Review Dogs d Suns 90-79 - Rd 18, 2021

[ScottyDogg]

He wasn't close, look beyond the disposals.

I have to totally disagree. I think he was BOG by a country mile. He was critical to our midfield dominance, especially in the 2nd quarter.

It wasn’t that he was just getting clearances, he was rag dolling and sprinting away from players at a level that I thought was new for him. His confidence looks sky high.

Book mark this post. If he doesn’t get the three votes and at least share the top coaches votes, I will be utterly shocked.

 

[X_box_X]

I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading.

We were by far the better side. Despite the umpires being against us all night, we still found a way to win. If the umpires were more competent and skilled, we'd have won that game by 4-5 goals.

Notwithstanding that, we were once again inconvenienced by the tight lockdown restrictions. It's clearly having an effect on our preparation.

Also, I think it's worth pointing out that Gold Coast are playing some good footy of recent. They took care of Richmond at Marvel Stadium, followed by a very gutsy win against the Giants. They certainly aren't playing like a bottom six team at the moment.

Another interstate win against a team playing some OK footy despite the umpires being against us all night.

Sure, we didn't play our best footy, but we did enough to win.

Just bank the four points and move on. That's what premiership contenders often do.

We're setting ourselves up for a serious crack at a flag this year. We've shown in the past two seasons that we leave our run late. We're approaching that time of the season now. This is what we seem to do under Bevo, almost every year.

2015 was very much like this. From round 17 onwards, we were playing our best footy. During this period, for the first time in our history, we won three consecutive matches by 10+ goals.

2016 was obviously like this, albeit that run was primarily the last four weeks (finals) of the season. That's why I'm not worried about our current modest form. We've done enough to win two of our last three weeks without being outstanding.

2017 was the only year under Bevo where we struggled late in the season. We were 11-8 and looking likely to play finals before losing our final three matches.

2018 we weren't great, obviously our worst year under Bevo, but a very narrow loss against a powerhouse Richmond side on their home deck stopped us from winning the final four matches of the year. We looked very much like a finals team in that last month of the season.

2019, say no more. We won six of our final eight matches, with our percentage going from 89.9 to 107.2, to sneak into finals. This included comprehensive victories on the road to Port Adelaide and GWS, and big wins against Essendon, Fremantle and Adelaide.

2020, we won five of our final six matches, with our only loss coming against Grand Finalists Geelong. That was a game we would have won had Wood and VDM not injured themselves early on. We were short on rotations, short on troops, and eventually got overrun to narrowly go down.

I feel we're probably not going to be playing our best footy against Adelaide next week either. We'll do enough to win, but I'm fully expecting this forum to erupt with similar comments to the ones in this thread.

We'll be right. There's no need to be playing our best footy every week. In fact, I'd strongly argue it's a positive to simply "just do enough". How often do we have a big win, only to have it soured by a long term injury? Gardner against North and WCE, Treloar against St Kilda, Wood against Port, and the big one - Dunkley, English and Jong against GWS. Naughton aside (concussion only), we've escaped the past three weeks without an injury. This is a positive.

 

[mcgleereturns]

I’ve fluctuated on Zaine over the journey but never seen him as a KPD. He can be a very effective member of our zone team defence running in and spoiling when the zone is working well and delivery is not pristine from oppo midfields. One on one he struggles because he is always zoning. He plays miles off opponents usually in front and so when the zone breaks down he’s always running back to catch his match up and is unbalanced because he’s always turning around looking at ball and opponent. This contributes to his lack of closing speed because he’s running back not forward. I assume he is instructed to play this way but overplays it on bad days. This seemed to be a problem with a lot of our defenders yesterday. Ed and Crozier were both caught out running back to a contest and their weak spoils went goalwards for Sexton, Ainsworth and Holman to run on to. Gold Coast defenders were the opposite and the spoiling was strong and long.

Lewy Young on the other hand has always been a marker and yet in his last couple of games he looks like he’s been instructed to play like Gardner and spoil. He’s decided not to mark several times when he was clear to based on previous performances I think he’s confused about how to be the best version of himself. Was excited by him early on but I’m losing confidence in him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[HK_Bulldog]

If you have 15 clangers, it means you must be getting an awful lot of possession. Especially when most of those possessions are in the fierce midfield battles, not dinky little short passes or handball receives.

Bont had a game high 18 CPs. And as Mutt said he took the game on and lifted the whole side in that second quarter. That's the term that won us the game.

His teammates would know he's struggling with niggles too. Those sorts of inspiring acts don't show up on the stats sheet.

I do agree about Touk Miller being BoG though. He was everywhere.
The Suns have got some very promising young players. They have a bright future and will make the finals by 2023, maybe even next year.

You think if we swapped Miller’s game and Bont’s game, we would have won by more?

 

[dogwatch]

You think if we swapped Miller’s game and Bont’s game, we would have won by more?

Unlikely.

 

[Mutt]

Unlikely.

Had we swapped Miller's game with Bont's we may not have won. Bont is an impact player in a far more damaging way than Miller. Miller is very good but Bontempelli is something else.

 

[bobs head soup]

Given we had a crack of reconfiguring our small medium forwards, I thought their performance, along with Jamarra of course, was the most pleasing aspect of the performance.

Love Garcia's attack on the footy and burst. Reckon he's in our best team and will be an asset when the game is tough in finals.

JJ produced a heap of smothers and pressure acts, kicked 2 goals and had 8 score involvements, more than anyone else for us. Great game for a pressure forward.

McNeil has a habit of bobbing up when required and made a few telling contributions. On the fringes of best 22 but was ok as winger and half forward yesterday so solid depth at worst. Been good for a 19yo rookie.

Weightman had a poor first half trying to be the main man but worked into the game nicely.

All in all a substantial improvement on the Hannan and Wallis weeks

 

[CDBulldog]

I have to totally disagree. I think he was BOG by a country mile. He was critical to our midfield dominance, especially in the 2nd quarter.

It wasn’t that he was just getting clearances, he was rag dolling and sprinting away from players at a level that I thought was new for him. His confidence looks sky high.

Book mark this post. If he doesn’t get the three votes and at least share the top coaches votes, I will be utterly shocked.

Agree I thought he was BOG, followed closely by Miller and Mcrae

 

[ScottyDogg]

You think if we swapped Miller’s game and Bont’s game, we would have won by more?

I’m not convinced if we swapped their game we even win the game. Touk’s a heart and sole player but not damaging. He only kicked the ball 11 times out of 38 possessions. Only 5 inside 50s. Bont is way ahead in those stats before we even discuss his defensive game, which is also much better.

 

[dogwatch]

Had we swapped Miller's game with Bont's we may not have won. Bont is an impact player in a far more damaging way than Miller. Miller is very good but Bontempelli is something else.

Yeah moot point. I’m a Bont fan.

The bloke without whom we definitely would not have won was Keath. Not enough recognition here IMO.

His nominal opponent, their boom forward Ben King had a miserable day and only got his 2 goals when someone other than Keath was covering him (and when Caleb was conceding a pointless 50m penalty).

Keath was our best IMO but I agree Bont was not far behind.

Not much chance that Keath gets any Brownlow votes though. They generally don’t reward defenders with votes.

 

[bobs head soup]

Yeah moot point. I’m a Bont fan.

The bloke without whom we definitely would not have won was Keath. Not enough recognition here IMO.

His nominal opponent, their boom forward Ben King had a miserable day and only got his 2 goals when someone other than Keath was covering him (and when Caleb was conceding a pointless 50m penalty).

Keath was our best IMO but I agree Bont was not far behind.

Not much chance that Keath gets any Brownlow votes though. They generally don’t reward defenders with votes.

Agree on no Brownlow votes for a kpd. Will be more interesting to see if Keath gets Coaches votes. Reckon he's been short changed a couple of times this year.

 

[Libbaaaa]

Miller was his usual aerobic beast but I don’t remember one of his possessions being impactful, or breaking a line. Lots of Gary Ablett Junior 2-3 handballs in one chain.

 

[BEaston]

Definitely not

Haha, yeah was being facetious but Cordy was terrible last night and mostly has been all season.

 

[Wetdog]

Credit to the Match Committee for sticking with JUH.

They could have justifiably dropped him and he might have languished in the seconds for the rest of the year after an average game and no goals and the monkey still on the back.

Instead, they showed faith and the team and us were rewarded. We should probably keep our expectations in check, but it’s hard not to get excited about what JUH might deliver for the rest of the season.

A real sliding door moment. What are the chances of Damo and the media acknowledging Bevo’s handling of JUH this year? Looks like a masterstroke right now.

 

[Wetdog]

JJ was great last night.

I’m really excited about our forward line. We now have a midfield and forward line capable of winning a flag.

Will our defence deliver? That is the question. We obviously need to win the midfield and apply pressure all over the ground, but we need one of Cordy/Young/Gardner to step up and our flankers to play their best footy. Keath is a rock. If he gets injured, I’m quitting the season and going to take up lawn bowls.

We are not far away! Get excited!

 

[Dogs till i die]

I'm ok with yesterday, saw it as a danger game and you can't be flying every week through a 22 game season. GC, like North have come a long way since we last played them. Wins at Metricon v GC will be hard to come by in the near future.

There was enough to satisfy me yesterday - Jamarra, Garcia in particular. After the first 15 minutes don't think we really looked like losing.

Concerned by Crozier, was fantastic early in the season, but fumbly and hesitant since his return. Concerned with Bruce who was clunking everything and kicking straight only 6 weeks ago but can't do either now. English not marking as he was, Naughton looked like he'd missed a month and not 1 week and we look vulnerable one on one down back. Wood will help here but don't bring him back before he is ready.

Dunkley will be better, Libba to come back.

Good in a way many of us weren't happy with yesterday, shows our standards and expectations have risen.

Went a long way to shoring a top 4 spot yesterday, so am satisfied. Could have been worse, Dees were closer to disaster than we were.

 

[doggie dog]

I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading.

We were by far the better side. Despite the umpires being against us all night, we still found a way to win. If the umpires were more competent and skilled, we'd have won that game by 4-5 goals.

Notwithstanding that, we were once again inconvenienced by the tight lockdown restrictions. It's clearly having an effect on our preparation.

Also, I think it's worth pointing out that Gold Coast are playing some good footy of recent. They took care of Richmond at Marvel Stadium, followed by a very gutsy win against the Giants. They certainly aren't playing like a bottom six team at the moment.

Another interstate win against a team playing some OK footy despite the umpires being against us all night.

Sure, we didn't play our best footy, but we did enough to win.

Just bank the four points and move on. That's what premiership contenders often do.

We're setting ourselves up for a serious crack at a flag this year. We've shown in the past two seasons that we leave our run late. We're approaching that time of the season now. This is what we seem to do under Bevo, almost every year.

2015 was very much like this. From round 17 onwards, we were playing our best footy. During this period, for the first time in our history, we won three consecutive matches by 10+ goals.

2016 was obviously like this, albeit that run was primarily the last four weeks (finals) of the season. That's why I'm not worried about our current modest form. We've done enough to win two of our last three weeks without being outstanding.

2017 was the only year under Bevo where we struggled late in the season. We were 11-8 and looking likely to play finals before losing our final three matches.

2018 we weren't great, obviously our worst year under Bevo, but a very narrow loss against a powerhouse Richmond side on their home deck stopped us from winning the final four matches of the year. We looked very much like a finals team in that last month of the season.

2019, say no more. We won six of our final eight matches, with our percentage going from 89.9 to 107.2, to sneak into finals. This included comprehensive victories on the road to Port Adelaide and GWS, and big wins against Essendon, Fremantle and Adelaide.

2020, we won five of our final six matches, with our only loss coming against Grand Finalists Geelong. That was a game we would have won had Wood and VDM not injured themselves early on. We were short on rotations, short on troops, and eventually got overrun to narrowly go down.

I feel we're probably not going to be playing our best footy against Adelaide next week either. We'll do enough to win, but I'm fully expecting this forum to erupt with similar comments to the ones in this thread.

We'll be right. There's no need to be playing our best footy every week. In fact, I'd strongly argue it's a positive to simply "just do enough". How often do we have a big win, only to have it soured by a long term injury? Gardner against North and WCE, Treloar against St Kilda, Wood against Port, and the big one - Dunkley, English and Jong against GWS. Naughton aside (concussion only), we've escaped the past three weeks without an injury. This is a positive.

OMG another positive poster, X_box_X we gotta stick together, Sh!t's getting real around here. You would think we were 2nd last, not 2nd like too many posters on here would leave you to believe.
I'm f@#ken stoked where the dogs are on the ladder. If you told me at the start year following our defeat to St.Kilda we would be 2nd in the AFL and 1st in the VFL I'd be stooked as I am now. You can shove a handful of diamonds up some people's @sses and they still complain.

I f@#ken love the dog's always have, it's an ultimate underdog story saved from financial ruin from loyal supporters. I use to catch the boat over from tassie just to catch a game at the western oval or as I used to call it...a bogan family reunion.
I loved the players that took paycuts in the late '80s and early '90s just to stay with the dogs for the love and loyalty of Footscray, (South Melb and Fitzroy couldn't do it) I'm so ecstatic at where the dog's are financially in the covid-19 sh!t times.

We should be praising Sammy P for help build this team(AFL/VFL) into a powerhouse team.
The brilliance of the Bont, he's the best player at his age I've seen.
Every team needs a Macrae to win a premmie, Keathy was fantastic again and Dunk's was back.
Career games for JUH and Garcia.

What do most of our supporters talk about, who was the sh!test on the team? Fair dinkum, it's like being in a room full of supermodels and we got supporters complaining that there are a couple of ugly people here.
How did we get so offended by everything?????? Enjoy the friggen ride

And for those that can't get simple joy out of watching bulldogs footy.
Call lifeline!!!!

 

[bobs head soup]

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but we've now been to Perth twice, Adelaide, Canberra and the Gold Coast for a 5-0 record on the road.

Other than yesterday, all of the wins have been by over 3 goals and against decent opponents (Power, Eagles, Freo, GWS).

 

[Fossie 32]

Bont doesn't look like he needs a rest he was moving as well as I've ever seen him tonight, he's just had a bad 3 weeks by his standards.

I thought he wasn't moving that well at times plus more clangers than usual. Who knows whether he has anything drastic but I guess a lot of players are not 100% injury free. I wouldn't say we should rest him but not a crazy idea either. Nobody thought Libba should be rested before this week.

 

[HK_Bulldog]

Unlikely.

I agree. Exactly why Bont is BOG over Miller. Sorry, didn’t mean to pick on you DW. Your post just happened to be the one I quoted whilst reading a few that were questioning whether Bont was one of our best whilst saying Miller was BOG.

 

[Scary_Foot_9]

Bont pretty solid might jag a vote but Touk Miller

11

Touk Miller

Age

28

Ht

178cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.7

5star

K

9.5

4star

HB

12.3

5star

M

3.7

4star

T

5.4

5star

CL

4.2

5star

D

22.0

5star

K

11.4

4star

HB

10.6

5star

M

2.9

3star

T

4.8

5star

CL

4.1

5star

D

17.8

5star

K

5.8

3star

HB

12.0

5star

M

3.0

3star

T

3.8

5star

CL

3.0

5star

and Alex Keath

42

Alex Keath

Age

32

Ht

198cm

Wt

93kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.0

4star

K

8.9

3star

HB

5.1

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.5

3star

MG

206.7

3star

D

11.0

3star

K

7.3

3star

HB

3.8

3star

M

3.6

4star

T

0.6

1star

MG

193.4

3star

D

11.4

3star

K

6.2

3star

HB

5.2

4star

M

4.6

5star

T

2.6

4star

MG

165.0

3star

clearly the best two on the ground from my vantage point.

 

[Libbaaaa]

Also for his perceived lack of impact, I’d be keeping JJ forward because he is a good set shot, we need as many of those guys as we have heading into finals.

 

[doggie dog]

I'm ok with yesterday, saw it as a danger game and you can't be flying every week through a 22 game season. GC, like North have come a long way since we last played them. Wins at Metricon v GC will be hard to come by in the near future.

There was enough to satisfy me yesterday - Jamarra, Garcia in particular. After the first 15 minutes don't think we really looked like losing.

Concerned by Crozier, was fantastic early in the season, but fumbly and hesitant since his return. Concerned with Bruce who was clunking everything and kicking straight only 6 weeks ago but can't do either now. English not marking as he was, Naughton looked like he'd missed a month and not 1 week and we look vulnerable one on one down back. Wood will help here but don't bring him back before he is ready.

Dunkley will be better, Libba to come back.

Good in a way many of us weren't happy with yesterday, shows our standards and expectations have risen.

Went a long way to shoring a top 4 spot yesterday, so am satisfied. Could have been worse, Dees were closer to disaster than we were.

Stoked for JUH and Garcia's career games, I'm glad they are getting rewarded for some good efforts in the VFL.
Keathy and The BONT brilliant again. Thanks Sammy and Adelaide for that trade.

We need a backup ruck when Stef's out, Timmy now looks to be a 1st choice fwd ( 14 goals kicking at 56.0 %) and a 2nd choice ruck. Bruce always seems to miss time his run and gets easily pushed under the ball when he's 2nd choice ruck, he just looks out of it after being in the ruck. Bruuuuuuce is 2nd in the friggen Coleman, the doggies are 2nd on the ladder, leave him upfront to kick goals, averaging 2.41 goals at 70.7%.
I've never really seen buddy in the ruck unless its in the fwd line. It's a waste of a good resource.

Fingers crossed but it will be fantastic to see what a fit and firing Stef/Woody will make this team.

 

[bobs head soup]

Reckon some of the Touk Miller

11

Touk Miller

Age

28

Ht

178cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.7

5star

K

9.5

4star

HB

12.3

5star

M

3.7

4star

T

5.4

5star

CL

4.2

5star

D

22.0

5star

K

11.4

4star

HB

10.6

5star

M

2.9

3star

T

4.8

5star

CL

4.1

5star

D

17.8

5star

K

5.8

3star

HB

12.0

5star

M

3.0

3star

T

3.8

5star

CL

3.0

5star

comments on here are off the mark. He was very constructive and damaging last night as usual, had 8 score involvements to Bonts 4. Both were excellent.

 

[Cousin Ben]

Re Bont - you don't deserve to get in the votes with 15 clangers, in my view. And you could tell Bont was annoyed at himself too. I reckon Champion Data have got it about right tonight - I think Macrae was clearly our best player - and Garcia, English, Smith, Keath and Daniel all had good games too. (Very happy about how Garcia is building.) Halfway through the game I was thinking Bont should take a rest next week Libba-style. But I think he actually moved pretty well tonight. It was just his disposal was weirdly off - by both hand and foot. I have no idea why. I guess that happens sometimes.

Also was very pleased with Weightman sticking at it with his best efforts when luck was working against him. He plays for frees a bit too much and makes some stupid attempts to fly for marks, but those quibbles will be ironed out with time. He's a beauty, I reckon.

And how good is it to see a forward kicking like Marra was? Hopefully he can keep that up. A tall who can lead, mark the ball at its highest point, and kick straight is exactly what we need for our 3rd tall. A definite immediate upgrade on Hannan or Wallis.

Getting worried about Bruce and Crozier's form. Crozier can be replaced by Wood (if Wood stays fit when he returns). But there is no replacement for Bruce this year, so hopefully he can pull it together.

As we await the Hun's predictable verdict, I note with interest that Nathan Brown have given the Bont BoG (9 votes) on Ch9's Sunday Footy Show. These outlets sure love plumping up their award ladders. Or could it be that we've got it wrong. We might know tomorrow with the release of the coach's votes.