Analysis The Disciples of Daniel the Diminutive, elite footballer

Unorth

Club Legend
Apr 3, 2014
2,272
7,662
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Very quiet thread when we lose

Beat a bottom 4 team gets noisy

I understand all that getting deleted, but I think it's worth pointing out that MD can come in and post blatantly antagonistic shite like this. If that's fair game we should be able to antagonise back.

Or, even better than that, we're all held to some kind of standard when it comes to posting, MD included. Ignore doesn't work when it's always multiple posters in multiple threads. I'm aware I contribute, but that's because I don't agree that the approach should be to ignore his incoherent ramblings and accept he's the resident man yelling at clouds.

All this isn't because his opinions are different. I think it's pretty obvious after years of his posting that he never intends to argue in good faith and just likes to provoke people. This will be me done with this stuff for a while, promise. I enjoy reading the discussion here and have for like 6-7 years now. But MD's behaviour has gotten so very old. I assume this will be deleted too and I'm cool with that, just wanted to get it out there.
 

Mattdougie

Cancelled
10k Posts
Jun 29, 2013
19,344
19,584
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
C'mon MD,

Caleb is in AA discussions this year. He's been fantastic.

Not to mention a lot of our mediums like Crozier, Wood and Williams are excellent in the air. Even Duryea is solid there.

Caleb has the protection to play that high half back role at an extremely high level.

I’ve never said he hasn’t had a great year and AA nominations or spots mean next to zero to me mate

I don’t understand why it’s so egregious to think Caleb would be a bigger positive mid to forward than he is back. I understand losing him from the back will effect the way we play slightly but I have faith in other guys such as Duryea to do the job to a Sufficient level and Calebs effect forward will been more than the loss back.

I don’t understand how I’m supposed to admit this thought is wrong? How can I be right or wrong until it’s tried? I want Caleb to go back to the role he played when we won a flag in 16.

Imagine you are a forward in our team, who do you want hitting you up? We are godawful at hitting inside 50 targets and Caleb is supreme at this.
 
Last edited:
Oct 19, 2012
13,806
17,876
Minas Morgul
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
I’ve never said he hasn’t had a great year and AA nominations or spots mean next to zero to me mate

I don’t understand why it’s so egregious to think Caleb would be a bigger possible mod to forward than he is back. I understand losing him from the back will effect the way we play but I have faith in other guys suck as Duryea to do the job to a Sufficient level and Calebs effect forward will been pour the loss back.

I don’t understand how I’m supposed to admit this thought is wrong? How can I be right or wrong until it’s tried? The reality is I want Caleb to go back to the role he played when we won a flag in 16.

Imagine you are a forward in our team, who do you want hitting you up? We are godawful at hitting inside 50 targets and Caleb is supreme at this.

So you’d like him high half forward im assuming? We do have reasonable defensive coverage. Maybe if he’s copping a hard tag that’s the way to free him up.
 

Mattdougie

Cancelled
10k Posts
Jun 29, 2013
19,344
19,584
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
So you’d like him high half forward im assuming? We do have reasonable defensive coverage. Maybe if he’s copping a hard tag that’s the way to free him up.

Wing, Hf, mid rotation

Imo the worst part of our game is hitting inside 50 targets. Caleb helps that immediately.

I rate Duryea and he is a very good lockdown player who can fill the role.

And again I’m not saying he hasn’t had a great year but personally I prefer team success to AA spots and I couldn’t care how many AA jackets Caleb(or anyone) gets If the team doesn’t improve
 
Last edited:

RebelsCC

Draftee
Sep 16, 2020
4
10
AFL Club
St Kilda
Sorry about that, but i am just saying the style of play of the opponent dictates how Caleb Daniel and others approach the game.
The Giants are a kicking side so they don't test teams with handball run as much as say Collingwood do, that can give Daniel a
kind of license to be higher up the ground in more dangerous positions and use his kicking skills as a designated kicker more. If
you deny the corridor and switch all the kicking teams have is down the line which teams can defend all day if not for the easy
disposal stuff ups of Matthew Suckling and Alex Keath which both lead to goals. Collingwood versus St Kilda was a great example
of this with Collingwood destroying all of their options which dries up the scoreboard.
All this talk about Caleb’s wonderful boot. But his handball is just as deadly.
 

Libba39

Norm Smith Medallist
Mar 10, 2008
5,843
7,040
Murrumbeena
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Caleb has had a solid year. Of particular note is the development of his left foot kicking. It looks very natural and has improved immensely.

Personally I don't think Caleb is worthy of making the AA team. The debate on this thread probably suggests this is the case.

He did have a very good game the other day, but a lot of his posessions came from short kicks in the backline under no pressure. It worries me a little that we're locked into the "get it to Caleb at all cost" mode of play.
 
Caleb has had a solid year. Of particular note is the development of his left foot kicking. It looks very natural and has improved immensely.

Personally I don't think Caleb is worthy of making the AA team. The debate on this thread probably suggests this is the case.

He did have a very good game the other day, but a lot of his posessions came from short kicks in the backline under no pressure. It worries me a little that we're locked into the "get it to Caleb at all cost" mode of play.
Fair call Libba. I have more noticed the damage he now does when those possession are either very high back, wing or high forward.

If he only got 50% of the possessions he does deep in defence much higher up the ground he could become an even more important weapon, who would be hard to match up on.

It's all about being better than the opposition. We were excellent from the back half in the second part of 2019 with Crozier and Durea both very good users, imagine if they were part of linking in Daniel wing/centre running forward or better still within distance of goal.

The only time his kicking has a weakness is deep when he tries for too much distance. I am more concerned about this when he is deep back tahn whether he gets a mis match, mainly because the main reason he does is his work rate back is better than most
 
Nov 29, 2018
1,793
3,213
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Memphis Grizzlies
I still have nightmares about the elim final v GWS. Rebound after rebound that were just kicked long down the line and intercepted immediately. So glad to have Daniel cutting his way through the zone. I will be very disappointed if we move him away from defence.
 
Caleb has had a solid year. Of particular note is the development of his left foot kicking. It looks very natural and has improved immensely.

Personally I don't think Caleb is worthy of making the AA team. The debate on this thread probably suggests this is the case.

He did have a very good game the other day, but a lot of his posessions came from short kicks in the backline under no pressure. It worries me a little that we're locked into the "get it to Caleb at all cost" mode of play.
Daniel will be AA, no doubt about it. He's the most damaging half back in the league.
 

cecil

Club Legend
Feb 28, 2010
2,090
2,686
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
It's hard to see on TV but it seemed to me that he was playing more in the defensive sweeper role in stoppages last week, rather than the deeper back? Suits him way more being able to move through a bit of traffic and open the game up.
 
I still have nightmares about the elim final v GWS. Rebound after rebound that were just kicked long down the line and intercepted immediately. So glad to have Daniel cutting his way through the zone. I will be very disappointed if we move him away from defence.
This is an important thing about his game and I'm not sure everyone gets it. There are certainly occasions when the long roost down the line is a good option but if that's all a side has got for transitioning out of defence it's going to be easy to counter it.

Daniel's ability to find a player even when under pressure is elite. So many of his 20-40m passes find a man in the clear, either for a comfortable mark or for a play-on opportunity. It gets us out of trouble when we are deep in defence, but it also helps overcome the zone when we are trying to rebound off half-back. It helps break the lines.

I'm sure we can all remember that a year or so ago he would have one or two turnovers a game which resulted in forehead-slappingly easy goals to the opposition. That aspect of his game - getting caught HTB or having a pass intercepted - seems to have been tidied up, perhaps with more experience and also a bit of reflection and analysis.

So it was especially pleasing to see Caleb score a goal himself that way against Hawthorn.
 

Charlie Bucket

Norm Smith Medallist
Nov 16, 2015
5,407
8,838
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Fair call Libba. I have more noticed the damage he now does when those possession are either very high back, wing or high forward.

If he only got 50% of the possessions he does deep in defence much higher up the ground he could become an even more important weapon, who would be hard to match up on.

It's all about being better than the opposition. We were excellent from the back half in the second part of 2019 with Crozier and Durea both very good users, imagine if they were part of linking in Daniel wing/centre running forward or better still within distance of goal.

The only time his kicking has a weakness is deep when he tries for too much distance. I am more concerned about this when he is deep back tahn whether he gets a mis match, mainly because the main reason he does is his work rate back is better than most

Time for a thread name change.
 
A little underwhelming but an improvement đź‘Ť
Psalm 145 1 might have been just a bit too obscure.

Besides, people might have thought it was the Bont or the Bevo thread.

Perhaps I could have called it The Disciples of Daniel? We haven't had a new religious sect here for quite a while.
 
I think the original bandwagon drawn by the Shetlands of Glory was by far the best.
It's still trundling along out there. Except it's now Giant Clydesdales ...

 
Back