Prediction Changes v Freo (3:15pm Sunday @ Marvel)

[Mofra]

I'd like to think we'd get an impactful game from Jones but I'm not optimistic. On recent VFL form his bursts have been good but not convinced about his whole game involvement. Had Dolan been fit and available I'd much prefer him. Happy to admit my doubts were misplaced if Arty makes a good contribution.

If Arty is playing the McNeill/VDM role he can still make a big contribution with minimal disposals.
He has speed and brings energy to the group. I hope he plays well.

 

[NthBondiDoggies]

You are correct in pointing out the Ed Richards approach in building him up. Will point out Richards struggled alot at half forward.

Until his strength reaches its top end he will be patchy.

New draftees do not complete the full pre season until the 4th year, until then players even players drafted in the first 3 can have down patches, very few don't.

He will end up a solid B grader, which will eventually slot in well as an in and under mid who with strength and fitness built up over the next couple of years will also improve all aspects of pressure.

In the meantime he will be patchy in development

Certainly looks like we are playing him out of position. He is an inside midfielder - and a good one for someone his age.

He is the perfect long term replacement for Libba - his hands are excellent and what you need as a first possession player - he isn’t ready to take big minutes yet but I believe we will see him evolve there next year and be very happy with our pick. At least until he goes to Tassie

Good news for us is Libba keeps on going and this allows us to get more development into Sanders but this year I don’t think this has worked.

He hasn’t really worked on his true craft - trying tinker a role he is not suited for - played as a HFF or even winger - who plays as an extra mid - I think we would have been better off playing Hynes more in his natural role as HFF/mid and Jacques as wing.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

If we treat this as a pre-finals game I'm just that bit more hopeful because we have a genuine home ground advantage.

A game that we're familiar in the stadium with hopefully 35,000 or whatever more fans than the opposition, in an enclosed stadium where the noise and momentum can fold back on itself and maybe just give that little push to our players (or the umpires, lol) to help us to a narrow win.

It's incredibly rare for this to happen to us with this good of a crowd although we stuffed it in the Adelaide game, but what annoys me is that the four western teams get this benefit every second week and still have the nerve to complain about how the AFL systems favour us when if anything they favour the western crowds. For instance our game over there early in the year had 41,000 people and an equally strong advantage to them, but it wasn't notable or interesting because they get it every second week. Us merely matching their advantage - they usually only played one other game in Docklands this year and it was in May - is notable for us but routine for them.

Take it for what it is because we won't have an advantage in finals itself. Ridiculous that we are forced to host all our finals at the MCG where against and interstate team we won't pack the stadium and our fans are unfamiliar. Yet when we travel to Sydney or SEQ GWS or GC aren't forced to play in their not-usual home ground.

 

[BrisDog]

Certainly looks like we are playing him out of position. He is an inside midfielder - and a good one for someone his age.

He is the perfect long term replacement for Libba - his hands are excellent and what you need as a first possession player - he isn’t ready to take big minutes yet but I believe we will see him evolve there next year and be very happy with our pick. At least until he goes to Tassie

Good news for us is Libba keeps on going and this allows us to get more development into Sanders but this year I don’t think this has worked.

He hasn’t really worked on his true craft - trying tinker a role he is not suited for - played as a HFF or even winger - who plays as an extra mid - I think we would have been better off playing Hynes more in his natural role as HFF/mid and Jacques as wing.

I wouldn’t be comparing Sanders to Liberatore. I’m not sure I have seen a harder nut (maybe his Dad?) at the dogs than Libba. Libba’s longevity, even with 2 x ACL’s concussion, pingers…..is truly legendary.

Comparing anyone to Tom Liberatore is a bit cruel to them.

 

[dropbear101]

F*cking lol

View attachment 2403767

the west never fails to read the room. truly brilliant bunch. But also consistently funny.

If we treat this as a pre-finals game I'm just that bit more hopeful because we have a genuine home ground advantage.

A game that we're familiar in the stadium with hopefully 35,000 or whatever more fans than the opposition, in an enclosed stadium where the noise and momentum can fold back on itself and maybe just give that little push to our players (or the umpires, lol) to help us to a narrow win.

It's incredibly rare for this to happen to us with this good of a crowd although we stuffed it in the Adelaide game, but what annoys me is that the four western teams get this benefit every second week and still have the nerve to complain about how the AFL systems favour us when if anything they favour the western crowds. For instance our game over there early in the year had 41,000 people and an equally strong advantage to them, but it wasn't notable or interesting because they get it every second week. Us merely matching their advantage - they usually only played one other game in Docklands this year and it was in May - is notable for us but routine for them.

Take it for what it is because we won't have an advantage in finals itself. Ridiculous that we are forced to host all our finals at the MCG where against and interstate team we won't pack the stadium and our fans are unfamiliar. Yet when we travel to Sydney or SEQ GWS or GC aren't forced to play in their not-usual home ground.

the crowd favours thing is much more of a finals thing and a young teams issue. It becomes a real issue for 3 issues
1) wear, tear and skill development. flying as much as we do is super important in terms of recovery and sleep. jack graham was shocked about coming to west coast this season. the reason was because west coast lose an extra days training per week over traveling.
2) it makes it harder to happen into the top 4 like geelong and collingwood do. you need to be rather good to be a good team away from western australia. which is needed to win enough to make top 4.
3) grand final is at the MCG.

Personnally i think the wear and tear thing is a real present issue. not so much for finals hardened teams like freo from 2010-2015. but contributes to back half season collapses that young freo sides have. aka 2016-2025.

 

[X_box_X]

 

[Freshwater]

the west never fails to read the room. truly brilliant bunch. But also consistently funny.

the crowd favours thing is much more of a finals thing and a young teams issue. It becomes a real issue for 3 issues
1) wear, tear and skill development. flying as much as we do is super important in terms of recovery and sleep. jack graham was shocked about coming to west coast this season. the reason was because west coast lose an extra days training per week over traveling.
2) it makes it harder to happen into the top 4 like geelong and collingwood do. you need to be rather good to be a good team away from western australia. which is needed to win enough to make top 4.
3) grand final is at the MCG.

Personnally i think the wear and tear thing is a real present issue. not so much for finals hardened teams like freo from 2010-2015. but contributes to back half season collapses that young freo sides have. aka 2016-2025.

Personally I don’t know why Freo and West Coast don’t do occasional two weeks home then two away games and stay the week between. I know they’d be away from family for a week but twice a year could be bonding and greatly reduce travel.

 

[HK_Bulldog]

If Luke Darcy didn’t root we wouldn’t have Sam Darcy.

No point thinking about hypotheticals for who we didn’t draft.

That trade was a decision which resulted in a poorer list outcome. Something to learn from. I’m pretty sure Luke Darcy wasn’t going around rooting so that the Western Bulldogs could get Sam Darcy.

 

[dropbear101]

Personally I don’t know why Freo and West Coast don’t do occasional two weeks home then two away games and stay the week between. I know they’d be away from family for a week but twice a year could be bonding and greatly reduce travel.

fixturing i think. optus stadium getting used every week helps in employment and catering.

 

[The White Mouse]

Sando is Libbas replacement. Simple as that. Just can’t get into the midfield at the moment. He’ll be fine.

Looks more Mitch Wallis than Libba to my eye. Libba is a fantastic kick off both feet ... and the other stuff.

 

[House_of_Dahl]

If Luke Darcy didn’t root we wouldn’t have Sam Darcy.

No point thinking about hypotheticals for who we didn’t draft.

Apparently Zimmerman has put up posters in all the player's lockers - "Unprotected sex, do it for the team", "Unprotected sex, one for you, one for the kennel", "Don't do drugs, have unprotected sex instead".

 

[maddog37]

Based on what I have read here I think we should immediately delist Sanders.

While we are at it I feel Sam Power

Sam Power

Age

42

Ht

190cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.7

4star

K

7.8

3star

HB

6.9

4star

M

4.2

4star

T

2.0

4star

No current season stats available

D

7.8

2star

K

3.8

2star

HB

4.0

3star

M

1.8

2star

T

1.6

4star

should go too for such frivolous use of draft picks.

 

[DiamondDogs8]

A 50 point win would see us finish with the highest % in the comp

 

[St 07]

Based on what I have read here I think we should immediately delist Sanders.

While we are at it I feel Sam Power should go too for such frivolous use of draft picks.

The trick is to glance but not absorb the information

 

[perro_loco]

Because simply your looking at the last 3 weeks as judgement on a second year player and what we gave up to get him and Croft like it is some evidence of a mistake by our club.

Sick to death of posters making out we as a club are poor, settle for medioracy, never learn from mistakes when we have never been better run on or off the field than we are now.

I agree that Sanders needs a rest and has to show something in the VFL final next week to get back into pur AFL team. But to not acknowledge that he is getting close to being a best 22 which is what you want from a number 6 pick in a draft is simply nonsense

Both Freijah and Sanders have each played 35 games. Freijah was an amazing find at pick 40 something. At this stage these players can have really good games, but then drop off. It is the nature of being young players with developing bodies. Both played 21 games this season and 14 last season. So not bad output. I still hold hope that they will be pretty good players. Not Bont or Judd types but really good. These guys are outliers, whereas Sanders and Freijah are closer but above the mean in terms of quality. Red was not a superstar in his first two years, but he is having the best season yet of his career. I like the predictive nature of your argument, but I think you need more data to prove your point. The real freak show for a tall player in IMO, and the Messi equivalent in sporting terms has to be Darcy. In two years he will kill it!!!

 

[CDBulldog]

I’ve held stocks in Arty for years and never sold. I know some on here had written him off, but I always felt that was a bit unfair. He came in at about 65kg, so of course he wasn’t going to impact straight away. But the talent was there, the character was there, the energy was there.

He was always a long term project. He had to learn how to eat, train, and build his body before he could show it. Some kids burst onto the scene, others need time. Arty is the latter.

Even when he was overrunning balls in the VFL, it wasn’t because he hesitated. He was attacking the footy at full speed. It was only a matter of time before his technique and lower body strength caught up so he could gather cleanly at pace.

He still has a way to go. At 180cm he isn’t small, but he has more weight to add and will get tested against stronger bodies. In time though, imo he’ll be locked into the best 22 and pushing into the top bracket of half forwards.

I wish I shared your optimism. K see him as a flashy player, where he will have games where he does some great things and others where he is unsighted. Consistency will be his issue. At the moment he still needs to get more involved in the play. Far too many patches of game time where he’s invisible.

 

[glenashley]

Sanders had been nothing but vanilla.
. Point is, we knew that when we drafted him....

 

[grassman75]

Personally I don’t know why Freo and West Coast don’t do occasional two weeks home then two away games and stay the week between. I know they’d be away from family for a week but twice a year could be bonding and greatly reduce travel.

I suggested something like this earlier in the year

Week 1 - Derby WC v Freo
Week 2 - 2 VIC sides travel to WA (one from top half, one from bottom half - based on pr3vious season) play one side each
Week 3 - Flip the Fixture
Week 4 - All 4 teams Bye

This could also apply to Brisbane / GC on alternating years with WC / Freo due to the travel distance

Can’t see why this doesn’t work. WA teams get 4 weeks at home, two VIC sides stay away for 1 week and come back with a bye round

 

[perro_loco]

In projecting future output you look at most recent form. Of course you don't throw out all form before that, but you can't ignore any form.

We traded up specifically to draft Sanders. The decision to do so is predicated on Sanders' output of his career. That is fair enough.

We have to treat is as a mistake because there were viable other options, involving some combination of keeping pick 12 of 2013 and our first rounder in 2024.

We've made a lot of excellent trades over recent years to become a good club now. If anything I'm the one that was arguing we were playing better than others on this board over the last 3 years. I've gotten into dumb debates that we're a top 4 team and we've been "unlucky" last four years. You don't have to convince me.

Me pointing out that we may have made one specific bad trade doesn't mean we're an overall poorly run club, it's literally just one trade, bloody hell.


But I'm specifically making the comparison to Sanders earlier in the year.

For all the argument that he "needs a rest" isn't there the counterfactual argument that people put here that young players need experience, and that he's vastly more experienced now - he's doubled his games played at AFL level than when he was playing better games at the start of the season.

Why hasn't Dan Curtin for Adelaide's form dropped because "he needs a rest"? Colby McKercher? Connor O'Sullivan?

And to repeat myself, we specifically overpaid for the value of the pick 6 to draft Sanders. Even if Sanders exactly meets the expectations of pick 6 - doesn't fail to meet them, doesn't exceed them, just meets them - it would still be a bad trade, because we paid more than the value of pick 6 to reach get Sanders.

to say that sanders was a bad trade after only 35 games is inaccurate. if he were a pick 6 and he turns out like a coffield, then that is a bad pick/trade.

 

[perro_loco]

Sanders will.be a very good midfielder in the medium to long term like a Travis Boak type. Just chill the **** out man who cares its just footy and spring is almost here so go outside and smell the jasmine and watch the birds go about their business life's a gift so let's just enjoy it without stressing over how many career coaches votes Sanders gets and whether that mathematically justifies trading pickle blah blah for pickle 6 go outside and enjoy the small of freshly cut grass and give your loved ones a big hug and breath in that fresh spring air

F$ck the magpies when I am riding my bike!!!

 

[Freshwater]

I suggested something like this earlier in the year

Week 1 - Derby WC v Freo
Week 2 - 2 VIC sides travel to WA (one from top half, one from bottom half - based on pr3vious season) play one side each
Week 3 - Flip the Fixture
Week 4 - All 4 teams Bye

This could also apply to Brisbane / GC on alternating years with WC / Freo due to the travel distance

Can’t see why this doesn’t work. WA teams get 4 weeks at home, two VIC sides stay away for 1 week and come back with a bye round

Queensland is not nearly as bad. Only 2 hours from Melbourne and only 1 from NSW.

 

[grassman75]

Queensland is not nearly as bad. Only 2 hours from Melbourne and only 1 from NSW.

I meant the WA teams go to Qld and vice versa

 

[Chalky White]

Sanders had been nothing but vanilla.
. Point is, we knew that when we drafted him....

I'm not sure we did. Otherwise we wouldb't have given up as much as we did for him

 

[Pencil case]

to say that sanders was a bad trade after only 35 games is inaccurate. if he were a pick 6 and he turns out like a coffield, then that is a bad pick/trade.

Especially when only 3 weeks ago everyone on here was singing his praises and saying he’s a superstar.

God forbid a second year player has a form slump after 20 weeks in a row of playing at AFL level.

f#%*ing LOL

 

[bresker]

There's nothing more certain than death, taxes and the Bigfooty tradition of writing off Bulldogs players before they've played 100 games.

"Do you think any of the SA clubs will take Bailey Dale

31

Bailey Dale

Age

29

Ht

188cm

Wt

85kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

13.2

3star

K

7.6

3star

HB

5.6

4star

M

3.1

3star

T

1.6

4star

MG

117.4

2star

D

9.0

2star

K

5.1

2star

HB

3.9

3star

M

2.3

2star

T

1.7

3star

MG

117.4

2star

D

8.0

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.0

3star

M

1.4

2star

T

2.0

4star

off our hands for a 2nd rounder?"