Preview Faceoff: Round 3 vs St Kilda

[TMoney22]

Maybe we'll see the return of the Scott Wynd era where he played a kick behind the play and stopped all the long kicks from the contest. That will help out our defence if Roughy and Minno can do that.

 

[Palace03]

On paper the forward line looks alot more structured with Jones and Cordy/Minson down there at all times, will relieve some pressure on LJ if nothing else. If they can atleast provide a contest the likes of Gia, Dal, Higgins and Cooney could do some damage.

Another big game for Grant, he really lifted last week. If he can get busy tommorow night it may force Fisher or Goddard to be a little more defensivly minded.

 

[Ducky Tie]

Would be a huge win by the Bulldogs if they could manage it.
Williams, Morris and Gilbee missing from the backline and 10 players in the team, (Wood, Markovic, Cordy, Dahlhaus, Djerrkura, Grant, Jones, Liberatore, Roughead and Smith) who have played less than 50 games each.
This represents nearly half the team named for this game.
Big ask and huge task.

Yes you have an inexperienced team and have some out but so do St. Kilda. We have ten players with less than 56 games do not much difference there. We also have some players out with Gwilt, Gram and Schneider all out injured. Morris and Williams are crucial to your backline so they are probably bigger outs than ours but what I'm saying is there isn't too much of a difference on this side of things.

Should be a good game with two evenly matched sides. Match will be won in midfield imo. Good luck to all dog fans.

 

[Armitage2Riewoldt]

Losing Zac Dawson hurt them pretty badly, structurally. They don't really have any big KPD anymore. Fisher and Gilbert are their tallest, and they prefer to use Fisher in an attacking way, rather than just stopping his opponent (which he still does well).

I was sure that they would take Talia in the draft, because they hardly have anyone coming through from the junior ranks to fill that spot either. Simpkin and Gwilt are both sort of tall, but not big enough to take the really big forwards, imo.

Tommy Simpkin is the same height and build as Max Hudghton - not the worst full back we've had. And he is currently working as an assistant coach, closely with Simpkin.

While it's true that it doesn't look like he has the height to take on the gorilla full forwards he has done okay so far. And Zac was never an incredible full back himself given his height, and benefited largely from our defensive game plan. Not that I'm saying he's no good, he'd be a lock in our top 22 this year I imagine - although I hope the same for Simpkin now.

Anyway both sides have definitely changed a bit since our clashes in 2009-10 with a lot of kids coming through. Will hopefully be a good match!

 

[aussierulesrules]

Saints Preview:
In all likelihood St Kilda are going through a rebuilding phase as we try to unearth and develop some young talent over the next couple of years in order to have another crack whilst the likes of Dal Santo, Montagna, Fisher and Goddard are still around as veterans. (Assuming we keep hold of them all of course.) Question is how low will the team fall whilst doing this? We're hoping we can do it Sydney style and continue to scrape in to the 8 whilst blooding the new guys.

As I said in the thread on this game on the main board: http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showthread.php?t=930095&page=2, I don't necessarily agree with this.
As I said there, most of the signs are indicating that we're still aiming higher than "just scraping into the 8", or that we're in a "full rebuild".

Late in the NAB Cup games we started ushering some of the "kids", that had played in the early rounds, out of the squads and then in round one we only had one making his debut (Terry Milera, who is 24) and also had Polo, Peake, Blake and Farren Ray in the side, who I doubt would have all been there if we were in full "rebuild mode". Round one is like making a statement of which direction you're heading in and that was not a statement of "we're rebuilding". So unless we've made a significant change of direction since round one, on the back of just one game (which, while it was very disappointing, as we played poorly and were very lacklustre, wasn't that bad, as it was played in Adelaide and Port were relentless from go to wo and have been far, far better so far this year) then we're still aiming high, which is certainly what I'd be doing. We also went into that Port game with a less than ideal preparation, after missing a full NAB Cup game when Essendon didn't show, then playing just 13 minute (plus time on) quarters the following week against West Coast, on a 35degree afternoon).

Many seem to think that we've fallen off a cliff, which we did in the first 8 rounds of last season, after an off season period like Melbourne are having now, but in our last 11 games last year we won 8, including late wins over Carlton and West Coast, a 100+ point win over Adelaide, 7 goal win over Freo, and two wins over North, including an 11 goal win in the 2nd last round, to finish the H&A rounds 6th (after having just one and a half wins up after 8 rounds). The only games we lost in that period were to Collingwood (by 19) Sydney in Sydney (by 15) and Sydney in the final, when we had a shocker. In fact, since round 8 last year, we've only lost to Geelong, Collingwood, Sydney and now Port.

We still have the bulk of the side that played in 3 GF's in 12 months (up until a little over a season ago) and most signs are looking far far better at this stage than they were at this stage last year, when we were a mess. So we'll be going hard and aiming high, unless something pretty dramatically bad happens pretty soon, which we certainly hope it doesn't.

 

[maddog37]

The players are still the same by name only though. They are not the same players anymore due to age etc.

Same as the dogs. We still have Lake, Cooney, Gilbee etc but they are not what they were.

 

[aussierulesrules]

That is true of Riewoldt, Gilbert and Kosi and possibly Hayes and Goddard, but they have all looked better so far this season, especially Riewoldt, while Goddard injured his hip in round one of last year and carried the injury for the whole season, waiting till the season was over to have it operated on. He's now at that prime age of 26 and could easily get right back to his best, or better than his previous best. Gilbert is also in that prime age now and if he's over all the dramas of the 2010/2011 summer period, he could also get right back to his high marking and run and carry best, especially as they hope to play him more in the middle, which could give him a new lease of life and get his confidence back. Hayes and Milne are the oldest on the list, but have both looked their usual selves so far, with Lenny looking like he hasn't missed a beat and the year off could have even freshened him up. Gardiner has left, as has Baker, but neither had a really big impact in 2010 and Zac has also left, which we could have done without IMO, as we don't have an obvious option for the "power forwards". Not sure Simpkin is suited to that role.

On the other hand, Dal Santo and Gwilt stepped up another notch last year and Fisher won the B&F with another terrific season. Ben McEvoy was another that really stepped up, as did Jack Steven, who was a revelation in Lenny's absence. He's got another pre-season under his belt now and the likes of Geary and Armitage now have 50 games up and look ready to really consolidate spots in the team. Lenny has had to "do it alone" in the middle, a lot, since Luke Ball left, but now he's back and they are ready to really help him out, as they did it without him last year and are a year more advanced now.
Add in the likes of Stanley, Ledger and Milera (plus potentially Saad and Siposs, who could easily be playing this week) and Gwilt due back on the field in the next two weeks and we have a lot of reasons to expect to play better than we did last season, when we finished 6th/7th. The big ? is how quickly we'll adapt to the new game plan and what sort of effect that will have on the group, but it's looking pretty positive in certain areas so far already and I truly believe they were stale under Lyon's gameplan and so on last year, if not earlier than that (our peak was in 2009). The other major factor that can impact things is injuries and so on and time will tell how we go in that regard.

This group still know how to win and will be going out pretty much each week expecting to do so, as they have for the best part of 8 years. If they still have the hunger and get that spark back and with all things being equal, anything's possible.

 

[stkildathunda]

Tory Dickson apparently pulled off ground at Nth Ballarat and is bound for Etihad. Late change for Dogs is looking likely? Any idea who might miss out? Seems odd to pull him from ground if he doesnt play tonight

 

[Igloo]

Tory Dickson apparently pulled off ground at Nth Ballarat and is bound for Etihad. Late change for Dogs is looking likely? Any idea who might miss out? Seems odd to pull him from ground if he doesnt play tonight

Yep, mentioned it on the VFL broadcast. No idea who might come out, if it is in fact a late change, which you would assume it will be. Haven't heard anything.

 

[TempleKelvington]

yeah.....no idea who. Has to be a mid or a forward? Or maybe they have had second thoughts on 3 talls?

 

[stkildathunda]

Cool, guess we will find out soon. Couple rumours circling might be late change for Saints aswell so maybe they are preparing for that incase.

 

[Igloo]

Cool, guess we will find out soon. Couple rumours circling might be late change for Saints aswell so maybe they are preparing for that incase.

Who do you think that might be?

 

[stkildathunda]

Who do you think that might be?

I heard Kosi had some soreness yesterday & were seeing how he was today, but few little rumours saying Ledger out for Polo. Not sure how much truth in that though.

 

[Gridlock'd]

Ledger out for Saints, Polo in.

No change for Dogs.

http://www.afl.com.au/News/NEWSARTICLE/tabid/208/newsId/133006/Default.aspx

 

[stkildathunda]

Tom Ledger replaced in selected side by Dean Polo
Subs: Jamie Cripps & Nathan Djerrkura