Review Dogs Lose to Demons by 28 - Rd 11, 2021

[hutchy31]

The Dees won't play any better than they did tonight and they know that. We played about as bad as we have all season. We can make up the gap but do need a few players back.

I don’t understand that viewpoint. It’s not like their best players lit it up, Petracca/Gawn/Oliver etc all good but not great.

Their pressure, connection, work rate and defensive structure was all good - way better than ours at any rate - but I’m not sure they needed to get out of second gear to win the game.

Maybe I’m being overly negative but they basically stood up and let us self destruct and picked up the pieces. There was a significant gap between the teams tonight.

 

[hutchy31]

Bit worried about Baz. Third year blues? He looks a bit vanilla all of a sudden.

He’s not really had a great year imo. The team playing well has covered up a fair amount of stuff.

He’s a gun, and will be an elite player in the comp one day. He’s just having a down period and hopefully picks up soon.

 

[immortalmike]

We also lead the competition for the most players played.

Haven't Melbourne played the third most?

 

[Bulldogs85]

Josh Bruce has kicked 33 goals he is having a great year so far

 

[Substance]

I agree about not getting too concerned yet, we can turn that around next time we play them, but some posters need to keep it real - Melbourne are the benchmark. They stand in the way of our next flag like no other side at the moment.

 

[immortalmike]

I would argue the open-air conditions of Brisbane where we had to work hard against the wind in two of the first three quarters (and then deliberately played defensive to hold onto the win, losing the last quarter despite looking better and with the win) replicates finals footy as well. The wind failed to make it clean, like finals isn't clean.

I'm talking pressure bro? The fact that you just spun some s**t about wind is answer enough.
2 out 3 losses in finals like games.

 

[WallyStringhaus]

Remember peeps, it's a marathon.

In the first 13 weeks of 2016 we'd lost to Norf (who started like Melb have this year), GWS who were a legit contender, Hawks who were reigning premiers and were belted by the Cats.

We have what it takes, we have the personnel, we just need to get the timing right.

 

[Oliver G]

Josh Bruce has kicked 33 goals he is having a great year so far

As well as being the most accurate player with 40+ shots...

 

[stefoid]

Interesting game. If you looked just at the stats, you might think we should have won it. Very deceiving.

I think we basically lost bringing the ball out of defence. We lacked run and carry.

Daniel and Dale are primarily kickers which is great when its working. But we weren't able to chip through or around melbourne's zone, so the antidote to that is to run through it, surely? Or at least run at it, then kick over it. It seemed like as long as we were prepared to try to hang back and kick around it, melbourne was happy to keep shuffling back and forth and wait for a miskick.

 

[stefoid]

I think their system was better than ours clearly, and thats one thing that we can change as the season progresses. We have the players.

Im not overly worried by this game as long as it doesnt happen again, and thats largely on bev, IMO.

 

[RedWhite&Blue]

Was I watching the same game...???
Libba was a shining light in that game for mine, his footskills and his kicking to advantage across the ground kept us in it. He also kicked that 50m goal when the free kick was paid to Olliver.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Live AFL Ladder

https://live.squiggle.com.au/ (click forecast).

Funny how despite the loss, the mathematical rating systems still has us finishing top of the ladder.

Bit of perspective. Like I said earlier in the thread, Melbourne were slightly more accurate given the quality of shots they had, we had almost as many scoring shots, and we clearly have at least four goals' worth of difference in injuries.

Clearly we haven't separated ourselves as being the outright best team in the competition that a win would have proven, but we didn't lose in such a manner that we're still at the pointy of pointy ends.

Plus, we get another revenge H&A game this season in nine weeks time, hopefully with free tickets for all home members to make up for the fact we missed out on this home game. How good would it be to outnumber them at the MCG?

 

[Boyd oh Boyd]

Upset right after the game, not too bothered now

Dees are good. We're missing quite a few pretty good players. For whatever reason some of our better players didn't look quite right. Not excuses or explanations but that's the reality. Maybe we've reached the end of our depth and that'll cost us come finals, maybe it won't matter and we'll get our best team back on the field by then. Maybe our best players will be shut down or play badly in finals like the last couple of years, maybe we'll use this to improve and stop that happening. Just don't know.

Hurts to lose but this hasn't ruined our season. Contention isn't decided over 11 rounds, or even one season. I believe we can make something of the next 5+ years so in the long run this isn't even worth worrying about.

 

[theAthenian]

Lets no make excuses we flinched like we did against richmond - we are slowly turning into downhill skiers with a big turd in our pants

weak as piss well done to all for organising that spectacle.

 

[josh the gent]

I'm talking pressure bro? The fact that you just spun some sh*t about wind is answer enough.
2 out 3 losses in finals like games.

Last night was a crap performance. Tbh, i thought it lacked intensity (maybe that was us?) and didn’t really feel like a finals game except for the pre-game hype.

But the win vs Port, in Adelaide, was brilliant. Finals like game and we really stood up.

I also thought the loss vs Richmond was a finals like match. High intensity all night and we were unable to match them.

Still some way to go with this team, but at 9-2, and with a win against Port away under our belts, we’re going to be a chance in September...

 

[Munnez]

We have played the most players of any team and I believe Melbourne have played the least. Look forward to facing them at the g once the troops return

Do believe our injury toll caught up with us last night. Sweet battled hard last night but Gawn had a night out against him. Which started the rot, Melbourne waltzed it out time and time again.
Add in Stef , Dunks and Adz i don't think we would have been so overrun out of the centre and changes the whole complexion of the match.
Last night was a good lesson for BJS hopefully long term it helps his development but was a tough night out.
Melbourne were the hungrier team and out woeked us for the entire match

 

[Munnez]

Issue remains - lose the midfield and our defenders can’t handle it.

Same can be s said of any side, if there isn't enough pressure applied any side can look very ordinary. Melbourne wanted it more last night and got the result.
We panicked a lot last night which add in some first choice best 22 that was missing makes a big difference. Just have to get enough wins to make top 4 and anything is possible

 

[Munnez]

I'm a little concerned by the gulf in work rate between the sides at times, they clearly worked harder and wanted it more than us for most of the night. Maybe just an off night? But it's always worth asking the question, are we not fit enough or was the hunger just not there tonight?

They caught us on the bounce they had a shocking loss where they didn't work hard enough. And we had a game against no pressure so wasn't an ideal lead up.
Also we are missing a number of our first choice midfield, Melbourne only missing Viney IIRC

 

[Munnez]

Turnovers killed us early, then we played catch-up football all night.
A few players were a little off, Bailey Smith a couple of fumbles when he'd normally take the ball cleanly. Melbourne did really well to deny us the corridor - we could have pushed one of our three marking talls up higher in the centre. I suspect in finals we'd swing some more moves.

With some more cattle available, I think that we would have more scope to swing changes. An off night and good exposure for some of our less experienced players hopefully some good lessons for growth in the future.

 

[Munnez]

‘Thought the defence did ok.

The midfield are the ones who need to look at themselves. Petracca and Oliver kept getting their arms free.

Thought the umps were pretty poor last night in paying htb last night. It was pretty even both ways but were giving way too much time to dispose

 

[Munnez]

Felt like this was butlers opportunity to show he can play at the level. And didn’t impress.

Garcia’s two touches were more impressive and he looked far more capable.

Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

Hard to impress when you have to chase tail for the majority of it. Thought he tried hard would need to see him in a match were we played better than last night to see if he has made good progress

 

[Munnez]

Lever and May had a massive impact tonight. We're one quality KPD short at least. If Keith goes down we're done for.

Naught would be robbing Peter, Wood is undersized, inury prone and on the wrong side agewise, Young just simply doesn't get any sort of run and the less said about Cordy the better.

Cordy is a battler who gives his all, just doesn't have the athleticism to play the style of defence that Bevo wants. Just doesn't have the pace to close down the space

 

[Munnez]

Reminded me of the Eagles game, except we were able to claw our way back.

Felt like we were so worried about May and Lever that we didn't want to take any risks down the line, but of course, we were happy to take risks kicking across the ground.

Disappointing, lapses in concentration, crumbling under pressure. We instinctively handball whenever we're tackled which works well for us when we have space around the contest but the good teams will get numbers around the ball and pressure us.

In games like these, we need to find another gear up.

Melbourne playing a settled line up is a big leg up. We have been losing important cogs at different stages , this has to have an impact on performance. With everything working almosr perfectly for Melbourne with what we had missing and they only got us by 5 goals. Don't feel that we need to be too down beat about this poor outing

 

[The Inbetweener]

Same can be s said of any side, if there isn't enough pressure applied any side can look very ordinary. Melbourne wanted it more last night and got the result.
We panicked a lot last night which add in some first choice best 22 that was missing makes a big difference. Just have to get enough wins to make top 4 and anything is possible

Agree with the sentiment, but it really does expose our poor one on one players.

I agree we are missing plenty of best 22 players but people need to forget about Treloar, Dunkley and probably VDM. They are at least 5 games away. And in that time we play:
Freo over there, locked in a hotel all week
Geelong in Geelong
Eagles in Perth
North at Marvel
Sydney at Marvel

I don’t want to look any further than the next game given we haven’t beaten them over there in 12 years, but the Minimum needs to be 3-2 and in all honesty we probably need to go 4-1 to keep a top 2 chance alive.

The only guys we will get back in the next few games will be Wood, Martin, Hannan who I don’t think are changing our world too much.

 

[revo333]

Disappointed but season not over. We will play finals and if we get a good run on anything is possible. Still not sure if Melbourne can win the flag. More likely Geelong....which sucks...would much prefer Port or Melbourne to take it over any of the others.

Well thats a relief!