Review Round 8, 2019 - Western Bulldogs vs. Brisbane Lions

[ZoBlitz]

I'm not at this precise moment getting wet.

Update - By the end of typing this out it started drizzling again.

 

[jackess]

Just got exposed for lack of midfield depth in the end plus getting the worse of the umpiring cost us 2-3 goals.

 

[braddsey]

We’re playing 2 1/2 quarter footy. Going missing for entire quarters is not good.

Missing goals and losing momentum in the 2nd was painful to watch - but windy conditions.

Crumbers in the forward 50 are MIA. We have so many inside 50’s, but no goals from ground all... McCarthy, Cameron, Rayner. Same issue last week when we smashed swans inside 50 - but got away with it.

Was always a danger game though, difficult conditions and 2 men down at the end. Not a disaster, but need to win at home next week.

 

[CarterS]

Fell as asleep for a quarter just like the bad old days.

Last ten minutes of 2nd quarter was disappointing. Didn’t take opportunities and gifted them goals.

A few passengers.

Hope Berry is ok.

 

[rockypls]

Can’t wait for them to say “umpires made the correct calls” re hands in the back.

 

[Sausages]

Rayner had a bad day today - but I wouldn't be dropping him.

Charlie also struggled, Hip missed kickable shots.

Gardiner was huge today, played really well.

We'll be right - getting our bums kicked by 3 goals when we played well enough to win isn't the end of the world. Again, last year, we would have been beaten by much more.

5-3 is a pretty fair return thus far and I think we'd have all taken that at the start of the year.

For those bitterly disappointed, think of how GOOD it feels to be able to EXPECT to win games of footy again - that's progress

 

[martinson]

It's a game we probably should've won but combination of injury,umpires, dogs kicking a few out of their backside when they needed to and 3 or 4 of our players not giving enough with no one able to step up in the MF once Clugg had busted his gut left us vulnerable.

I reckon we would've won it at Marvel, our players seemed to fall over too often in the conditions

 

[Harris Specter]

Reckon Fagan would have applied more forward pressure today than Rayner, Cameron & McCarthy.

Simply disgusting how easily they got out of their defensive 50 with our lack of crumbers evident.

 

[Dom PC]

We seemed to have spent all our petrol tickets by 10 mins into the 3rd quarter. Very frustrating game to watch after our fantastic start.

Bailey going down in the first quarter certainly helped the dogs in terms of rotations. Berry going down in the 3rd quarter pretty much killed any chance we had IMO. We just had no run by then.

And holy crap the umpires didn't miss any Bulldogs free kicks that's for sure!

 

[carnthemlions]

Our scores against this season: 58 , 87( North are a very poor attacking side), 90(acceptable against Port), 112 , 123 , 62(about what you'd expect against GC), 81 (Sydney are a poor attacking side), 92 (Bulldogs are a poor attacking side).

Conclusion- it's a huge problem and we'll fall back to the pack rapidly if we can't sort it out.

We've had too many of the same players down on form for a while now- Cameron, McCarthy, Rayner and Witherden would be the standouts for mine.

 

[braddsey]

Can’t wait for them to say “umpires made the correct calls” re hands in the back.

Cutler’s deliberate out of bounds in the pocket after a push gifted the dogs a timely goal too...

 

[Braybrook Son]

Hard luck guys. I thought you should’ve been 5 goals up early, you were smashing us. Really wasted opportunities in front of goal, McCluggage is a gun and I feel you guys dropped a game you should’ve won there. Having a great year though. All the best for the rest of 2019!

 

[Bucking Beads]

Very flat after that performance. A quarter and a half we were clearly the better side but the we just stopped. Some good performances from a few of our lads but largely it was a lacklustre performance as a team

 

[Big Sauce 21]

Why did we play so deep when kicking into the wind.

 

[M Malice]

I only went with a Fab4- Robinson, McCluggage, Neale and Rich.

Really disappointed with the opportunity lost more than anything.

1) Eric had a great game around the ground, just a crying shame those set shots that could have put the Dogs under serious scoreboard pressure.
2) Stef and the Big O were down, Stef's last year, games gone past him, his disposal and game awareness are not up to standard.
3) Charlie is way down on form, I still wouldn't omit him though, another week or 2 maybe.
4) Tom Cutler panics under pressure.
5) Mitch Robbo- Have to love the guy, If I had any hair he'd be my barber.
6) For one and half quarters we were highly impressive, one day we'll bring it for a whole game and blow a team away by 15+ goals.
7) Crows next week is a must win IMO or it could kill our confidence and momentum.

GO LIONS!

 

[kylegee28]

5 and 3. Beaten by sixteen points against a middle of the road team despite being a rotation down all day, and two in the last quarter, while spraying everything in front of goals. Life isn't that bad.

 

[FLVanLandingham]

ok i made some amazing baguettes so in a great mood anyway..

after the last two weeks this was probably coming.
i actually wasn't too down on our tall forwards, sure some inaccuracies, but they competed in the air a lot (also special mention to McStay i thought he ran super hard today)
the misses were bad, maybe overblown. but the real bad effect is later on in the game we had no confidence for some shots and were playing dinky sneaky passes around the goals .. ah that was crazy
silky smooth from mccluggage, saved our bacon on several occasions, but didn't have the support later on
andrews i thought was perfectly fine, kept naughton set for the majority other than one or two from a bad turnover so was caught out.
a big shame we were down bailey the whole game


and finally.. * these ump what on earth is going on. so so so many throws. there were two blatant in the backs in a small space of time, hippys mark which was both a mark and then an arm chop (imagine if he was ben brown..free kick blown in a millisecond) sometimes i get annoyed at hippy not holding hte ball on the first occasion, kind of bopping it up to catch on the second chance... gah

5-3 anyway. that is still great, i'll back the boys in the come out firing next week at home

 

[davemc_lions]

Said in the other thread and before the game drop Walker for small forward line should of dropped Big O and went smaller. 2 ruck in drizzle against one was wrong move.
Bailey hammy slowed our rotations.
Missed shots did not help hippy 5 and McStay.. Lucky McStay got that 50
Dogs just wanted it more ran hard both ways we went to sleep for a qtr then they locked it up and stopped our flow.
If you noticed on our kickouts down the line hope to get a Boundary ball in. Does not win you footy when you have double the hitouts although loose clearances.

 

[Tom14]

5 and 3. Beaten by sixteen points against a middle of the road team despite being a rotation down all day, and two in the last quarter, while spraying everything in front of goals. Life isn't that bad.

Nah I'm going to whinge and throw all my toys out of the cot.

Was it a frustrating loss? Absolutely.

Do some players need to lift? No doubt.

Do we need to make some unforced changes for next week? Yep, much as I highly doubt he will do anything in the seniors Keays can't be ignored. Rayner is probably the obvious one to go out.

Are people just going to use this loss to have a go at their same old whipping boys regardless of how they actually played? You bet!

 

[martinson]

Not much to be said really . Lost a game we should've won which is the first time it's happened this year

 

[M Malice]

5 and 3. Beaten by sixteen points against a middle of the road team despite being a rotation down all day, and two in the last quarter, while spraying everything in front of goals. Life isn't that bad.

You're right although I was so pissed off with that last 5-10 minutes of the 2nd quarter, game was lost there, we handed momentum to them and never really got it back.

I've cooled down now and yes we are in a good position still and big picture ie. 2020 and beyond I'm extremely bullish.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Can’t wait for them to say “umpires made the correct calls” re hands in the back.

I'm laughing at the suggestion they would even bother to justify their decisions against us.

Only the Bombers and Collingwoods of the world have the media demanding accountability for them.

 

[martinson]

I really think all the guys tried really hard we just have some players in there who are down on form and it's a matter if whether we persist with them or give them a rest.

With the NEAFL not playing next week maybe it's a chance to rest a couple of guys and give 2 or 3 the opportunity they've earnt .

 

[Gibbo_88]

We deserved to lose. We shouldn't be top 4 if we play how we have over the last 3 weeks or even in the finals. In all our wins we've either had long periods of dominating and not taking advantage or dropping the pressure completely or both.

 

[Tom14]

Only thing really irritating me is we've pissed away 4 straight games against the Dogs the last 3 years - should have beaten them twice in 17, and the last two years Hippy has had shockers in front of goals and we've lost by under 20 points.