Preview Round 12: Bulldogs vs Cats, Sat 3 June @ 7:25pm - Superhero Stadium

[Pure_Ownage]

will Jack Henry start fwd this week ? hes been shifted around a lot the last couple of weeks.

With sav out he has to play back and with rohan back we dont need him fwd.

 

[Play it Sam]

Don't think we will win this, but we can, and it will be huge if we do.

Just remember how much their midfield smashed us last year at Docklands. Oddly enough it was Parfitt with a great game of keeping the dam wall from bursting that night. With our midfield as weak as it is now, they could really destroy us there.

If the Dogs use the ball well and hit up leads ~40m out we are seriously cooked. We need a game plan that combines defensive midfield pressure with back half intercepts. And the forwards to make the most of opportunities.

I'm not confident, but we have to have belief.

Intercepts have been a rare animal. How about just keeping up? Having some clue what's coming and where?
The recurring nightmare has been watching the ball in opposition hands flying down the length of the ground with every one of our players 12 metres off the pace.
And those nippy Dog forwards know it.

 

[kickazz]

The recurring nightmare has been watching the ball in opposition hands flying down the length of the ground with every one of our players 12 metres off the pace.

We played like that for the first 15 minutes or so of the Bulldogs game at KP last year. Smack bang in the middle of our good run of form. (We promptly changed to a higher pressure approach and win comfortably)

It's never been a good strategy. So it Saturday and we'll lose by plenty.

 

[CHAWKTS]

This is strong logic, as I still think that at full strength our list is good enough to contend in 2024. We won the premiership at an absolute canter only 11 games ago, so it's not delusional to suggest we're capable of bouncing back from this season.

That said, I think the fly in the ointment is that if we miss finals, I'm concerned it may cause several of our older guys to pull the plug on their careers on the basis of thinking that our time in premiership contention is over. Which could become a self-fulfilling prophesy. We need the high-performing 30+ guys like Hawkins and Smith to go around again if we want to bounce back into the flag race, but I reckon it'll be harder to convince them to do so our ladder position screams "falling out of contention" more than it does "genuine 2024 flag contender."

No doubt from the clubs perspective they will be reflecting on Hawthorn and Richmond experiences and trying to apply it to cats. Asking themselves is it irrelevant or a sign post not to ignore. If you get that wrong like Hawthorn (under clarko last couple of years) you fall to bottom for years…Richmond I reckon might go same way. Maybe it was worth the risk because both of them could have snagged one more flag.

for us we have a choice to believe we can snag one more out of this group and take the risk of consequences? Or not risk that complete bottom and begin building youth whilst using the experience we have to accelerate that before they go? Does Tasmania team impact views? Etc. Lots of very hard choices and will be judged in hindsight.

for now they have to have a crack at 23 given we know if everything goes right we can do it with this group. if it becomes impossible they then worry about choices? But for 24 the club will be having very interesting discussions I reckon!

 

[Play it Sam]

We played like that for the first 15 minutes or so of the Bulldogs game at KP last year. Smack bang in the middle of our good run of form. (We promptly changed to a higher pressure approach and win comfortably)

It's never been a good strategy. So it Saturday and we'll lose by plenty.

Yeah it's depressing. I just hope they reviewed the s**t out of those passages. Zuthrie front row.
But as Freud (Fitzroy full back) said: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Faster and currently, more skilled opposition.

 

[D BRIDGE]

We arent going to finish bottom 4 and there isnt enough difference between say pick 8 and pick 11 so bother doing that.

I’m not saying tank to improve our draft pick... I’m saying once it gets to the stage that it’s pretty unlikely we will be winning the flag that we move to do things that’ll help us next year more than this year.

If a better draft pick comes with doing so then that’s a bonus.

I also think that most people (even you) were pretty happy with the player we used pick 8 on last year.

 

[Kobe Gryant]

No doubt from the clubs perspective they will be reflecting on Hawthorn and Richmond experiences and trying to apply it to cats. Asking themselves is it irrelevant or a sign post not to ignore. If you get that wrong like Hawthorn (under clarko last couple of years) you fall to bottom for years…Richmond I reckon might go same way. Maybe it was worth the risk because both of them could have snagged one more flag.

for us we have a choice to believe we can snag one more out of this group and take the risk of consequences? Or not risk that complete bottom and begin building youth whilst using the experience we have to accelerate that before they go? Does Tasmania team impact views? Etc. Lots of very hard choices and will be judged in hindsight.

for now they have to have a crack at 23 given we know if everything goes right we can do it with this group. if it becomes impossible they then worry about choices? But for 24 the club will be having very interesting discussions I reckon!

As long as we're not throwing away first round picks for guys on the wrong side of 30 (or even 28,29) then we'll be fine.

It's why I have little sympathy for the perennial losers in the AFL. The system is designed to bring you back up after you fall. It takes extreme negligence to fail again and again like many clubs do - outside of the expansion clubs - who face their own issues.

Our trade period will tell us where the club believes we're at. I have little issue with the trading of picks if we're getting quality under 25s in....it's if we're giving them away for spuds and/or players approaching the end that it becomes risky.

 

[Baudolino]

What were your expectations?

Not sure that really matters.

I just found him kinda meh. Others seem to rate his output higher than that seemingly.

 

[catstragic]

Moderately confident we win. CS has had two games to digest the s**t sandwich to our midfield, time to pull something clever. Can we throw atkins, oconnor and blitz as hard tags at every stoppage, try and turn it into a contested outside aerial game that will suit or available cattle better?

 

[rocker_oz33]

Why is Bowes not playing .WTF .

And Mitch knevitt was harshly dropped to sub last week.

Jezza and DK were great in this match up last year .

 

[rocker_oz33]

Bowes has been pretty good he just needs better durability.

That's why he likely sub this week.

I think Bowes was a mid in he's rookie year.
Then moved to HB ..
I think we need to use him as a mid at times he's a good user .

 

[Mr Meow]

Sorry to say it but I think we are done for the year. Even when we get players back they will take a few weeks to find form. We will probably fly home looking like good things beaten but I think after this week finals will be a bridge too far.

Dropping Parfitt does not make a lot of sense when there is no replacement mid for the midfield rotation.

You're forgiven. I'll let you know how we go after this weekend and at the end of the season.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Sorry to say it but I think we are done for the year. Even when we get players back they will take a few weeks to find form. We will probably fly home looking like good things beaten but I think after this week finals will be a bridge too far.

Dropping Parfitt does not make a lot of sense when there is no replacement mid for the midfield rotation.

Parfittt been this year.
Last week was prob he's best game to date ..
He prob should of held he's spot...till at least danger is back .

Pity parfiit not putting on he's big boy pants and taking the next step..

 

[rocker_oz33]

Assume they have the view that Parf has been given a chance and isn’t up to impacting. With Danger and Guthrie not available they can’t just continue same as last two weeks

They will change it up with Close playing through midfield to inject speed and Knevitt will have a crack inside mid as they have options for wing (Smith, 2E and even O Henry can have a crack now Rohan back)

We can’t beat them in the midfield for talent - in particular inside mids…so need to change it up to have a shot? Could backfire but think we lose until take some risks

We have a better forward line just need good i50s to give them a chance .
DK was good on noughton last year..back DK was better last year.

 

[Interdimensional Bigfoot]

I mentioned It last week and I'll say it again.

I wouldn't be disappointed if we started planning for next year and putting things in place to be in better shape to have another crack in 2024 than busting our balls to just scrape into the 8 and not really be a threat (might not even crack the 8 either going full throttle).

Of course, there is the "once in a blue moon" situation where people think we can just do what we did last year and get on a huge roll after the bye with a few guys back in the side, but with Selwood gone, our senior players one year older and the kids just not ready to step up yet... I'm not expecting it to be our year.

Personally, I'd be happy to keep playing the kids.

Fast track Mullin so he is a chance to be a real weapon next year... get him the games under his belt to be ready to explode in 2024 (midfield time also for him).

Give Knevitt, Dempsey and Bruhn the games... Sure they are getting them now but when some guys come back they may slide out of the side.

If Neale/Conway are ready later in the year... Play them.

Give this Hardie dude a run of games to see if he can handle the top level once settled in here and be a real asset next season.

Try guys in different positions so if needed it can be a helpful experience next year.

DO NOT FLOG the older guys to death and give them a spell so they don't burn out (Smith, Blitz, Hawkins... even Cameron)... Obviously guys like Henry, Danger and Duncan are already having time off but when they come back don't be scared to give them more time off.

Sure we will lose plenty more games but we will be in a better position for next year and probably have a top 6, 7, or 8 draft pick to put to use on another top young kid to help build for the future.

Yes I have given up hope this year... I doubt the club has but if we lose a few more maybe they do start thinking about optimizing for 2024.

Going B2B is very hard... especially with a bazillion injuries and an aging list.

Think you could be right on the money, I'm guessing mind set has changed from all in to let's make sure these older guys have got enough in the tank for an all in next year, plus the bonus of getting game time into the kids for added depth. Still reckon they may roll the dice (M. Hardie) if we can scrap into the 8 but we're simply missing to much.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I’m not saying tank to improve our draft pick... I’m saying once it gets to the stage that it’s pretty unlikely we will be winning the flag that we move to do things that’ll help us next year more than this year.

If a better draft pick comes with doing so then that’s a bonus.

I also think that most people (even you) were pretty happy with the player we used pick 8 on last year.

Oh i am stoked with no clark no questions there. But do i think the difference between say him and hollands is worth trying to move onto next year early? Not really
I will concede that the fact that we have only missed finals once under scott means its hard to know what the club would do as we dont have much data to go off. Although that year beyond giving a bunch of players a send off in round 23 we didnt really change selection. Apart from the same thing happening ie a fair few older guys deciding to retire and getting a farewell game i doubt we change much.

The reality is that most of the young guys you would want to 'promote' in this scenario (if you write 2023 off) are either injured (clark, neale, conway, kroeger etc) or not ready (foster, riccardi, whyte etc). Most of our really blue chip young guys are already best 23 or injured (see holmes, sdk etc). So theres not much point changing selection or not. Bar say playing mullin more (to prevent homesickness), picking bruhn every week (but realistically with guthrie out for the year and parfitt out of favour thats probably going to happen anyway), and dropping an older guy for simpson (which is the one call i could support because its his 7th year and we need to make a call on delisting him or not so giving him the last 6 games if we cant play finals makes sense), i honestly cant see what other changes we could make that would fit.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

Moderately confident we win. CS has had two games to digest the s**t sandwich to our midfield, time to pull something clever. Can we throw atkins, oconnor and blitz as hard tags at every stoppage, try and turn it into a contested outside aerial game that will suit or available cattle better?

What we have to try and do is get it so their f50 entries are high and long so we can intercept (ie prevent groundballs in our d50) and we can generate attack from there (rather than midfield). How we do that with 6-6-6 im not sure though because if they smash clearances it will be hard for us to get numbers behind the ball.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

That's why he likely sub this week.

I think Bowes was a mid in he's rookie year.
Then moved to HB ..
I think we need to use him as a mid at times he's a good user .

Yeah if theres not a late change id sub him on in the 3rd and bolster the mids.

 

[fpm84]

I’m as glass half full as anyone and I honestly cannot see a way we can win this game. I don’t even rate the Bulldogs that highly.

As I’ve posted for the last four weeks, our current midfield is the worst in the AFL (through pure circumstance and bad luck) and I would not be confident of beating Hawthorn or North Melbourne this week.

I hold a sliver of hope that we’ll have everyone except Guthrie and Stanley back after the bye and we can revive our season… but it’s looking challenging right now.

Still, if arguably the worst sustained injury run we’ve ever had is the price we must pay for 2022, I’d do it again any day of the week.

 

[ShaunWDT]

Reckon Dempsey will be sub, earnt it with a fantastic VFL game.

If Bowes was going to play hed surely be in the 22.

 

[Phipppppa]

Not confident

Needed danger

 

[ShaunWDT]

Not confident

Needed danger

Dont see how we possibly win to be honest, their midfield is going to dominate and their forward line will ask plenty of questions of an underdone defence.

Would be an outstanding win if they can somehow find a way.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

will Jack Henry start fwd this week ? hes been shifted around a lot the last couple of weeks.

I think he's in the backline again but don't quote me

 

[fpm84]

I think he's in the backline again but don't quote me

Esava missing and Rohan in should guarantee it.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

What we have to try and do is get it so their f50 entries are high and long so we can intercept (ie prevent groundballs in our d50) and we can generate attack from there (rather than midfield). How we do that with 6-6-6 im not sure though because if they smash clearances it will be hard for us to get numbers behind the ball.