AFL Grand Final AFL 2021 GRAND FINAL - Demons v Dogs Sat September 25th 7:15pm EST / 5:15pm WST (Optus) Congratulations Demons! 🍾🏆 Match Highlights in OP

[demondavey]

I understand backing your players in but I still dont understand why the Dogs didn't change their centre square setup to be more defensive after the rot started.
Beveridge should have pulled the trigger but it never came. I would have thought the doggies on ballers could have switched it up themselves during play but that never happened either, quite puzzling. Having said that, I doubt it would have made much of a difference, we just went to another level.

Dogs will be back again next year though, grab a decent ruck and another good defender and they'll be top 4.

This is what I found also. There was nothing to stop us exiting the centre. When you start dominating that much you’ve got to get defensive side and try and stem the flow. Incredibly surprised this wasn’t identified.

 

[demondavey]

Mate you literally have no idea what you are talking about.

I know it hurts to admit but Treloar played well. Plenty of others worse than him and not many who were better.

I single him out for his age, his experience and the fact he has played in a GF before. When the heat got ratcheted up you look to your senior players. He is a senior player. He was nowhere when it mattered.

To suggest I’ve missed the mark on my point is just foolish. I also identified plenty of others who got whiskey dick with the white shorts on.

 

[Toump Ass]

I single him out for his age, his experience and the fact he has played in a GF before. When the heat got ratcheted up you look to your senior...

He had the 4th most possessions on the ground and kicked three straight. He was smashing us before we took control in the third.

 

[Some Idiot]

Yeah, nah.

It was pretty obvious our list had the talent required. Petracca and Oliver were already two of the best mids in the game, Gawn reigning AA ruck for three years in a row. Stevie May should have had an AA jumper in 2020 as well. Salem, Lever, Viney, Harmes all capable of playing at a very high level.

The question was whether Goodwin could get us into finals, and if he failed this year he was gone.

Easy to say in hindsight and as a Melbourne supporter. Plenty of neutrals and 'experts' tipped Melbourne to have a poor year.

Perhaps next year is the year that Tarryn Thomas, Jaidyn Stephenson and LDU go to another level for North, Goldstein and Cunnington have seasons uninterrupted by injury and all of a sudden North have an elite midfield. Add in contiuned improvement from their young key posts like McKay and Larkey and the sky is the limit. Perhaps next year North supporters will be telling us how obvious it was that the talent was there.

 

[conrad_437]

What is it that Melbourne supporters have against Treloar? Seriously. The whole week leading up, the Melbourne board was filled with blokes pillorying Treloar for talking about his own mental health issues. He plays a game where he was in our top 3 best players comfortably.

It's genuinely sad. Thankfully there's some reasonable Melbourne fans willing to state the facts instead of having Treloar live rent free in their head.

 

[demondavey]

I don’t buy the whole travel and preparation stuff. We spent the last 2 weeks hearing how the dogs had the momentum and better preparation blah blah. I didn’t buy into that either. I thought the fact we both had the pre grand final bye evened it all up.

It was definitely an even lead up.

 

[demondavey]

He had the 4th most possessions on the ground and kicking three straight. He was smashing us before we took control in the third.

Yes. You’re right. But where was he when we started responding? That’s my point. 28 touches and 3 goals in a half is on the way to norm smith statistics, but he was obsolete in the second half as a senior player when his team needed him. That’s just bullshit.

 

[Toump Ass]

Easy to say in hindsight and as a Melbourne supporter. Plenty of neutrals and 'experts' tipped Melbourne to have a poor year.

Yup, probably the same experts and neutrals who tipped Goodwin to get sacked after two years of underachieving with a solid list, most of which played in a prelim just a couple of years ago.

It’s not hindsight to say the Dees had a great list. The elite talent is/was obvious.

 

[adogsfan5]

Tell ya what, if Treloar is one of our big issues from yesterday, we’re going alright!

 

[Lampers]

You could probably put it a bit more diplomatically. I don’t think they’re mentally soft, I think they had some players that will take a lot out of that to become better and I don’t think their coach will rest on his laurels.

I expect the WB next year to be better as we’ve clearly exposed their deficiencies.

The belting Melbourne got from the Eagles in the 2018 preliminary was a blessing in disguise.

It brutally exposed that team’s deficiencies and was the first catalyst for the change that led to this premiership.

If Melbourne had a brave loss of 23 after some junk time goals they may have just cruised on hoping natural development would do the trick.

Instead they went after May and now the backline is almost entirely different.

Out Frost, O. McDonald, Lewis and Jetta.

In May, Petty (Tomlinson), Rivers and Bowey. Lever was injured in 2018.

Only Hibberd and Salem survived, and they can both be damaging by foot.

The injury hit 2019 clarified some other deficiencies, like the over reliance on clearances.

Maybe the Bulldogs will look back on this as a blessing too.

 

[demondavey]

What is it that Melbourne supporters have against Treloar? Seriously. The whole week leading up, the Melbourne board was filled with blokes pillorying Treloar for talking about his own mental health issues. He plays a game where he was in our top 3 best players comfortably.

It's genuinely sad. Thankfully there's some reasonable Melbourne fans willing to state the facts instead of having Treloar live rent free in their head.

Treloar went to water in the semi final against Brisbane. He was pathetic. It was glossed over and put in a ‘don’t open box’ because you won. If you’d lost it would have been a pile on to a bloke who was a senior player who threw up the white flag.

He is a regular on AFL360 so puts himself out there, if you’re going to do that then you’re going to get baked if you put up bad performances due to lack of effort in finals. We get it, Collingwood dumped him. Maybe Buckley was on to something? Maybe he is hard to coach?

There was nothing from him when it mattered. Don’t play the mental health card if you’re not up to it or can’t cop the focus as a senior player when you get smashed by 12 goals and only get amongst it when the bike is going down the hill.

 

[adogsfan5]

The belting Melbourne got from the Eagles in the 2018 preliminary was a blessing in disguise.

It brutally exposed that team’s deficiencies and was the first catalyst for the change that led to this premiership.

If Melbourne had a brave loss of 23 after some junk time goals they may have just cruised on hoping natural development would do the trick.

Instead they went after May and now the backline is almost entirely different.

Out Frost, O. McDonald, Lewis and Jetta.

In May, Petty (Tomlinson), Rivers and Bowey.

Only Hibberd and Salem survived, and they can both be damaging by foot.

The injury hit 2019 clarified some other deficiencies, like the over reliance on clearances.

Maybe the Bulldogs will look back on this as a blessing too.

it’ll be the ruck situation I reckon. If I’m a dogs midfielder, I’d be getting pretty sick of being on the back foot most of the time.

 

[demondavey]

it’ll be the ruck situation I reckon. If I’m a dogs midfielder, I’d be getting pretty sick of being on the back foot most of the time.

That’s right. Plus defence. Where do you think English is best suited then?

 

[adogsfan5]

Treloar went to water in the semi final against Brisbane. He was pathetic. It was glossed over and put in a ‘don’t open box’ because you won. If you’d lost it would have been a pile on to a bloke who was a senior player who threw up the white flag.

He is a regular on AFL360 so puts himself out there, if you’re going to do that then you’re going to get baked if you put up bad performances due to lack of effort in finals. We get it, Collingwood dumped him. Maybe Buckley was on to something? Maybe he is hard to coach?

There was nothing from him when it mattered. Don’t play the mental health card if you’re not up to it or can’t cop the focus as a senior player when you get smashed by 12 goals and only get amongst it when the bike is going down the hill.

Played well in the first final, prelim and played well last night. That’s 3 finals out of 4 where he played well.
Our whole midfield shi* the bed last night, weird your singling out one player who actually had a good night and a decent finals series and actually got us going last night in the second.

 

[adogsfan5]

That’s right. Plus defence. Where do you think English is best suited then?

I really don’t know. Watched him forward last night and he still lacks grunt in the air that you need as a tall forward. Plodded around a lot which is unacceptable. With his size, I’d be expecting him to take out a contest if he isn’t gonna mark it. Our rucks were demolished all night.

Edit: right now he’s a “nice ruckman”. Good skills and good below his knees. I don’t want a nice ruckman.

 

[demondavey]

I really don’t know. Watched him forward last night and he still lacks grunt in the air that you need as a tall forward. Plodded around a lot which is unacceptable. With his size, I’d be expecting him to take out a contest if he isn’t gonna mark it. Our rucks were demolished all night.

Bit soft? He definitely lacks urgency. I actually think he is a good forward and better than in the ruck.

 

[adogsfan5]

Bit soft? He definitely lacks urgency. I actually think he is a good forward and better than in the ruck.

He’s just a “nice ruckman” atm. Nice skills and clean hands at ground level. In the air he just seems so timid. He should be jumping on players backs and causing chaos. I don’t want a nice ruckman.

 

[adogsfan5]

Bit soft? He definitely lacks urgency. I actually think he is a good forward and better than in the ruck.

There’s no killer instinct.

 

[conrad_437]

Treloar went to water in the semi final against Brisbane. He was pathetic. It was glossed over and put in a ‘don’t open box’ because you won. If you’d lost it would have been a pile on to a bloke who was a senior player who threw up the white flag.

He is a regular on AFL360 so puts himself out there, if you’re going to do that then you’re going to get baked if you put up bad performances due to lack of effort in finals. We get it, Collingwood dumped him. Maybe Buckley was on to something? Maybe he is hard to coach?

There was nothing from him when it mattered. Don’t play the mental health card if you’re not up to it or can’t cop the focus as a senior player when you get smashed by 12 goals and only get amongst it when the bike is going down the hill.

“When it mattered” he kicked 2 goals to get us back into the game when we were under the pump.

Treloar did little to garner the amount of publicity around his move. His ex-club did. He never complained - he stood up for himself when his name was being tarnished by Collingwood.

I do hope no one in your family has mental health issues. I bet they could do without being told what they can or can’t do.

 

[adogsfan5]

“When it mattered” he kicked 2 goals to get us back into the game when we were under the pump.

Treloar did little to garner the amount of publicity around his move. His ex-club did. He never complained - he stood up for himself when his name was being tarnished by Collingwood.

I do hope no one in your family has mental health issues. I bet they could do without being told what they can or can’t do.

The ones who went to water when we needed them most, imo, were Libba and Macrae. Thought treloar had a good finals series, it’s a shame nobody wants to discuss his good 3 games.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Easy to say in hindsight and as a Melbourne supporter. Plenty of neutrals and 'experts' tipped Melbourne to have a poor year.

Perhaps next year is the year that Tarryn Thomas, Jaidyn Stephenson and LDU go to another level for North, Goldstein and Cunnington have seasons uninterrupted by injury and all of a sudden North have an elite midfield. Add in contiuned improvement from their young key posts like McKay and Larkey and the sky is the limit. Perhaps next year North supporters will be telling us how obvious it was that the talent was there.

Yeah bc North played in a prelim and twice finished 9th just a game off finals in the last four seasons. Great comparison.

 

[conrad_437]

The ones who went to water when we needed them most, imo, were Libba and Macrae. Thought treloar had a good finals series, it’s a shame nobody wants to discuss his good 3 games.

Exactly. Always funny watching people trying to back up ridiculous comments that are clearly due to an irrational hatred.

 

[H2F]

The ones who went to water when we needed them most, imo, were Libba and Macrae. Thought treloar had a good finals series, it’s a shame nobody wants to discuss his good 3 games.

Best post of the thread. Respect to you mate as you must be hurting but I rated your midfield so highly and when the war started I couldn’t believe what I saw. Bont was heroic but he was outnumbered 4-1, whilst Libba, McCrae etc just completely folded. I’m not trying to be kicking a losing team, I’m literally blown away by how they all went hiding when it got hot. I’m stunned and would trade one or two on principle. It was bad.

 

[H2F]

Exactly. Always funny watching people trying to back up ridiculous comments that are clearly due to an irrational hatred.

Treloar disappeared to me mate. Seeing Bont trying to single handed it take on the onslaught was one of the most bizarre and sad things I’ve seen. I love Bont even more now if that’s even possible.

 

[Lampers]

it’ll be the ruck situation I reckon. If I’m a dogs midfielder, I’d be getting pretty sick of being on the back foot most of the time.

I think it’s more of a balance thing in the midfield.

Macrae, Liberatore and Bontempelli look either slow, or maybe not slow once they are running but lack explosive pace off the mark. They need a little time and space to be effective.

I think they are also attack first players who back themselves to win the ball, and can get exposed the other way.

When Melbourne had Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw and Petracca all trying to be the hero in the midfield it didn’t work.

Once Viney accepted he is a limited player and stuck to what he’s good at, Oliver added using his foot speed and became damaging by foot too, Petracca got his fitness up, and Beayshaw moved out to the unglamorous wing, the balance changed.

A combination of expanding repertoire for Oliver and Petracca, contracting for Viney, and getting organised to exploit strengths made a huge difference.

What are the differences the Dogs’ players can make to how they play, and who plays where?

Should they better utilise their midfield depth by playing some of their stars in less glamorous positions where their stats will suffer, but it will make the team better?