NAB Cup form

[Goldust]

Must admit it has been quite interesting sitting back watching many people who post here work themselves into a frenzy re our beloved team's prospects in 2007 on the strength of one NAB Cup loss.
So thought it was time for a good ol' fashioned does of reality.
I was fortunate, or perhaps unfortunate to be in attendance at Telstra Dome for Friday nights Western Bulldogs-Brisbane Lions clash.
What I witnessed was two relatively under-full strength teams, missing key personnel and trialling players in different positions, slugging it out. By game's end the Lions looked the far better unit.
What I did not see was Bulldogs supporters immediately talking down their team's prospects of success. First and foremost they were missing stars such as Brad Johnson, Jason Akermanis, Chris Grant, Adam Cooney, Luke Darcy and others.
My point, the Bulldogs team that night resembled nothing like the team which will take to the field for round one and the bulk of the season thereafter.
Round one of the NAB Cup at Skilled Stadium, the Tigers were without Troy Simmonds, Kane Johnson, Will Thursfield, Matthew Richardson (for the bulk of the game), Jay Schulz, Kent Kingsley (arguably in our best 18) etc., replaced by the likes of Jackson, Hartigan, Moore, Knobel etc. who will be bit part players at best.
I doubt you can read as much as some would like to in to this pre-season form.
Reality check........I think you would be offered only short odds on at least three of the NAB Cup semi-finalists in Carlton, Brisbane and Kangaroos finishing in the bottom four in 2007.
Heck I would almost guarantee those three will fill places 13 through 16 on the ladder (fingers crossed, along with Essendon).
Personally, I think we are fair ways away from contending for premiership honours. A few question marks still surrounding our team, mainly concerning potential replacements for both Simmonds and Richardson, the two players we can least afford to lose.
But I doubt season 2007 will be the train wreck that many predict and I for one certainly won't be reading too much in to NAB Cup form. It is irrelevant. The Swans are yet to win a NAB Cup game under Paul Roos (and I don't think he even turned up to their first round game).

 

[Tambo]

Definately agree here.

Same thing happens every year. Same group of people too. Which often gets others thinking we aren't expecting much this year.

Watching the last QTR of the Geelong game, shows that things are beginning to fall into place. It was a different style of game.

Players now need to get used to a Foley getting the ball 100 times a game, Howat dominating, Krakouer and his hardballs in the centre, Polak out of defence, Gaspar giving away 100 free kicks.

So the players will adapt to these type of styles sooner, rather than later.

For example, players will stand on the mark before gaspar has contested with his man.

You will find the teams more so succesfull in the NAB cup are those who don't change or don't have much to change, hence the reason for the team bonding together.

However I am weary of the beginning of the season as a few players will only just get back from injury.

But we'll be right.

No need to be depressed fellas

 

[Goldust]

Also, NAB Cup means much, much more to certain clubs.

Kangaroos will be going all out ....pure and simple ...they need the cash.

Ditto for Carlton.

Brisbane Lions....well they just need some wins after a nightmarish 2006, while Geelong made no secret it was in it to win it and atone for last year's debacle.

No surprise that the teams which have more to play for are still alive!!!!!!!

 

[PLSC]

and we dont have anything to play for?

because we have had so many tough finals campaigns

give me a break it would of been great to do well in the nab cup and its the losers who say otherwise

 

[tugga]

When you're regarded an embarrassing, pathetic filth by the rest of the competition as we are, then you need all the credibility you can get.
I wouldn't be complaining if we were playing in semis this weekend.

 

[Goldust]

When you're regarded an embarrassing, pathetic filth by the rest of the competition as we are, then you need all the credibility you can get.
I wouldn't be complaining if we were playing in semis this weekend.

NEITHER would I .... but I just don't see it as being such a high priority for us ...and others.
Let's face it, Sydney hasn't won a round one NAB Cup game since it was called the Escort Cup and its guns players were Barry Round, Ricky Quade and Tony Morwood.
They would rather have their list intact come September at the expense of losing the likes of Hall and Goodes in March.
The last time we went all out to win it, we finished runner-up to Essendon.
What good did that do...we were near last in the real stuff.
Money is a factor for at least three of the semi-finalists.

 

[_RT_]

and we dont have anything to play for?

because we have had so many tough finals campaigns

give me a break it would of been great to do well in the nab cup and its the losers who say otherwise

So you would be happy being March Champions and also rans at the end of the year. I would much prefer the club focus' on what has meaning and effects our chances of September action rather than a win or 2 in the Who Cares Cup. Carlton is that focus and the next 2 weeks of PS games should be aimed at getting the team that will be playing that game on the park and playing well as a team. Who cares is we lose those games as well.

Last year we beat the Swans and Dogs in 2 of our Practice matches and 8 weeks later both of them had belted us by over 100 points, yet having the wins in the PS games according to your logic of doing well in March should have had us ready for all comers in the season proper and the fact was we were torn a new one by 2 teams we beat. March is for working out your stragergies and structures for the season ahead not for winning games and such. Look at the Swans in the past few years did jack in March and are there at the business end of the season while we are looking on from the end of season trip.

 

[Tigerrific]

I was disappointed because we were not competitive, not because we lost. If there had been some signs of improvement from last season I would have been reasonably happy. I acknowledge that we were undermanned in the big man department but we were gone by quarter time. It just reminded me of some of the 100+ hidings from last year.

At least against Sydney on the weekend we were not blown away but whether it is a NAB match or not, I still want the side to be competitive.

 

[PLSC]

everyone wants to bring up sydney but the fact is they have played in GRAND FINALS which would mean they finished up like 5-6 weeks after us

so we should be in front of them and looking for early form not losing first round nab cup and then starting off like last year 0-3

 

[_RT_]

everyone wants to bring up sydney but the fact is they have played in GRAND FINALS which would mean they finished up like 5-6 weeks after us

so we should be in front of them and looking for early form not losing first round nab cup and then starting off like last year 0-3

Early season form hey, last year we belted the Dogs by 13 goals in our second Pre Season game, 4 weeks later they belted us by over 100. Second match the Tiger beat the Swans by 40 points a few weeks later and another 100+ point belting was handed out. The our third game the Tiger got belted by 51 points by the Bombers and yet we beat them twice during the H&A rounds.

Perhaps that indicates that form in March means very little when the real stuff starts.

 

[itsintheblood]

I was disappointed because we were not competitive, not because we lost. If there had been some signs of improvement from last season I would have been reasonably happy. I acknowledge that we were undermanned in the big man department but we were gone by quarter time. It just reminded me of some of the 100+ hidings from last year.

At least against Sydney on the weekend we were not blown away but whether it is a NAB match or not, I still want the side to be competitive.

That's all we've ever asked for in the end.

 

[PLSC]

Early season form hey, last year we belted the Dogs by 13 goals in our second Pre Season game, 4 weeks later they belted us by over 100. Second match the Tiger beat the Swans by 40 points a few weeks later and another 100+ point belting was handed out. The our third game the Tiger got belted by 51 points by the Bombers and yet we beat them twice during the H&A rounds.

Perhaps that indicates that form in March means very little when the real stuff starts.

im talking nab cup not practice matches

with the lineup on saturday i wouldnt care what happened but i expected better last week and thats the point

 

[Crumden]

everyone wants to bring up sydney but the fact is they have played in GRAND FINALS which would mean they finished up like 5-6 weeks after us

so we should be in front of them and looking for early form not losing first round nab cup and then starting off like last year 0-3

Its not just the late start to training. Sydney set out deliberately to lose the first week of the NAB cup. They see it as poor preparation for the season proper. It is played under different rules for a start, and clubs don't have quite the same freedom to experiment in the NAB cup as they do in the practice matches.

The fact that Plough picked a team of the best trainers, rather than the best players or the best balanced team to take on the opposition, suggests he didn't care about winning it either. He saw it as more important to give a bit of motivation and create some competitiveness in the players, rather than winning a glorified practice game.

IMO losing against Geelong was the best result. The fact that 3 of the 4 teams remaining are likely to be fighting out for the spoon this year shows the level of regard any teams looking to the finals have for the NAB cup.

The lack of competitiveness was another thing and I can understand people being upset about that. But its hardly the 'sky is falling' scenario that some have painted it. FWIW the level of desparation against the Swans was much greater, and lets hope that is maintained once the senior players are reintroduced into the team.

 

[Rayzor]

For me the most disappointing aspect of our NAB cup loss was that none of the new draftees and only one rookie (Howat) was on show. Every one of our players in that match had already played senior football. Surely some of the new guys should've had a run in real (?) match conditions. Wot about Graham ? - a ruckman , JR and Edwards. Very poor planning imo.

 

[Bentleigh]

I don't care about losing practice games.

It's the manner in which we lose. The first half vs Geelong showned no positives what so ever.

 

[Tambo]

For me the most disappointing aspect of our NAB cup loss was that none of the new draftees and only one rookie (Howat) was on show. Every one of our players in that match had already played senior football. Surely some of the new guys should've had a run in real (?) match conditions. Wot about Graham ? - a ruckman , JR and Edwards. Very poor planning imo.

Graham pulled out just before the game. Was expected to play.
Reiwodlt will be the better (play more games this year) of our new draftees however is still developing.

He played in the second week, however from reports he struggled to impact. Not that we expect anything more from a first year player.

Edwards is tiny, but I too would have liked to see him play.

Remembering these new draftees have only 3-4 months of pre-season under their belts. They have gone from 3 short sessions a week, to 5-6 days a week consisting of up to 4 training sessions a day.

They would have to be built prior to the Nab, which they weren't.

Players like Meyer, Pattison, Polo, Foley, White, Hartigan, Moore, Howat are and should be the priorities for the pre-season. These are the guys aiming to create names for themselves.

 

[PLSC]

yeh so it was alright for boak and selwood to play in those conditions sat night but riewoldt couldnt play nab round 1 what a joke

i just feel we need to win every game we can and get the respect back that we had during the middle of last season after that top win at port and then we ruined it by playing 4 crap boring games in a row and lost all that respect and havent been able to get it back since

 

[_RT_]

im talking nab cup not practice matches

with the lineup on saturday i wouldnt care what happened but i expected better last week and thats the point

OK fair enough you expected better, I would have liked to see them win the game against the Cats but we lost and this might sound wrong but who really cares about losing any game that does not have any meaning. IMO Practice match/NAB Cup it is the same thing only difference is one gives you prize money and the other doesn't. The only results I really care about are the ones that occur between Rounds 1-22 as long as we win more than we lose this year I am happy, because it means we should be finals bound and after near 30 years of pain and suffering it will be good to return for a sustained run.

 

[Haggard H]

everyone wants to bring up sydney but the fact is they have played in GRAND FINALS which would mean they finished up like 5-6 weeks after us

so we should be in front of them and looking for early form not losing first round nab cup and then starting off like last year 0-3

What happened? Did I fall asleep? Is it round 4 already? Or is PLSC confusing his past and future again?

Why does your memory stop at round 3 last year and not at round 6? I know, I know, we didn't win the flag but your supportive evidence is always so selective.

And some of your other 'facts' are just so deliberately manipulated/misinterpreted - as I recall in 2006, as has been the case since the days of the Final 5, the grand final was 4 weeks after round 22. But accuracy just wouldn't help your miserable cause, would it?