Unofficial Preview FaceOff Round 5 vs Blues

Back again this week ..
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Also known as "The Battle of the last two teams that lost to Melbourne"

Last time

That is all.

Last Week
An inspirational comeback from the Dogs who had to play on a surface that was somewhere between a golden beach and the surface of the moon, with big games to Macrae, Boyd, Crameri and Jones

Carlton lost to Melbourne. No sledging needed, that sentence in itself has enough impact.

Key Players
Liam Jones

After missing out on Round 1 selection, Liam Jones has come back strong kicking three in each of the last two weeks, and even more impressively, has stood up in the last quarter of each of the games with key marks and goals. If James Frawley can be BOG against Carlton, no reason why Jones can't give Fannings' record a run for it's money

Dale Thomas
Dale Thomas, who cost the Blues 700k to recruit last year (that's 300k more than Stewart Crameri by the way, which some people here were claiming 400k was too much), has done crap-all and is honestly showing the distinctly average player he is and always was. Actually, going back to the Stewart Crameri vs Dale Thomas comparison, Crameri has averaged 81.5 Champion Data points this season, or in other words a tad under $5000 a point, and comparatively Thomas is double that, making Crameri twice an effective recruitment as Thomas! Anyway, getting back to Thomas, he finally needs to show to stand up, not only for Carlton's sake, but also for my Supercoach, because I haven't been able to trade him out for Macrae because of bloody injuries.

Tactics
Bulldogs showed a lot more run and carry in their last two weeks and will look to use the pace of players like Jason Tutt and Lin Jong more effectively.

Malthouse has declared that Carlton will abandon taggers and look to "run-and-gun" which means that in the first time in history a team, in this case the Dogs, could have double digits amount of players who exceed 40 disposals.

Selectors Table
The Dogs will have to make one forced change with Morris suspended, which is karma because he's injured anyway and a one week ban is ridiculous for Wellingham and Riewoldt getting free for even worse tripping. Talia is most likely to come in for Morris, whilst the Dogs will have to look for somebody to make way for Dahlhaus, who is likely to come back after missing last week with calf soreness.

Carlton will look to players to return after their showing against Melbourne, with Waite and Garlett likely to come back in. The same Garlett that got smashed by Daniel Pearce in a VFL game last year.

Prediction
Despite still missing Jarrad Grant to a pre-season injury, the Dogs should run out comfortable winners.
Dogs by 32
 

dull_high_ahoy

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I'll be going to this game with my usual 'quietly optimistic but unassuming' perspective, but I think everyone is expecting Carlton to come at us guns blazing.

If Malthouse wants to "run and gun" then we could stem that with heavy tags (koby wallis picken) and break them open with our brand of footy
 

Dazb86

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I was more optimistic about this game before Carlton lost to Melbourne.

That being said I don't think they have players that are capable of coming out and making a statement after a poor week anyway.

We seem to match up on them well which I think is because their midfield is pretty soft and contested ball is our strength.

Tipping us by a goal.
 
Always feel uneasy playing a team that has been bashed by all and sundry the week before. Judd should be back, and also Robinson, will be interesting to see if Waite finds his way back into the team.

Biggest problem for us, is our defence, you would think Talia would be back in and maybe Austin?
 

pepalenko

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Thought I'd pop in to cheer myself up. Should be a great game....for you guys. Seriously just hope our boys show some effort because I think you guys are starting to hit your straps. Anyway hope I have put the mozz on the bulldogs now blues by - 20 points ;)
 
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Beware of the fallen VFL powerhouse with the tragic history of tanking who has the backing of the AFL, we may see a lot of the 50/50 umpiring decisions heading Carltanks way.
Coming up with excuses for the loss already? :D
 
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Testekill

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Gonna be a nice little bookmark on Malthouses career if they lose this weekend. Because you have to think that a loss us is gonna be the final nail in the coffin of his career.
 

TheHoneyBadger

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Gonna be a nice little bookmark on Malthouses career if they lose this weekend. Because you have to think that a loss us is gonna be the final nail in the coffin of his career.
He'll be around for a while yet but a loss to the Doggies would be a fitting end.
 
Gonna be a nice little bookmark on Malthouses career if they lose this weekend. Because you have to think that a loss us is gonna be the final nail in the coffin of his career.
This is what I hate (not talking just about you Testekill). The continual blaming of coaches, and they're always the first to get sacked and think that that will change everything. In this case I think Malthouse has to go, has done absolutely nothing for the club, but a new coach isn't really going to change that much, the players need to get interested and stop coasting along. Let's see a couple of examples:

Bailey had to go at the Dees, they got Neeld. That was a mistake.

Ratten had to go at the Blues, they got Malthouse. That was a mistake.

Malthouse might have to go at the Blues, who do they get?

USUALLY, reactionary sacking of coaches is not a good idea. Just my $0.02
 
My prediction is that despite having names on the back of the jumpers the commentators will still call at least two of our players by the wrong name. Oh, and the Doggies by 23.
I think Brad Boyd will be best on ground again.
 

who_let_the_dogs_out

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McCartney will be no doubt drumming into the troops all week that the Blues will come out with a 'take no prisoners' attitude, hopefully the team can stand up to this. If Stringer isn't omitted this week I'm tipping him to have a good game. Hopefuly Dahlhaus will be back too.

Minson v Warnock and Rowe shouldn't be an issue, he has them covered.

There's not many teams in the league who have an inferior forward line to the dogs, but Carlton are one of them.

That said, this is a danger game due to our backline deficiencies at the moment and a team under the pump in Carlton.

Dogs to win, but not by much.
 

Testekill

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There's not many teams in the league who have an inferior forward line to the dogs, but Carlton are one of them.

I honestly don't think our forward line is that bad. We're a little wasteful in front of goal but it's pretty potent and just needs Grant and Dahlhaus back in the team.
 

who_let_the_dogs_out

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I honestly don't think our forward line is that bad. We're a little wasteful in front of goal but it's pretty potent and just needs Grant and Dahlhaus back in the team.
Last season only 5 teams scored less than us at season's end. It has improved this season though.

With Higgins fit, the inclusion of Crameri and Hunter scoring regularly it is starting to take shape. Gia doing his thing as the sub is handy too.

Curious to see who gets dropped to fit in Grant and Dahlhaus, but suddenly we have some goalscoring depth again. Jones needs to keep his place in the side, his accuracy has been great the last couple of games. Super important to the structure in the forward 50.
 
My prediction is that despite having names on the back of the jumpers the commentators will still call at least two of our players by the wrong name. Oh, and the Doggies by 23.
I swear to god, if someone calls him Griffin, I will kill someone.

If they've printed his name as Griffin on the jumper...
 
Where's all the Carlton supporters at?

We should absolutely smash them. All the talk in the media normally does the opposite of what everybody expects - it makes players nervous and play badly. We played a worse game last year when we just got over the line against GWS the week after losing to Melbourne too.
 
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