MVP Tommy Boyd - The Grand Final Enigma

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TheHoneyBadger

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Carlisle has been offered the captaincy after Watson. He has also become quite a big head who doesn't believe his s**t stinks {from a good sauce}
Vice-captaincy maybe? I'd have Heppell ahead of him for the captaincy, unless it's a last ditch effort to keep him there. It would be an odd decision regardless, I know he's got a great relationship with [redacted] but he doesn't strike me as a future captain.

I like him, though. He's responsible for my most-favourited tweet, and who could hate a future Bulldog?
 

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The result of this chaos is 6 midfielders all going to get the ball, all being 3 ft from each other and having no one to give it to when one of them emerges with it. This has been, and may continue to be, a major problem of ours.

This partly comes from the previous coach's directive for everyone from the mid-fielders right down to the boot studders, drinks carriers and Woofa to "crack in" all the time. Contested ball was king. As long as we won that it didn't seem to matter if there was no one there to feed it out to. A role that Griffen, Coons and even Tutt were well equipped for.

Once again, another area Luke B can address to hopefully get the right balance.
 
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I've only seen the kid play live 3 or 4 times so I can't pass too much comment myself, but I can say that amongst every footy department staffer or agent that I've ever spoken to, boyd is the bigget home run talent to come into the system since judd. With his mix of physical attributes, skills and attitude, he is as close to a lock to be an outstanding afl footballer as you can get at his age.

Who knows where it leads, but if we're going to punt on anyone, I'm glad we punted on him.
 

Pannalstaroz

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I've only seen the kid play live 3 or 4 times so I can't pass too much comment myself, but I can say that amongst every footy department staffer or agent that I've ever spoken to, boyd is the bigget home run talent to come into the system since judd. With his mix of physical attributes, skills and attitude, he is as close to a lock to be an outstanding afl footballer as you can get at his age.

Who knows where it leads, but if we're going to punt on anyone, I'm glad we punted on him.
The bird had him miles ahead of everyone else in the draft but we obviously couldn't get him. He thinks he's a star. Said in this years draft he would have been taken 1 and Petracca 4th after daylight 2nd and 3rd. Hope he's right.
 
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Carlisle has been offered the captaincy after Watson. He has also become quite a big head who doesn't believe his s**t stinks {from a good sauce}
Have you meet Carlisle have you? He is the total opposite to what you have just said and comes back to his old local club Craigieburn and mixes in with his old friends. Not a big head at all.
 
I wouldn't call your post a rant, just a very well thought out rational statement, this kid is what we have all been waiting for. I'm 36 years old and in my lifetime of watching the Dogs we have never had a dominate FF (i was 5-6 when we had Beasley). Chris Grant was never a dominate FF, a dominate high CHF yes but not a FF, ohh how i would just love for us to have a 800+ goal kicker.

I cant wait to see this kid at full potential realised, pretty excited would be a small understatement.
 

Pannalstaroz

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I wouldn't call your post a rant, just a very well thought out rational statement, this kid is what we have all been waiting for. I'm 36 years old and in my lifetime of watching the Dogs we have never had a dominate FF (i was 5-6 when we had Beasley). Chris Grant was never a dominate FF, a dominate high CHF yes but not a FF, ohh how i would just love for us to have a 800+ goal kicker.

I cant wait to see this kid at full potential realised, pretty excited would be a small understatement.
Thanks. If you knew my frame of mind when I wrote it, given I'd just read 3 pages of people's uncertainty with his position and value in the team, you'd agree it was a rant :). I'm 38 and in the same boat. Having someone to kick to who you can plan the future around is pretty damn exciting.
 
Have you meet Carlisle have you? He is the total opposite to what you have just said and comes back to his old local club Craigieburn and mixes in with his old friends. Not a big head at all.
And his dad still buys bulldogs gear from time to time acording to my mate at the club
 

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Thanks. If you knew my frame of mind when I wrote it, given I'd just read 3 pages of people's uncertainty with his position and value in the team, you'd agree it was a rant :). I'm 38 and in the same boat. Having someone to kick to who you can plan the future around is pretty damn exciting.

It's such a shame that you guys didn't get to see Kelvin Templeton. 6 goals on debut, almost 3.5 goal average, kicked 5 or more around 40 times including a 15, two 9s, four 8s, and six 7s (this with the Dogs before moving to Melbourne).

He kicked 75 goals mainly from CHF in his Brownlow year. Such a tragedy that he did his knee.
 
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We looked our best, IMO, in 2010 when Barry came in. We had a good, mature midfield kicking the ball to a player who was a strong focal point. And he was terrific, he gave the team something to kick to. And he was a terrific shot at goal. However as good as he was on the lead, and he was amazing-quick and good hands-he was poor in a contested marking contest, ie standing under a high ball, because he wasn't quite tall enough and he was often triple teamed because we had no one else tall around him. We also got him at the end of his career, a glittering career no doubt, but the end. Not once in our career have we had a full forward from the start of his career, someone to grow with the players around him and to mould the team around for a period of time.

While I don't disagree with the overall point you are trying to make here, I do disagree with this section. I feel that when Hall arrived we became too one dimensional, and lacked the spread of goalkickers that we had previously. This isn't Barry's fault, we clearly weren't used to having a target man of his stature at the club. It might have also coincided with Aker's decline or absence, as well as Johnno's injury - so we didn't get the best chance to make it successful.

This led to the situation you described above, where the opposition knew where the ball was going and happily double and triple teamed him.

I hope we have learnt from this and don't repeat this mistake with Boyd. And I agree, given the squad has the chance to grow together they'll figure this out and world domination will be ours....

Having said this, I might be slightly out with my memory and have my timeframes slightly out - so am happy to be corrected.
 

Pannalstaroz

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While I don't disagree with the overall point you are trying to make here, I do disagree with this section. I feel that when Hall arrived we became too one dimensional, and lacked the spread of goalkickers that we had previously. This isn't Barry's fault, we clearly weren't used to having a target man of his stature at the club. It might have also coincided with Aker's decline or absence, as well as Johnno's injury - so we didn't get the best chance to make it successful.

This led to the situation you described above, where the opposition knew where the ball was going and happily double and triple teamed him.

I hope we have learnt from this and don't repeat this mistake with Boyd. And I agree, given the squad has the chance to grow together they'll figure this out and world domination will be ours....

Having said this, I might be slightly out with my memory and have my timeframes slightly out - so am happy to be corrected.
IMO Barry was terrific in his first year. Aker's decline was marked in 2010. I was a huge Aker fan prior to that because I thought he was silk. Loved watching him play. I don't agree we were too one dimensional in 2010, although he kicked 80odd goals. We certainly were one dimensional in 2011. But you're right, having Boyd now they can sort it out over the next couple of years so that when they're all 23/24/25, they're used to each other and playing amazing footy.
 
It's such a shame that you guys didn't get to see Kelvin Templeton. 6 goals on debut, almost 3.5 goal average, kicked 5 or more around 40 times including a 15, two 9s, four 8s, and six 7s (this with the Dogs before moving to Melbourne).

He kicked 75 goals mainly from CHF in his Brownlow year. Such a tragedy that he did his knee.

I was 8yo when he made his debut and he was the reason for me following the Bulldogs from that day on.
I remember the 15 against the Saints - we kicked a record score that day (33 - 15 - 213)

Loved the Pieman too. I can see similarities between Boyd and the Pieman, and I think Boyd can be better.

I keep thinking that if you were going to build a full forward from scratch the end product would be pretty close to Tom Boyd.
 
I was 8yo when he made his debut and he was the reason for me following the Bulldogs from that day on.
I remember the 15 against the Saints - we kicked a record score that day (33 - 15 - 213)

Loved the Pieman too. I can see similarities between Boyd and the Pieman, and I think Boyd can be better.

I keep thinking that if you were going to build a full forward from scratch the end product would be pretty close to Tom Boyd.

One of the greatest days of my football going life.

I used to go to training after he'd done his knee just hoping he'd be back as soon as possible. Unfortunately he probably came back too early. I was amazed he could play at all with the enormous brace and strapping he wore on his leg when he came back.

The most exciting forward we've had in my time of watching the Dogs. Hopefully Tom B will be the next big thing.
 

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I was 8yo when he made his debut and he was the reason for me following the Bulldogs from that day on.
I remember the 15 against the Saints - we kicked a record score that day (33 - 15 - 213)

Loved the Pieman too. I can see similarities between Boyd and the Pieman, and I think Boyd can be better.

I keep thinking that if you were going to build a full forward from scratch the end product would be pretty close to Tom Boyd.

Just a couple of interesting facts about Temple and Beaser...
When Templeton kicked 15 against the Saints his direct opponent was none other than Trevor Barker.
Question: which VFL player kicked the most goals in the 1980's (1980-1989)? Answer: Simon Beasley
 
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Question: which VFL player kicked the most goals in the 1980's (1980-1989)? Answer: Simon Beasley
I guess the era of the full forward was the 90s, I would've thought Dunstall had kicked more in the 80s though, suppose he became prolific in the early 90s but Plugger, Yablett and Modra made all the headlines
 

ExRoyboy

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Interesting read.

Agree with the majority of your "rant" ;)

Obviously it cannot be a permanent fixture, (rotations, ruck chop-outs, bench time, match ups etc.) but at stages of games I dream of seeing :-

Stringer Boyd Dalhaus
Crameri Bontempelli Hunter

If that ain't scary I'm following the wrong game.
I agree...

I know a lot of people on here speak about playing Stringer and Bonti in the midfield but I think they are both natural forwards and could be very scary with Boyd and those others around them.

That forward line in a couple of years time will be a handful for any defense in the league to match up on and how long has it been since you could say that about the dogs. Some of them may have a brief stint in the middle but we would be crazy not to unleash this line up on the other teams.

This is what has me very excited about the future. We now just need to develop a few more quality mids and a couple of key defenders.

Would love to see this line up a few times this year even though as a group they would not be ready just yet.

Go Dogs!!
 

Gmod23

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Let's just think about what would scare the opposition the most. Would you really care if the dogs had stringer and Bonti in the midfield getting contested ball? Not really.
Would they be scary at CHF, with a license to roam?
I would be more scared of this setup:
FF: Hunter Boyd Grant
HF: Crameri Bontempelli Stringer
They are all mobile, can take overhead marks, are creative and matchup problems.
If I think about this lineup, Grant if not in form is the weakest link but then next is potentially Crameri.
Crameri got best defender for most of last year.... Still performed as our best forward target until Stringer emerged later.
Boyd makes us a much better side! Thanks Griff for your sacrifice to the plastic franchise and thanks AFL for ruling the Swans out of that deal.
 

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