Injury Tom Williams adds to Western Bulldogs injury crisis

[_Mike_]

Cross is reported to have the flu, others are reported sore & injured

Williams, Vez, Cross, Gia, Hall are all suspect for the Freo clash


WESTERN Bulldogs selectors face a nervous wait this week despite coming off the rest for the bye.


The Dogs' troubles don't end with vice-captain Daniel Giansiracusa's slight hamstring strain already ruling him out of Monday night's game against Fremantle.

Patrick Veszpremi will miss the trip to Perth after breaking a finger in one of the first ball drills of a solid 70-minute training session in light rain at Whitten Oval today.

And key defender Tom Williams had to leave the track midway through the workout with back soreness.

Goalkicker Barry Hall hardly trained and midfielder Daniel Cross was ordered to rest with flu symptoms.

Coach Rodney Eade immediately ruled out Giansiracusa when the experienced forward was restricted to light running today after pulling up sore during training last Friday.


Not looking promising at the moment

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...to-miss-for-dogs/story-e6frf9jf-1226041967456

 

[Bulldog Brent]

Re: Dogs hit by flu, again!!

Not too worried. Still 5 and a half days out, almost a full footy week.

Gia is out but am confident he will be adequately replaced.

Vez was not in our 22.

Williams, Cross, BBBBH should be right - as I said, 5.5 more days.

 

[_Mike_]

Re: Dogs hit by flu, again!!

Cross is the only one with it according to that article. You had me worried.

I wouldn't panic about the rest. Monday is a long way away.

Hence the first line in the post.

Vesz wont play with a broken finger. Hall hardly training is a concern though.

Williams with back soreness could also be a worry against a tall Freo unit

 

[who_let_the_dogs_out]

Re: Dogs hit by flu, again!!

These injuries/sicknesses are a real concern ahead of the pies clash in a couple of weeks

 

[G-Mo77]

Re: Dogs hit by flu, again!!

Cross is the only one with it according to that article. You had me worried.

I wouldn't panic about the rest. Monday is a long way away.

 

[_Mike_]

Re: Dogs hit by injuries, again!!

Not too worried. Still 5 and a half days out, almost a full footy week.

Gia is out but am confident he will be adequately replaced.

Vez was not in our 22.

Williams, Cross, BBBBH should be right - as I said, 5.5 more days.

Cant change the title once its posted, but anyway. Injuries and soreness after a bye doesnt look great

 

[LondonBulldog]

Re: Dogs hit by flu, again!!

Thats what depth is all about.

It exactly excites me as its looks like we will get to see Wallis get a crack.

 

[LardDog]

Let crossy rest and get over hjis flu, Libba the extractor takes over his role and then wallis can come in. perfect!

 

[Dancing Dougy]

Re: Dogs hit by flu, again!!

Hence the first line in the post.

Vesz wont play with a broken finger. Hall hardly training is a concern though.

Williams with back soreness could also be a worry against a tall Freo unit

Was at the ground on Monday for a kids "Skins" day with my nephew. Great day for all involved. Highlight had to be Vez snapping over his shoulder only to take out Boyds head as Boyd was giving instructions to some of the kids. Pretty funny stuff, Boyds reaction was fairly sharp giving Vez a hell of a stare!! Not helping Vez's cause at all

Just missed the action with my camera sadly, took heaps of other good ones though :-0 Dougy Hawkins was there filming for the EJ Whitten foundation.

 

[Kelvin31]

Is Vespa taking over the mantle of the cursed china doll Tommy Williams from a few years ago?
Vez couldn't his body right at the Swans, has missed with knee problems this year and now a finger. Hopefully his bad luck ends here.

 

[cosmicr]

I hope the media is over-reporting this, and its not a prelude to the 'excuses' we made last year.

 

[LardDog]

Let crossy rest and get over hjis flu, Libba the extractor takes over his role and then wallis can come in. perfect!

eh double post? weird.

 

[Righteo]

Wow, I know it's early days but Cross would be a MASSIVE loss for you blokes. If the game descends into a low scoring slug fest his clearance work and hardness at the ball would be invaluable, champion player.

For our sake I hope he is indeed rested

 

[Kelvin31]

Bring on the Hoops to replace Gia!

 

[Bulldog1954]

Wow, I know it's early days but Cross would be a MASSIVE loss for you blokes. If the game descends into a low scoring slug fest his clearance work and hardness at the ball would be invaluable, champion player.

For our sake I hope he is indeed rested

Agreed, many others here though would prefer him not playing.

You'd think all would play barring Gia

 

[G-Mo77]

Bring on the Hoops to replace Gia!

LOL.

Yeah, that would help.

 

[jeemak]

Wow, I know it's early days but Cross would be a MASSIVE loss for you blokes. If the game descends into a low scoring slug fest his clearance work and hardness at the ball would be invaluable, champion player.

For our sake I hope he is indeed rested

Some might look at it and say that Cross could be exposed on a ground like Subiaco due to his lack of pace and his unwillingness to kick the football.

Of course he has the ability to cover a lot of ground, but he does it at one pace for the most part.

I agree his intensity at the ball is terribly hard to replicate or replace, but I think with the development of Ward and Liberatore, Cross missing games is not going to be the issue it once was.

 

[rgauci]

You've had the wood over us for several seasons now.

For some reason your team seems to be able to win centre clearance, after centre clearance resulting in a flood of goals. Despite having a very dominant ruckman over the past few years your midfield has always dominated ours.

Players like, Cross, Boyd, Cooney and Griffen always seem to outclass us through the middle. Griffen seems to always play a blinder against Freo, usually opposed to Pavlich.

In saying that our midfield is starting to take advantage of Sandilands. Last year we had Barlow and Mundy winning clearance after clearance. Unfortunately after we lost Barlow our season went backwards. So far this year Fyfe has been our centre square revelation. Pavlich has improved as a midfielder and is moving exceptionally well. He looks like having a midfield role for most of the year and recieved 10 votes from the coaches last week. Mundy is dealing better with a tag and our midfield looks to have clicked.

Even so, none are that fleet by foot. Most of our quicker players start outside the square and our centre square players can sometimes be left flat footed which is our biggest concern against you guys. I'm very surprised reading your concerns about pace given most of our centre square starting 4 will be Sandilands, Pavlich, Mundy + Other. The aforementioned are great, but fleet of foot they ain't.

We have a fair few injuries. Barlow, Morabito, Hayden, Suban, Silvagni, Mzungu, Bucovaz, Hinkley, Schammer, Houghton, Ruffles. The first 6 would be best 21 but only Barlow would be considered top 10. I don't think we can blame injuries if we lose. (Though i probably will if we do )

Obviously i don't follow the Bulldogs too closely. Your injury list seems short on AFL.com but their are others who are short of a gallop. If anyone could outline those missing from your best 21 it would be appreciated.

If you look at the season so far, Freo is scoring heavily from stoppages. If your midfield comes to the party we will have trouble scoring and probably have trouble containing your score. If we can apply that break neck pressure which we have shown in patches, we might snatch this one.

 

[always right]

You've had the wood over us for several seasons now.

For some reason your team seems to be able to win centre clearance, after centre clearance resulting in a flood of goals. Despite having a very dominant ruckman over the past few years your midfield has always dominated ours.

Players like, Cross, Boyd, Cooney and Griffen always seem to outclass us through the middle. Griffen seems to always play a blinder against Freo, usually opposed to Pavlich.

In saying that our midfield is starting to take advantage of Sandilands. Last year we had Barlow and Mundy winning clearance after clearance. Unfortunately after we lost Barlow our season went backwards. So far this year Fyfe has been our centre square revelation. Pavlich has improved as a midfielder and is moving exceptionally well. He looks like having a midfield role for most of the year and recieved 10 votes from the coaches last week. Mundy is dealing better with a tag and our midfield looks to have clicked.

Even so, none are that fleet by foot. Most of our quicker players start outside the square and our centre square players can sometimes be left flat footed which is our biggest concern against you guys. I'm very surprised reading your concerns about pace given most of our centre square starting 4 will be Sandilands, Pavlich, Mundy + Other. The aforementioned are great, but fleet of foot they ain't.

We have a fair few injuries. Barlow, Morabito, Hayden, Suban, Silvagni, Mzungu, Bucovaz, Hinkley, Schammer, Houghton, Ruffles. The first 6 would be best 21 but only Barlow would be considered top 10. I don't think we can blame injuries if we lose. (Though i probably will if we do )

Obviously i don't follow the Bulldogs too closely. Your injury list seems short on AFL.com but their are others who are short of a gallop. If anyone could outline those missing from your best 21 it would be appreciated.

If you look at the season so far, Freo is scoring heavily from stoppages. If your midfield comes to the party we will have trouble scoring and probably have trouble containing your score. If we can apply that break neck pressure which we have shown in patches, we might snatch this one.

A decent post. What are you doing on BigFooty?

As for injuries, we are likely to only have Giansiracusa, Hargrave, and Wood missing from our best 22 although Cross and Williams might be classed as doubtful. Our biggest problem is possibly the limited pre-season Lake and Cooney have had.....neither are up and running to their capacity as yet.

If we lose to you, injuries will not be an excuse. We simply aren't playing well enough at the moment so Monday looms as a key game for our club considering we face the Pies the following week.

 

[StringyDog]

Some might look at it and say that Cross could be exposed on a ground like Subiaco due to his lack of pace and his unwillingness to kick the football.

Massive myth that you need pace at Subi, you need players that can find and use the wide spaces, Cross has been in our best players nearly every time we have played there over past few years as he is able to use the space to his advantage.

 

[Mofra]

For some reason your team seems to be able to win centre clearance, after centre clearance resulting in a flood of goals. Despite having a very dominant ruckman over the past few years your midfield has always dominated ours.

We have been poor in this area thus far this year (we even lost clearances to GC in Q1 ) and with Pav spending more time in the middle, Freo have the chance to reverse this trend on Monday.

 

[Righteo]

Sandi, Pavlich and Mundy were winning clearances at will last week against the Roos. Granted they are several levels below the Dogs but for once I'm confident we can, at a minimum, break even in this department.

However as is often the case in footy, when a team has had the wood over you for such a long time it's really difficult to even imagine a win over them, regardless of your own teams improvement and whatever form issues the opposition have experienced.

I think we should win, we have the bye the next week, coming off an 8 day break we should be throwing everything at you even if we run the risk of being overrun late in the game, I think it will be a sensational game though.

Let's hope we can overshadow that other ANZAC day game with a brilliant spectacle worthy of the ANZACs