Autopsy Dogs win another close one.

[bigbulldog67]

His nickname on this board is the ‘Piglet’ not wizard…

I saw someone call him the Glizzard this morning which is flipping hilarious

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

How good is future rematches between Watson / Sellwood & Lewis / Sicily going to be. Rivalry is shaping now we got one back on them.

I can’t help but think there is something going on with Bevo and Mitchell, he seems to go that extra yard to beat us, Mitchell.

 

[Mhiggo]

Why does Mabior Chol act like prime Buddy every time he kicks a goal? Absolute flog if the highest order, with his midget buddies Watson and Ginni not too far behind.

Speaking of Ginni was he on the sauce last night? An all time donut of a performance.

I reckon Ginni might have been trying too hard to get to every contest and been too knackered when he actually got the ball to be effective. Felt like he was everywhere in the second half but kept making terrible decisions or fluffing it.

 

[Sentinel]

Best bit about Hawthorn kicking 1.11 in the 2nd half is not having to see their stupid cringey secret handshakes and crowd salutes whenever they score a goal.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

I’m with Bev on this. I’ve always thought the criticism of McNeil was over the top. I get that he lacks a lot of polish around goals, but he doesn’t deserve to be pilloried for maxing out as a ‘nearly’ player that has given us something useful in a role we have really struggled to fill. For one of the last blokes picked he’s solid.

Bevo said he was "the glue" that I guess allows structures to operate, and when he went off that upset things a bit. So it's not kicking goals and taking hangers that are the be-all and end-all, who knew?

 

[bullish23]

The subtle genius of that kick out of the backline from Bont.

He gently signals to our player to run towards the boundary. He didn’t want to overplay the signal so that he was too obvious in that he wasn’t going to go there. Hawks thought they were onto him and all moved towards the boundary line. Then he pulls the kick - a perfect pass in-bound totally opening up the ground, something we had struggled with most of the night.

That was the real wizardry on display at the g last night.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Went to the game with a mate and said to him at half time: we are in this due to Hawthorn arrogance.

I mean seriously, over celebrating after every goal. Being dickheads at every opportunity. Their smart arse shots for goal with stupid dribble kicks that they will simply refer to as “not kicking straight” when really in the first half it was arrogant shit football.

In the second half we forced them to take more shots from difficult positions. If we brought it to ground in our backline I wasn’t too worried, I knew the only way they’d get another shot is from a mark.

 

[Sentinel]

Especially when he does this

View attachment 2630642

 

[Anja_Nees]

We would be in the top 4 rihht now with that win

Fine to be disappointed with a loss but I’ve seen the club a lot lower than 5th.

 

[Anja_Nees]

Why does Mabior Chol act like prime Buddy every time he kicks a goal? Absolute flog if the highest order, with his midget buddies Watson and Ginni not too far behind.

Speaking of Ginni was he on the sauce last night? An all time donut of a performance.

A lot of the players have adopted NBA style goal celebrations etc and it’s total cringe.

Chol’s a handy player but very dependent on supply and limited.

Watson’s a genuinely very good small forward but Ginnivan is also limited and depends a lot on the hard work of others. Carries on like he’s peak Ablett Snr.

 

[icyflakes]

Fine to be disappointed with a loss but I’ve seen the club a lot lower than 5th.

Given our injuries this season, I'm amazed we're even in top 6 contention. If we hadn't suffered that horrid run of injuries we'd easily be 2nd or 3rd - that we're here is super impressive and we've punched above our weight in a tough time.

 

[_Mike_]

Rubbish.
You can watch a replay on 7+.

And the AFL website puts the full match up as well

 

[Cookie]

Holy shit... Bevo calling out fans for making McNeil a whipping boy in his press conference

Well, we do have a point.

 

[Jen Geoffings]

To be honest I agree with Watson

Id love to see Sellwood for the second half of my night tonight

Me too.

 

[Claudonious]

It’s crazy how much good disposal off half back opens up the game in this era, like one good kick out of defence is the difference between going end to end and scoring or getting a goal kicked over your head.

I think we’re generally happy to take the risky kicks on and cop the turnovers that come with that, and to be fair when we don’t and we go slow and sideways we’re basically completely unable to move the footy.

It’s why I like Jaques, he’s not getting it a lot but when he does he’s always happy to take the game on by foot. And it’s why I’m desperate to see Bont off half back, that one kick off half back last night basically won us the game. Let’s get him in position to do that 15 times a game please.

The Bont kick off half back was awesome - as was the gut running by Hynes that delivered the goal

 

[manutd/dogs]

Where has that effort and aggression been against the Hawks the last 5 times?

Oh well, better late than never I guess.

Roiling, barely restrained, in the torrid crucible of Mick Sellwood's cojones.

 

[Anja_Nees]

Two key differences imo.

We settled and stop making so many errors.
And we started playing tough/hard.

We were fumbly in the first half, and too soft aswell. I thought our structure was OK most of the game.

You can never really be sure, but I got the impression the players were a bit spooked given Hawthorn’s recent record against us.

Some ridiculous uncharacteristic fumbles and basically skill errors.

 

[doggies2020]

Roiling, barely restrained, in the torrid crucible of Mick Sellwood's cojones.

Fast and loose

 

[the dog's kennel]

Very happy I went to the game last night!

I don’t think we exactly played out of our skins to win that, which is promising. But we exhibited a ton of resilience and fortitude to grind it out.

The second quarter was frustrating, as from up in the stands you could sense the momentum had shifted to the Hawks but instead of settling and bunkering down we were just itching to bite off too much to get things going our way and eventually made enough little blues in a row to give way to a run of Hawks goals.

Our decision making when kicking was baffling at times throughout the game, we took a number of really poor options each quarter and handed the Hawks a fair few repeat I50s.

I see this as a positive though, as we won but still have some real scope for improvement.

Less experienced players like Arty are just consistent games away from being really good. He’s does everything you could ask for from an effort perspective and does so many good things, but still makes some little mistakes that really hurt us, like running himself into trouble a couple of times or burning Kennedy pretty badly by not handballing when Kennedy was clear on goal (very hard to see on the broadcast). These are experience and not ability issues.

My take away is our lids should stay firmly on, but there’s no reason not to be optimistic. The team is showing tons of fight and is winning games despite not totally hitting their straps and relying on a number of kids.

Agree our lids should stay firmly on. But I want to emphasise the positive that you note. We are close to the youngest team in the league, and yet we won that game because we had significantly more mental strength than hawthorn did - that is Hawthorn, one of the 4 best teams in the comp.

We are not a Top 4 side right now. Hawthorn are CLEARLY a more complete side than us. But its hard to look at the last month and not think that we might be MENTALLY amongst the best in the league. And yet our team overflows with inexperience. This bodes well for the next gen of Bulldog.

Two obvious points of comparison:

Compare our captain Bont to their co-captain Sicily. Can anyone imagine someone trying to get under Bont's skin by being a nuisance? That is a tactic you use against a young hothead like Harley Reid, not against a 31year old leader. Bont carries the whole team on his back, playing through adversity. He is inspirational and a colossus of the league. Sicily is a talented but weak brat.

Watson v Sanders. the two are going to be compared by Dogs supporters for a decade because of their draft story. Watson is CLEARLY more talented than Sanders. He's one of the most dangerous players in the league. Yet Sanders is developing this knack for getting the job done in a no fuss manner. He doesn't panic when under pressure, and seems to actually step up in 4th qtrs and when the heat's on. He notably took a huge step up this year at the very moment when our whole team was on its knees. Again last night - he just did the little things in an unglamorous but EFFECTIVE fashion. Whereas Watson was all mercurial and emotional - all highlight reels and then COMPLETELY DISAPPEARING when it mattered. The Sanders mindset wins premierships. The Watson mindset does not.

Yes, let's not throw the lids away. But at the same time, I think we should be happy that the rebuilding on the run that Bevo is undertaking seems to be working.

 

[Zgope1]

Whenever we play hawthorn we have to just aim for territory out the guts. They sweat on our handball game but if you take territory, move it forward you can send prefer to the ball.

After a while that opens up the little Bont-English-Kennedy-Richards link ups anyway.

 

[Some Idiot]

He wasn't too bad last night, but his body of work this year has been well down on his previous yearly average outputs.
He's still very young with room to expand, but his footy progress has slowed.

I'm not sure if he's a midfielder long term, does his best work at half forward or half back. Maybe occasional midfield just as a rotation

 

[Anja_Nees]

Given our injuries this season, I'm amazed we're even in top 6 contention. If we hadn't suffered that horrid run of injuries we'd easily be 2nd or 3rd - that we're here is super impressive and we've punched above our weight in a tough time.

Reminds me of 2006 and 2016. Badly under the pump with injuries but we’re making it work.

 

[Pencil case]

Watson is CLEARLY more talented than Sanders.

Call me a nuffie, but I strongly disagree.

 

[DognBones]

Re Beveridge's comments on McNeil. We supporters can only make comments about what our eyes tell us. In many games over the past few seasons, when selected, McNeil has had minimal impact and has made crucial errors at important times such as missing sitters in front of goal. In my view he has always been a bit too much 'outside' the action and it's no coincidence that he has been dropped numerous times. If there is a developing change in his output in terms of pressure acts, attack on the ball and an improved contribution overall then that's a good thing that we can all comment on constructively and give praise. I do think, however, that Bev's comments that McNeil is a whipping boy amongst our supporters and that "pisses him off" is a bit over the top.

 

[olimauldon]

The difference in the team when English plays vs when he doesn't play is astounding