Preview Faceoff thread. Round 14 vs Gold Coast

[Gus]

VS

Last time we met
Western Bulldogs 18,14 (122) def. Gold Coast Suns 7.9 (51) at Etihad Stadium, round 3 2011.

Dogs preview
Here we go again. Playing the Metricon Maids on their home turf for the first time. We comprehensively beat them last time in what was just their second game, and since then they have improved markedly while still being a few steps below being a good AFL side, while we have floundered.

Our forwardline looks good on paper with Barry back, but we all know how much he has struggled this year. Hopefully he's fit enough to contribute, and we don't go back to the "Barry or nothing" approach when going forward. Glad to see Dahlhaus still in the team, looks like he'll start up forward in the battle of the big hair with Jack Hutchins.

Smith and Swallow back in makes their midfield look much more threatening, but we more than have the calibre to beat them and match it with Gablett and Risk ya Telly.

The Lynch/Dixon combo up forward for them is a good one, two solid young players. But both aren't yet at the point where they'll put genuine fear in our key backs.

Howard comes back in on the bench, and I anticipate either him or Schofield will start as sub with Cooney starting on the field.

Suns preview

If the Doggies didn't have a good win last week, I would feel much more confident as a Suns supporter going into this game... Should be a good game but really depends on how many qtrs the Suns can string together.

Not our full strength side, but with as many kids as we have and there weekly "resting" rotations, there are not many games in this first season that we can field our best 22. We have another 2 debutants this week, Jolly & Wilkinson... and I've lost count how many this makes it for the year!!!

Our forward line is the biggest concern at the moment and where the Dogs can stop us in our tracks if there backs get on top from the start. We are desparately lacking an experienced key fwd (and possibly where the Suns may throw a wad of cash during trades week later in the year. Mitch Clark moving 30mins down the road would be nice or even Kurt Tippett coming home to QLD in 2013 to play with his brother Joel )

...anyhoo our marks inside 50 have been sadly lacking all season. If young Lynch and Dixion can hold onto some grabs then we have a chance of keeping up on the scoreboard, and there height advantage may help here... they are both huge lumps at 199cm and 202cm respectively, and in years to come are going to be guns... but still young, developing and thus very hot and cold.

The midfield battle should be impressive, both sides pride themselves on their clearances and the head to heads with Boydy & co v Ablett & co will be great to watch. Hopefully there will be little tagging and just let the lads go for it.

On paper our backline has the goods to match the Doggies... and hopefully Browny doesn't have any brain fades this time around... although some would argue his has no brain to fade

The 1st qtr of this game is the key... we have been blown out of the water most of the season being to far down at qtr time that we have to play catch up footy for the rest of the game... and then our young legs run out of steam in the last... if the Suns can bolt out of the barrier it is going to make the game far more entertaining to watch...

Prediction: Heart is telling me Suns by 3 points in the game of the year to be sold on souvenir DVD by next Wednesday... but gut tells me Dogs by 9 goals!

Final word
Dogs to be too strong and experienced with a 40 point win against a much improved Gold Coast.

 

[Iva Bigun]

This will be a good opportunity to judge if we have improved since our last meeting, I would like to think we have and if Big Baz wasn't playing I would be a little excited about our chances.

Think you guys will get us by around 30 points.

 

[Ant_]

Looking forward to my first Metricon Stadium game. Will be doing park and ride from Boowaggan Rd. Any Suns fans have feedback on how the good shuttle bus service is?

 

[Sunny_]

Looking forward to my first Metricon Stadium game. Will be doing park and ride from Boowaggan Rd. Any Suns fans have feedback on how the good shuttle bus service is?

Only been for the Geelong game, and it was packed. At the time I thought it was handled terribly, but given the circumstances, it went pretty smoothly. Busses always coming, line moving constantly.

Dunno how this will stack up to compare. It's our first day game, so we might get a good crowd. Hard to predict.

Also... not sure if you'll get anyone for our preview, unfortunately. We don't really have previews. Only a handful of active Suns supporters on BF, so yeah. If we do do one, it's normally the standard AFL one.

 

[Curly5]

Looking forward to my first Metricon Stadium game. Will be doing park and ride from Boowaggan Rd. Any Suns fan have feedback on how the good shuttle bus service is?

Same here Ant_. Might see you . Shuttle service should be ok. We went to an NRL game o) at Robina last year and the park and ride was very good.

 

[Ant_]

Same here _Ant. Might see you . Shuttle service should be ok. We went to an NRL game o) at Robina last year and the park and ride was very good.

Never been to the Rugby stadium. (I could walk )

 

[Aquamarinejewel]

Looking forward to my first Metricon Stadium game. Will be doing park and ride from Boowaggan Rd. Any Suns fans have feedback on how the good shuttle bus service is?

Yes, I'm looking forward to going aswell...I think we're getting the shuttle bus from Pacific Fair or something like that.

 

[supernova_]

I've been experimenting with transport each game to find the best fit, tried taxi, tried bus from pac fair, tried the Southport Shark paid return shuttle ($5 for Sharks member $10 otherwise booking I think 24 or 48 hours prior till exhausted).

So those were my 2 experiences, so far with my family and friends the Sharks shuttle for $5 is the best for us.

Taxi is about a 60-90minute lineup to leave the stadium, but getting there is fine as you just call one from your home obviously.

This Saturday, im playing footy at Robina so I'm cabbing after my game should hopefully get there sometime in the 2nd qtr then catching a shuttle back to Nerang train station to my parked car and drive back with my girlfriend.

 

[exile]

Looking forward to my first Metricon Stadium game. Will be doing park and ride from Boowaggan Rd. Any Suns fans have feedback on how the good shuttle bus service is?

Here's what I wrote on the North board a few weeks back:

Bit of a heads up for those making the trip up. I went for the Geelong vs GC game, and took the train to Nerang station and bussed to the ground from there. I'm not sure about the other public transport methods of getting to the ground from other locations are like but Nerang is particularly good. 10min wait tops.

However, the Bus system after the game is fairly poor. They have endless busses available but getting them loaded and out of the bus 'station' is a fairly slow process. Unless you leave the game a bit early there'll be a longish wait unless they make some changes for this week. There's a long queue for the busses back to Nerang, but it's slightly confusing to how it actually works.

Yet, if you don't feel like leaving straight away, there's a beer tent thingo a short walk across the road.

Regardless, good luck on the weekend. Hope this helped.

Bear in mind, this was after the sell-out Geelong game. The North game was slightly easier to exit from. Being a day game as well, I think tomorrow won't be as tricky.

 

[Missy Maxi]

Same here Ant_. Might see you . Shuttle service should be ok. We went to an NRL game o) at Robina last year and the park and ride was very good.

Hope you have a GREAT time Curly !

 

[Werewolf]

Leading Goalkickers after r13:

W Bulldogs (12 games):

Giansiracusa 22
Sherman 16
Griffen 12
Grant* 11
Hall 10
Jones 9

Gold Coast (11 games):

Matera* 11
Z Smith 10
Lynch 10
G Ablett 9
Stanley 8
Brennan 7

*Not playing tomorrow

 

[WrongUn]

If the Doggies didn't have a good win last week, I would feel much more confident as a Suns supporter going into this game... Should be a good game but really depends on how many qtrs the Suns can string together.

Not our full strength side, but with as many kids as we have and there weekly "resting" rotations, there are not many games in this first season that we can field our best 22. We have another 2 debutants this week, Jolly & Wilkinson... and I've lost count how many this makes it for the year!!!

Our forward line is the biggest concern at the moment and where the Dogs can stop us in our tracks if there backs get on top from the start. We are desparately lacking an experienced key fwd (and possibly where the Suns may throw a wad of cash during trades week later in the year. Mitch Clark moving 30mins down the road would be nice or even Kurt Tippett coming home to QLD in 2013 to play with his brother Joel )

...anyhoo our marks inside 50 have been sadly lacking all season. If young Lynch and Dixion can hold onto some grabs then we have a chance of keeping up on the scoreboard, and there height advantage may help here... they are both huge lumps at 199cm and 202cm respectively, and in years to come are going to be guns... but still young, developing and thus very hot and cold.

The midfield battle should be impressive, both sides pride themselves on their clearances and the head to heads with Boydy & co v Ablett & co will be great to watch. Hopefully there will be little tagging and just let the lads go for it.

On paper our backline has the goods to match the Doggies... and hopefully Browny doesn't have any brain fades this time around... although some would argue his has no brain to fade

The 1st qtr of this game is the key... we have been blown out of the water most of the season being to far down at qtr time that we have to play catch up footy for the rest of the game... and then our young legs run out of steam in the last... if the Suns can bolt out of the barrier it is going to make the game far more entertaining to watch...

Prediction: Heart is telling me Suns by 3 points in the game of the year to be sold on souvenir DVD by next Wednesday... but gut tells me Dogs by 9 goals!

 

[Ant_]

Thanks GCSuns for your thoughts

 

[Werewolf]

We have another 2 debutants this week, Jolly & Wilkinson... and I've lost count how many this makes it for the year!!!

About 25! We're up to 8 which is a lot by our standards. Both of us have used 37 players this year (the most in the league)

We are desperately lacking an experienced key fwd

What's going on with N Ablett? Obviously he wasn't a gun forward but did have previous experience.

Haven't seen Lynch play yet but sounds like he'll be a gun. Hardly watched any footy these last 2 weeks due to work, so looking forward to watching the young guns from both sides battle it out tomorrow

 

[WrongUn]

About 25! We're up to 8 which is a lot by our standards. Both of us have used 37 players this year (the most in the league)


What's going on with N Ablett? Obviously he wasn't a gun forward but did have previous experience.

Haven't seen Lynch play yet but sounds like he'll be a gun. Hardly watched any footy these last 2 weeks due to work, so looking forward to watching the young guns from both sides battle it out tomorrow

Hey Wolf,

Yeh NAblett and the Suns selection committee has been one of the biggest frustrations as a Suns supporter this year. He has been playing full forward in the reserves all season... missed a couple games with a back problem but apart from that has been kicking 2-3 goals a game... and has been getting decent praise in some of the match reports (www.neafl.com.au)... but just not getting a look in for senior selection, not even an emergency.

We all know he isn't a gun, but he does have 35 more senior AFL games experience and 47 more goals than any other key forward we have played this year! I know this year is about getting experience into ours kids, and building a team for the future, but if Nathan does step up, he is still only 26 and could give another 3-4 years to the team?

As a supporter I just want the club to give him say 3-4 games in the seniors, and lets see what happens... if he fails and looks like the passion has gone, then at least we all know and the topic can be laid to rest... but it is that unknown x-factor that may present itself and he may just be that key forward target we need... even if can provide a contest, bring the ball to ground, and feed the crumbers it all helps?

...and one positive for selection is we all know that a certain GAblett will surely feed a few down his throat each game