Review Round 17, 2016: Footscray Bulldogs v Box Hill Hawks, 12.00pm, 30 July 2016 @ VU Whitten Oval

[TheFourPillars]

For his first game back Burton was pretty good in the backline. We are missing leaders on the field. We definitely looked better having someone to kick to like fitzy up forward. The conditions were tough and Footscray kicked 3 goals from sixty kicking with the wind. So it was our midfield not covering their runners. Which they did pretty well earlier in the game. Box hill have been the complete reverse of the Hawthorn team they have lost a multitude of close games. We will get better as the weeks progress as more players come back into that side. Pushing the proverbial up hill to make finals

 

[Ordovician]

Unlike like most games where the WBC crew wank on about their delusional misperceptions* of there being a 3 or 4 goal wind advantage to one end caused by a largely irrelevant weak cross wind, today there was a strong northerly wind blowing straight down the ground gusting at +30 km/hr peaking around +40, which increased during the game to +40km/hr wind peaking at +50. To make matters worse the wind direction was fluctuating plus and minus 15 degrees from NE to NW on the western wing (the non Dougie Hawkins wing) due to eddy currents probably caused by aperiodic vortex shedding from the Eastern Grandstand, which is taller at the northern end of that wing. However, the wind was very blustery so it was blowing and dropping and picking up again every few seconds so it may have had its own slight eddying before it even hit the ground from all of the turbulence it had already picked up blowing over the industrial wastelands out in that part of the world.

Two illustrations of the power of the wind. A hawk squared the ball up across half back perfectly parallel to back end of the square and about 5-10m offset and a perfectly along my line of sight (I was sitting in line with CHF at the wind favoured end as that was where all of the play was going to be) and the wind blew what was a lowish direct perfectly straight 35m chip pass a good 7m. Another lowish 30m chip pass at the northern end kicking in to the wind across the wind at 45 degrees from the HFF to the longitudinal axis of the ground about 35 out, was pushed by the wind 4-5m back from the centre and away from the waiting pack taking everyone by surprise.


The scoring with the wind compared to against the wind and an estimated wind advantage, by quarter was:

5.3 (BH) to 0.1 (F), wind advantage 5 goals

5.4 (F) to 2.0 (BH), wind advantage 6 goals

3.4 (BH) to 0.1 (F), wind advantage 6 goals

5.7 (F) to 0.1 (BH), wind advantage 7 goals

Note: the wind intensified at the quarter time break and at the 20 minute mark of the third quarter and yet again at three quarter time.

So a total of 15.18 was scored in to the wind and only 2.3 was scored kicking into the wind.

BH wasted its third quarter scoring opportunities with poor play after a sterling effort in the first half, whilst the boo dogs wasted their dominating wind advantage in the last quarter with inaccurate kicking for goal, 5.7 including hitting the goal post with a set shot after the siren.

Before three quarter time I feed the various parameters into my digitised Ordometer and determined that BH needed a lead of 7 goals at three quarter time to win the game. Given that their lead was only 31 points and the wind was rated at seven goals then ceteris paribus defeat was inevitable.

The First Quarter:

BH 5.3
FB 0.1

I got seated around the 6 min mark. BH was kicking with a very strong breeze blowing straight down the ground form gaol to goal. Lock had already snapped a goal and Hartung was already orf with an ankle never to reappear. I felt that it was a genuine 5 goal breeze so we had to score 5 goals more that the boo dogs to be square at quarter time. Fitzy was playing as a Cloke style FF so it was good see some structure at last. He took a big grab and goaled form 20 or so out which was great to see. We immediately won the centre square clearance and Walker snapped another to put us three goals up in under the 40 seconds. That was the type of day it was going to be with the wind advantage; dull play punctuated by flurries of goals.

About or so mins later Lock kicked his second from a quick snap form a stoppage in front and close to goal. So half way through the quarter we were 4 goals up. We needed to ruthlessly press hoe this advantage given the team's propensity to crash and burn in the last quarter, but sadly we did not. The racist boo dogs could barely get a I50 into the wind in spite of being given a licence to cheat at every opportunity by the fecking umpires including umpire cutie butt, just like their stinking senior team in the AFL. Today the cheating took the form of regularly throwing the ball rather actually had passing it. They were pinged a few times for it, which shows my lack of biased perception, but no where near enough. Apart form that the umpiring ws reasonably unobtrusive which means it was actually very good. Any ole 'ow the boo dogs only managed one deep I50 whch resulted in a behind.

The remainder of the quarter was pretty scrappy as the boo dogs tried to lock the game up and burn time of the clock which is a totally rational thing to do for a crap team like them to do. With their lack of counter attack the ball hardly got out of our half of the ground as we had 2 and occasionally three unmarked outriders across the centre to clean up any D50 exit. Latish in the quarter Fitzy took another big grab and repeated his earlier effort by slotting another sausage.

Quarter time huddle:

The ground was remarkably dry and spongy but firm underfoot; e lovely running surface indeed unlike the 'G. I was very impressed by the condition of the playing surface and unlike BHCO it did not have a fecking mud pit in the centre.

I went out to the huddle more out of honouring tradition and to say g'day to whomever more than to pick up the coach's address which can be very difficult at times. For some reason I was accidentally in the right spot. Litherland made so comments about tactics but I could not tell if he was elaborating on or disagreeing on the coach's instructions. From the body language and vocal tone used I though that the former was far more likely.

What did strike me as exceptionally odd was Bello's message. He focused on defence, clogging up the play and forcing stoppages, which fair enough. however he gave NO instructions whatsoever on counter attacking. I was absolutely stunned. I was expecting at the very least some instructions along the lines of perhaps run the ball into the wind, bring the ball up the slightly more protected eastern wing where Ordo can get a better view, runners to break and spread when we have the ball, bring the ball up the boundary and defend in the inside, forwards to play in front at all times to allow for the ball falling short etc.. Just any friggin' thing other than just completely give up on any counter attacks and hence scoring opportunities.

That was most extraordinary.

Second Quarter:

Box Hill 7.3
Boo Dogs 5.5

I though that goals into the wind very going to be worth their weight in gold today and may well determine the outcome of the game, so I reached my seat bitterly disappointed with Bello's address. The wind had picked a notch during the quarter time break which was going to life very hard for our heroes.

As I had feared the boo dogs came on with a rush just like the pure Asian smack that this area was famous for back in the plague years in the late 90s. The boo dogs had two on the board in quick succession in the opening minutes and then a third not long afterward. Finally the hawks settled and started to grind the play down to a slog.

Our players where having problems with their brains trying to adapt to the conditions. So many of them could not grasp the fundamentals of dry weather windy footy like play in front when leading to the ball as it will fall short and the f#%king obvious kick the ball low and hard into he wind. The only player with the presence of mind to do the latter was Burton and he only had a kick or two.

Through stint of some efforts that may have been against the coach's instructions, who knows? we got two deep F50 entries to the sweet spot in the middle of the quarter. The first resulted in a goal to Lawlor after a deep pass and the second a gaol from a free after a great tackle from Switzy. The BH boyos ground the boos dogs to a standstill for most of the rest of the quarter. It this stage I began to entertain dreams of an impossible victory. Unfortunately this was BH and reality struck in the closing three minutes one at the 28 min mark and the other two minutes later just before the siren.

At least we had scored into the wind and held just under a two goal lead so if we kicked as many with wind as they did in the second half then we where well in it if one did not factor in the propensity of the team to throw it away in the last as they did at the Punt Rd Oval the previous week.


The Third quarter:

The proposition was simple, try and built a lead of six or seven goals then defend grimly for the last and try and sneak a goal or two on the counter attack.

Switzy got he ball rolling at eth four minute mark with a goal. about 5 mins later Mirra got one form near eth 50 showing the strength on f the wind and finally Woody got one by the middle of the quarter. unfortunately that was that as far as goals went. We had 4 misses for the quarter and that was to prove costly particularly staying goal less for the second half of the quarter. Fortunately the boo dogs showed no desire to attack into the wind and were held to a behind in what was almost a replay of the first quarter.

What was really disturbing was the wind strengthening markedly at the 20 minute mark turning what was then about a 6 goal breeze into a 7 or +7 breeze. At each change quarter the boo dogs had had the added advantage of kicking with a stronger than had favoured BH.

The quarter finished very badly for BH with Fitzy missing two gettable set shots from 35 out RHF on a 30 degree angle. The first was a behind and the second went off the side of the boot and out on the full. This was close to where he slotted his two goals in the first except in the first he converted and we ended up with 5 for the quarter whereas in the third he missed both and we ended up with 3 for the quarter.

I could not pick up much of Bello's address at the last break.


The Last Quarter:

The hawks held the boo dogs goal less until the 12 minute mark of the quarter. At around the 5 minute mark the WBC boys said that the dogs needed to score or the game would slip away. Given that they were kicking with a gale at their back this was an incredibly stupid thing to say. At around the 10 min mark they repeated a similarly flawed observation and I thought "talk about the moss, just shut up FFS!".

The dogs had a couple of misses during the first ten minutes of the quarter whereas the hawks completely f*%ked up one forward entry and minutes later Switzy kicked into the man on the mark for what should have been a gettable goal.

At the 12 minute mark the dogs finally got a goal after a few misses earlier in the quarter. That goal was followed by three more in a row for four in four minutes. Finally at the 25 min mark they got another to take a one point lead and that was pretty much game over. They hit the post with a kick after eth siren to win by four points.

Oh well, crap happens!




* similar to their absurd assertions that crowds of 200-300 at Box Hill City Oval are in fact, crowds in excess of 1000 or even 2000 people . To some degree I can excuse this as mere puffery as they are just talking up the occasion.

 

[grimlock]

 

[dermott]

Question for the BHH usual suspects.
Is Woody's form good enough to be considered for selection in the AFL?

 

[TheFourPillars]

Question for the BHH usual suspects.
Is Woody's form good enough to be considered for selection in the AFL?

I don't think he is at full fitness yet but he is certainly doing everything right. However as we know its not just about you playing in the middle of the ground you need to have multiple strings to your bow. So playing half forward for woody has been his problem he just doesn't have an impact when he is out of the square. He is playing well though who knows

 

[Easy Slips Catch]

..Is Woody's form good enough to be considered for selection in the AFL?

Woody has had 25 touches and 10 tackles last week and this week he had 29 and 11. Easily the most effective player at BHH. Am surprised at how much time he is spending on the ground so his fitness is not as suspect as I thought it would be.

If BHH form counted for anything Woody would get a game if an opportunity arose.

 

[TheFourPillars]

Woody has had 25 touches and 10 tackles last week and this week he had 29 and 11. Easily the most effective player at BHH. Am surprised at how much time he is spending on the ground so his fitness is not as suspect as I thought it would be.

If BHH form counted for anything Woody would get a game if an opportunity arose.

He certainly ran out of gas late in the 4th in both games but yes he is spending a lot of time in the middle

 

[dermott]

Thanks 4P and ESC. Appreciate the feedback.

 

[Ordovician]

Can anyone give us an update on Burton? Where did he play, did he get through 4 quarters, any highlights??

Ok.

I got there five minutes into the first quarter. Burton was on the bench and given that he stayed there for the whole of that quarter I have to reason to suspect that he may have been on the ground the ground before I arrived.

Anyway I thought it sucked because:

i. I had travelled out there to watch him

ii. I wondered if he was only going to play half a game, which was a real possibility

iii. he is at his most dangerous as a forward and given that there was a gale blowing straight down the ground and we were kicking with the gale it ill behoved him to be rooting on the bench rather than playing FF and standing on every defenders head in turn.

In the second he came on tot he ground and played second deep man in defence, like a floating back pocket pairing with Heatherly to put wall up across the middle of the ground when it was in our F50, which it was for most of the quarter, a bit like the strong and free safeties in gridiron. He played this position for the remaining quarter and racked up about 70% game time.

Unfortunately playing so deep in defence with the wind blowing a gale he did not see much of the ball at all hence the low possession count. When we were attacking the ball was in our F50 80% of the time and when he was defending their forwards couldn't be bothered bringing the ball close to goal when they could comfortably take shots from +40 m (even 60m) so, so many kicks just sailed over his head for scores. This effectively took him out of contest for most of the day.

He did not rack up many stats but he did take one lovely pack mark and he took another were he floated into a big pack took the first grab jungled it an then got a firm grip on it the second time and controlled it only to have the ball punched form his hand and have the imbo umpire call play on. Ya'd reckon the umpires should have a better grasp of the rules than that; once te marking player has firm control of the ball it is a mark.

I saw him punch a very low pass into the wind over 40m and the kick barely got over 3.5m off the ground. It reminded me a bit of Jarman's low quick passes from the olden days, but it was a perfect kick for penetrating the wind. I was surprised that all of the BH boys persisted in kicking normally in to the wind only to have their kicks fall 5 to 10m short of their targets. Perhaps they just can stab the ball like Burton can (I saw him do a similar at training). Perhaps 4P is right and SA kids not only seem to be better kicks but actually are better by foot. Possibly this is because they are given proper coaching at the most junior levels on the fundamental skills of the game. However, if that were really the case then SA footballers would not throw the ball at every opportunity and instead might occasionally consider handpassing legally every once in a while.

 

[Gralin]

Ok.

I got there five minutes into the first quarter. Burton was on the bench and given that he stayed there for the whole of that quarter I have to reason to suspect that he may have been on the ground the ground before I arrived.

Anyway i thought it sucked because:

i. I had travelled out there to watch him

ii. i wondered if he was only going to play half a game, a real possibility

iii. he is at his most dangerous as a forward and given that there was a gale blowing straight down the ground and we were kicking with it ill behoved him to be rooting on the bench rather than playing FF and standing on every defenders head in turn.

In the second he came on tot he ground and played second deep man in defence, like a floating back pocket pairing with Heatherly to put wall up across the middle of the ground when it was in our F50, which it was for most of the quarter, a bit like the strong and free safeties in gridiron. He played this position for eth remaining quarter and racked up about 70% game time.

Unfortunately playing so deep in defence with the wind blowing a gale he did not see much of eth ball at all hence the low possession count. When we were attacking the ball was in our F50 80% of the time and when he was defending their forwards couldn't be bothered bringing the ball close to goal when they could comfortably take shots from +40 m (even 60m) so, so many kicks just sailed over his head for scores. This effectively took him out of contest for most of the day.

He did not rack up many stats but he did take one lovely pack mark and he took another were he floated into a big pack took the first grab jungled it an then got a firm grip on it the second time and controlled it only to have eth ball punched form his hand and have the imbo umpire call play on. Ya'd reckon the umpires should have a better grasp of the rules than that; once te marking player has firm control of eth ball it is a mark.

I saw him punch a very low pass into the wind over 40m and the kick barely got over 3.5m off the ground. It reminded me a bit of Jarman's low quick passes from eth olden days, but it was a perfect kick for penetrating the wind. I was surprised that all of the BH boys persisted in kicking normally in to the wind only to have their kicks fall 5 to 10m short of their targets. Perhaps they just can stab the ball like Burton can (I saw him do a similar at training). Perhaps 4P is right and SA kids not only seem to be better kicks but actually are better by foot. Possibly this is because they are given proper coaching at the most junior levels on the fundamental skills of the game. However, if that were really the case then SA footballers would not throw the ball at every opportunity and instead might occasionally consider handpassing legally every once in a while.

There is a short pass kicking style that both burgers and gunner have that I assume is from their time in the SA systems so wouldn't surprise me