3 things learned from Rd 20 vs GWS 2023

[whythelongface]

Not learnt, more reinforced.
1. We were up by 29 at halftime but should have been much more than that and game over. We simply don't get bang for buck and fail to kill games when provided opportunity but don't seem to want to do anything to fix a problem that has been around as long as Jimmy Anderson was playing under 12s cricket.
2. Another day, another s#$t game of footy played at a s#$t venue. I know the club seems to make good coin playing games there but it is so hard to watch and I know for a fact that we are not seen as a destination club for trade targets because of it.
3. I no longer have any emotion for this team thus this will be my last contribution to this site. Farewell and thanks for the memories of 2016 which was so important for me for reasons more than simply football.

Hang in there mate. It is hard to take but we are all on the same journey (wherever that is to). One thing is that we all bleed red, white and blue and shard the same frustrations.

[westbulldog]

1. Playing at Ballarat may be good for the finances but it isn't good for anything else.
2. Losing Richards and Jones from the backline depletes us, I can't say the same for Duryea and Keath.
3. yada yada yada we continue to lose games because of poor goalkicking and the coaches and club simply couldn't care less.

[chef]

1. Toby Greene is the best captain in the AFL. What a follow me type leader, as much as a grub he is i wish he was ours.

2. Ballarat are the best games of the season. Love the suburban feel over the lifeless sterile stadiums.

3. Maybe im just content nowadays but results dont bother me anymore, happy just to watch the footy win or lose. Enjoyed todays game a lot.

4. Hope a few of our players family members dont read this forum.

[SonofScray]

1. We haven’t beaten anyone that’s carried any semblance of form into a game.
2. The players are scared of Toby.
3. Whoever decided to send Lobb back over Naughton is a goose.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

3. Whoever decided to send Lobb back over Naughton is a goose.

Yeah that was dumb. Real dumb.

[EasternWest]

3. Whoever decided to send Lobb back over Naughton is a goose.

Bears repeating

[Grantysghost]

Yeah that was dumb. Real dumb.

Maybe we were thinking taking Naughton away 1.)Frees up Taylor to intercept at will and B.) Takes a great pressure player away from our f50. Considering the amount of scores gws generate from d50 source I'm sure that was a consideration.

[bulldogtragic]

Maybe we were thinking taking Naughton away 1.)Frees up Taylor to intercept at will and B.) Takes a great pressure player away from our f50. Considering the amount of scores gws generate from d50 source I'm sure that was a consideration.

Taylor was already taking intercepts at will. You could argue Lobb’s height and reach might’ve been more useful with good entries. Pretty dumb decision. It happens. Sometimes otherwise smart people make dumb decisions.

[Grantysghost]

Taylor was already taking intercepts at will. You could argue Lobb’s height and reach might’ve been more useful with good entries. Pretty dumb decision. It happens. Sometimes otherwise smart people make dumb decisions.

Just trying to think about why they mightve made the move.
Not sure I like it either.

[bulldogtragic]

Just trying to think about why they mightve made the move.
Not sure I like it either.

I think the only people that liked it was GWS people and Aaron Naughton not having to play defence again.

Edit: I mean imagine you are the GWS coach. Bevo moves back Naughton. What does he do? Move Taylor forward to keep the screws on Naughton and look for a goal or two? But Taylor is dominating intercepting. Does he move him to Marra or Lobb who was a big reach advantage?

In the end Kingsley didn’t have to make a decision. Just let us put a guy who’s never played defence in defence, take his extra height from our forward line and keep Taylor in place and dominating Naughton and entire HB. Kingsley must have been thrilled to not have to make a decision.

[GVGjr]

1 - We didn't lose yesterday because of a lack of effort. There were some exceptionally exhausted players coming to the bench
2 - Our forwards didn't fire at all and when we needed some composure in the 3rd quarter it was lacking
3 - Great to have JJ back and he looked dangerous.

Damn shame that Bruce copped that injury and while I haven't heard anything yet that's not a nice way for him to finish his career.

[bornadog]

1. Buzz needs to mold himself on Sam Taylor as a young intercept marking backman

2. GWS move the ball better than we do, coach needs to adjust to a more fluent, game plan. We tend to just slam the ball on the foot to get out of trouble.

3. Our tall marking forwards had no chance by banging the ball in high so GWS can just take it out easily

[meenies]

My 3 things all revolve around our back structure in the third quarter and revolved around Duryea who was constantly left with the decision to leave Greene to try and stop the loose person before him or stay on him.
1. The instructions from coaches should have been to stay but Greene's side no matter what. If the other bloke scores so be it.
2. The instructions from coaches should have been to other other (so called small defenders) to stay on your man in the back line so they could not feed easy passes to Greene.
3. From my seat in the grandstand it looks like Greene took advantage of umpires being blindsided and no cameras and "attempted" to eye-gouge Duryea in the pocket whilst they were on the ground next to the boundary line in Q3. Very much looked like a "Bont gouge".

[Mantis]

1/ Do we get more concussions than any other team? Especially to defenders.

2/ Goal-kicking matters! We should've been up by 8 goals at 1/2 time and put the game to bed. Yep, conditions were tricky, but we simply needed to convert our good play on the scoreboard.

3/ Rolling up Macrae and Smith as HF's is leaving too much to too few in the forward 1/2, especially when the opposition have some quality defenders.

4/ I'm over seeing Bailey Smith getting 6 kicks and 16 handballs... it makes no use of his talents and our game style.

[josie]

Our defensive woes have been discussed a lot, including yesterday’s loss. What struck me was how poorly in yesterday’s second half we either bombed it in to F50 and/or our forwards did not lead well, and even more obvious was the ridiculous ease with which ground balls inside our F50 were cleared by GWS (especially in Q4). I’m not sure it was all due to GWS’s faster players either. Really like Tragician’s Q-why didn’t we move Bont to F50? He was well held as a mid - why not move him forward, or even back for leadership and stability.

Hope Arty returns against Tigers. His spark and chemistry would be useful. Might help Marra return to form too.