dogs are +28 in contested possessions and +10 in clearances. We have to back ourselves in to not be as pathetic as Port in those areas. We know that if you take that part of the game away from the Dogs, they are a very different side. But if you let them dominate those areas, they are arguably unbeatable.

They had 4 wins against the top 8, but two of them were Essendon and GWS, the worst two sides. They beat Sydney and the Dogs in the final round. They were 0-3 against the top 4.

I was about to say Port just need to stem the bleeding, to try to stay in touch and try to over-run the Dogs who played last week and surely will hit a wall before Port. But they can't get their hands on the ball and the Dogs are just embarrassing them at the contest.

Rozee and Butters are so incredibly fumbly under even scant pressure. Port's defence looks amazing against slow play Geelong, but the Dogs bring pace and Aliir can't get into position, exposing Jonas and McKenzie who are just awful one-on-one. Doesn't help that Boak and Wines cannot get their hands on the ball in the middle. Macrae, Libba, Treloar, Smith just doing as they please.

It sounds like they were sick on Wednesday. Jeremy Cameron apparently did a Twitch stream on Thursday which was supposed to be on Wednesday and mentioned he needed time off on the Wednesday or something. They were all then apparently cleared to play last night. I'm not entirely convinced they were labouring under any issues last night.

There have been a lot of posts after our win about having the flag in the bag. Put the lid back on. The way the Dogs are playing tonight, and with a week off after this, we have a massive challenge ahead.

Assuming it's true, does it explain how bad some of those players were? It probably does. I don't care.

@The Mighty Demons you wouldn't be able to do one for Gawn's first goal in the second quarter, would you?

Legend. Thank you.

It's not just the big marks. It's the workrate, and the effort he puts in to even a contest if he can't mark it. The one where Henderson looked a monty to mark it but he got there just in the nick of time and brought it to ground, leading to a Spargo goal, was a perfect example.

I know what you mean, but the Dogs scare me more. If they make it, they get the week off to rest, they'll get back Keath and Weightman, and they will have less pressure on them than Port, who like us haven't won it for ages and have some older players desperate for success (Boak, Gray, Dixon, Jonas etc.). Don't get me wrong, Port are a strong side, but I fear the Dogs more.

If anyone reading this is capable of preparing it, I'd love to see one of those multi-call videos where Gawn's running goal from 70m is repeated with every TV and radio commentary available. Edit: and Gawn's second quarter monster snap!

Yep, most of them on BF are respectful. There are some though that insult us, though that would be the same for any other club. The thing is, the insult that we're copping (we tanked and/or got gifted draft picks to spark our ascent up the ladder) is just not true. We don't have any of our high draft picks from 2007-09 playing in this side. We barely have anyone from that area playing in this side. And a fair stack of the players we have in our side have come to the club in the last three years (i.e. when we've been building our list like a professional sports club), and/or been selected in in Rounds 2+ in the draft, and/or been traded in (again, smart list development). People who attack us for anything tanking/draft pick related are just numpties.

Did Chris Scott do a presser?