Autopsy Sydney, despite being crucified again by umps, bravely battle on to win 126 - 60

[Dogs_r_barking]

William Edwards should be cited for dangerous play. His reckless action of running back into the pack and collecting Naughton's legs was what caused Naughton's horrible landing.

I'm tired of people defending dangerous play and calling such actions unfortunate accidents.
It could have ended very badly. We need to stamp this stuff out.

Williamson calling “play on” was the most dangerous and stupid decision, a player could have kicked Naughton’s spine. He is a gutless biased umpire. I hope the “dying swans” feel vindicated by the one sided umpiring.

Otherwise, I was expecting a 100 point loss, I thought everyone put in but execution was poor, with Davidson, West and Freija the main culprits, they need to play a easy team to get some touch and confidence back.

Selwood, Buss and Bont was good, Baker too, other struggled, but considering the outs we had, I thought they could hold their heads up high.

 

[perro_loco]

English, Darcy, JOD, Lobby injured. Bont partially injured, Naughton injured. Not to mention the umps who were awful. We did kind of ok given the circumstances. Sellwood was great!

 

[Snarls Barkley]

We do have this player.

It's Lobb.

Then why we Emmett and Croft rucking against Hawthorn and Geelong?

Remember how Oscar McInerney did his shoulder in the Prelim final. Brought in their journeyman in Fort who mightn’t have played all year and was able to put a respectable performance in

That happens to us and we have to put in a kid who is two to three years of being ready and we get stomped. There is 40 players on the list, there is enough room to have a guy who is big and mature to create a contest

Freo have lost their backup a couple of times (Meek and Reidy), still brought Cox across so they didn’t get stuck needing to blood someone not ready. We lose Sweet and we decide to just pray that English doesn’t get hurt for the next four years until Smith is ready

 

[the dog's kennel]

Really disappointed in Sanders and Freijah, they just haven’t stood up. Not sure our young talent is as good as it’s sometimes made out to be.

Scary to think what Freo’s forward line will do to us next week.

I'm not disappointed in Sanders at all. Yes he does wayyyy too many dinky kicks and backwards handpasses. But over the last 3 weeks when some of our younger players have been filling their daks he has kept calm. He seems to perform exactly the same no matter how much the heat is on.

The challenge with him will be to improve his disposal over time. But he has the right stuff between the ears I think.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Then why we Emmett and Croft rucking against Hawthorn and Geelong?

It beats me too, but we were better with Lobb in there in the 2nd half. And we had it as an option. Being angry at a lack of ruck depth when we're lacking a depth option that we did use two games ago but wasn't available to us now is a bit strange. We're missing our three best rucks to injury (if we assume Darcy is better in the ruck even if we're hesitant to use him there). Being angry at the fact that our fourth and fifth best ruck option isn't good enough is a bit bizarre to complain about. Having a good 4th ruck and taking that sample principle for depth around the ground would have us paying three times the salary cap. Expecting VFL quality players - which is what you get on minimum contracts - to be better than the VFL players than they are is just utterly strange to me. Lachie Smith will be an AFL standard first ruck from the age of 24/25 - that's 4/5 years away. He's the same age as Toby Nankervis when he made his debut, who is probably his bets guide, and Nankervis got a whopping 42 hitouts and 1 goal in his 5 games in his 21 year old debut season too. Emmett clearly needs at least another two full pre-seasons. If you want tall rucks that might eventually become better than a VFL player, they have to at some point play the first ~20 games of their career which are going to be bad until the learn the position until they get to that point. Tim English was running around playing WAFL reserves and not yet drafted when Emmett was his age, and look how critical his injury is now.

Max Heath is barely a better footballer, and yet required a 3-year quite-a-bit-more-than-minimum contract, and is arguably also just a VFL standard footballer. Maybe if we'd go after him we wouldn't have the money to get Butters. Everything has a cost.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

I'm not disappointed in Sanders at all. Yes he does wayyyy too many dinky kicks and backwards handpasses. But over the last 3 weeks when some of our younger players have been filling their daks he has kept calm. He seems to perform exactly the same no matter how much the heat is on.

The challenge with him will be to improve his disposal over time. But he has the right stuff between the ears I think.

Sanders is rank 1 in the league for average contested possession a game of all players aged 21 and under.

If you extend that out to players 24 and younger, he still ranks 3 in contested possessions per game, only behind Sam Berry and Harry Sheezel.

I still have my criticisms of his play style, and I still don't like the draft strategy we used to get him. But players at his age just aren't as natural, instinctive ball winners and stoppage players as he is. He's a lot better than the player who was rightfully dropped at the end of last year. He's building into a career nicely and there's no reason why he can't be a top ball winner as he gets older. As long as his ball use harm is minimised - it's never going to be a strength but he needs to try and make it as little a weakness as possible - he's fine from now. Especially his form turning around from last year.

 

[Oliver G]

We do have this player.

It's Lobb.

Who was also injured for this game.

In a pinch, and if necessary, Darcy could also ruck substantial minutes in required upon. He's done it before in indivudal games.

Who was also injured for this game.

Sorry Oliver G, I can't agree with your sentiment that there's an expectation that "our fourth choice ruck, who is the 37th best player on our list, who we've put aside that list spot to develop a youngster who is expected to get better in the coming years, the fact that he's not capable of rucking against a top 5 ruck in the league is the biggest oversight in the decade".

The expectations that people have of players deep on our list is frankly ridiculous. Especially if a mature ager played a slightly less bad game, but we simply didn't have developing talent on our list, people would complain about "what's the point of playing this player games". People are already complaining about Will Lewis and Ryan Gardner, even though as minimum contract VFL quality players that are nontheless older, that's as good as you're going to get. What's the point of recruiting the ruck version of Gardner, or Lewis?

Do people really think that there's some sort of strategic benefit in the "maximise future flags" sense if Brayden Crossley had stuck his knee into Grundy's gut a few times in the gut to the cheers of a few drunk blokes, before clearly not being fit enough to run out a game? Emmett and Smith are clearly young players not up to it, but they'll be better future footballers for the game we played today. Giving Brayden Crossley or whoever a similar player a spot on the list - potentially at the cost of not even drafting an Emmett type in the first place - would have achieved what, exactly?

So why was Emmett playing in the Hawthorn and Geelong games then? Because Lobb and Darcy were needed in their preferred positions to keep the structure that we desperately needed.

Lobb and Darcy were available for the entirety of the Hawthorn game, and for that matter, the parts of the Geelong game that we were competitive. When Darcy did his ACL, the game was already over.

When Lobb moved to the ruck in Q3 of the Hawthorn, we started looking like our R0-R4 selves, 9 shots in around 15 minutes, but did we stick with this in the Geelong game, no, because he was deemed to be needed in his preferred position.

Emmett is nowhere near AFL standard at the moment, like I said earlier, not his fault, he's been thrown to the wolves and I'm sure given time he'll develop nicely, but at the moment there have been 32 players to take 100+ ruck contests this year, and he's currently ranked 32/32 for hitout win percentage (English is in the top 10).

It's been painfully clear ever since English went down in the Essendon game, that our entire system was reliant on having a ruck who can cover the ground, use the ball, and get an above-average hitout to advantage rating.

All I'm saying is that surely the coaching and list management staff knew this, and not having a dedicated backup ruck with ANY AFL EXPERIENCE at the start of the season seems like an oversight for a team looking to make the top 4.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

So why was Emmett playing in the Hawthorn and Geelong games then? Because Lobb and Darcy were needed in their preferred positions to keep the structure that we desperately needed.

Lobb and Darcy were available for the entirety of the Hawthorn game, and for that matter, the parts of the Geelong game that we were competitive. When Darcy did his ACL, the game was already over.

When Lobb moved to the ruck in Q3 of the Hawthorn, we started looking like our R0-R4 selves, 9 shots in around 15 minutes, but did we stick with this in the Geelong game, no, because he was deemed to be needed in his preferred position.

Emmett is nowhere near AFL standard at the moment, like I said earlier, not his fault, he's been thrown to the wolves and I'm sure given time he'll develop nicely, but at the moment there have been 32 players to take 100+ ruck contests this year, and he's currently ranked 32/32 for hitout win percentage (English is in the top 10).

It's been painfully clear ever since English went down in the Essendon game, that our entire system was reliant on having a ruck who can cover the ground, use the ball, and get an above-average hitout to advantage rating.

All I'm saying is that surely the coaching and list management staff knew this, and not having a dedicated backup ruck with ANY AFL EXPERIENCE at the start of the season seems like an oversight for a team looking to make the top 4.

What's not to say that Lobb clearly would have been our first ruck in this game uninjured?

Okay, Emmett still is young. But he will have to play a first 5 games at some point in his career, and doesn't look so woeful that you'd expect a VFL standard ruck to be that much better.

Even if Lobb and Darcy didn't ruck all that much in the last two games, the did ruck somewhat, making the need for a backup ruck less critical.

We only have 40-odd list spots, and we have to use some of them to develop the youngsters. Over indexing on depth led to the recruitment of players like Ben Cavarra and Robbie McComb, which got us into the list hole that have saw us fail to win finals the last 4 years and need to draft deep.

We can't have it both ways. When we were recruiting 8 players at the end of 2023, people were criticising the fact that we hadn't developed enough youngsters in the years before. When we do start developing youngsters than having 15 "backups" on our list, people like yourself complain that in the instance we have 9 best 23 injuries including 4 to rucks/key position players, that we should throw out any idea of using list depth for development and recruit whatever dud but old ruck so maybe we lose this game by merely 50 points and not 60.

Emmett doesn't look physically ready. I don't disagree. But Emmett wasn't expected to play a single game this year until we had 4 injuries to key position players, and will be a much better player over the course of his career for having played these games.

 

[Scott Tracy]

I know injuries, form and umpires have been discussed. I don't want to continue making excuses, but Jesus.
Crows, Hawks, Sydney, Fremantle, Melbourne in our double-ups. And Brisbane, Gold Coast, Geelong and Port all away. You'd think we would have won the flag last year.

 

[revo333]

That felt more like a round 17 game than a round 7 game which is the main concern.

Might be harsh but expecting more from the younger players especially with bringing energy and freshness to the team.

Felt too sluggish and stale for a round 7 game.

 

[grassman75]

Freijah in particular seems to have bought into his own hype.

And west

 

[grassman75]

When ODonnell and Lobb return we need to keep playing Busslinger. Was good tonight and has good disposal, much better than Lobb to be honest

Hiding to nothing, but every time the camera would pan out Buku was in no man’s land. He ain’t the answer

 

[grassman75]

Hard to remember a worse 3 week period than this last 3 weeks.

There’s been worse performances and worse Bulldogs sides in years gone by but at least those sides were simply not up to it.

We gave it a fair crack tonight, we simply do not have the cattle at the moment - the cattle all being injured.

Will say this though - Rhylee West and Joel Freijah are an injury crisis away from being dropped. Woefully, horribly out of form.

Hopefully Naughton is ok. Poor guy. That was awful to watch.

****ing hate Sydney too. Whiner club with whiner supporters.

I think Kornes has done so voodoo magic on us…

 

[grassman75]

Why?

Because everyone else is I assume…stupid call to even suggest it, even if it was meant to be a joke.

 

[low impact and reckless]

Worst on field...
1. Nathan Williamson
2. Mitch Cleary
3. Some of our "supporters" who don't realise that we are struggling with injuries. If you want to be fair weather supporters try popping over to https://www.richmondfc.com.au/

Agree completely, Williamson reams us every time without fail. The boys who took the field today tried their guts out. Keep persisting with Buss ,Sellwood ,Jacques . Wonder if Buku was coached to play 5 metres in front of Curnow all night. It was an interesting tactic.

 

[The Inbetweener]

Just caught the Naughton replay. The Swans player needs a lengthy suspension for tunnelling. No commentary about it at all from the media. The Herald Sun article said he threw himself at the ball and badly misjudged the landing. Huh?

 

[seaweed]

Who was the umpire that stopped the game when Naughty went down? I had turned the tv off in favour of going to bed and just listening to it, and there was a very distinct call to stop the game from an umpire. Would love to know who that was, excellent duty of care and the correct call.

Decimated by injuries and I just can’t see us getting anywhere near it this year. Blood the kids until the mature aged bodies are well enough to get back on the park, give them some experience, it’ll sort out the wheat from the chaff. Here’s to 2027.

 

[grassman75]

Thought Bailey Wiliams had a good game and Sellwood again played well. Kennedy is obviously also carrying an injury, could hardly move and only had 59% TOG - so we have Richards/Bont/Kennedy/Treloar not at their best while English and Libba are out.

Umpiring was shocking. Buku playing too far forward. Ball movement stalled after quarter time. Hope Naughts is ok.

On another note, hated the pre-game presentation, really poor for a Premiership celebration. Should’ve introduced the players out one by one. Video package seemed rush. The whole thing was anticlimactic

Stupid round to have it coinciding with Anzac. Club prob had to rush it to fit in the extensive Anzac ceremony. Which I have to say, despite all the history, doesn’t need to be played before every game, only Anzac Day / night. Players stand there Getting cold for way too long

 

[grassman75]

Just caught the Naughton replay. The Swans player needs a lengthy suspension for tunnelling. No commentary about it at all from the media. The Herald Sun article said he threw himself at the ball and badly misjudged the landing. Huh?

The call was play on and then it took Williamson 20 secs r
To stop play. Guy hates us. Swans got every tiggy touchwood free, throw the ball at every opportunity and got to play us with multiple players under 10 games

 

[grassman75]

I might just kick back and watch the 2016 Grand final again Great times and memories

See if you think the umpiring was as bad as last night

 

[Golden_6]

This is the most horrific 3 and a half game stretch I can ever recall at the club.

Every single one of our top 10 players is either injured or hampered by an injury. Bailey Williams might be the only one at the peak of his powers.

The team we’re going to trot out over the next month isn’t of a bottom 4 rebuilding side. We can’t expect anything different than those sort of results.

 

[Cookie]

I'm going to stick my neck out and call it early.

That chip scab, downhill skier Curnow will win the Leon Davis

Leon Davis

Age

44

Ht

177cm

Wt

80kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.5

3star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.3

3star

M

3.1

3star

T

2.8

4star

G

1.2

4star

No current season stats available

D

5.0

1star

K

3.6

2star

HB

1.4

2star

M

1.2

2star

T

0.4

3star

G

0.4

3star

Medal.

 

[Proffessor]

Williamson calling “play on” was the most dangerous and stupid decision, a player could have kicked Naughton’s spine. He is a gutless biased umpire. I hope the “dying swans” feel vindicated by the one sided umpiring.

Otherwise, I was expecting a 100 point loss, I thought everyone put in but execution was poor, with Davidson, West and Freija the main culprits, they need to play a easy team to get some touch and confidence back.

Selwood, Buss and Bont was good, Baker too, other struggled, but considering the outs we had, I thought they could hold their heads up high.

I largely agree Dogs_r_barking however even though Davo, West and Freij, are a bit down on form. They aren’t the heart of the problem and definitely shouldn’t be dropped. Dropping them would make the problem much worse. We need to pick our best 23 players and they are definitely still in it.

 

[W W Biscuit]

For me, the standard of umpiring last night more than vindicated my decision last week to step away from all things AFL except Bulldogs matches. The game is in a very bad place - the officiating, the fixturing, the tinkering, the inequality, the gaslighting. Outside of the Dogs, I couldn't even tell you who played last week. Don't care. The AFL must be proud of its ability to turn passionate, lifetime supporters away from its product.

 

[BigFloppa]

That felt more like a round 17 game than a round 7 game which is the main concern.

Might be harsh but expecting more from the younger players especially with bringing energy and freshness to the team.

Felt too sluggish and stale for a round 7 game.

Three six day breaks in a row will do that