Autopsy Bulldogs lose 127-113 to Geelong. Flat

[dogwatch]

I don't think we're flat track bullies. We may be good front runners though. That might be why "we don't win the close ones". Once we get ahead we are hard to catch. The GWS game was a good example. In theory it should have been one of those close games but we put the foot on their throat once we established the break and as our confidence rose.

Here's some stuff I posted in the media thread. This is more my concern:

I'm starting to believe we really are fragile when favourites. As a team we have to develop the mental toughness to be the hunted not the hunter, and still win. Only a few in the side seem to have that mental strength and focus (Libba is an obvious one).

We didn't handle the hype tonight until it was too late.

 

[Bulldogs85]

Not sure she was all there.

We copped abuse from some mouthy prick behind us too. Not sure why I never yelled anything and my kids don't say a word.

Idiot was yelling abuse at VDM, like he'd face off with him

I hate going to the footy at times because of the abuse

 

[stefoid]

Wow, Kenedy is excellent. Was he this good at Carlton? I like this banging home 50m goals for fun thing he had going tonight.

Its all about our ability to execute under pressure. If the opposition doesnt pressure us, we win by 10 goals. IF they do, we are prone to coughing up the pill. Its says something that out of the top 10 players on the ground for pressure acts, we only had 2 players - the usual duo Libba and Bont.

Also, West is an animal.

Missing easy goals ... its getting really., really, really, really annoying.

 

[RWnBluey]

I don't think we're flat track bullies. We may be good front runners though. That might be why "we don't win the close ones". Once we get ahead we are hard to catch. The GWS game was a good example. In theory it should have been one of those close games but we put the foot on their throat once we established the break and as our confidence rose.

Here's some stuff I posted in the media thread. This is more my concern:

I'm starting to believe we really are fragile when favourites. As a team we have to develop the mental toughness to be the hunted not the hunter, and still win. Only a few in the side seem to have that mental strength and focus (Libba is an obvious one).

We didn't handle the hype tonight until it was too late.

I’m not sure we’re good front runners. We were up by almost 7 goals over the lions and got mowed down. Conversely, we’ve had some great performances chasing big leads.

Like I said during the match our kryptonite has also been when teams turn up the heat around the ball and press up hard on us in general play. It stifles our ability to exit stoppages and transition the ball. As soon as the cats started to tire and that heat came off in the third qtr we really got on top of them. If not for the second qtr and diabolical goal kicking we win that match 9/10 times.

Even though similar issues keep presenting the one thing that’s really impressed me this season is our persistence.
In previous years we get 30+ points down pack up shop and go home. Not anymore. This season we have no quit in us and believe we can win from any position which is an encouraging sign of a maturing team.

 

[dogwatch]

...

Even though similar issues keep presenting the one thing that’s really impressed me this season is our persistence.
In previous years we get 30+ points down we pack up shop and go home. Not anymore. This season we have no quit in us and believe we can win from any position which is an encouraging sign of a maturing team.

That's another reason that it appears "we lose the close ones". In the past we would just fold and it wouldn't even be close.

 

[hutchy31]

We heard all week (and to a lesser extent the past few weeks) that we’re great - best in the comp at X, top four for Y etc. Except now we’re 6-5 having lost every game against any decent team (GWS do not qualify) so we’re still bog average.

Our best footy is great but it’s not consistent. We’ve conceded runs of several goals in a row in quick succession in multiple games now, with no obvious way to arrest that momentum except hoping we win a centre clearance.

We do not take our opportunities when needed. We have bog average players in key positions who kill us with their decision making and/or execution. And (very quietly) we have a captain who has way too many problematic possessions when he needs to do better in big games.

Some of the footy this year has been great to watch. The third quarter tonight was exhilarating, but we butchered our chances in the fourth and dropped our bundle - again.

So now we’re in the all too familiar position of hoping for a rousing second half of the season to get into finals. It’ll take a big effort and then you probably don’t have enough left in the tank to go hard in September.

It’s so tiring supporting this team. I’m rooting for them but their lack of composure and consistency makes it hard to believe in them.

 

[TheBont]

Why the hell can we never beat top teams? So sick of it

 

[RedWhite&Blue]

That was an extremely bitter pill to swallow but a few hours after the game i’m feeling a bit better about it.
I thought we were massively overhyped and this loss might be a ‘good’ one to bring down any inflated egos that might be reading their own press.
As everyone else has said… Our goal kicking was just a bit off and theirs was the complete opposite… It felt like they couldn’t miss anything and we kept hitting the post and missing pretty easy ones. McNeil could have showered himself in glory tonight but instead there are people here that want him delisted. I like him and think if he sharpened up his aim he could be a real weapon inside 50.
Those 2 out on the full non descisions were so pivotal in the last!!! Jesus!! one of them resulted directly in a goal and the other was exacerbated when the field umpire awarded a 50m penalty… I will leave the field umpiring as that is always up to umpire interpretation but those 2 out on the full calls were clearly out and missed… no grey area there.
We were the better team finishing all over them but bad kicking for goal is bad football. We lost no fans last night and I’m just as excited about our season as i was before this game. We’ve got a great run of Marvel games on the home stretch and prime time slots to watch them in. We’ve also get Trealor and Darcy back after the bye. Life is still good!

 

[RedWhite&Blue]

A bonus when you're allowed to mark outside of the ground.

twice!

 

[Here we go dogs]

Missed chances, 4-5 players had really really bad night, thumbled the footy for a half, got crucified by the umps and played at a genuine away ground. And still should’ve won by 4 goals.

The backline needs to tidy up a little bit. But wouldn’t mind playing them in a final.

I think we are a 5-6 goal better side than them.

 

[Here we go dogs]

Missed chances, 4-5 players had really really bad night, thumbled the footy for a half, got crucified by the umps and played at a genuine away ground. And still should’ve won by 4 goals.

The backline needs to tidy up a little bit. But wouldn’t mind playing them in a final.

I think we are a 5-6 goal better side than them.

Also Darcy would of been un-defendable tonight the way the ball was going in our 50 from centre bounce.

 

[Doggy Dan]

I’m yet to see an angle where the Dempsey mark looked completely out on the full. Everyone saying it was over by 1m, etc. is there an angle i’m missing?

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

Umps were shocking again - anyone who says they don’t influence games are kidding themselves.

Our defending was ordinary and cost us the game.

Inaccuracy again a major issue.

6/5 is where we have been all these seasons so not much progress

 

[Arkangel]

We've lost all four games we've played this year against teams above us on the ladder: Collingwood, Brisbane, Gold Coast, and Geelong. On the surface, this is damning; but I think the circumstances of each of those games have to be taken into account. While ostensibly two of them have been our home games, none of them has been at our home ground: One was a "home" game played at a neutral venue (vs. Brisbane), one was a home game played at the opposition's home ground (vs. Collingwood), and two were at grounds where the opposition had a substantial home ground advantage (vs. Gold Coast and Geelong). We were also without our captain (who happens to be the best player in the competition) for two of those games (Collingwood, Brisbane).

If you look at the tips coming from predictive models, most had us losing narrowly to the Cats tonight, which is exactly what happened. Even so, most of those models still have us making the top 4 this year, and---to the extent that predictions this far out are worth anything---a lot of them also have us with a pretty high probability of winning the flag. Obviously losing to the Cats is annoying, particularly given the source of that loss (e.g., sloppy skills, incomprehensible umpiring decisions), but it's just one game in a long season.

 

[The Inbetweener]

That was an extremely bitter pill to swallow but a few hours after the game i’m feeling a bit better about it.
I thought we were massively overhyped and this loss might be a ‘good’ one to bring down any inflated egos that might be reading their own press.
As everyone else has said… Our goal kicking was just a bit off and theirs was the complete opposite… It felt like they couldn’t miss anything and we kept hitting the post and missing pretty easy ones. McNeil could have showered himself in glory tonight but instead there are people here that want him delisted. I like him and think if he sharpened up his aim he could be a real weapon inside 50.
Those 2 out on the full non descisions were so pivotal in the last!!! Jesus!! one of them resulted directly in a goal and the other was exacerbated when the field umpire awarded a 50m penalty… I will leave the field umpiring as that is always up to umpire interpretation but those 2 out on the full calls were clearly out and missed… no grey area there.
We were the better team finishing all over them but bad kicking for goal is bad football. We lost no fans last night and I’m just as excited about our season as i was before this game. We’ve got a great run of Marvel games on the home stretch and prime time slots to watch them in. We’ve also get Trealor and Darcy back after the bye. Life is still good!

The problem with hoping McNeil sharpens up in front of goal is the he has shown no indication that he is capable of doing this. His kicking has shown improvement. Any AFL small forward would have kicked that one running into an Open goal yet he hit the post any I don’t think anyone one of us were surprised.

 

[Dogs Rule]

Can we ignore the Smith shit and the nonsensical umpiring stuff and focus on what we actually lost that game?

That cats team (missing Dangerfield) should have been smacked. They were smacked, except nobody could ****ing finish their work.

In 45 years of following sport I’ve never seen the excuses given to AFL players for missing goals. They’re tired, or didn’t expect it, or it’s in their wrong hand. Maybe they should accept some responsibility and kick ****ing goals.

When goalkicking isn't viewed as the top priority, last night and two scores of 18.19 this season happen.

They were 19.5 at one stage last night, we finished at 16.17... it's criminal. But what's even worse is missing goals at critical times in the match, that's what kills you.

At my cricket club and I'm sure plenty of others, we have fines for dropped catches, it's a bit of a joke thing, but it makes you put in the extra effort for the tough ones and you don't drop easy ones. I hope we don't just have a 'ah well, next one' approach internally to goalkicking, because that's nowhere near good enough.

Until we make goalkicking our number one priority (and it's on record that it's not) then this will keep happening. It's frustrating.

 

[GoBlues!]

Wow, Kenedy is excellent. Was he this good at Carlton? I like this banging home 50m goals for fun thing he had going tonight.

Its all about our ability to execute under pressure. If the opposition doesnt pressure us, we win by 10 goals. IF they do, we are prone to coughing up the pill. Its says something that out of the top 10 players on the ground for pressure acts, we only had 2 players - the usual duo Libba and Bont.

Also, West is an animal.

Missing easy goals ... it’s getting really., really, really, really annoying.

Kennedy is a pretty good footballer imo who can play midfield and forward. He was unfortunately undervalued and under-utilised at Carlton and I was pretty disappointed he was let go.

You guys have done well and have got a very good player.

 

[Wetdog]

Those on here blaming umpires are delusional.

We should have won but we didn’t bring enough pressure in the first half and we didn’t convert our chances in the second half when we had the momentum.

Even though it didn’t get the job done, I’m proud of our effort in the second half.

We are 6-8 ladder team based on performances to date. Let’s see if that changes in the second half of the season.

Let’s hope this burns deep over the bye and drives us for the second half of the season.

 

[Libba39]

So Neale is this week's Majak Daw award winner

100%.

I do rate the guy though. Big unit and does the right things.

Oh to have had Darcy up the other end last night...

 

[Mr. Walker]

To make a bad night even worse I had to endure the inane commentary of Brian Taylor, Cornes, McLachlan the Lesser and Luke Hodge.
I was frustrated early with our over doing the handball and handballing to someone under more pressure to stuff up the chain. Taylor and Cornes assured me this was due to Geelongs excellent pressure. ( did others see it this way?)
Then Hodge expressed his bewilderment at the Dogs letting Sniff go for such a low pick. Really.???????
It is beyond the pale that these clowns are foisted upon us in addition to a poor team performance. Oh the humanity.

 

[Dogs Rule]

Those on here blaming umpires are delusional.

We should have won but we didn’t bring enough pressure in the first half and we didn’t convert our chances in the second half when we had the momentum.

Even though it didn’t get the job done, I’m proud of our effort in the second half.

We are 6-8 ladder team based on performances to date. Let’s see if that changes in the second half of the season.

Let’s hope this burns deep over the bye and drives us for the second half of the season.

Don't think people are blaming the umps, it just doesn't help.

We lost it in the second, we lost it through poor conversion, we were constantly playing catch up. We lost our composure at times.

It's just missed opportunities. That's the story of our season so far again. We look like world beaters one minute, also rans the next. We need a scalp, we need to beat Hawthorn and Brisbane to get some proper credibility. I would even take a loss against a poorer side if it meant beating Brisbane and especially Hawthorn.

 

[Dog 36]

Cornes is a bitter man he can’t get over us destroying his travel plans in 21 when he was like a peacock before the game and we know how that ended what a wonderful preliminary final that was

 

[Dogs Rule]

To make a bad night even worse I had to endure the inane commentary of Brian Taylor, Cornes, McLachlan the Lesser and Luke Hodge.
I was frustrated early with our over doing the handball and handballing to someone under more pressure to stuff up the chain. Taylor and Cornes assured me this was due to Geelongs excellent pressure. ( did others see it this way?)
Then Hodge expressed his bewilderment at the Dogs letting Sniff go for such a low pick. Really.???????
It is beyond the pale that these clowns are foisted upon us in addition to a poor team performance. Oh the humanity.

The memory of a goldfish these media campaigners.

Sniff walked out and held the club to ransom and the Geelong media mafia and Geelong the club talked down his value to the point in the end most probably thought we were trading Sedat Sir.

What do these tools want? They talk him down and then now say we let him go too cheaply. Which one is it? We were snookered and Sniff, Geelong deliberately did that, enabled by their friends in high places including the media.

 

[_Mike_]

Not worried about last night, could have easily been a blow out getting smashed by 10 goals after a poor 2nd qtr.

Nerves etc got the better of them at crucial moments. Would have been nice to see that mongrel in English during the 1st to 3rd qtrs.

Not all is lost

 

[seaweed]

Went to bed at half time as I was sick of the handbally, scrappy, fumbly football.