Preview Rd 12 Geelong v Dish lickers Fri 3rd June 2022 750pm @ Marvel

[dazbroncos]

Much much tougher opponent this week. Doggies on their fast dry deck.
Their MF will be the stiffest we’ve faced for sone time and it’s been out most scrutinised and suspect area.

Granted - we’ve gotten over the top on them recently … but this challenge is much steeper.

English is in form… do we bring Stanley back to help 1/2 the tap work.. or keep and nectar small in for after it’s been tapped?

Does Neale get another shot against a smaller overall Doggy back 6 or does Rohan come back?

Should be a good game against a finals contender.

Go Catters

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

Halve the midfield we win.

Easier said than done.

 

[bulletproof]

I think the gulf in class in the midfield might be too much to overcome here. We could really use Danger, Holmes and Menegola back in for second half of year.

Parfitt, Atkins and Stephens give us some grunt, but we lack speed out of the stoppages.

We will have to generate a lot of scores from back half. Stewart, Zac Guthrie and Touhy will need huge games.

In: Stanley
Out: Evans, Narkle

Try and stretch them. Thought St Kilda’s tall forward line worked really well at Docklands.

 

[BotsMaster]

Last time:

AFL Tables - Geelong v Western Bulldogs - Fri, 18-Jun-2021 7:50 PM - Match Stats

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Must win game this

 

[BORIS332]

I wouldn't bring Stanley back for this game, Blicavs is a good match up for English. Rohan might come back in for Neale if his hamstring is right, otherwise maybe no changes.

I know a few people want to see Dahl in for Evans, but CS said a few weeks ago re SDK that they had a plan to persist with some things this year, I think perhaps Dahl in the twos and Evans in the ones might be one of those things.

Edit: Higgins, Menegola, Narkle, Stanley, Tsapatolis all to hopefully play VFL.

 

[feelinfeline]

I know a few people want to see Dahl in for Evans, but CS said a few weeks ago re SDK that they had a plan to persist with some things this year, I think perhaps Dahl in the twos and Evans in the ones might be one of those things.

If they're going to play Dahl at all, it would be this week against the Dogs. He had one of his best games last year against them, and having in the team against his old side might help to fire us up.

Anyway, we will see.

 

[kickazz]

Midfield and ruck will be very difficult for us.

That start we had against Adelaide - they should have been 3 or 4 goals up - cannot afford that against Doggies.

Fast track, I don't think slow movement out of defence will be a good idea, maybe need to take some risks, our forward line will stretch them.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I wouldn't bring Stanley back for this game, Blicavs is a good match up for English. Rohan might come back in for Neale if his hamstring is right, otherwise maybe no changes.

I know a few people want to see Dahl in for Evans, but CS said a few weeks ago re SDK that they had a plan to persist with some things this year, I think perhaps Dahl in the twos and Evans in the ones might be one of those things.

Edit: Higgins, Menegola, Narkle, Stanley, Tsapatolis all to hopefully play VFL.

Good news some of those guys will need 2-3 vfl games for match fitness but the afl side needs them and some rucks asap. Reckon dahl might be the sub this week.

 

[Drunkcat]

I wouldn't bring Stanley back for this game, Blicavs is a good match up for English. Rohan might come back in for Neale if his hamstring is right, otherwise maybe no changes.

I know a few people want to see Dahl in for Evans, but CS said a few weeks ago re SDK that they had a plan to persist with some things this year, I think perhaps Dahl in the twos and Evans in the ones might be one of those things.

Edit: Higgins, Menegola, Narkle, Stanley, Tsapatolis all to hopefully play VFL.

VFL has a bye, no i got that wrong it's the week after

 

[Gunf]

IN: Stanley OUT: Evans

Everyone else was decent to very good or great.

 

[Turbocat]

I wonder if we look at last years play book, a little extra emphasis on possession. Rushing around and giving the ball to the Dogs would seem a recipe for a oven door open Soufflé.

They toss the ball around and we will be chasing them all over the place. so id expect us to try to keep the ball in our hands. If we match them with inside grunt, deny Libba at the source and do not give it back to them then we see how we go.

 

[PzBlinky]

Yep, think their midfield is going to be too much for us - especially since we barely broke even with the Crows there. Te way English played against the Eagles, I'm worried we might have to deal with another "O'Brien" game... but this week he won't be tapping down to ordinary mids.

Maybe if we take all our opportunities up forward we might put up a score that could challenge the Dogs - but you never know if we will. Last week was pretty good conversion-wise (15.7) but we're kicking under 50% for the season (129.142).

Either way, the backline is going to have to work over-time.

 

[catempire]

People are speaking as though there’s a chasm in ability in the respective midfields. While we may well be at a slight disadvantage in some metrics, on the whole there is not much between us. I think people are focusing on the names on paper rather than output:

	Geelong	Bulldogs
Disposals	2nd	1st
I50s	3rd	1st
Hitouts	5th	15th
Clearances	4th	2nd
Contested possessions	6th	3rd
Uncontested possessions	2nd	1st

 

[terry_bright]

Yep, think their midfield is going to be too much for us - especially since we barely broke even with the Crows there. Te way English played against the Eagles, I'm worried we might have to deal with another "O'Brien" game... but this week he won't be tapping down to ordinary mids.

Maybe if we take all our opportunities up forward we might put up a score that could challenge the Dogs - but you never know if we will. Last week was pretty good conversion-wise (15.7) but we're kicking under 50% for the season (129.142).

Either way, the backline is going to have to work over-time.

English is great at getting around the ground and linking up play for the Dogs but his ruck craft is ordinary at best. Not sure who he rucked against vs Eagles but I bet it wasn’t much.

 

[D BRIDGE]

Doggies have a very very poor forward and backline, but obviously have a stronger midfield than us.

If we can just not get smashed in the guts, I think we should have a very strong chance.

They are also coming back from WA which is never ideal.

Anyway, I'm not a massive wrap for the doggies this season.... It seems Naughton or bust for them and they have an ordinary key back lineup.

So in the end, if we are gonna be half decent this year, we win this game.

P.S Naughton is dynamite in the air and it'll be great to see SDK match up on him.... Naughton might actually get outreached for once.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

English is great at getting around the ground and linking up play for the Dogs but his ruck craft is ordinary at best. Not sure who he rucked against vs Eagles but I bet it wasn’t much.

Jamieson and williams ie very inexperienced.

 

[fpm84]

This game is exactly why Scott loves to say 'it's not who you play but when you play them.'

Earlier in the season the Dogs dropped some games they wouldn't have expected to when they had Bontempelli on one leg and the likes of Keath, English, Weightman all injured at times.

This will be a much tougher proposition than some think, they have a superb midfield and we are down on personnel with Dangerfield, Menegola and Holmes all missing. At least Guthrie has found some form over the last couple of weeks, but I can't see the likes of Stephens and Atkins putting up a four quarter fight against Macrae, Libba, Dunkley and Smith.

If we can miraculously go lose to breaking even in the midfield, we certainly have the forward line to kick a winning score, but I think we're going to struggle to get enough clean ball going forward.

 

[Farmer2Goggin]

This game is exactly why Scott loves to say 'it's not who you play but when you play them.'

Earlier in the season the Dogs dropped some games they wouldn't have expected to when they had Bontempelli on one leg and the likes of Keath, English, Weightman all injured at times.

This will be a much tougher proposition than some think, they have a superb midfield and we are down on personnel with Dangerfield, Menegola and Holmes all missing. At least Guthrie has found some form over the last couple of weeks, but I can't see the likes of Stephens and Atkins putting up a four quarter fight against Macrae, Libba, Dunkley and Smith.

If we can miraculously go lose to breaking even in the midfield, we certainly have the forward line to kick a winning score, but I think we're going to struggle to get enough clean ball going forward.

I think we will struggle to contain their MF for the whole game so we're going to be under pressure.
We are also very shallow with our MF at the moment and go missing for long periods with our movement between the arcs - we seldom play a 4 quarter effort these days which is why we will struggle against the better sides.
If we can get quality supply to our forwards we are a chance but I think our mids plus Smith , Duncan and Tuohy have to play well if that is to occur.
What a pity Conway isn't 6 weeks further in his development as this would be a great debut game for him.

 

[kickazz]

I think we will struggle to contain their MF for the whole game so we're going to be under pressure.

And this is the part that's worrying. This year we have shown the ability to conceded several goals in a short amount of time, particularly through losing centre clearances.

Against the Saints we played well most of the game - but our bad patch was really bad. Similar to Collingwood.

I'm not sure there's much we can do to stop it if it happens - might be more important to make the most of our own chances and ensure we kick a winning score.

 

[PzBlinky]

English is great at getting around the ground and linking up play for the Dogs but his ruck craft is ordinary at best. Not sure who he rucked against vs Eagles but I bet it wasn’t much.

OK, cheers. I just caught the highlights of their game and he seemed to be playing well around the ground - taking marks and all that. If he's not up to O'Brien's level, hopefully we can get close to breaking even in the middle and let our forwards and backs do the rest.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

People are speaking as though there’s a chasm in ability in the respective midfields. While we may well be at a slight disadvantage in some metrics, on the whole there is not much between us. I think people are focusing on the names on paper rather than output:

	Geelong	Bulldogs
Disposals	2nd	1st
I50s	3rd	1st
Hitouts	5th	15th
Clearances	4th	2nd
Contested possessions	6th	3rd
Uncontested possessions	2nd	1st

The stats might say we're similar but i think they at a bit deceptive. I think the quality of our clearances makes the stats not quite like for like.

 

[catempire]

The stats might say we're similar but i think they at a bit deceptive. I think the quality of our clearances makes the stats not quite like for like.

That’s a fairly subjective assessment. It would be nice if we had access to scores from clearances data.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

That’s a fairly subjective assessment. It would be nice if we had access to scores from clearances data.

That would be good. I am uncomfortable with taking a pot shot at your measured data with a subjective gut feel.

To be honest we might find that our forwards bring the scores from side of that equation up and that stat too ends up similar.

I still have less confidence on our ability to generate quality entries, but I've been wrong before

 

[Turbocat]

I think we will need a plan for when the man up of Stewart . I doubt they leave him all alone this week.

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

And for a bit of perspective, this is Cooper's comparison to Joel Selwood after 3 games;

Selwood - 41 disp, 4 clearances, 4 tackles, 12 CP's

Stephens - 50 disp, 12 clearances, 6 tackles, 22 CP's