Roast Review Rnd 8: Melbourne 103 dft Western Bulldogs 64

[David Schwarz]

On the bright side...

Whenever we were good, especially in the last three decades, we always found a way to lose to Melbourne

Watching house with the missus, a lot less gory than this afternoon

 

[Libba39]

I thought biggs looked slow on the vfl highlights package....I was right....

 

[fargy]

And it's an absolute disgrace that a poster on here laughed that Goodes injured himself and wished that Cordy gets a broken leg.

 

[goodcop badcop]

I admire Beveridge for his inventiveness, but it really has gone beyond a joke when duds like Spencer can start dominating the ruck.

 

[Bemoreboyddog]

So ....
The good - Stringers goal. That's it. That's all I've got. Actually I'll give Wallis some praise. Yep. That's all of it.

 

[jamesDP]

It had to happened eventually. We got done in just about all departments, due to a poorly picked side. Big week at selection this week, bigger bodies are needed, maybe a few runners too. And boy oh boy, we found a ruckman today, actually he was always a ruckman his name is Roughead. Crameri had a shocker too, in fact he had quite a few mates, even when they got within 7 they never looked like it. Oh well, always next week!

 

[_Mike_]

It's funny you know, all through the good times last month I was preaching caution, and warning that we were bound to fall apart. But the sudden-ness and depth of this poor form has surprised even me.

That's fine... I've been saying all along that we are not playing finals this year.. The results from this match and the Saints game show me correct so far

 

[dergert]

I was meant to leave for Europe last night. But put it off to the end of the season due to our good form. Really bummed about that. Either way I will still be there next week and every other Melbourne game. Just really deflated, this one was a real downer.

 

[Zeno The Great]

Well that was just absolutely horrible across the board. Same s**t against Melbourne in most recent games, scrappy ugly affairs we we play horrible football.

People cannot seriously advocate the Cordy experiment anymore. Just rippped apart from the clearances again. Minson looks in toruble, so let Roughhead ruck, thought he was reasonable, and bring in Hamling.

Jong needs to go back to the 2's until he gets confidence in his hand, a shadow of the player in the first 5 rounds. Goodes is injured unfortunately, but it means don't need to drop him which we clearly had to do. Thought Biggs was a like a deer in headlights many times, first game so won't be too harsh on him but back to the 2's for me.

Kudos to Wallis who tried to singlehandledly get us over the line, thought Boyd and Dal tried hard all day too.

Stringer's goal kicking needs to be rectified now, will cost us games if it doesn't improve, Dal also been terrible in this area for a while as well.

Skills were deplorable, missing handball targets and basic kicks all day. A lot of the amazing work in the first 5 weeks has really come unstuck in the losses to Melbourne and Saints, won't be easy next week v GWS the way they are playing.

 

[Dazb86]

 

[Trugo3013]

Rancid.
Just disgusting.

No spread, no run, no talk. No accuracy.

Macrae and Grant back in next week, please. And possibly Hrovat or Honeychurch - at least they compete.
Biggs had a poor debut for us. His kicks seemed to go very high and to nobody in particular. Hopefully just nerves.
Bonti tagged out of it and couldn't find a gear when he needed to.
Wallis, Picken, Dahl kept trying all day. There were probably others but my eyes were much clouded by red mist. Roughead maybe.

Goodes (injured), Biggs, maybe Hunter should all be dropped.

Cordy surely has to go, but Will has been reported in the VFL? s**t.
Why could we not get up for today? We didn't disgrace ourselves last week, so why today?

The Saints game I could see they all tired out, but today the majority of them looked like they didn't give a s**t.
Frustrating to watch. No fun.

 

[_Mike_]

What's the bet we see Goodes, Cordy and Hunter playing next week? Whilst most of the team were bystanders today surely Hamling and Grant at least should be called up

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Even with some big losses, there's something to take out of a game.

There's nothing to take out this game. No aspect of our ball movement, stoppage work, defensive work, structure, intensity, adjusting for conditions, team selection, decision making, any aspect of a game can we take out of it and say "well, at least we showed X". Nothing.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

That game was as bad as any game we've played in years. Wallis, Dahlhaus and MBoyd were good, the less said about the others the better. Thought Roughead was good in the ruck too.

Kicking was absolutely disgraceful.
Where did our forward pressure go?
Where did the forward structure go?

Bev has been happy to wield the axe so far this season, I think we can expect some changes against the Giants.

 

[Dav1d]

Heartbreaking
Nothing for me to add, just heartbreaking
:/

 

[DylanW]

Do you guys think Roughies should was reinjured when he landed on it after trying to save that goal at the end of the match? He looked to pull up sore landed right on his sore shoulder. I hope it's not he's been doing really well this year

 

[womble54]

And it's an absolute disgrace that a poster on here laughed that Goodes injured himself and wished that Cordy gets a broken leg.

If he was laughing it was the desperate laughter of the damned. I think there is a lot of rhetoric in the finger pointing at one slightly off message post. I totally agree with his sentiment, not the actual message: neither Goodes nor Cordy should appear at AFL level again.

The deal is done, the experiment is over, the generosity has been spent. No more.

 

[puppey]

We lack a competitive ruckman very badly, but even more we lack a competitive CHF. Our structure without Toyd anywhere near it today was deplorable. He needs a rest/spell in the 2's badly, and Redpath needs to play. Stringer isn't a KPF, we need to stop playing him as though he is. Unfortunately we just don't have the KPP depth that we desperately need.

Other than that, our midfield was horrendous today against a very, very average average midfield. Biggs, Goodes, Jong, Hunter even Bontempelli were all non-factors, and in a lot of cases unaccountable going the other way. We're missing a lot of class around the ball, and have replaced it with honest toilers (Goodes, Moyd was back to his worst in this regard today) and people who just whack it on the boot when under pressure (Biggs was particularly bad, but Picken is equally bad at times)

We were winning games earlier in the year thanks to good ball use, and manic tackling pressure. Somehow, both the ball use and manic pressure has fallen off; be that through fatigue from the younger players, or older players falling back into poor habits, but the coaches need to address this during the week, otherwise we'll get absolutely slaughtered by GWS next week.

 

[fargy]

What's the bet we see Goodes, Cordy and Hunter playing next week? Whilst most of the team were bystanders today surely Hamling and Grant at least should be called up

Goodes has a broken arm by the looks.

 

[DylanW]

I wonder if McCartney's intimate knowledge of our players may have helped Melbourne gain an edge.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

I was meant to leave for Europe last night. But put it off to the end of the season due to our good form. Really bummed about that. Either way I will still be there next week and every other Melbourne game. Just really deflated, this one was a real downer.

I'm leaving for Europe the week after the GWS game. Thought I was safe this year as I wasn't expecting much, but we played terrific footy as the hunter, we haven't yet worked out how to play as the hunted.

 

[ExRoyboy]

Same old Bulldogs, what can I say. This club kills me sometimes.

Tired legs, sloppy skills, poor judgement, shocking team defence... it was an all-round collapse.
I try to be positive but this was just a total write-off. We need to be able to win these ones and it seems like we never can. First St. Kilda and now the Dees.
It has to be mental, surely. You can't come so close to knocking over an undefeated Fremantle one week and put in a performance like this the next. Where was the run? Where were those silky skills? Where was the capable, cool-headed lock-down defence? We know we can do it against teams we're not expected to beat, why not when we're favourites? What's going on? I sure as hell have no clue.

Couldn't have said it better myself. As supporters we should be confident going into games like these but sadly I think being a Bulldog supporter means always expecting to lose these games. It just rips your heart out when you think of the great play earlier in the year and it just is going to be for nothing.

I know we have a young team and there have been more times this year when I have been proud of them than today's feelings but geez it is just so frustrating. Just can't explain what the hell happened to the intensity and skills of the previous 7 weeks. Even against the Saints you could understand even though it still shouldn't have happened but today we just didn't even bother turning up which is the most disappointing.

 

[Bemoreboyddog]

Question. We dropped Macrae and Hrovat to the 2's to work on a few things. Is two weeks enough? Or do we have to leave them there longer? Anyone seen the VFL the last 2 weeks that can provide an insight on how they've been. Don't want to just hear possessions and goals, I can find that. Want to know about ball use/ defensive pressure.

 

[Mattdougie]

I wonder if McCartney's intimate knowledge of our players may have helped Melbourne gain an edge.

McCartney didn't know what our players could do when he was our coach how would he know now?

 

[BRWB]

Even with some big losses, there's something to take out of a game.

There's nothing to take out this game. No aspect of our ball movement, stoppage work, defensive work, structure, intensity, adjusting for conditions, team selection, decision making, any aspect of a game can we take out of it and say "well, at least we showed X". Nothing.

You are wrong. I loved Roughead's work in the ruck and thought he showed quite a bit. I hope he gets much more time there.

Wallis was back to being competitive with big improvement on last week.

Wood was a rock. Dahl was excellent.