Bombay Airconditioning

Bulldogs started with JUH is dealing with personal issues but have moved on to any timeline around a possible return will be dictated by the AFL. This paints a reasonably clear picture as to what is going on and holds the player accountable. Oliver went from a four week hamstring to a seven week hamstring to a hospital jailbreak. So yes Oliver and the MFC may have copped more attention but they brought it on themselves. The Bulldogs haven’t let the off field drama affect their on field performance, if anything they’ve done the opposite. They were robbed by the umpires and should have beaten Collingwood, they should be fifth not eighth. Starting this season Melbourne had Picket, Windsor and McVee out, the Dogs were missing Bont, Treloar, Weightman & JUH. I missed the Anzac Eve game but many posters commented on how when Gawn was subbed out the performance of many others suddenly dropped.

Look at how the Dogs have played all season, combine that we’ve who’s been missing. Had Bont, Treloar, Weightman and JUH out for numerous weeks to start the season, Bont is back but Darcy is out. Last season we as a club were affected badly by the Oliver media coverage, to be fair the Dogs are copping just as much if not more over JUH and are handling it on and off the field like professionals.

If not for the umpires they’d have beaten the pies

Bevo having a reasonable year, currently on the way to massive upset win over the Giants. Would love to see them hold on.

Maynard drops it cold. No call.

Agree, whist I fully understand what Redleg is getting at the player in most cases will always take the money.

Just found the quote “I’d love to be up all the time, but the start of this season hasn’t gone the way I wanted or the team wanted” “I want t to play my footy here forever, I don’t know where any of that chat come from” Considering what some other players have served up in recent years I think we can cut him some slack.

I’m currently O/S so missed the game but have read all of the post game thread. Read something on FB where Fritsch was quoted as saying the season hasn’t gone as he or the team would have liked. He’s a gun and a must keep for mine, not sure what’s going on but if he’s let go at seasons end we will regret it.

Rd 1 v GWS 9 tackles inside fwd 50 Fritsch 3 JVR 2 In this match AJ was second ruck so the rest of the fwds plus those who rotated through combined for 4 tackles. Rd 2 v North 7 tackles inside fwd 50 Fritsch 0 JVR 4 JVR was 2nd ruck I think so some of his tackles may have been outside the fwd 50. But in a game we lost by 59 points Oliver 2 Trac 2 Viney 2 Sparrow 2 Rivers 2 Langdon 1 Sharp 1 Petty 1 TMac 0 Fritsch laying zero is unacceptable but looking at the above numbers many of our stars weren’t much better. In addition to that how many tackles were ineffective with the player being tackled still able to get a handball away. Rd 3 v Suns 4 tackles inside fwd. Fritsch 2 JVR 2 AJ was back after a one week suspension so what did all our other fwds do? Rd 4 v Geelong 7 tackles inside fwd 50 Fritsch 1 JVR 3 AJ was dropped for this match so JVR obviously spent time in the middle. After this match Goodwin called for Fritsch to do more whilst ignoring Windsor 1 Petracca 1 Petty 1 Langford 1 Spargo 0 Rivers 0 May 0 Rd 5 v Essendon 14 tackles inside fwd Fritsch responded to Goodwin with 5 tackles, kicked 2 goals, all round a better game getting more involved but far from his best, JVR had 2 tackles and was 2nd ruck again. This match a few players responded brining more pressure with Oliver 9 Chandler 6 Trac 5 Viney 5 But again we had Petty 0 May 1 Pickett 1 Langford 1 Langdon 1 Spargo 1 Melksham 2 The Essendon game was where players refused to man up opting to guard vacant grass instead. Only a few weeks back people were bemoaning the non Petty trade to Adelaide and what could have been draft pick wise, fast forward a few weeks a positional change and some quick ball movement all of a sudden he’s a must keep again. With the exception of Rd 1, Rds 2 - 5 the whole team were largely garbage, with players ignoring options on the outside preferring to just throw it on the boot and bomb inside fwd 50 or long down the line to Gawn making it easy for the opposition to intercept mark / force a turn over and score on transition. Posters then bang on about Fritsch’s body language, who can blame him with the delivery he’d been getting. So again, Saturdays inside fwd tackle numbers weren’t just because Fritsch and JVR had been dropped, but because for the first time since Rd 1 the team came switched on and played as a team. There was a real emphasis on pressure across the whole ground.

Plenty of players id trade before Fritsch. Which key fwd are targeting?

Fritsch’s uses his body well in a marking contest, play a tall on him and if he doesn’t mark it and the ball goes to ground he’ll beat the tall for the lose ball, play a small on him and he’ll best team in the air. But he needs space to work in, not having the ball being sat on his head and having an opposition defender coming over for an easy spoil.

Fritsch’s form is largely dependent on the delivery he receives. If we had been moving the ball like we did yesterday all season and Fritsch was doing nothing I could then cop him being dropped and having to fight his way back in, but we haven’t been so it’s unfair to judge him on 5 games or if you want to go back further. Not only was Fritsch struggling but all our fwds were as would most fwds in the competition if they played for us.

Turner is only 23 and Petty 25, both can play both ends of the ground. Petty obviously has more runs on the board in both, but Turner is starting to forge out a nice career for himself, I think it was against North he kick a nice goal from a tough angle from a pocket. He’s only played the 21 games so a lot to play out.

Agree that Freo were caught off guard but now the novelty of surprise has worn off. Teams will expect it and that’s ok, it doesn’t always have to be elite disposal through the chain of possession (look at Collingwood vs Carton & Sydney) just has to be quick, ideally low and whenever possible into an open fwd line. The last part is fwds who can make something out of nothing. Petracca (running into open goal and misses, kicking around his body when should be kicking a drop punt) is hit and miss and Spargo (misses easy set shots) is better off being in the chain of possessions delivering the ball in. History tells us we won’t get 9 combined from Kozi and Petty every week so the sooner the club finishes handing out this supposed lesson to Fritsch the better. Against the Tigers and Eagles we might get it done but our next five after that is against Hawks, Lions, Swans, Saints & Pies. For a club that has form in either not scoring or kicking more begins than goals we will need Fritsch back.

Love how a lot of people have jumped of Fritsch, up until yesterday the team had collectively done nothing for five weeks. The one week they have a crack coincides with the week he’s dropped, Fritsch actually stepped it up against the Bombers, wasn’t his best game but did more than others. Now some are calling for him to put a consistent block together at Casey. Seems as though getting back into the team will be harder than a batsman trying to break into the Australian line up in the mid 90’s. Is everyone going to judged the same? Give Fritsch the space and delivery that some of our fwds got yesterday and he will tear up it up, he’s hard to match up on is a one v one. Interesting to see how this plays out.