Toast Bulldogs smash Norf 87-38. Lolnorf

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10 Josh Bruce (WB)

Surprising, I didnt think Bruce was the most influential player. English around the ground was far more influential than Bruce & Goldstein combined so Im bewildered that he got just the 1 vote.
 
Surprising, I didnt think Bruce was the most influential player. English around the ground was far more influential than Bruce & Goldstein combined so Im bewildered that he got just the 1 vote.
Yeah it seems a bit unfair that the guys who do all the work around the ground get less credit than the forwards but if they don't finish it off it means diddly squat!
 

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Western Bulldogs v North Melbourne
10 Josh Bruce (WB)
6 Caleb Daniel (WB)
4 Jason Johannisen (WB)
4 Easton Wood (WB)
2 Tom Liberatore (WB)
2 Hayden Crozier (WB)
1 Tim English (WB)
1 Alex Keath (WB)

Interesting that JJ and Wood must have each gotten a 4 vote from one coach and nothing from the other.
The only players the coaches agreed on were Bruce and Daniel. All were Bulldogs.

Demonstrates a good even performance.
 
Pretty difficult to compare Naughton to Schache when Naughton gets all the opposition attention and Schache basically recieves none.

Naughton would have kicked 5 or 6 himself with the delivery that we gave on Saturday night.

Unless Schache recieves it on a platter hes not worth much, and in finals environment he's one of the first to go missing.

Naughton was starting to come good against the Swans. And i wouldn't change our backline at all considering we have conceeded under 40 points 3 weeks in a row.
Don’t agree. There was one instance that Schache led hard and it dragged two north defenders to counter him. Left Bruce plenty of space to then jag a one on one from memory. That is the definition of getting the oppo attention. Watch him carefully, he runs his opponent ragged and provides quality leads which force defenders to panic. Makes our forward instantly more mobile and dangerous. He’s also still a youngster, so while he may never be a mongrelise he’s a smart footballer.....
 
I'm not against Naughton going back, especially if Bruce and Schache keep working so well together, and if Marra earns a spot from the get-go. Who do we lose from the back 7 though? If Wood's form drops off a cliff then him, but if not? Cordy I suppose, but he's going well right now.

Wood will be 31 at the start of next season and is a soft tissue injury waiting to happen. Plus his form was pretty poor last year.

Any good footy we get out of him from here is a bonus.

Naughton back would be awesome to watch. Keath, Naughton, crozier and Williams would dominate in the air.
 
Schache (per game stats)
  • 1.7 goals
  • 10.1 disposals
  • 2.6 marks
  • 1.6 tackles
Naughton (per game stats)
  • 1.2 goals
  • 10.1 disposals
  • 5.3 marks
  • 1.6 tackles
Main difference statistically has just been Naughton's contested marking and Schache's goal accuracy

Many thanks Cherry. Interesting stuff.

Not much in it statistically (I’m more than aware that stats don’t tell the whole story of course). Schache was solid for us last year.
 
Can someone lay out a comparative table of key stats of Schache and Naughton compared to the most recent best kpfs in the game after the same amount of games played?
 
I do acknowledge the leading patterns and good user of the ball that Schache is. I think we all can agree upon that.

However if we are trying to replicate the 2016 finals forward line formula the Naughton is far better suited than Schache.

Whilst in 2016 Redpath was statistically the better forward (obviously missed finals due to injury), I think Cordy was more suited to the high ball, bring the ball to ground and provide pressure style that was successful in 2016. Obviously both Schache and Naughton have more tricks to their bow than those players but I feel the similar style of Naughton as the high ball specialist and good defensive pressure, will be more suited than Schache.

i just cant see Schache providing any major indent in a big final. When clean ball goes out the window and high kicks down the line are primarily used, in conjunction with the need for a strong defensive pressure across the ground, I just feel his game will be completely shut out.

Not to mention that you can find good defenders just about anywhere. How many top selections do we have in our current backline thats been performing so well. Daniel (Pick 46), Williams (Pick 50 odd), JJ (Rookie), Wood (pick 40 odd), Keath (2nd round trade), Cordy (Pick 62), Crozier (Pick 41 via trade)

2016 backline is similar. Boyd, Morris, Biggs, Wood, Roberts, Hamling, JJ all later selections.

By all means if our defense is under siege and we need Naughton to stem the flow, then absolutely switch him back. But we should back our midfield in to get the job done more often than not.
 
Wood will be 31 at the start of next season and is a soft tissue injury waiting to happen. Plus his form was pretty poor last year.

Any good footy we get out of him from here is a bonus.

Naughton back would be awesome to watch. Keath, Naughton, crozier and Williams would dominate in the air.
He's pretty awesome to watch up forward too. But you can put me squarely in the "don't mind which end he's at" camp. Either way we're golden.

"Where do we play all our gun talls?" is not a problem I ever expected to have. It's glorious.
 
He's pretty awesome to watch up forward too. But you can put me squarely in the "don't mind which end he's at" camp. Either way we're golden.

"Where do we play all our gun talls?" is not a problem I ever expected to have. It's glorious.

He’s fun to watch forward, but I’m not convinced how effective he is. He’ll improve, no doubt, but I think we’re sitting on potentially the best key defender in the competition.
 
He's pretty awesome to watch up forward too. But you can put me squarely in the "don't mind which end he's at" camp. Either way we're golden.

"Where do we play all our gun talls?" is not a problem I ever expected to have. It's glorious.
Even more glorious when you think that this draft we get exclusive rights to a top 3 (possibly #1) tall forward and (by Matt Rendells reckoning) a top 20 tall defender, both at a discount.

(In Plow voice) I f we don't win flags with this list, I'll spew up
 

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Did we ever get to see Schache, Bruce and Naughton play together? Wasn't that the plan during pre season?
Yeah it was. In R1 we went Bruce/Naughton/Lew Young up forward, gave them no chance with 20 odd forward entries and seemingly abondoned the whole 3 talls strategy.

A lot of strategies and selections for those first 2 rounds seem very odd now but Bevo moves in mysterious ways.

Still keen to see how Bruce/Naughton/Schache would go but it'll be a while before that's even a possibility.
 
Interesting analysis of the charge on the AFL website.

Apparently at least one arm needs to be pinned (reduced from 2 under the previous interpretation), and Crozier did not have an arm pinned.

We wait and see......
It wasn't high contact either, Crozier held him around his waist.
 
Yeah it was. In R1 we went Bruce/Naughton/Lew Young up forward, gave them no chance with 20 odd forward entries and seemingly abondoned the whole 3 talls strategy.

A lot of strategies and selections for those first 2 rounds seem very odd now but Bevo moves in mysterious ways.

Still keen to see how Bruce/Naughton/Schache would go but it'll be a while before that's even a possibility.

A flawed setup however in rebuttal, entry into the FW50 was abysmal too.
 

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