blagodellago
Team Captain
He is going to do big things for Naughton's game. The biggest things. Bigly.
Toast Welcome to the Bulldogs Josh Bruce
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Get Excited, Dogs: The best of new recruit Josh Bruce
High-flying forward Josh Bruce has a new home at the Dogs after making his way from the Saintswww.afl.com.au
Reminds me a lot of Naughton. Similar tackling, running down defenders, marking....
That's a clusterf**k for opposition coaches
He's very similar to Naughton. Looks great in that highlights package TBH. Next year just got a whole lot more exciting.
- Oct 12, 2012
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Do you put your number one defender on Bruce or Naughts? Either way good for the other. 3rd tall defender (ha!) to Schache. Good luck you other plebs!
- Aug 31, 2011
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dogwatch
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For much of the last decade we haven't been much of a contested marking side. We've been bullied in that area.
The addition of Keath and Bruce on top of the rise of Naughton, Le Young and English is really turning that around. I'd love a strong marking mid/forward too, along the lines of Brad Johnson or Tim Membrey. Perhaps Dale will be that man.
Anyway we aren't likely to see our long kicks picked off by the opposition as easily as they have been for the last few years.
The other obvious need has to be players who rove the spill of the ball well. When we don't mark it we should at least be bringing it to ground. Is that West and Lloyd? Whoever it is needs a bit of toe and agility. So maybe Richards?
I wonder whether our game plan will change much as a result of this different mix? Schache and Naughton will be free to roam towards the wing and we'll have Keath, Cordy and Young or maybe Lachie Young or Cordy at the other end. So will we persist with fast ball movement by hand off the half-back line or will we be doing more long kicks to whoever can get off the leash inside 50? They should be working hard on their strategy for simultaneous leading patterns.
Does this affect how we use Daniel at half back? I suspect not - he's more the escape route from defence than the one who delivers the final pass inside 50.
The addition of Keath and Bruce on top of the rise of Naughton, Le Young and English is really turning that around. I'd love a strong marking mid/forward too, along the lines of Brad Johnson or Tim Membrey. Perhaps Dale will be that man.
Anyway we aren't likely to see our long kicks picked off by the opposition as easily as they have been for the last few years.
The other obvious need has to be players who rove the spill of the ball well. When we don't mark it we should at least be bringing it to ground. Is that West and Lloyd? Whoever it is needs a bit of toe and agility. So maybe Richards?
I wonder whether our game plan will change much as a result of this different mix? Schache and Naughton will be free to roam towards the wing and we'll have Keath, Cordy and Young or maybe Lachie Young or Cordy at the other end. So will we persist with fast ball movement by hand off the half-back line or will we be doing more long kicks to whoever can get off the leash inside 50? They should be working hard on their strategy for simultaneous leading patterns.
Does this affect how we use Daniel at half back? I suspect not - he's more the escape route from defence than the one who delivers the final pass inside 50.
Bazzas Lovechild
All Australian
This will be a very good pickup for us. Bruce is going to make our forward line very difficult to match up on. And Bruce will finally get a chance to play finals. Stoked with this trade period.
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- Sep 21, 2005
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Bailey Dale is that difficult matchup, if he keeps up last year’s form opposition coaches will have to start putting work into him
Dog 36
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He was an ACT boy so maybe GWS got him as part of a zone pick? I am guessing so I maybe be wrong
- Aug 16, 2009
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Welcome bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccceeeeeeeeeeee. Your acquisition helps to complete us on paper but no pressure Josh, just require you to produce one third of the results that our trade of b lake to hawks resulted in.
Bruce had a career high season in contested marks in 2019. Aging well.
giblj
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Bont2Bruce
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- Jun 7, 2012
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A lot of teams biggest defenders aren't their best defenders, the Roughead/Astbury/Schofield types. I'd expect the biggest defender to go to Bruce most weeks.
When teams have two big defenders like Brisbane I'd expect the more mobile option (Andrews) to go to Naughton.
Mofra
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- Dec 6, 2005
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Schache suddenly becomes really important. he covers so much ground and will be able to out-reach most of his opponents. He shouldn't be threatened by Bruce, this is a real opportunity for him.
Dog 36
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Bruce will be a big help for Naughton but Bruce/Naughton will be a massive massive help to Schache.
- Jun 7, 2012
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I think it could be too. He’s always been described as a tall flanker anyway.
The balance could be the only issue, we don’t really have any high quality pressure forwards so it could be a bit easy to get the ball out of our forward line with all three in the side as well as Lloyd and Dale.
I think the three compliment each other nicely and will be a real handful so I hope they get a fair few opportunities playing together.
- Sep 7, 2015
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I'd probably put my best defender on Naughton but it would be close. I do hope that being the third tall helps Schache's game but I think we would still need to see significant improvement from him because he is a genuinely damaging forward.
