Nascent

In spite of the stats distorted by our older players we are a fairly young and inexperienced team. L Pickett: 2 games Culley: 18 games Lindsay: 20 games Tholstrup: 21 games Langford: 24 Games Howes: 30 games Sharp: 36 games Windsor: 38 games Turner: 39 games That's half of a starting 18 and not even counting JvR who is only 22. No doubt one of Jefferson or Kentfield were likely to games early as well and we would presumably look for Taylor and Matthews to debut later in the year. We would like reliable consistency in performance but you're just not going to get it with that amount of inexperience. This group needs another full season, perhaps even two before we see that.

Another one to watch is Corey Ah-Mu (2027 draft) who, unlike his brother, will be eligible for our club as an NGA. 16rs old and 193cm, kicked 2 goals and had 11 disposals.

L Pickett needs to ramp up his defensive pressure quickly if he wants to remain in the team. Rivers and Langford not getting much time in the middle at all.

Rivers not having a great start to the 3rd

Eat a bag voss

That GWS 3rd round pick is looking juicy now

AMW a clear best for us. Impressed with Berry's performance and liked Matthews intensity and how he got himself into the game after half time. Laurie just a regular game for him. Taylor got a few touches and marks as the outet kick to the pocket with lots of his disposals long down the line. Looked better when he tried to run and carry the ball a few times later in the game. Heath I thought was well beaten. Henderson got going after quarter time after being unsighted but lacked a bit of polish while I didn't really notice Cross much at all. Was hoping for more from Stanley. Melksham on one leg most of the day battled on like the soldier he is. Bulldogs are the reigning premiers, near full strength with more AFL listed players and also picked up one of our best VFL performers last year in Billings. Given we didn't have Kentfield, Jefferson and Johnson as tall targets and continually bombed it to Melksham I'm not upset or surprised at the performance.

Some very flat footed slow reacting defenders

Heath looks to be impeded in most ruck contests.

Taylor up on a wing now

Melksham not moving well at all

Good to see Matthews getting a run around the ball in the last 5 minutes there. Hasn't touched it much but you can see his manic pressure. Hopefully it turns for him after half time.

I've enjoyed the fight back this quarter and we're moving it a lot better, just been a couple moments where the first option wasn't given. Think I saw two from Craven, one from Stanley and a couple from Bonner in particular. Probably being unfairly critical as the pressur from the doggies looks pretty high.

A lot of first handball options being ignored in favour of dump kicks

Somehow scores are level.

Bonner and Stanley making poor decisions going inside 50. Dees only looking likely when Laurie and Melksham are moving the ball forward.

Defence under the pump, AMW, Taylor and Mentha getting amongst the disposals. Team struggling to move the ball forward. Edit: Berry done some nice things as well.

Cheeky bastards wanted a 3rd first rounder from us to make that trade as well.

That's a very strong bulldogs vfl squad, tomorrow is going to be tough.

This remains my favourite fan mock-up design I've seen online.

AFL website is actually a good resource for this. Just click on a match, select the players tab then click on a player. That will bring up the players total stats and also the ability to select each quarter with breakdowns provided for each. It's fairly comprehensive. Wheelo ratings has a tonne of awesome data if you want to look at more stats. https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_index.html

We play footscray rd1 then, along with 3 other teams, we have a bye in round 2.

Fun day at the footy yesterday, despite being a close game I didn't have any sense of dread or stress while watching. Perhaps that's due to my recalibrated expectations, but it was nice going to a game and enjoying it all.

In his first year at the doggies where he started the season really well, he attended a MFC game as a spectator just a few seats away from me up in the nose bleeds. As he left the game I gave him a compliment about his form at the doggies and that brought a huge smile out of him. Small interaction but seemed like a genuinely nice bloke, happy he got to 50 games and hope he has more success there.

Thanks for the update. Is bill playing as a mid or half forward and how has his game been so far?