Review Dogs overcome first quarter blues to beat Hawks 125-83

Sep 22, 2008
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Glad we turned it around after an astonishingly bad first quarter. Our best is up there but some serious issues in the way we defend the ground and god our defence just seems to be getting worse and worse - at least we’ve finally found the right forward structure, should have set up like this every single week but anyway.

Penny seems to have dropped for Schache which is great - he’s playing some really good footy and the forward line is much better for it. Jamarras best game too geez he’s close to ripping one apart, bit unfortunate he couldn’t finish last night but I just love his attacking mindset with ball in hand - does some freakish stuff when he puts the basics in place watch out.

Sweet started terribly but worked into it and really complimented our midfield after quarter time - Reeves is a pretty impressive young ruckman too. I’d keep him in personally but with Schache playing well he’s probably stiff that there’s no spot for him when English comes back.

West is turning into an absolute jet, JJ showing what we’ve severely missed - everything he touched turned to gold last night. Scott’s versatility is really good for the team

I just really don’t know what McComb brings, he’s not even great defensively - players just waltz past him at will, he’s a liability in the air and he can’t use the footy to save himself. Clearly our worst player on the ground and there’s other better options with a lot more upside but anyway.

Naughtys completely turned his set shots around he’s probably one of our most reliable inside 30-40.

Possibly the closest to a typical Bont game we’ve had all year.

Lots of positives and upside in the team but we’re not beating good sides with the way we defend the ground it’s amateur at best - need to just revolve our game around kicking high scores because we’re going to give 100 points most weeks
 
Sep 22, 2008
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Just checked the extended ladder and we’ll be the clear second best attack in terms of points for unless the Tigers post a huge score.

This is with a pretty ordinary structure for most weeks of the year. Naughton has done a huge job carrying us to this point. We just settle the back half down and our best footy can beat these better sides we’ll be playing.
With multiple goal scoring talls we look super dangerous in there - throw in West, Cody & JJ and our starting 6 is super strong and all compliment each other. Laughable how many weeks we’ve wasted with Cordy in there this year
 

Foxman98

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I love Sweets physicality in the middle. There’s a reason why we always win with him playing.

English has talent, but isnt great out of the middle.

If we had someone with Jordons physicality and Tim’s talent we would be ok.

Don’t know how you match the
The reason why we win is we have played 2 top 8 sides with him in and are 1/1 in them
 
Ned Reeves has objectively been one of the worst rucks in terms of output this year, and as recetly as two games ago allowed Darcy Cameron to have 19 kicks on him in a near best on ground performance. I believe this is the fiest time that Reeves has had more match disposals than his direct opponent in his career. There's a reason they went out and got Max Lynch last year.

Sweet worked himself into the game - turned around an absolutely woeful 1st quarter where he had 0 disposals and 3 of Hawthorn's 4 goals came from stoppaged that he did poorly in - but on paper was playing against a ruck who is no stronger od a player than he is coming in, and the fact that he arguably lost the battle to Reeves shouldn't improve the perception of him, and if anything it's an opportunity missed (like playing well vs. Begg in the ruck a few weeks back) to try and prove he belongs at AFL level
 
Very worried about the singing of the song the last couple of weeks. I’d like to think it’s just a “job’s not done yet” type of subdued celebration, or perhaps the fact that we’ve had to sack the team singing coach due to the soft cap.

However I’m concerned that it’s something deeper. Feels like Bevo has lost them. Wouldn’t be surprised to hear them sing it in a minor key if we somehow scrape over the line next week. Or maybe skip the “da-da-da-da dah”. Or the “whooo!” sung in sotto voce baritone instead of excited falsetto. etc etc.

Something NQR at the kennel.
 
Oct 4, 2004
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The reason why we win is we have played 2 top 8 sides with him in and are 1/1 in them

Imo and you won’t agree he plays vs Geelong and Adelaide we win

Buku in the ruck vs Geelong was embarrassing and we got what we deserved.
 

HK_Bulldog

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Shak was in the zone last night. But can’t tell with him whether it’s a turning point or a one-off.

TOB so far has been rubbish. Not strong enough for the big boys, too slow for the mediums and not enough agility for the smalls. His confidence is shot so he’s not even intercepting anymore. He needs a stint in the 2’s or a change in role as a circuit-breaker. Maybe play him in the ruck for a bit to get some freedom and confidence back.
 
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As painful as Roaming Brian is, it was hilarious watching Macrae desperately trying to avoid BT at 01:16 and 3:00 respectively.


A few good moments but yes it’s painful because it’s the usual commercial tv approach of trying to make the presenter a celebrity in a patently contrived way rather than make it about the footy or the players.
 

Foxman98

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Imo and you won’t agree he plays vs Geelong and Adelaide we win

Buku in the ruck vs Geelong was embarrassing and we got what we deserved.
Adelaide potentially Stef look fairly cooked Geelong no chance needed an extra tall which should’ve been Schache
 
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Adelaide potentially Stef look fairly cooked Geelong no chance needed an extra tall which should’ve been Schache

Sweet plays we win Stanley would have been bartered by 3/4 time no way he does what he did to Buku

Scache goes forward helps our forward line running power and Naughton

I would play Sweet English Scache JUH and Naughton but that’s me
 

HK_Bulldog

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Imo and you won’t agree he plays vs Geelong and Adelaide we win

Buku in the ruck vs Geelong was embarrassing and we got what we deserved.

The first quarter where Sweet had no idea is what happens when we throw Buku or Cordy or a Schache in the ruck. Sweet works it out and is able to physically compete. The others flounder all game and our mids end up chasing tail.
 
Oct 19, 2012
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Ned Reeves has objectively been one of the worst rucks in terms of output this year, and as recetly as two games ago allowed Darcy Cameron to have 19 kicks on him in a near best on ground performance. I believe this is the fiest time that Reeves has had more match disposals than his direct opponent in his career. There's a reason they went out and got Max Lynch last year.

Sweet worked himself into the game - turned around an absolutely woeful 1st quarter where he had 0 disposals and 3 of Hawthorn's 4 goals came from stoppaged that he did poorly in - but on paper was playing against a ruck who is no stronger od a player than he is coming in, and the fact that he arguably lost the battle to Reeves shouldn't improve the perception of him, and if anything it's an opportunity missed (like playing well vs. Begg in the ruck a few weeks back) to try and prove he belongs at AFL level

Sweet is a back up 2nd/3rd ruck who only plays if English is out or if it is absolutely required to play 2 rucks.

Absolute madness would be selecting Schache as first ruck though. Absolute no.

Looks like English won't play against the lions and Sweet will retain his spot (reading between the lines of bevo's presser).
 

HK_Bulldog

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Said similar about Macrae in the GameDay thread. He’s our most important player when things are tough as he still finds the ball and uses it well, even when Bont and our other top players are out of sorts. Agree that JJ was very good, I’ve been very critical of him in recent years (with good reason I think) but he seems to have found a valuable role here. That he can kick it straight for goal from a long way out is a point of difference too.

For his relative inexperience West has been a standout recently. Now I’m all for selection integrity week on week, but I’d be surprised if he’s not a best 22 moving forward unless something dramatic happens. Forward line looks very settled with Naughton plus two talls and Weightman, West and JJ in there. Be interesting to see how they go against better teams/defences but scoring doesn’t look like the problem, defensive weakness still likely to be an issue.
Macrae is a metronome.
Libba and Bont are our game breakers.
 

Next Waiting

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Very worried about the singing of the song the last couple of weeks. I’d like to think it’s just a “job’s not done yet” type of subdued celebration, or perhaps the fact that we’ve had to sack the team singing coach due to the soft cap.

However I’m concerned that it’s something deeper. Feels like Bevo has lost them. Wouldn’t be surprised to hear them sing it in a minor key if we somehow scrape over the line next week. Or maybe skip the “da-da-da-da dah”. Or the “whooo!” sung in sotto voce baritone instead of excited falsetto. etc etc.

Something NQR at the kennel.
Nah DW, it's just a terrible song that's hard to get excited about. I love everything Bulldogs....except the song. I tolerate it, rather than embrace it...reckon some of the players are the same.
 
Oct 19, 2012
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Moment early in the 2nd qtr down 34-10 and on the ropes.

Libba wins that crucial ball and then Naughton takes that huge contested mark and kicks truly to completely transform the momentum.

we all get very frustrated with the bottom 3-4 players we select as well as the selection bingo policy in our tall forward structure, but we can thank our lucky stars our absolute guns like Macrae, Libba, Naughty just to name a few, week in week out put up consistent performances to haul us over the line more often than not.
 

hatescaptcha

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We did have 4 talls up forward at one point, last night.

Perhaps we could do all of Bruce, Naughton, JUH and Schache?

How’s the fire power in that, mix in West and Weightman.

Goals galore.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
 
Sep 22, 2008
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Sweet would’ve been predominantly forward and had their defenders running off him and interception off us
Because they didn’t do that already?

Alongside Naughty & Timmy if either Sweet & Schache or Schache & Jamarra play that game and we win. Pretty simple.

We’ve butchered our year by taking until round 14 to grasp this. How many times do we have to see the evidence that we play better with this structure and terribly with one tall? Year after year it seems to have clicked and then two weeks later the team sheet comes out and we’re back to one tall it’s genuinely mindboggling
 
Sep 22, 2008
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Moment early in the 2nd qtr down 34-10 and on the ropes.

Libba wins that crucial ball and then Naughton takes that huge contested mark and kicks truly to completely transform the momentum.

we all get very frustrated with the bottom 3-4 players we select as well as the selection bingo policy in our tall forward structure, but we can thank our lucky stars our absolute guns like Macrae, Libba, Naughty just to name a few, week in week out put up consistent performances to haul us over the line more often than not.
That’s the problem for me though, I feel it’s individual brilliance because our top end that gets us by as a decently good side. Whilst if we just stopped hampering our own team with bs and let them flourish we’d be very hard to beat.

Do we have to watch another week of outside 5 before we realise there’s a reason we’re the worst team in the comp for stopping transition and we’re the only team that did this. We walked back inside the defensive 50 on two occasions in the 3rd quarter after they’d taken a mark at 55, like really?

Our defensive line is terrible as is why are we making it so much harder for them
 
Sep 22, 2008
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Western Bulldogs
We did have 4 talls up forward at one point, last night.

Perhaps we could do all of Bruce, Naughton, JUH and Schache?

How’s the fire power in that, mix in West and Weightman.

Goals galore.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Yeah I noticed that, was an interesting change.

I mean it’s worth a shot, our defensive work in fwd 50 is non existent and we already allow teams to walk it out we might as well at least have some height to stretch the opposition, and scoring power whilst it’s in there. Whether McComb or Schache are in that last spot the balls walking out either way, I know which one I’d rather there
 
Oct 19, 2012
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That’s the problem for me though, I feel it’s individual brilliance because our top end that gets us by as a decently good side. Whilst if we just stopped hampering our own team with bs and let them flourish we’d be very hard to beat.

Do we have to watch another week of outside 5 before we realise there’s a reason we’re the worst team in the comp for stopping transition and we’re the only team that did this. We walked back inside the defensive 50 on two occasions in the 3rd quarter after they’d taken a mark at 55, like really?

Our defensive line is terrible as is why are we making it so much harder for them

There is no solution in my view to our defence problems. Obviously I'm annoyed with how we retreat on the mark (still hate it), but apart from that theres no real personnel changes that I can see to fix it. Nor is bev going to change the method of defence like - more emphasis on taking body in marking contests and - defensive positioning to less aggresive.

May as well try and blow teams out of the water and kick 150 points every game. Could be good for viewing I suppose.
 
We did have 4 talls up forward at one point, last night.

Perhaps we could do all of Bruce, Naughton, JUH and Schache?

How’s the fire power in that, mix in West and Weightman.

Goals galore.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
Because Naughton plays such a high-pressure game and attacks defenders like a madman we can sometimes get away with four talls up forward. Substitute Bruce for Naughton and it wouldn't work I think.
 
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