Pro and Cons

[Chops]

Pros
Skipper- how this guy hasn't player until this game is unbelievable. Provides a target, fights, marks, big kicks, tackles. Wake up match committee

We can only play better and kick straighter

They must have rocks in their head if Harris misses selection again.

Cons
Power, Hargrave - pick players on merit and form. No confidence.

Cross - not ready for this level of footy. Kicking with no penetration

Bowden - play him FF or don't play him. Too soft.

Darcy - won a few taps but direct opponent kicked 4!!!! Hille was a dud until this game. Game won and lost here.

Brown - too much focus, should be the FP not the FF. Too much talk on no. of goals he will kick, his contract, newspaper, etc. Media ban him.

Had a chance to put them away early and then couldn't stop their run on.

No structure, down hill skiers, over use and not thinking.

Most of their duds and first gamers looked like stars

 

[dancingdoggie17]

Pros
Skipper- yeah he did well

We finally looked like we wanted it

Jordy McMahon was very hard at it all night

Murph..REAL hero, unlike that ****er Lloyd

Rohan Smith: legend

Browny he DID kick well.

Cons
Danny Bandy

We weren't able to grab it when it was in reach

Matty Lloyd's face is still in tact.

 

[Chops]

Originally posted by dancingdoggie17
Pros
Murph..REAL hero, unlike that ****er Lloyd

Ok but some poor turn overs


Rohan Smith: legend
Sorry his man played his first good game in 2 years!


Browny he DID kick well.
5.5 is not enough. Rather him misss the hard one and get the easy ones. Didn't miss as many last year


Cons
Danny Bandy
Not the worst but not in form. We want too much from him. Try 3 tall up forward

 

[dancingdoggie17]

ok...

Murph was one of the bests on ground, ther's always room for improvement but i thought he was pretty brilliant.

I don't care what you say, Rohan wmith was very good.

Why would you rather browny missed the hard ones and got the easy ones? What's the difference?? if it was reversed he still would have got 5.5.

Danny Bandy- the new huddo of the bulldogs. (bloody clumsy and frustrating, often doesn't seem to try)

 

[Chops]

Originally posted by dancingdoggie17

Why would you rather browny missed the hard ones and got the easy ones? What's the difference?? if it was reversed he still would have got 5.5.

Missed at least 3 or 4 easy ones and kicked 2 he shouldn't have.

 

[Gridlock'd]

Pros:

Skipper showed promise

Murphy once again played well

Bassett played alright down back

Cons:

Dropping Wiggins and Harris (Give em a go!)

Injuries to Robbins and Alvey

Accountabilty (heard so much in the off season that we were goin to be more accountable this year, where the bloody hell was it!!!!!)

 

[stefoid]

Yes, in the end after brownies easy misses, our stupid turnovers, some really bad crucial umpiring mistakes in the last term (that trip on Murph NOT PAID!) etc, etc... The fact is that Darce let his man get away and kick 4 goals.

Smith played very well. Mecuri is a good player when he is on song, but Smithy provided a lot of drive, got some hard ball and kicked two. We came out ahead there.

Hargreave does not know what a 1 percenter is. I was screaming at him at some stages of the game to lay a shepard.

Power needs more time in the ressies to build up and get condifdence.

We missed Robbos run out of defence a lot at times when we stalled in the back pockets.

Bowden provided a target I thought. Again did just enough to retain his spot.

Murph beat Hird. I thought the game went out of reach when he tripped Murph and it wasnt paid. classic 4-figure leg lock I think, have to ask hahny about that move.

Brown should have about 24 goals this season.

Guido. whats his problem? Gilbee will claim his spot if he had a decent game in the ressies.

Bandy. needs to work closer to goal where his marking can have an impact on the scoreboard. Skipper looks way more sure with the ball in his hands at half forward.

Basset. probably his best game so far. hopefully he is warming to the task. remember he hasnt played a lot of AFL footy yet. Looks a lot better when his opponent isnt getting the ball on a platter.

Westy was westy, johno was johno, darce was darce but his man beat him.

MacMahon, played OK I guess. needs more game time.

Garlick and dimma played well enough. We are getting so light on for experienced campaigners that they will retain their spots.

Hahn played OK without starring. Another we need firing, but again I think its a matter of more time on field.

Poor old Alvey. He was actually manning up, probably been told his arse was on the line, and then the knee. Was that his last game for the club?


As far as structure goes, we still lack a long bomb target. We need a big body near the goal sqaure. I think Bandy should play out of a forward pocket.

 

[Dry Rot]

Did Skipper gets lots of time on the ground?

With Hargrave, Bowden & Power down, Harrison doesn't look so bad perhaps?

 

[Chops]

Originally posted by Dry Rot
Did Skipper gets lots of time on the ground?

With Hargrave, Bowden & Power down, Harrison doesn't look so bad perhaps?

Skipper started at HFF and played most of the game. 4 weeks too late.

Lacking hardness, Harrison has the experience we need. Geelong showed today how soft Melbourne is and they killed us.

 

[Gridlock'd]

But we killed Geelong!

 

[Chops]

Originally posted by gridlocked
But we killed Geelong!

We haven't looked like winning since then. Lack of leadership!

 

[Dry Rot]

Originally posted by Chops
We haven't looked like winning since then. Lack of leadership!

Interesting. Is West the wrong captain?

 

[Gridlock'd]

No, Westy is the ideal leader!! But after him, Darce, Smithy and Johnson there is a HUGE gap!!!

 

[footyman]

Cons:

The coaching.

Did I really see McGuinness playing on Shane Harvey?

Why did all the stars not go into the centre until after Essendon had kicked six goals in the 3rd quarter? Look at what happened from 20 mins into the 3rd quarter when Brown, Giansiracusa, Johnson went into the middle. They did much better than Cross, Hahn and co.

 

[jim440]

Originally posted by Chops

Ok but some poor turn overs


Rohan Smith: legend
Sorry his man played his first good game in 2 years!

[]

Chops.

I always pay attention to what you write as you are typically astute, however...

This is pure bollocks.

96-99 Smith played HB and starred.
2000 he played HF and won our goal kicking despite not being particually suited to the forward line.
2001 played all over the joint and struggled.
2002-2003 (so far) has starred.

 

[Bulldog1954]

Originally posted by dancingdoggie17

Danny Bandy- the new huddo of the bulldogs. (bloody clumsy and frustrating, often doesn't seem to try)

Huddo was terrific for our club. He always tried but as a half forward flanker you go in and out of the game. He wasn't hard, but he tried. I also think you are being rough on the Bandyman, he is out of form but so far he has been great for the club. He'll get back into form soon. And gees, he got 17 touches and 7 marks, he wasn't awful

Pros
-Skip played well, set up a couple of goals, showed more today then Wiggo has in his 8 games
-I thought Dimma was terrific tonight, the way he rode that bump in the final quarter was terrific. Uppety Uppety is one of few Dogs who is tough as nails. I love the way Hahn plays to
-Garlo was better then the last few weeks, looked dangerous

Cons
-Still relied to heavily on the Big 5, all got above 20 touches yet we lost
-Alvey and Robbos injuries. What happened to Robbo I didn't see the incident?
-Hargrave and Jordy played poorly, both seem out of touch

And was it just me or did Hird not hurt us all tonight. When I saw he got 27 touches I was shocked, used the ball terribly

Also thought Crofty didn't deserve to have 5 kicked on him. 3 of Lloyds goals were in general play often from other guys errors. Lloyd only kicked one goal from outmarking Crofty and even then it took a 55m kick, Lloyd had to go up the field to win kicks. Crofty should always get first crack at the oppositions number one

Overall I thought we played pretty well for most of the game. The reason we lost is because we lost concentrarion for 20 mins in the third, for the majority of the rest of the match we looked the better side. Conversion was also costly, we had more shots, Browny needs to start pinging the set shots

 

[Bulldog1954]

Originally posted by jim440
Chops.

I always pay attention to what you write as you are typically astute, however...

This is pure bollocks.

96-99 Smith played HB and starred.
2000 he played HF and won our goal kicking despite not being particually suited to the forward line.
2001 played all over the joint and struggled.
2002-2003 (so far) has starred.

I think you have misread what Chops is saying. I am pretty sure he was saying that Mercuri - Smiths opponent played his first good game in 2 years. And Mercuri was alright, but Smith still beat him comfortably IMHO

 

[stefoid]

I thought Murph had Hirds measure. Hird gave away 3 frees against Murph, 4 if you count the trip that wasnt paid in the last quarter.

One glaring error that cost us a goal however was an attempted bump on guy who didnt know murph was coming when a tackle could have wrapped him up. As it was the guy rode the bump, and the ball went downfield for an essendon goal. not happy with that.

On a different note, my question of rhde replies this week was along the lines of 'a lot of times we kicked to the hotspot but nobody was home. Should we be playing a tall marking forward like bandy closer to goal?' do you think that will get published? I dont.

 

[footyman]

Originally posted by stefoid
'a lot of times we kicked to the hotspot but nobody was home. Should we be playing a tall marking forward like bandy closer to goal?'

the answer is yes. i hope they publish it for ya.

 

[OldSchool]

Pros:
Most of our senior group played well
Good to have Crofty back (Lloyd kicked 5 but a couple of them were lucky)
McGuinness has the ability and can play at the senior level. It was a shame that injuries forced them to use him in bad match-ups.
Skipper is going to get a lot better for being given his chance and is mobile enough to play as a flanker.
Bowden despite some areas that he needs to improve on is progressing well.

Cons:
The injury to Alvey
Hargrave is down on form
Browns set shots for goals need to improve
Power just being played on potential at the moment
Critical skill errors are slipping into our game all too frequently
Cross not yet up to senior football although should possibly be given another chance
Robbins coping heavy knocks each week.

Is it just me ?:
Is there anyone else who is starting to doubt McMahon's ability to play good consistent football ? Great pace, good skills but there is something that is very critical definitely missing at the moment.

Old chestnut:
I know that this is someting we have discussed time and time again but we really need to look at recruiting some bigger bodied juniors rather than just the under developed types

Looking ahead:
Brisbane and StKilda pose vastly different teams to counter

The game:
Even though we lost, I thought there was enough positive signs and it was a good game to watch. Some of our match-ups worked very well and a few hurt us. Some of the youngsters are really going to be good senior players.
We just need to have some luck with injuries over the next two weeks which will allow Birss, Gilbee and Harrison to be coming back into the team.

Great to see:
Daniel Southern back at the club during the week and Brett Montgomery buying a season membership with the club.

 

[Chops]

Originally posted by jim440
Chops.

I always pay attention to what you write as you are typically astute, however...

This is pure bollocks.

96-99 Smith played HB and starred.
2000 he played HF and won our goal kicking despite not being particually suited to the forward line.
2001 played all over the joint and struggled.
2002-2003 (so far) has starred.

Fair enough and sorry Jim.
Smith was one of the better players. I was upset last night.

In Rohdes new "accountability" world its not only about how good you play but how good your opponent plays

 

[Chops]

Originally posted by Bulldog1954
I think you have misread what Chops is saying. I am pretty sure he was saying that Mercuri - Smiths opponent played his first good game in 2 years. And Mercuri was alright, but Smith still beat him comfortably IMHO

Thanks B1954

 

[Chops]

Originally posted by OldSchool
Is it just me ?:
Is there anyone else who is starting to doubt McMahon's ability to play good consistent football ? Great pace, good skills but there is something that is very critical definitely missing at the moment.

I think the problem, he wasN'T (sorry) selected on merit! Interruptted preseason. What did he do to deserve a senior game?


Old chestnut:
I know that this is someting we have discussed time and time again but we really need to look at recruiting some bigger bodied juniors rather than just the under developed types
Exactly a guy like our mate Boyd. Dimma showed them last night!

 

[OldSchool]

Originally posted by Chops

I think the problem, he was selected on merit! Interruptted preseason. What did he do to deserve a senior game?
[

I think the problem is bigger than just being a little down on form or just because he had a interrupted pre-season.
In fact the warning signs were there last season , his general fitness does not appear to be the issue.

 

[dancingdoggie17]

Originally posted by OldSchool

Is it just me ?:
Is there anyone else who is starting to doubt McMahon's ability to play good consistent football ? Great pace, good skills but there is something that is very critical definitely missing at the moment.

I thought Jordy was great. He tried all night, tackled and chased. What is missing exactly?