Toast We have THE BEST inside mid in the AFL

Joined
Apr 4, 2016
Posts
1,387
Likes
1,843
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Boston Celtics
Thread starter #1
I'm having a quiet night in tonight and thought I'd treat myself to the replay of the first final against WCE.

In this game, he did it all.

There is no other inside midfielder in the league who can do the things this guy can.

How you can slide through 2 tackles. On your knees. Hitting up a running player perfectly with an over the shoulder handball. All within 0.8 seconds. It's just insane.

Consistently going in as hard as he does and just springing up like it's nothing.

Doesn't get the same kudos as some of our lads but unless you watch him closely, he can be hard to see at the bottom of all those packs.

And yeah I'm talking about
Little (ex) Dreadlocks

Almost as milky slack nang as #21
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

webbo

Club Legend
Joined
Feb 15, 2016
Posts
1,317
Likes
1,905
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#3
Funnily enough he's behind Libba and Bont in contested possies averaged per game. Wallis, Bont, Libba, Dahl all averaged above 10 last season. Pretty incredible spread. Hunter, Picko & Macrae not far behind either. Shows how much we rotate through and have players that very well rounded mids.
 

Super Hans

marcus proudson
Joined
Apr 27, 2009
Posts
23,374
Likes
28,082
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
TrailBlazers, Juventus, Raiders
#4
It's weird. I think Sydney have the best inside mids by a mile in the comp on paper, but since Bev has taken over we are 3/3 against them. They always have a bloke who absolutely dominates us, too.

Kennedy in the GF, Parker this year, Hannebery last year. I guess our spread is more even and runs a bit deeper. Did it last year without Libba, this year without Dahl and in the GF without Wallis.

I don't know what to make of any of this except we're a bloody good team. Swans really have underachieved for the team they have. Still can't believe how shit they were in the 2014 GF.
 
Joined
Apr 4, 2016
Posts
1,387
Likes
1,843
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Boston Celtics
Thread starter #5
Funnily enough he's behind Libba and Bont in contested possies averaged per game. Wallis, Bont, Libba, Dahl all averaged above 10 last season. Pretty incredible spread. Hunter, Picko & Macrae not far behind either. Shows how much we rotate through and have players that very well rounded mids.
Wow that's really surprising that Bont averages more CP's.

Dahl is also one of our best tacklers. If he could channel his dread days and hit the scoreboard more when resting forward he would be on another level to the other level he's on
 

Cadillac

Premium Gold
Joined
Mar 25, 2016
Posts
4,033
Likes
8,563
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
USC Trojans
#6
You look at the size of our mids, and you wouldn't think we stood a chance. You compare us to teams like the Norfies who have big blokes like Cunnington, Ziebell and Swallow. We just make a mockery of teams with big inside midfielders. And the Swans are no different. The Swans gave us all they had and we ran them off their legs. And hit them so hard that they had nothing left.
 

Substance

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Aug 6, 2012
Posts
6,487
Likes
9,109
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#7
Every now and again I think back to the story about him crying in the shower after not getting selected in the draft. He thought he'd never play in the AFL.

Once we took him in the rookie draft, he was never going to let the opportunity slip. 115 games of 100% courage and effort. 6 years later and he's a premiership player.
 

stefoid

Brownlow Medallist
Joined
Mar 8, 2002
Posts
15,323
Likes
4,960
Location
home
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#9
Doing the hawthorn game as a chaser. I believe the reason we won the flag this year is because our best 5 in the first final were completely different to our best 5 in the second. Just run so deep with talent.
Yes definitely. Deeper midfield and a bunch of forwards who play like mids when the ball is locked in our half, which is more often than not. Enables us to maintain pressure and workrate for longer.
 
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Posts
9,438
Likes
7,549
Location
Bellarine Peninsular
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Melb Victory
#11
Every now and again I think back to the story about him crying in the shower after not getting selected in the draft. He thought he'd never play in the AFL.

Once we took him in the rookie draft, he was never going to let the opportunity slip. 115 games of 100% courage and effort. 6 years later and he's a premiership player.
Yeah I think of this often, and have a chuckle that the Cats never picked him up like they promised.
 

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Freshwater

Club Legend
Joined
Oct 30, 2014
Posts
1,458
Likes
2,590
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#13
Doing the hawthorn game as a chaser. I believe the reason we won the flag this year is because our best 5 in the first final were completely different to our best 5 in the second. Just run so deep with talent.
That first guy you mentioned, Dahl was in the Herald-Sun's best in every final. And you also mentioned you were surprised Bont had as many CPs? As much as stats help they also lie? That first description you had of Dahl where he was crawling on his knees and got it out in a nano second, there's no stats for those intangibles.
 

Golden_6

Premiership Player
Joined
Aug 15, 2014
Posts
3,727
Likes
6,050
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Other Teams
Chicago Bulls
#15
So many of our boys are just incredible. They're underrated at the moment because they don't quite have the reputation but that'll begin to come now . Guys like Dahl, Jacko and Libba are just absoslute animals.

The beauty of this whole thing is that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we get to enjoy these guys for the next 7-8 years. We are truly blessed at the moment.
 

dogzrule

Club Legend
Joined
Jul 20, 2010
Posts
1,794
Likes
892
Location
nfa
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#17
I'm having a quiet night in tonight and thought I'd treat myself to the replay of the first final against WCE.

In this game, he did it all.

There is no other inside midfielder in the league who can do the things this guy can.

How you can slide through 2 tackles. On your knees. Hitting up a running player perfectly with an over the shoulder handball. All within 0.8 seconds. It's just insane.

Consistently going in as hard as he does and just springing up like it's nothing.

Doesn't get the same kudos as some of our lads but unless you watch him closely, he can be hard to see at the bottom of all those packs.

And yeah I'm talking about
Little (ex) Dreadlocks

Almost as milky slack nang as #21

Pissing with rain i have treated myself to the West Coast Hawthorn and im up to Qrt time in the GWS game, gotta say totally agree here however one play that has uterrly floored me watching the replays is J Dunkley. He is amayzing as a first year player, hopefully he just gets in the gym for the next 3 months and bulks up.

Reminds me a little of Cripps who i rate extremely highly
 

Yojimbo

Norm Smith Medallist
Joined
Nov 14, 2012
Posts
7,256
Likes
5,903
Location
AFLW athlete and man about town.
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#18
2016 was a very unconventional year and the fact we won the
flag from 7th on the ladder was very unconventional in itself.
It is genuinely hard to rationalize the change from the Freo
game to the amazing finals series let alone try and quantify
the results into something that can be understood easily.
The pressure was probably the key element i can identify in
all the finals as a constant, it dropped for just over a quarter
in the Hawthorn and Sydney games and they were able to
capitalize, but not thankfully in a fatal sense. Iv'e given up
trying to pin the tail on the donkey so to speak and now
just accept the result as destiny and the will of the football
gods.
 

hujsh

Club Legend
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Posts
1,926
Likes
294
Location
Your heart
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
#19
You look at the size of our mids, and you wouldn't think we stood a chance. You compare us to teams like the Norfies who have big blokes like Cunnington, Ziebell and Swallow. We just make a mockery of teams with big inside midfielders. And the Swans are no different. The Swans gave us all they had and we ran them off their legs. And hit them so hard that they had nothing left.
Do the tough stuff without all that bicep muscle weighing you down and you've got some outside run all of a sudden
 
Top Bottom