Autopsy AFL 2023 Round 1 - Demons v Dogs Sat March 18th 7:25pm AEDT (MCG)

[Dez!]

At the other end of the ground I think Jones & Keath will have an easier time with Brown & McDonald. Fritsch the danger man who always seems to get us.

Ask Carlton supporters how Jones goes against McDonald.

 

[Optimistic Dog]

Do not think the dees tall forwards will be a problem Brown, Mcdonald are ok and probably past their best, makeship forward ruckman rarely cause a big problem. However Fitsch and Kosi could cause us problems if the dees midfield get on top. Astro has looked good with a proper preseason but normally he has problems with May's strength. JUH should be feeling confident given he kicked 5 and was BOG last time the 2 teams played.

The dees deserve to be favourites with the game at the G but only just, I do not expect a blowout like the betting markets suggest.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

makeship forward ruckman rarely cause a big problem.

I'm sorry, what?

 

[CarnTheScray]

I'm sorry, what?

The word he was looking for was “makeshift”.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Ask Carlton supporters how Jones goes against McDonald.

Why would I ask a Carlton supporter anything

 

[Demonic Ascent]

The word he was looking for was “makeshift”.

I know just had never seen it written as "makeship" before - that's a new one

 

[Dez!]

Why would I ask a Carlton supporter anything

They witnessed Jones "defending" McDonald.

 

[CarnTheScray]

They witnessed Jones "defending" McDonald.

Okay.

 

[melbun]

I not sure that Brown will line up against the Dogs. My forward line selection would prefer
Van Rooyen, Spargo, McDonald, Fritsch, Pickett, Grundy/Gawn, Chandler, Laurie, Neal-Bullen.
Not much space left for Brown.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

I not sure that Brown will line up against the Dogs. My forward line selection would prefer
Van Rooyen, Spargo, McDonald, Fritsch, Pickett, Grundy/Gawn, Chandler, Laurie, Neal-Bullen.
Not much space left for Brown.

Brown will 100% play. JVR will get his chance later in the year.

 

[Toump Ass]

Lot of people reckon Ben Brown

50

Ben Brown

Age

31

Ht

200cm

Wt

100kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.7

3star

HB

3.0

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.2

3star

G

2.2

5star

D

7.9

2star

K

6.3

3star

HB

1.6

1star

M

3.7

4star

T

0.9

2star

G

1.0

4star

D

8.0

2star

K

4.6

2star

HB

3.4

3star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.4

4star

G

1.2

4star

is cooked, not me though. His marking, speed, strength, and general football skills may have waned but I reckon he’s still good for a few nice flops per game. If he can focus more on staging this year, which he’s always been pretty good at, no reason he couldn’t snag a few goals per game. I’m looking forward to a big year from Ben.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Lot of people reckon Ben Brown is cooked, not me though. His marking, speed, strength, and general football skills may have wained but I reckon he’s still good for a few nice flops per game. If he can focus more on staging this year, which he’s always been pretty good at, no reason he couldn’t snag a few goals per game. I’m looking forward to a big year from Ben.

I’ve heard his main preseason focus has been trying to make his centre of gravity even worse than what it already was.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

I’ve heard his main preseason focus has been trying to make his centre of gravity even worse than what it already was.

Is that why he shaved his head?

 

[hutchy31]

This has all the makings of a decent game, just hope it doesn't disappoint.

The emphasis on tall players will be an interesting experiment, particularly against one of the better teams in the comp. I think it's less about height than stretching the defense and leading to different parts of the forward 50, clearing lanes for Naughton in particular. More Geelong and Hawkins/Cameron-like rather than what bulldogs fans have seen fairly frequently in recent seasons where two talls are leading to the same area and Weightman is also trying to fly for the mark. The Melbourne defense will eat that up. Tbf, the forward line looked pretty good last weekend, but it was a practice match against one of the poorest teams in the comp so I'm not sure we can take much from that.

I have Melbourne as a top 2 team so a loss isn't a drama, as long as it's fairly competitive. My guess is most teams will lose to Melbourne at the MCG so no real ground lost. A win would be a massive springboard into what is a difficult first 5-6 weeks though.

I'm sure I won't be particularly measured come game time but it will be interesting to see how Gawn and Grundy operate together, and how Hunter goes. More as a punter than anything else, I'm fairly close to putting a decent chunk on the dees for the flag.

 

[Dazb86]

Lot of people reckon Ben Brown is cooked, not me though. His marking, speed, strength, and general football skills may have wained but I reckon he’s still good for a few nice flops per game. If he can focus more on staging this year, which he’s always been pretty good at, no reason he couldn’t snag a few goals per game. I’m looking forward to a big year from Ben.

Ben Brown os the only bloke in football that tries a contested grab one handed

 

[Toump Ass]

I’ve heard his main preseason focus has been trying to make his centre of gravity even worse than what it already was.

Yes! I sent the club some video clips of Cody Weightman’s highlights to play him, hopefully he’s been studying hard

 

[mrmonkey]

I haven't seen any preseason games from the dogs, all reports saying they have looked really good. Looks pretty even to me on paper, I think our Melbourne's defence is back to 21 form, I'm thinking melbourne should be able to nullify the Doggies attack. Midfield is evenly matched, Melbourne's forward line is questionable but the Bulldogs haven't been the best defensively either. Tom MacDonald may not be as good as he has been but his presence is important for Melbourne's structure, Brown's form is more worrying but he will still draw a defender and may even draw some frees if the ball comes in quick enough. Anyway tmac and Brown in takes some heat of Fritsch who is the real danger man. I think the Gawn Grundy combination will also cause some headaches when they swap around in the forward line. If it's close I think the flexibility of Gawn to push back will come in handy. Melbourne with a slight edge and will grind out a 25 point win.

 

[Crusty Demon]

I haven't seen any preseason games from the dogs, all reports saying they have looked really good. Looks pretty even to me on paper, I think our Melbourne's defence is back to 21 form, I'm thinking melbourne should be able to nullify the Doggies attack. Midfield is evenly matched, Melbourne's forward line is questionable but the Bulldogs haven't been the best defensively either. Tom MacDonald may not be as good as he has been but his presence is important for Melbourne's structure, Brown's form is more worrying but he will still draw a defender and may even draw some frees if the ball comes in quick enough. Anyway tmac and Brown in takes some heat of Fritsch who is the real danger man. I think the Gawn Grundy combination will also cause some headaches when they swap around in the forward line. If it's close I think the flexibility of Gawn to push back will come in handy. Melbourne with a slight edge and will grind out a 25 point win.

I think English is a gun ruck. A real good test as to where he's at in the pecking order of rucks because i have him as 2nd behind Gawn. Yes you could argue a number of others in the comp are as good if not better, but English can move around the ground really well and also hit the scoreboard. He's one that can nullify the Gawn/Grundy impact. I'm glad this is the first matchup for that reason. I think our defence is one of the few that can match the Dogs tall forwards and their ordinary backline matches our ordinary forwardline. So the ruck duel will go a long way in deciding this game as to who gives first use to the gun mids and how the rucks work around the ground. Will be fascinating to watch. As close to a 50/50 game as you'll get. With Viney out, does Harmes go to Libba? Trac v Bont. Oliver v Treloar. It's a great matchup.

 

[Toump Ass]

Can't wait to see what Lachie Hunter is capable of now that he's free from bad influences at "kennel", I heard he was chroming and injecting narcotics during training? Haven't watched any pre-season games but I heard he looks fit, healthy, and most of all SOBER so I'm really proud of him, very excited too.

 

[mrmonkey]

I think English is a gun ruck. A real good test as to where he's at in the pecking order of rucks because i have him as 2nd behind Gawn. Yes you could argue a number of others in the comp are as good if not better, but English can move around the ground really well and also hit the scoreboard. He's one that can nullify the Gawn/Grundy impact. I'm glad this is the first matchup for that reason. I think our defence is one of the few that can match the Dogs tall forwards and their ordinary backline matches our ordinary forwardline. So the ruck duel will go a long way in deciding this game as to who gives first use to the gun mids and how the rucks work around the ground. Will be fascinating to watch. As close to a 50/50 game as you'll get. With Viney out, does Harmes go to Libba? Trac v Bont. Oliver v Treloar. It's a great matchup.

No doubt one on one English can nullify Gawn or Grundy, but I still think our ruckman combination will cause some headaches that English won't be able to handle, such as if Gawn rest forward, English will still have to stay with Grundy in the midfield. He can cover one but not two at the same time. That's were I think Melbourne has the edge in an otherwise fairly even match up.

 

[Doggy]

Can't wait to see what Lachie Hunter is capable of now that he's free from bad influences at "kennel", I heard he was chroming and injecting narcotics during training? Haven't watched any pre-season games but I heard he looks fit, healthy, and most of all SOBER so I'm really proud of him, very excited too.

Cute.

With his drinking and gambling issues he would be best mates with Goodie

 

[Mofra]

No doubt one on one English can nullify Gawn or Grundy, but I still think our ruckman combination will cause some headaches that English won't be able to handle, such as if Gawn rest forward, English will still have to stay with Grundy in the midfield. He can cover one but not two at the same time. That's were I think Melbourne has the edge in an otherwise fairly even match up.

Melbourne will probably have the ruck edge every week - but having Lobb to chop out English helps, as well as English staying a kick behidn the play a bit more often this year. Our undersized blokes like Hannan or Khamis playing second ruck was horrible viewing.

I actually really want to see the Bulldogs forwards vs Melbourne backs in this game. Having 4 talls to rotate in the F50 will finally make their intercept guns (May & Lever) accountable. Purely on height, does Petty go to Lobb?

 

[Toump Ass]

I actually really want to see the Bulldogs forwards vs Melbourne backs in this game. Having 4 talls to rotate in the F50 will finally make their intercept guns (May & Lever) accountable. Purely on height, does Petty go to Lobb?

Think I read Bevo would be managing Darcys time up forward, not sure what that means and I could be wrong.
Petty can play small, tall, or medium size, even micromachine scale he's very very good.

In any case expecting Gawn to "cover holes" in the backline while Grundy is monstering English in the ruck.

 

[mrmonkey]

Melbourne will probably have the ruck edge every week - but having Lobb to chop out English helps, as well as English staying a kick behidn the play a bit more often this year. Our undersized blokes like Hannan or Khamis playing second ruck was horrible viewing.

I actually really want to see the Bulldogs forwards vs Melbourne backs in this game. Having 4 talls to rotate in the F50 will finally make their intercept guns (May & Lever) accountable. Purely on height, does Petty go to Lobb?

Fair point as I said I haven't seen a lot of Bulldog preseason games, so kind of forgot about lobb. I still think Gawn and Grundy will give Melbourne an edge but certainly not as much. The battle between Melbourne's backs vs Doggies forwards is the most intriguing.

 

[danster168]

This could be a close game. Especially if Fritsch and Viney miss. Alongside Salem.

The tall forwards at the dogs will test melbourne but we do have May and Petty (who is probably one of the best young key backs in the comp). Throw in lever. But they're not tall so Gawn may need to float back.

Melbourne's forward line hasn't improved since last season. Brown and Mcdonald another year older and still, somehow, still no Van Rooyen.

Melbourne has the edge in the midfield although the Gawn and Grundy dominance is greatly overstated. We lost the centre clearances against Richmond last week and lost centre clearances most of last season so the Bulldogs will have their opportunities. It should be a good, close game.