Autopsy Dogs lack spark v Port Power, 55-42 loss

[dogwatch]

Any chance other states actually test more so their COVID numbers rise and we can call this bullshit off

Not being able to play at home has destroyed us

Could still happen in SA and Qld because they are next to Vic and NSW and leakage just happens.

The only state that looks pretty safe right now is the one that locked down hardest. And Clive Palmer is trying to undo that.

 

[dogwatch]

The training in separate groups of eight really wasn't ideal for us when we're trying to improvise a structure.
It suits teams with their pillars in place like Brisbane, the Eagles or the Tiges.
Look at Geelong, the red & black , or the Pies for what happens this year when you need to redesign your plan due to outs.

That, plus being away from Docklands, plus unavailability specifically hitting Naughton, Hunter, Jong and Dunkley, have undermined us.

We're not a bad side considering we are atheist on the subject of ruckmen, agnostic on the subject of tagging and have used approximately nine thousand players this year.

I'm a believer!

 

[immortalmike]

I think JJ is somewhat of an easy target.
The loss was due to not being able to convert our forward 50 chances. We continued to kick the ball on Bruce's head with no results. This was a failure of structure and game plan.

 

[X_box_X]

*, we are frustrating to watch at the minute. Our forwards are getting dominated way too easily.

It's stating the obvious, but we are missing Naughton A LOT. Port took so many intercept marks in defensive 50. That wouldn't happen nearly as often with Naughton there. If he doesn't mark it, he'd at least bring it to ground to give us a crumbing chance.

I'm looking forward to 2021 and beyond. It's an exciting time to be a Bulldogs supporter, but at the moment we aren't getting reward for effort. I trust in what we're building and hopefully us supporters aren't let down.

 

[ScragCity]

What it the reason most of you don't want Schache in. Yes he is soft. Last year if he played every game he was on track for 38 Goals.
He is our most natural forward who creates space for others. What do i see that most here dont.

He has absolutely no impact on the aerial contest. Not only does he not take marks but he allows his opponents to mark the footy at will. His mobility and athleticism suck and he is weak in a physical contest. His only function is as a decoy but any coach with half a brain knows they can just play a small on him and let their talls double team Bruce.

 

[Mojorisin]

A game we should've won. However our inability to play a full 4 qtrs and ability to kick between the big sticks cost us. Also doesn't help when you bomb long to a goal square full of 20 blokes

 

[Doggies_13]

I did a comparison based on the top twelve teams, but you are right our poor percentage does make it hard. The wacky nature of
the season has kind of evaporated home ground advantage a little though.

we could address our percentage but closing the gap between our best and worse and having a big win over the crows but atm I just think our percentage will hurt us.

Out of those games I see Brisbane and west coast as losses

Melbourne geelong as 50/50 at best we typically struggle v Geelong and English v Gawn worries me.

Crows, hawks and freo I see as winnable and us being favourite which we all know how that usually goes.

 

[Golden_6]

I think JJ is somewhat of an easy target.
The loss was due to not being able to convert our forward 50 chances. We continued to kick the ball on Bruce's head with no results. This was a failure of structure and game plan.

JJ wasn't the sole reason we lost, but he was a very big part of it. He literally handed them 3 goals on a platter in a game where they didn't even look like troubling the scoreboard in the first half. Those goals would've simply deflated the whole team after dominating for lengthy periods. I know he doesn't intentionally make the mistakes and you can excuse one every now and then, but multiple like those that we saw in the same game is inexcusable.

 

[immortalmike]

JJ wasn't the sole reason we lost, but he was a very big part of it. He literally handed them 3 goals on a platter in a game where they didn't even look like troubling the scoreboard in the first half. Those goals would've simply deflated the whole team after dominating for lengthy periods. I know he doesn't intentionally make the mistakes and you can excuse one every now and then, but multiple like those that we saw in the same game is inexcusable.

We should have been several goals up prior to the first of those mistakes. JJ was trying to take risks and break up the play the only inexcusable mistake was the handball.
The mistakes stood out and were obviously a contributing factor but they won't happen every week, our complete inability to score does.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

JJ directly cost us three goals which is frustrating, but there were many other players that were just as poor, if not worse. Other players that hurt us in less obvious ways include Richards giving the opposition the ball back at every opportunity, Bailey Smith getting run down three or four times, our huge number of passengers (Roarke, Weightman, Bruce, Lipinski on and off, Bont for most of the night, etc), Wood having an awful night and repeatedly leaving our defenders alone in awful positions (Croz also poor in this regard), and Vandermeer leaving four goals on the table. That's without even getting into issues with our system/game style/selection etc.

I'm eternally frustrated by the dumb things JJ does but to use him as a scapegoat because his mistakes are obvious is missing the point.

 

[Mattdougie]

Unpopular opinion but we really should have held onto Jake Stringer.

Said that from day one

couldn’t care how much of an a$$ he is he is/was our best forward

 

[Dogsbestfriend]

We should have been several goals up prior to the first of those mistakes. JJ was trying to take risks and break up the play the only inexcusable mistake was the handball.
The mistakes stood out and were obviously a contributing factor but they won't happen every week, our complete inability to score does.

Trying to take risks is fine but JJ made more mistakes than just one handball go back and watch the game again he literally handed them 3 goals and missed an almost certain one himself in the last.
Probably explains why he was so upset after the game.

As far as our ability to score it wasn’t a problem for the second half of last year and for 5 wins this year so if we don’t make glaring defensive errors our ability to score doesn’t come into it.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

It's stating the obvious, but we are missing Naughton A LOT. Port took so many intercept marks in defensive 50. That wouldn't happen nearly as often with Naughton there. If he doesn't mark it, he'd at least bring it to ground to give us a crumbing chance.

I don't buy that Naughton will correct this issue. It has plagued us for years and years and we have recruited to the nth degree to address this, to no avail. The only way we can reliably score is with an open field (which we can't actually generate ourselves, we rely on the opposition giving it to us), and with shock value - our last two leading goalkickers have had a much better than expected first year followed by a considerable drop in form. We don't have the ability to generate scores and I don't think it's a personnel problem.

 

[Dogsbestfriend]

Said that from day one

couldn’t care how much of an a$$ he is he is/was our best forward

Club is bigger than one individual player

 

[Lindsay_Gilbee]

I think JJ is somewhat of an easy target.
The loss was due to not being able to convert our forward 50 chances. We continued to kick the ball on Bruce's head with no results. This was a failure of structure and game plan.

He’s an easy target, just like Caleb Daniel. Every time we lose these are the ones they go for.

JJ has had a good season. Had an ordinary game tonight with some extremely ordinary moments, but the way some people carry on here is shocking.

The same ones who want Macrae or Dunkley gone when we lose badly. We have some shithouse posters on this board.

 

[Dogs Rule]

I think JJ is somewhat of an easy target.
The loss was due to not being able to convert our forward 50 chances. We continued to kick the ball on Bruce's head with no results. This was a failure of structure and game plan.

He’s definitely an easy target, but his two stuff ups were very, very costly, no escaping that.

The amount of blind, long bomb kicks we do out of defence and inside forward 50 doesn’t help us at all.

 

[X_box_X]

I don't buy that Naughton will correct this issue. It has plagued us for years and years and we have recruited to the nth degree to address this, to no avail. The only way we can reliably score is with an open field (which we can't actually generate ourselves, we rely on the opposition giving it to us), and with shock value - our last two leading goalkickers have had a much better than expected first year followed by a considerable drop in form. We don't have the ability to generate scores and I don't think it's a personnel problem.

Facts are facts. We have no issue getting the ball inside 50. The opposition rebound the ball way too easily. A lot of this is because we don't have the ability to bring the ball down to ground level to suit our strength. Astro is a key missing ingredient.

 

[Dogs Rule]

Said that from day one

couldn’t care how much of an a$$ he is he is/was our best forward

Please, please join our match committee oh wise one.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

The amount of blind, long bomb kicks we do out of defence and inside forward 50 doesn’t help us at all.

This is a product of the good/well-coached teams understanding our system and taking advantage of the things we don't do well. We run in packs in the hope that we can get some overlap handball going. If you don't get the receive, you keep running down the ground to hopefully find some space and receive a long kick. The problem is that this means that nobody presents for short kicks; nobody performs leads on the wings or around half forward - they either loiter and get mobbed (not an effective strategy given our players are built for endurance, not for marking contest strength), or they are down the field where the opposition are well-covered (and we now have four extra Dogs mids around the ball, clogging space).

The good teams are now readily closing down the ball carrier and lateral options, and flooding or zoning the long kick region. Port went one step further and practically tagged our high defenders and stopped our run from the source. The end result was that as soon as we got the ball we had no hit-up options to slow things down, there were no safe handball options, and long kicks were well covered. The safest bet was long kicks but that was not playing to our strengths.

This is a systematic issue that will continue to be problematic until we make tactical alterations. We have to learn how to use the mid-range space that opposition teams are happy giving us.

 

[Dogsman16]

I don't buy that Naughton will correct this issue. It has plagued us for years and years and we have recruited to the nth degree to address this, to no avail. The only way we can reliably score is with an open field (which we can't actually generate ourselves, we rely on the opposition giving it to us), and with shock value - our last two leading goalkickers have had a much better than expected first year followed by a considerable drop in form. We don't have the ability to generate scores and I don't think it's a personnel problem.

I actually do think its a personnel issue (to some extent). We have a combination of midfielders who can't get midfield time stuck in the forward line, as well as young raw players (Vandermeer, Weightman) who aren't ready to be consistent AFL players yet. Throw in the occasional not up to it player like Gowers, I think its more a personel issue than we think.

Bev hasn't really outlined a forward setup that he prefers. Let's say fully fit Naughton, Bruce and Wallis are the three that pick themselves. Apart from that Bev hasn't really got a set in stone forward setup which he could go about in different ways.

A) Prioritising players who capitalise on opportunities and clean entry. Dale, Schache, LLoyd
B) Development route - Weightman, Vandermeer etc.

You look at last night's game and that is the type of game (finals intensity) we should base our preferred setup. A combination of marking power, speed, and some finishers.

I'd go with this

HF: McLean, Naughton, JJ
FF: Wallis, Bruce, Jong

A setup like this has 3 tall/tallish marking options. All of Naughton, Bruce and Jong can take a big grab and are good under the high ball. Port's interceptors don't have a night like last night if we had more talls to seperate their defenders.

JJ needs a role change. If Duryea was fit I'd push JJ forward to provide a speedy option. Weightman and Vandermeer will become players hopefully but they are too inconsistent to provide us with a finals capable team in 2020. We urgently need some more speed and tackling pressure in the forward 50.

 

[Optimistic Dog]

The day after is easy to be more objective. We got effort and commitment for most of the game and except for where it counted on the scoreboard we were the better team.

So why did we lose.

1. Team selection. I like nearly all other posters could not understand why we went in with so many midfielders and such a small forward line. We knew Bruce struggled and simply cannot be the only marking target in the forward line and we were going to be in big trouble in the air. The selection of Roarke Smith was baffling and Weightman questionable. Any of Trengove, Young, Schache would have given us another tall and would assist Bruce. Would also stop McCrae being a second ruckmen. Bevo's team selection is a real problem Gardner, Gowers, Smith. Bevo we do not need to play every player on the list just because they are in the hub.

2. Execution unfortunately JJ made some bad blues and we missed some easy shots in the last quarter.


Some other points

Tim has been disappointing in recent weeks does he need a rest or help.
Cordy cannot even kick 45 metres has a shot and goes for a set up that even drops short.
Bont is struggling but played a better last quarter
We need Naughton this week hopefully he is fit. Would not expect a lot against Andrews but would get a contest and means Bruce gets second best defender.

 

[LondonBulldog]

Its the same old story, we play the territory game and our defence push up so high that it:

1. Crowds our forward line. There is not enough space often enough for our forwards. Always marking and having shots so wide and far out, no wonder our conversion is what it is.
2. When an error happens (and they do each week) we are burnt by a goal. Other sides are not burnt as much as they don't push their defenders up so high.

Can't we tweak it just a bit. Forwards get on your bike and constantly lead up creating space behind you even if your not given the ball you are creating. Lloyd and Weightman are examples of just getting in the wrong spots or being lead to the ball too often. I would be getting all the forward up high bar Bruce and Wally yet even they should have the licence to lead way up with the hope the gut runners of Richards and Vanda can work back. Open that forward line up!

 

[The Inbetweener]

Rumour that the umpires last night were SANFL umpires not AFL umpires... some sort of stuff up with entering the state. What a joke if true.

 

[Doggy]

Rumour that the umpires last night were SANFL umpires not AFL umpires... some sort of stuff up with entering the state. What a joke if true.

Umpired that way

 

[CarnTheScray]

Rumour that the umpires last night were SANFL umpires not AFL umpires... some sort of stuff up with entering the state. What a joke if true.

Explains a lot. Lots of HTB and ducks that weren't called against them.