Autopsy Cats def Dogs 104-81

[Cadillac]

Think last night proved that one has to go. No mobility when it hits the floor with those two and smith

Yep. I feel like the selection committee feel obliged to keep Clay in the side because he has a purple patch where he will kick us some goals throughout the game. But bloody hell he looks ordinary when he's not impacting the score board. Absolutely love him to death. But he just lacks mobility below his knees for only a medium/small forward. And it's not his fault either. 3 knees would do that to anyone.

We are lacking a genuine speedy goalsneak who can put on defensive pressure inside forward 50. It's the one position that stands out like dogs balls for us. We just look so bloody slow up forward.

 

[Dog 36]

Was a tough and frustrating night last night. One thing that didn't help at all was the fact Cloke, Red, Clay and Dicko were our main forwards and I don't think they have played ever games together so very hard to get cohesion.

We just need to get some cohesion in the side with the 22 that go out there. We missed Liber out there he should not have been dropped.

Disappointed that Dangerfield always does well against us and H.Taylor and I feel we are not pro active in that area we seem to concede to those type of scenarios.

Also felt 5 changes was a lot with the guys that came in had missed large chunks of senior football.

As for the holding the ball rule, illegal disposal etc toss of a coin I say and we were on the receiving end but that's not to blame for the loss

Persist with Williams, Dale and Webb. Welcome back Wallis.

We need to stop playing catch up football and when we are in front learn to put the scoreboard pressure.

 

[compact72]

Can kiss the Friday night games goodbye

 

[Gollo]

Not sure where any hate for Williams lies. I thought he was exceptional. Remember, this is a guy who has played <10 games. His poise is Pendlebury-esque, and the ease with which he was able to get around any first opponent was extraordinary, problem was he just wasn't able to do it for the second, third opponents who came to him, causing him to kick often under pressure. He'll learn with more experience to not overcomplicate and not to do too much. He is undoubtedly best 22 for mine, offers infinitely more than Suckling and has greater potential than Biggs (who still is best 22 at this stage).

I thought Dale was excellent as well, but I think we're at somewhat of a crossroads with Dale and Webb, as with Honeychurch now and Hrovat last year. Dale and Webb are fringe players, and I can't really ever see them being good enough to really crack a best 22 spot open in the future. They're excellent depth but I struggle to see why they are continually played ahead of more established players. Dale has no real best position and so floats between both ends, affecting Hunter and Macrae's time as link-up wingmen. Webb seems to be developing well as an inside mid but anyone would be kidding themselves to think that he will ever surpass Liberatore, Bontempelli, Wallis, Dahlhaus, Macrae for a consistent gig. I like that Bevo is willing to give guys like Biggs and Libba a kick up the ass when they're out of form but you can only play patch-up jobs for so long.

Suckling is a nothing footballer. What other attribute does he have besides his irritatingly inconsistent left boot?

I'm starting to really feel as if we've overloaded on too many versatile midfielders in our team and have too few specialist forwards. I'd say: Macrae, Hunter, Dahlhaus, Bontempelli, Liberatore, Daniel, Picken, Wallis, Jong, Webb and Dale are all primarily midfielders of some description. Of those, only Dahlhaus, Bontempelli and possibly Dale and Jong could be considered really solid forwardline players. We have far too many players, it seems, rotating between forward/wing/midfield who offer little as forwardline players. I think that's a really key issue regarding our inability to score efficiently. I like keeping Dickson and Smith in the side as they can actually kick goals on a consistent basis, unlike so many of our midfielders who spend much of their time in the forward half. We could also do with swinging Murphy forward, who actually has real experience as a goalkicker, as our half-back stocks are pretty full.

 

[WBD76]

Crazy game. Well done on the battle dogs, absolute 50/50, incredible 3rd quarter comeback. You'll be there and abouts for sure

Excuse me mate, but it's our side that's wearing the gold logo, not your's. A bit of humility wouldn't go astray!

 

[_Mike_]

We could do have done with another running player last night. I think we went a little too tall

 

[Libba39]

Not sure where any hate for Williams lies. I thought he was exceptional. Remember, this is a guy who has played <10 games. His poise is Pendlebury-esque, and the ease with which he was able to get around any first opponent was extraordinary, problem was he just wasn't able to do it for the second, third opponents who came to him, causing him to kick often under pressure. He'll learn with more experience to not overcomplicate and not to do too much. He is undoubtedly best 22 for mine, offers infinitely more than Suckling and has greater potential than Biggs (who still is best 22 at this stage).

I thought Dale was excellent as well, but I think we're at somewhat of a crossroads with Dale and Webb, as with Honeychurch now and Hrovat last year. Dale and Webb are fringe players, and I can't really ever see them being good enough to really crack a best 22 spot open in the future. They're excellent depth but I struggle to see why they are continually played ahead of more established players. Dale has no real best position and so floats between both ends, affecting Hunter and Macrae's time as link-up wingmen. Webb seems to be developing well as an inside mid but anyone would be kidding themselves to think that he will ever surpass Liberatore, Bontempelli, Wallis, Dahlhaus, Macrae for a consistent gig. I like that Bevo is willing to give guys like Biggs and Libba a kick up the ass when they're out of form but you can only play patch-up jobs for so long.

Suckling is a nothing footballer. What other attribute does he have besides his irritatingly inconsistent left boot?

I'm starting to really feel as if we've overloaded on too many versatile midfielders in our team and have too few specialist forwards. I'd say: Macrae, Hunter, Dahlhaus, Bontempelli, Liberatore, Daniel, Picken, Wallis, Jong, Webb and Dale are all primarily midfielders of some description. Of those, only Dahlhaus, Bontempelli and possibly Dale and Jong could be considered really solid forwardline players. We have far too many players, it seems, rotating between forward/wing/midfield who offer little as forwardline players. I think that's a really key issue regarding our inability to score efficiently. I like keeping Dickson and Smith in the side as they can actually kick goals on a consistent basis, unlike so many of our midfielders who spend much of their time in the forward half. We could also do with swinging Murphy forward, who actually has real experience as a goalkicker, as our half-back stocks are pretty full.

Good post!

I thought Dale and Wiliams were surprising good in the clinches last night.

 

[ExRoyboy]

People going on about worst Premiership defence in history need to calm down. There have been many worse. However we definitely are not playing as well as we did at the end of last year.

Also this stretch of games was always going to be a hard one for us. The games against the contenders in GWS, West Coast and Geelong were all away games. We were always going to be lucky to pinch maybe one of them. In the end I think we could and should have pinched two if we had kicked straight against GWS and WC and made the most of our opportunities. One thing we did in the finals last year was not butcher our opportunities as much as we normally do and unfortunately we have reverted back to the norm this year.

When you look at a teams draw you have to look not only at who they play twice but also who they play at home vs who they play away. Now I'm not sure about GWS or Geelong but this is one of the reasons why I think Adelaide in particular have been kissed on the dick by the AFL this year because they only have to travel for a couple of hard games all year. They basically get every other contender at their home ground. Whereas if you look at our draw we play a lot of the top teams away even if we only play them once. This section of the fixture was always going to be tough and we went 1-3, could have easily been 3-1 and probably should have been 2-2. Only got ourselves to blame for losing to GWS. While the umpiring last night was really bad in my view, it again was not the reason we lost. Geelong was fired up by all of the negative commentary on their lack of effort at tackling for the last three weeks and knowing Joel Selwood, I'm sure he would have put it on each and every player to almost kill us in every tackle and they did. We got bullied by them in the second quarter in particular. Every time I heard an analysis of Geelong this week I wanted to yell shut up and stop laying it on them because I knew this would be the result. However, they were also playing at their beloved home ground where they rarely lose and we rarely win. Same with West Coast. This is an example of my point above, we don't have return games against either team and yet both of them got to play us on their home ground. Adelaide is in the same position, we only play them once and it's in Adelaide.
We are the reigning Premier but we have been given a really hard draw in terms of where we have to play the other top teams. The only ones we get to play at home are really GWS and Sydney, who are out of it anyway.
Where you play a team is critical. If we played West Coast at home instead of at Domain we win easily. Even Geelong we would have a much better chance of beating them at Etihad than down there. So I still think given the back end of our draw we will make the finals, probably not top 4 but we didn't finish top 4 last year either, so we just have to make it but next week is crucial, we must beat StKilda.

 

[Zgope1]

I'm pretty crushed about how this season has played out. I told all and sundry that I never wanted the season to start because I knew there was nowhere happy to go with footy after last year. Bit dramatic but this has just been so crumby.

We started the year flakey due to being too outside. Then we got tough but we couldn't kick a goal. Then last night we're flakey again due to one ruck and whatever else I can't figure out.

Positives:

Tommy Boyd had the second best game of his career, but I'm actually open to it being his best. Wow he's judged harshly.

Contrary to some comments here I am LOVING Bailey Williams. So smooth and can creep through any crack. Stick with the kid!

Jong too is evolving. He still does some dumb stuff but I'm noticing him use a sidestep here and there and actually trying to get more out of his possessions.

Adams is the real deal as a key back.


Altogether things look sound and in place for a long window of tough footy. We're getting important footy into kids who have talent. This is annoying. We may not make finals this year because we just haven't been good enough.

 

[Libba39]

Can kiss the Friday night games goodbye

Why????

We've been in each game up to our eyeballs and each has been close whether we've won or lost. The networks would be happy because there are no blow-outs causing people to switch off.

 

[hutchy31]

In trouble:

Smith (Mclean)
Webb (Libba)
Cloke/redpath (roughead)
Suckling (Biggs)

Picken is moving towards the red zone as well.

Big VFL game coming up.

Picken us fully in the red zone, has been anonymous for weeks and if Bevo is serious about dropping for form reasons he has to be given a spell. He's either not right after the head knock or he's just badly out of form. Either way, give him a week or two to sort it out.

As for the others, hardly anyone played for more than two quarters so I don't really know who to drop.

Wallis was great though. Gun.

 

[footyfan000001]

I was a massive fan of Cordy as a mobile CHF last year which was part of our premiership structure. I know he was drafted as a back but baffles me as to why we haven't given that another go. Understand we got Cloke and Red but they just didn't seem to have the same physical presence as Cordy who was literally there to crash packs and hurt blokes. Maybe just me!

 

[theburst]

I thought we'd go on with it at 3 quarter time. That Cloke 50m was like puncturing a balloon, and the Adams brain fade killed it.
TBoyd was great. Can't wait to have him and Roughhead together.
Very ordinary game from Hunter but probably keeps his spot.
Morris looked like he came back too early.
Redpath sometimes mistimes his leaps and his contested stuff is so-so. Back at Etihad for another chance.
The Bont, not a good one. Got dragged behind a couple of times early and wasn't influential enough.
Dahlhaus and JJ stars again(Jong too).

 

[Citydog]

Can kiss the Friday night games goodbye

That's a rubbish call, it was a great game last night for viewers.

 

[Northernsoul74]

We could do have done with another running player last night. I think we went a little too tall

We tried it but I'd be happy to never see Cloke and Redpath in the same team again. 1 or the other.

 

[Cadillac]

Can kiss the Friday night games goodbye

Thank god for that. They've been ruining my weekends all year.

 

[FootscrayDogs]

They played their GF against us last night. Set a club record for tackles! A couple of brain fades and abysmal 2nd quarter yet only lost by a small margin. Cmon people, all the positives are there. Just need consistency.

 

[Stringer2Dogs]

The carry on from this game is absolutely ridiculous. Just settle down.

It would have been nice to put Geelong away on their home turf, but we just couldn't quite get it done and their pressure was fantastic. To be honest i think the intensity of that first quarter was probably the highest i've ever seen, it certainly rivalled the GWS prelim in terms of pace and franticness.

Lets put things into perspective... Our losses have come to:

Freo in Perth
We got jumped by them and to be honest this is the loss that i'm most disappointed about because I feel that we should have won. We were in it up until right at the end. We've historically never played all that well in Perth and Freo are looking like finals contenders, they're not the team that they were last year. Either way, disappointing.

GWS in Canberra
We were playing out of Melbourne, we were in it all the way. Some freakish work from Patton to win them the game. GWS are a serious team. So be it. Could have gone either way. I thought we played well.

West Coast in Perth
They are flat track bullies over in Perth. We smash them here, they smash us there (minus the final last year). I don't rate them all that much but again we were in it until right at the end and it's a super tough road trip and very unique ground.

Geelong at Simonds
They were on the rebound, slaughtered in the media all week for a disgraceful pressure game against the Bombers. Danger and Selwood are both freaks. Danger kicking 4.0 with some of the most arsey goals i've seen all season when normally he can't kick a set shot to save his life pretty much summed up the game, they were just on. They really brought it to us but I thought we responded well. It was a cracking match minus Q2. Also, i don't want to attribute losing matches to umps because it doesn't come down to that, but geez there were some costly calls/non-calls.

We haven't won down at Simonds in years and struggle to beat Geelong at the best of times. We can take some serious positives out of last night. Wallis is back and looking great, Tom Boyd played his best in-season match for the club, Dickson back brings a cool head and a smart lead, Daniel is looking more and more like our version of Sam Mitchell, Jong getting better week-by-week to the point where he is one of our best, Dale showed some signs I haven't seen from him before at AFL level in a hotly contested game, Bailey Williams is getting more confidence and his side step and decision making is seriously starting to get there.

I think last night was a bit of reality check for the Bont. He has been fantastic all season but he copped A LOT of attention and didn't nail his opportunities in front of goal, as we have come to know 0.3 is pretty uncharacteristic of him. I think he'll be better for a game like that, he looked absolutely dejected walking off which is great to see.

Cloke, Suckling and Hunter out for mine. Very disappointed in their respective games. Suckling provided a nice couple of kicks, but jeez you've gotta be doing more than that to get a game in our side. Hunter just doesn't look anywhere near it at the moment, meant to be one of the fittest blokes at the club and barely offered anything, looks afraid to get his hands dirty. I think it's time to go back to the magoos to prove that he's the elite player that he was last year. And finally, Cloke, why on earth does Bev rush him back in? Didn't offer a thing in the first half and then basically cost us the game in the last quarter by arresting our momentum from the third. We would have been much better off with an extra mid instead of him considering how taxing the game was.

I fully expect a bounce back against the saints. I'm unsure as to why people are writing us off against them, they are not that good! Their wins against us have come with some of our worst injuries ala. Smith ACL in 2015 along with the Wallis leg break and Red ACL in 2016. We will win this game and then we're back on track considering how even the comp is this year. Onwards and upwards, trust the process.

 

[go you pups]

People going on about worst Premiership defence in history need to calm down. There have been many worse. However we definitely are not playing as well as we did at the end of last year.

Also this stretch of games was always going to be a hard one for us. The games against the contenders in GWS, West Coast and Geelong were all away games. We were always going to be lucky to pinch maybe one of them. In the end I think we could and should have pinched two if we had kicked straight against GWS and WC and made the most of our opportunities. One thing we did in the finals last year was not butcher our opportunities as much as we normally do and unfortunately we have reverted back to the norm this year.

When you look at a teams draw you have to look not only at who they play twice but also who they play at home vs who they play away. Now I'm not sure about GWS or Geelong but this is one of the reasons why I think Adelaide in particular have been kissed on the dick by the AFL this year because they only have to travel for a couple of hard games all year. They basically get every other contender at their home ground. Whereas if you look at our draw we play a lot of the top teams away even if we only play them once. This section of the fixture was always going to be tough and we went 1-3, could have easily been 3-1 and probably should have been 2-2. Only got ourselves to blame for losing to GWS. While the umpiring last night was really bad in my view, it again was not the reason we lost. Geelong was fired up by all of the negative commentary on their lack of effort at tackling for the last three weeks and knowing Joel Selwood, I'm sure he would have put it on each and every player to almost kill us in every tackle and they did. We got bullied by them in the second quarter in particular. Every time I heard an analysis of Geelong this week I wanted to yell shut up and stop laying it on them because I knew this would be the result. However, they were also playing at their beloved home ground where they rarely lose and we rarely win. Same with West Coast. This is an example of my point above, we don't have return games against either team and yet both of them got to play us on their home ground. Adelaide is in the same position, we only play them once and it's in Adelaide.
We are the reigning Premier but we have been given a really hard draw in terms of where we have to play the other top teams. The only ones we get to play at home are really GWS and Sydney, who are out of it anyway.
Where you play a team is critical. If we played West Coast at home instead of at Domain we win easily. Even Geelong we would have a much better chance of beating them at Etihad than down there. So I still think given the back end of our draw we will make the finals, probably not top 4 but we didn't finish top 4 last year either, so we just have to make it but next week is crucial, we must beat StKilda.

Our draw is tough

We play a lot of 6-12 type of teams coming up, St Kilda, Sydney, Melbourne will be tough, while Norf gave us a run for their money last time around.

We play West Coast and GWS at home on the run home too, absolute nonnegotiable we win these.

We must win our next two no matter what, but I have no confidence in our gameplan, match committee and coaching at the moment, all we have is skill and occasional effort.... What we dish up every week is the same old stuff, would like to see a dominant midfield performance sooner rather than later.

I'd love a much more determined, gritty, defensive effort next week and it starts in midfield cracking down on the likes of Jack Steven who has torn us to shreds in 2 of the last 3 we've played against them. Riewoldt always saves his best for us too, so making him accountable will be crucial too.

 

[Golden_6]

Not sure where any hate for Williams lies. I thought he was exceptional. Remember, this is a guy who has played <10 games. His poise is Pendlebury-esque, and the ease with which he was able to get around any first opponent was extraordinary, problem was he just wasn't able to do it for the second, third opponents who came to him, causing him to kick often under pressure. He'll learn with more experience to not overcomplicate and not to do too much. He is undoubtedly best 22 for mine, offers infinitely more than Suckling and has greater potential than Biggs (who still is best 22 at this stage).

I thought Dale was excellent as well, but I think we're at somewhat of a crossroads with Dale and Webb, as with Honeychurch now and Hrovat last year. Dale and Webb are fringe players, and I can't really ever see them being good enough to really crack a best 22 spot open in the future. They're excellent depth but I struggle to see why they are continually played ahead of more established players. Dale has no real best position and so floats between both ends, affecting Hunter and Macrae's time as link-up wingmen. Webb seems to be developing well as an inside mid but anyone would be kidding themselves to think that he will ever surpass Liberatore, Bontempelli, Wallis, Dahlhaus, Macrae for a consistent gig. I like that Bevo is willing to give guys like Biggs and Libba a kick up the ass when they're out of form but you can only play patch-up jobs for so long.

Suckling is a nothing footballer. What other attribute does he have besides his irritatingly inconsistent left boot?

I'm starting to really feel as if we've overloaded on too many versatile midfielders in our team and have too few specialist forwards. I'd say: Macrae, Hunter, Dahlhaus, Bontempelli, Liberatore, Daniel, Picken, Wallis, Jong, Webb and Dale are all primarily midfielders of some description. Of those, only Dahlhaus, Bontempelli and possibly Dale and Jong could be considered really solid forwardline players. We have far too many players, it seems, rotating between forward/wing/midfield who offer little as forwardline players. I think that's a really key issue regarding our inability to score efficiently. I like keeping Dickson and Smith in the side as they can actually kick goals on a consistent basis, unlike so many of our midfielders who spend much of their time in the forward half. We could also do with swinging Murphy forward, who actually has real experience as a goalkicker, as our half-back stocks are pretty full.

We have way too many midfield types in the team and not enough natural forwards which is absolutely correct but it becomes a balancing act. This structure will struggle in the regular season where higher scores are kicked and the games are more open. When the finals role around it becomes critical and suits us because kicking 60-80 points a game can win finals.

I don't really know what the solution is. Maybe once Roughy and Stringer are back we can just getting some cohesion between T Boyd, Redpath/Cloke, Stringer and Dickson as those 4 could be a deadly forward line combo.

 

[TempleKelvington]

Can kiss the Friday night games goodbye

Why?
it was a great game.


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[TempleKelvington]

Why do we keep playing Geelong in Geelong?

We played them at docklands last year and they beat us by 50pts.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Igloo]

I was a massive fan of Cordy as a mobile CHF last year which was part of our premiership structure. I know he was drafted as a back but baffles me as to why we haven't given that another go. Understand we got Cloke and Red but they just didn't seem to have the same physical presence as Cordy who was literally there to crash packs and hurt blokes. Maybe just me!

Had the same thought last night. I'd like to see it trialled again. I still think his best position will be in defence, but at the least the dude can move. He didn't get outmarked often when he was up there.

 

[fronkalicious]

We're not defending a premiership. We're trying to win one.

Big psychological difference

 

[maddog37]

Melts are fun.