Preview Western Bulldogs VS GWS @ Marvel 31st July 2025

[Doggy]

Being a steadfast Dogs supporter I've never actually tried it but I was wondering if plastic cards do in fact melt in a microwave. They have zero fat content and probably a ridiculously low water content so the microwaves might not even heat them up. And besides, some plastics are designated microwave safe, like those Decor rice containers.

So ... who here has given it a go? Maybe someone was moved to try it back in the Brendan McCartney era? It's OK to fess up.
Did the card actually melt?

Wonder if the plastic GWS franchise will melt in the Marvel pressure cooker

 

[Marsy]

Because Gardner should be in the side to play second ruck.

We have Libba in the team to fifth ruck

 

[Deadly Darcy]

My team
ins Harmes, Buku, Davidson and L jones

Outs Busslinger, Poulter, Mcneill and Baker

Confidence level my team 80%
Confidence level selected team 60%

Think we have to give Busslinger a go for the next couple of weeks to see what we have. I agree on the others but we also need some continuity at this point of the season.

Yet again, at a time Bevo should be under pressure to perform we have extended him and we are back to bewildering decisions. I found Crameri’s recent interview enlightening as a decent player who’s been ‘Bevo good’ and was ‘Bevo bad’ at the end. Just no way back if he turns on a player and ‘Bevo good’ ones are gonna get games……

 

[BEaston]

Are we saying baker, McNeil and poulter are Bevo favourites? They've all been dropped/subbed many times or played in the 2s for extended periods.

Harmes and Davidson have played the majority of their games in the 1s since joining the club.

Make it make sense.

 

[BigFloppa]

Are we saying baker, McNeil and poulter are Bevo favourites? They've all been dropped/subbed many times or played in the 2s for extended periods.

Harmes and Davidson have played the majority of their games in the 1s since joining the club.

Make it make sense.

He was only playing Davidson and Harmes in the first half of the season because he was trying to get that new contract signed. He had to appease the board with safe, sensible choices. As soon as he got that safety of the new contract he was looking for any opportunity to drop Harmes and Davidson and bring in the Bevo crackpot picks once again. And now that Grant is gone no one can stop the mad King.

 

[BEaston]

He was only playing Davidson and Harmes in the first half of the season because he was trying to get that new contract signed. He had to appease the board with safe, sensible choices. As soon as he got that safety of the new contract he was looking for any opportunity to drop Harmes and Davidson and bring in the Bevo crackpot picks once again. And now that Grant is gone no one can stop the mad King.

Checks out, thank you good sir

 

[Freshwater]

Are we saying baker, McNeil and poulter are Bevo favourites? They've all been dropped/subbed many times or played in the 2s for extended periods.

Harmes and Davidson have played the majority of their games in the 1s since joining the club.

Make it make sense.

McNeill and Vandermeer definitely are. They are immune from being dropped no matter how far their form drops. Baker and Poulter are like the rotation spots for form and plugging holes, traded in AFL journeymen.
We all know Bevo has always had his pet players that can’t get dropped in his eyes, everyone else can see they need to be. From McComb to Louis Butler to Hannan, Scott and Honeychurch etc. VDM and McNeil are those blokes this season and have been for 4 seasons now, and I still don’t see anything with them. They’ve had some highlights but both way down on form now. How do they keep getting games?

 

[Doggies_13]

Don’t see the issue with the team selected. VFL played Saturday so clearly we weren’t prepared to take anyone off a 5 day break.

Wasn’t surprised we went unchanged.

 

[House_of_Dahl]

McNeill and Vandermeer definitely are. They are immune from being dropped no matter how far their form drops

This is clearly not true. Vanders having his best season ever, yet was dropped to a sub last week after a few down games. McNeil was also dropped and came back last week (and played a solid game defensively - exactly what we had been missing and asked of the team).

 

[Freshwater]

This is clearly not true. Vanders having his best season ever, yet was dropped to a sub last week after a few down games. McNeil was also dropped and came back last week (and played a solid game defensively - exactly what we had been missing and asked of the team).

I reckon both have been off for weeks. I don’t get their roles in the team?

 

[Mofra]

I reckon both have been off for weeks. I don’t get their roles in the team?

Defensive high forwards? Most teams play one or two, and they're perennial whipping boys because as much as we say we laud players who sacrifice their game for the team, fans tend to hate those guys.

 

[bobs head soup]

McNeill and Vandermeer definitely are. They are immune from being dropped no matter how far their form drops. Baker and Poulter are like the rotation spots for form and plugging holes, traded in AFL journeymen.
We all know Bevo has always had his pet players that can’t get dropped in his eyes, everyone else can see they need to be. From McComb to Louis Butler to Hannan, Scott and Honeychurch etc. VDM and McNeil are those blokes this season and have been for 4 seasons now, and I still don’t see anything with them. They’ve had some highlights but both way down on form now. How do they keep getting games?

Louis Butler played 4 career games

How is he cited as an example of someone Bevo played constantly, refusing to omit?

 

[Freshwater]

Louis Butler played 4 career games

How is he cited as an example of someone Bevo played constantly, refusing to omit?

The 3 after the first one was still bizarre.

 

[Freshwater]

Defensive high forwards? Most teams play one or two, and they're perennial whipping boys because as much as we say we laud players who sacrifice their game for the team, fans tend to hate those guys.

I get they’re meant to be that, but is that even working? Clubs launch out of our forward line and you can see, especially at the Adelaide game from the top deck, that is where we were getting torched.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

He was only playing Davidson and Harmes in the first half of the season because he was trying to get that new contract signed. He had to appease the board with safe, sensible choices. As soon as he got that safety of the new contract he was looking for any opportunity to drop Harmes and Davidson and bring in the Bevo crackpot picks once again. And now that Grant is gone no one can stop the mad King.

He’s not quite game to drop Bont but you know he wants to

 

[Mofra]

I get they’re meant to be that, but is that even working? Clubs launch out of our forward line and you can see, especially at the Adelaide game from the top deck, that is where we were getting torched.

We also fail to defend the corridor well.
That's largely on our millionaire mids who appear immune from criticism.

I remember 2022 and 2023, teams would walk through us because we just never defended the easy short 45 kicks out of the back half. I'm glad we aren't at that stage anymore.

 

[Jen Geoffings]

He was only playing Davidson and Harmes in the first half of the season because he was trying to get that new contract signed. He had to appease the board with safe, sensible choices. As soon as he got that safety of the new contract he was looking for any opportunity to drop Harmes and Davidson and bring in the Bevo crackpot picks once again. And now that Grant is gone no one can stop the mad King.

I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.

 

[LondonBulldog]

hmmm, they really could have done with Davidson's gut running getting back into defense to help out. He out of all options was suited to play against GWS.

 

[Mhiggo]

We have Libba in the team to fifth ruck

Someone had to do it after Caleb left

 

[Mantis Toboggan]

Would have loved to have Davidson back in the team, still not sure why he was dropped. Would also have liked to see Harmes in, he kicked a bag of goals against them last time from memory. I also feel like he brings a hardness that we need. Still not sure how McNeil keeps his place in the team week after week. Hasn’t played a really good game in a while. This is a huge game for us and I worry about him panicking.

Their forwards really worry me when I look at our backline and think of Hogan on either JOD or Buss. Although I remember Buss played not too bad on him last time. But Cadman is a big worry like Thilthorpe. Just in general we are poor one on one defenders and our mids don’t work hard enough defensively to help, so that’s where I think we will come undone. Thing is we don’t have many other options at this point so just have to hope that Buss, JOD and Lobby can hold up and our midfield can get on top at home.

McNeil was good against the Bombers. Some good tackling pressure and he repeatedly lead out to the wing which created space for others. He’s not the greatest but there is nobody knocking the door down to take his place.

 

[Optimistic Dog]

Game day thread time to close this.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Defensive high forwards? Most teams play one or two, and they're perennial whipping boys because as much as we say we laud players who sacrifice their game for the team, fans tend to hate those guys.

Defensive half forwards who are 78th and 79th out of 104 general forwards for pressure acts and 74th and 75th for tackles. Immune from criticism

 

[Mofra]

Defensive half forwards who are 78th and 79th out of 104 general forwards for pressure acts and 74th and 75th for tackles. Immune from criticism

Immune from criticism? They're be the two most criticised players on our list!

Treloar mentioned last year the players love playing with VDM. He does a heap of that unrewarded fat-side running coaches love. Led the league for repeat sprints last year for a while IIRC.

I think a good comparison is to see how Hardwick transformed Richmond's HF line from 2016 to 2017.

Would I like better players there? Absolutely (Darcy Jones from GWS would be the benchmark) But every side needs role players and HF is probably the most thankless role at AFL level.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Immune from criticism? They're be the two most criticised players on our list!

Treloar mentioned last year the players love playing with VDM. He does a heap of that unrewarded fat-side running coaches love. Led the league for repeat sprints last year for a while IIRC.

I think a good comparison is to see how Hardwick transformed Richmond's HF line from 2016 to 2017.

Would I like better players there? Absolutely (Darcy Jones from GWS would be the benchmark) But every side needs role players and HF is probably the most thankless role at AFL level.

Every side needs role players but ours aren’t fulfilling any roles. They don’t impact offensively and they don’t impact defensively

I love the Richmond comparison because that’s exactly what I want that we’re not getting. Castagna, Butler, Rioli, Townsend (even early Bolton) where essentially told we’re not worried about your offensive game, we just want you to hunt and hunt and hunt defensively. A couple of those guys turned out to be very good players but they didn’t care about anything from them other than pressure those days. These guys were getting 18-20 pressure acts a game and 3-4 tackles, not 9 and 2 like we get from our guys

Looking at the league in those stats. You’ve got McCreery and Schultz getting 20 PAs and over 4 tackles, Geelong have Mannagh, Miers and Close with over 16 PAs, GWS have Jones and Daniels high on the list (Bedford will be as well who they have given up on in the midfield), Hawthorn have multiple hunters better than us. Weightman is usually our best for that stuff and missing him hurts but we get and demand so little from our role players

I understand that it’s tiresome when guys like McNeil, Vandermeer, Gardner get all the criticism because they are our guys and people want to support them but I find the white knighting of these guys and pretending they are offering more than they are equally tiresome

 

[Mofra]

Every side needs role players but ours aren’t fulfilling any roles. They don’t impact offensively and they don’t impact defensively

I love the Richmond comparison because that’s exactly what I want that we’re not getting. Castagna, Butler, Rioli, Townsend (even early Bolton) where essentially told we’re not worried about your offensive game, we just want you to hunt and hunt and hunt defensively. A couple of those guys turned out to be very good players but they didn’t care about anything from them other than pressure those days. These guys were getting 18-20 pressure acts a game and 3-4 tackles, not 9 and 2 like we get from our guys

I'd have to look up the others, but Castagna was an absolute whipping boy for Richmond and only got near 3 tackles as an average twice in his career.

In terms of inside F50 tackles, VDM is 35th in the comp which isn't bad at all. He's playing his role, noting a couple of shortened games in the mix too.

I understand that it’s tiresome when guys like McNeil, Vandermeer, Gardner get all the criticism because they are our guys and people want to support them but I find the white knighting of these guys and pretending they are offering more than they are equally tiresome

Pointing out that defensive work is the basis for their selection isn't white knighting, it's reality.

We ask want better from every player on the list but realistically, they guys taking up a massive % of our cap seen to cop only a small % of the criticism when our performances are below par.