Bankers and Anchors - Round 13

[Eastdog]

This is the round 13 edition of the Weekly Bankers and Anchors Thread. Once the game against St. Kilda is concluded post your nominations for:

The Bankers = 3 guys that you we banked on to do the right thing during the game
The Anchors = 3 guys that weighed us down by their errors or poor play

Please limit it to no more than three of each, but feel free to make honourable/dishonourable mentions. As usual try to make it constructive criticism.

Try and restrict it to individual players rather than aspects of the overall match.

The thread is named in honour of a popular WOOF Contributor, The Banker, who passed away on 22/04/2012 after a six month battle with cancer.

[bulldogtragic]

After hacking in and obtaining nude photos off all the mods iCloud's, they've agreed to my demand that Anchors can be any player, but not Grant. Also that Bankers can only be about Jarrad Grant. So obey the new rules please.

[Rance Fan]

Bankers
Wood - great incept marking
JJ - great running game
Macrae - great effort and tackling
Mclean - nice effort
Anchors
Grant - did struggle tonight
Dale - needs to work on opposite foot kick
Stringer - no effect, TBoyd - get tougher!

[bulldogtragic]

Bankers:

Grant - 19 touches at 84%, 5 inside 50's when it counted, key goal and handfuls of other stuff.
Wood - Outstanding
Macrae - Good consistent game

Anchors:

Sorry Minno - ?Not sure there's much left in your tank at the elite level
Going slow with 5 minutes to go?!?!

[LostDoggy]

Bankers:

Wood. Instrumental. Monumental. Sentimental. Every freaking mental!
Grant. Played a good game, his hand passing is brilliant at the moment and he got in at the right times. And BT threatened to break my legs if I didn't mention him.
Roberts. Awesome job on the Sook.

Anchors:

Josh Bruce's top knot. Come on mate, who ya kidding?
Tom Boyd's detractors. Give the kid a freaking go. Get tough? He wears a defender as a necklace for 90% of the match!
Trying to save the game at the end instead of putting on the extra goal. I put it down to a lack of faith in our forward press at that stage of the match but it nearly bit us in the proverbial.

[The bulldog tragician]

B:
Easton Wood is in superlative form. We'd have lost that without him.
Toby McLean. A real find. Like him. A lot.
JJ worked very hard to give us a spark.
A:
An ugly dreary boring match: were we out coached?
Our inability to close out the last 5 minutes and get a clean kick out of defence an kill the game.
how easily the saints swept it out of defence at times, and the lack of crumbers whenever it hit the deck.

[boydogs]

how easily the saints swept it out of defence at times, and the lack of crumbers whenever it hit the deck.

That was really noticeable. Tom Boyd lives by the mantra of bring the ball to ground, but only the Saints set up camp at his feet

[F'scary]

B: backline and defensive midfield players

A: Stringer - shittest game in about 12 months from him
Minson - gone backwards again.
Tom Boyd - had one moment but fluffed a couple of others and didn't get involved generally. Him, Stringer & Dickson stunk on the forward line tonight.

[comrade]

Anchor for the job we did on Armitage. Tore us up last time with 45 touches.

Still got it 25 times but was no where near as damaging.

[Eastdog]

Bankers:

Ill put in 4 :)

Wood - Was huge in defence and won us the game

Roberts - He'll be a quality player

Bonts - Thought he did better tonight compared to the last few games

JJ - Great run


Anchors:

The struggle when the ball is inside our 50

Where the heck was the siren did not hear it well at all - Etihad must address this.

[Eastdog]

B: backline and defensive midfield players

A: Stringer - shittest game in about 12 months from him
Minson - gone backwards again.
Tom Boyd - had one moment but fluffed a couple of others and didn't get involved generally. Him, Stringer & Dickson stunk on the forward line tonight.

T Boyd and Stringer were ok but not brilliant tonight. M Boyd did good. Liked Grant's game.

[Remi Moses]

Bankers / Wood ( just outstanding reader and mark)
JJ ( got us going with some serious good dash)
Roberts ( good job on the diving German)
Murph ( the run and kicking were important)
Macrae ( best mid on the park, and returned to form)

Anchors/ T Boyd ( needs to show more intent when attacking the ball)
Stringer ( he's inconsistency is frustrating, seems to pick his moments)

[Remi Moses]

Bankers:

Ill put in 4 :)

Wood - Was huge in defence and won us the game

Roberts - He'll be a quality player

Bonts - Thought he did better tonight compared to the last few games

JJ - Great run


Anchors:

The struggle when the ball is inside our 50

Where the heck was the siren did not hear it well at all - Etihad must address this.

A billion dollar industry and can't find some volume
The led light boundary signs are just nauseating

[whythelongface]

Bankers:
Wood - Brilliant. His marking is outstanding. There was one in the 2ns qtr which was just sensational. The one in the last was Leo Barryesque.
Roberts - had Roo covered for most of the night. He has improved out of his skin. Has he really only played 15 games.
Hamling - has also shown fantastic awareness and has really good hands. Our defense really won us the game.

Reflecting on the last 5 mins - I actually think slowing the game down actually won us the game in the end. There was no way through the St Kilda press at that stage and we focused on our strengths at that stage, that being our defensive effort.

Anchors

Don't want to focus on any specific individuals
St Kilda seem to be able to stymie our running game very well. Thought Richardson coached very well last night. It seemed very hard to counter and break their lines. This is something for Bevo to work on. Just thankful we got away with a win.

[SlimPickens]

Banker-
Webb- clutch goal in the last. Beautiful kicking action as well.

Wood- what a season you're compiling. His marking tonight took me back to the good old days when Lake was in his prime.

JJ- he the attitude and dare to take the game on. Felt he kept us going when know one else could.

Winning ugly- this group is maturing.

Anchors-
Saints- god they play a bloody ugly style of football.

Umpires- some really perplexing decisions, Minson's unpaid holding the ball on Geary was the worst of them.

Stringer/Dickson- need to close that gap between their best and worst.

[Daughter of the West]

Bankers:
- E Wood: my oh my, some of those intercepts had my heart in my mouth but he nailed them
- the four goal burst in the third: it set us up for the win
- winning when it wasn't pretty: sometimes it's just got to be done

Anchors:
- the fumbles: some of them would have been comical were it not my side!
- the spectacle: ugly, boring, boring game
- me: for whacking my long suffering husband in the fourth in sheer frustration (especially given he was being nice and actually donning a Bulldogs scarf). I'm sorry!

[SonofScray]

Bankers:

McClean - really good hands and a strong lead. Hit the scoreboard at an important time. Kid can play. Has a bit of moxie as well, which we'll come to love as it blossoms into full blown Big League Swagger.

Wood - B.O.G, the mark he took flying back with the flight and arching his body over the pack of forwards and defenders coming up to the meet the footy wasn't a traditional speccy, but gee whizz it was a thing of beauty. Art.

Macrae - 9 tackles and a very visible intent to provide some defensive input into the game, albeit a little bit unsuccessfully. He pays well to his strengths and I am rewarding effort in the areas of his game which aren't as strong.

Anchors:

Stringer - I've set the bar very high for him. Had a game where he cheated a bit I think, brain was working too far in front of his effort. Get the ball first Jake, then dazzle us.

Bevo - thought we were out coached in some respects. St Kilda did a lot of homework on us and tried to do us over with tactics that might not be representative of how they normally play. A great sign that teams are resorting to gimmicks to get one over us. However, I want us to deal with it better in the box.

Bonti's laboured appearance - I think he might be struggling to deal with a few niggles, or extra weight, or just a second year into a tough gig. He could hardly run midway through the 3rd quarter. Not a criticism of him, just concerned for the kid.

[bornadog]

Anchors:

Bevo - thought we were out coached in some respects. St Kilda did a lot of homework on us and tried to do us over with tactics that might not be representative of how they normally play. A great sign that teams are resorting to gimmicks to get one over us. However, I want us to deal with it better in the box.

Bonti's laboured appearance - I think he might be struggling to deal with a few niggles, or extra weight, or just a second year into a tough gig. He could hardly run midway through the 3rd quarter. Not a criticism of him, just concerned for the kid.

I thought Richo coached well to stem our run, but Bevo adjusted in the second half, so personally I wouldn't give him an anchor.

Bonti looked sluggish last week as well.

[Scorlibo]

Bankers
Lukas Webb - his reaction after kicking that goal was priceless, he was stoked to add that 6 points to the team's total, the boys really seemed to feed off of his enthusiasm as well.
Jack Macrae - has turned his year around, playing a balanced brand of footy, so glad for him.
Toby McLean - effectively his second game of footy, his output has been super. Runs a lot like Murph.

Anchors
Holding the ball decisions - if the player gets a legal disposal away, then it shouldn't be called holding the ball, full stop.
Siren - why so quiet?
Liam Picken - was consistently second to the ball last night, looked like his head was somewhere else. Worst game I've seen him play this year.

[comrade]

Massive anchor to our list manager for signing up Easton Wood when he was a free agent JUST as he was about to launch into the stratosphere.

Whatever we are paying him is a bargain.

[EasternWest]

Massive anchor to our list manager for signing up Easton Wood when he was a free agent JUST as he was about to launch into the stratosphere.

Whatever we are paying him is a bargain.

I assume you mean Banker.

[Happy Days]

Bankers

Wood - Just keeps getting it done, and teams having to put work into him makes our whole backline better. His intercept marking saved around 40 points last night.

Macrae - great complete game. His kicking is improving and his defensive game is way up on where it was even a month ago.

JJ - is a direct beneficiary of Wood's improvement. Can really get off the chain now with oppositions looking to man up the other defenders, and his skills have improved to the point where he can really hurt the other teams.

Anchors

Our game breakers - Stringer, Dahl and Bont were all poor and we needed more from them to avoid getting dragged down to that sort of game.

"Men of Mayhem" - we let the saints control the ball for far too long, reminiscent of the Melbourne game; need to exercise our will more and dictate terms, especially against hack sides.

Riewoldt - just piss off and retire already you freak.

[comrade]

I assume you mean Banker.

Hehe. Yep, definite banker. In every $ense of the word.

[LostDoggy]

Bankers:
- E Wood: my oh my, some of those intercepts had my heart in my mouth but he nailed them
- the four goal burst in the third: it set us up for the win
- winning when it wasn't pretty: sometimes it's just got to be done

Anchors:
- the fumbles: some of them would have been comical were it not my side!
- the spectacle: ugly, boring, boring game
- me: for whacking my long suffering husband in frustration in the fourth in sheer frustration (especially given he was being nice and actually donning a Bulldogs scarf). I'm sorry!
He's married to a woman with class, distinction and the utmost taste in football teams, what's he bloody whinging about?

[Mantis]

Bankers:

Easton Wood - Enough said already.
Toby McLean - Clean & creative.. He looks the goods.
JJ - Gave us some dare in a lifeless game.

Anchors:

Forward-line - Couldn't win a 1-1 contest and couldn't keep the ball in... Weren't helped by the poor delivery, but they needed to do better.
Defenders - We have a slowish defence and got sucked up the ground too easily and couldn't close down the space on the counter.. Didn't hurt us last night, but we won't be so lucky next time.
Stoppage set-up - Too often we had no players on the offensive side of the contest and fed the ball to St.Kilda when we went 3rd man up.

[ratsmac]

Bankers

Wood - obviously! What a season he is having! Some of the things he is doing on the field is unbelievable.

Fletcher Roberts - he had a tough job running with the sook. We all know that the sook is a gut runner and Fletch kept up most of the time. I think he would of learnt a bit running with Reiwoldt. Reiwoldt probably won on the night but he still played a solid game.

Grant - I thought his game out on the wing was great. He made himself an option through running to the right spots a lot of the time. His quick handballs are brilliant.

Anchors

Stringer - he was really off. He couldn't impact the game at all.

Dickson - apart from his goal he was running around in circles.

The boring spectacle - I am over the moon we won but thank God we did otherwise I would of been in a shitty mood for a week had we lost having to sit through that. However we won when we played ordinary.

[Twodogs]

A billion dollar industry and can't find some volume
The led light boundary signs are just nauseating

I think they got in Grant's eyes as he was taking a mark in the first quarter. He looked up up and something spooked him because he shaded his eyes with one hand to gauge the flight of the ball. It looked like he lost it when the ads flashed. He took the mark though.


Massive anchor to our list manager for signing up Easton Wood when he was a free agent JUST as he was about to launch into the stratosphere.

Whatever we are paying him is a bargain.

The List Manager, Easton Wood or both?


He's married to a woman with class, distinction and the utmost taste in football teams, what's he bloody whinging about?

And music.

[soupman]

Bankers:
-Easton Wood: He is elite atm. I had my doubts he would ever be more than a tease, but he has been outstanding this year. That contract signing could not have been better timed.
-JJ: In a match where the vast majoirty of our ball movement and players was kept stagnant JJ actually took them on and tried to create with his run. He is such a fun player to watch.
-McLean: Another to not look out of place at all and was one of our better players which is pretty impressive.

Anchors:
-Stringer and Dahlhaus: Two key players and neither really did anything of note. Dahlhaus has had an outstanding year and may have been hampered by injury, but Stringer needs to be able to work into games when he is struggling to have an impact.
-Our forward entries to Boyd: Very rarely were they to his advantage. Sure he doesn't lead but still we almost always seem to kick it to a position where the defender has the best starting point for. Boyd is big and smart enough to take advantage if we just pop it up somewhere where he can protect the drop of the ball.
-Again, everyone flies for marks and no one stays down. This has been a recurring thing at both ends of the ground this season, too many marking contests see all our blokes fly and no one stay down for the crumbs. Odd when you consider how many talented crumbers we have. Not only does it mean we have nothing once the ball hits the ground but it also lessens the chances of one of our blokes actually taking the mark which feeds into he first problem.

[Sedat]

Dahl is well overdue a quiet one - he has been sensational this season. The Saints put some serious defensive work into him on Saturday, with Geary doing a hard tag.

T Boyd's poor effort in contesting the Bruce goal square contest in the last qtr was anchor-worthy. When he is doing his ruck stints, he needs to absolutely kill those aerial contests in defensive 50.

[Cyberdoggie]

Bankers:

Wood
JJ
McLean
Roberts/Hamling (hardly put a foot wrong all night)

Anchors:
T. Boyd (was excellent last week, not so good this week, He's an anchor not because of the fact he didn't really impact the game, but because 2nd and 3rd efforts and physical presence aren't natural instincts for him. I don't really care if he doesn't take a mark, I just want him to react as soon as his first marking effort fails, focus his attention to tackling, spoiling and holding the ball up. In big games where you just need to get the ball forward to relieve some pressure, you don't want it coming straight back to you because the forward can't put in the effort to keep it up there.)

Minson (negatives are starting to outweigh his positives unfortunately. 3rd man up and other tactics are nullifying the bullocking ruckman type)

Murphy ( yes played a great game but I thought he needed to show a little more leadership late in the game by trying to take the game on and generating some forward movement. We were under siege with plenty of time left and Bob who we needed to take charge started chipping it around the back pocket putting less experienced players under the pump)

Picken (mostly for 1 or 2 instances but it set a bad precedence. When the forward press is on and you are trying to save the game, the last thing you do is bang the ball on the boot across your body rugby union style because the opposition are just waiting for that outside the 50, they then move the ball quickly and find a target. A better side like the Hawks would of torn us apart the way we tried to save that game.)

[1eyedog]

Bankers
Lukas Webb - his reaction after kicking that goal was priceless, he was stoked to add that 6 points to the team's total, the boys really seemed to feed off of his enthusiasm as well.
Jack Macrae - has turned his year around, playing a balanced brand of footy, so glad for him.
Toby McLean - effectively his second game of footy, his output has been super. Runs a lot like Murph.

Anchors
Holding the ball decisions - if the player gets a legal disposal away, then it shouldn't be called holding the ball, full stop.
Siren - why so quiet?
Liam Picken - was consistently second to the ball last night, looked like his head was somewhere else. Worst game I've seen him play this year.

Wow! 19 touches, 6 tackles and a goal in a low scoring game. Clearly not consistently behind the ball. He was down on the last few weeks but so were most and he is coming off a massive month, but an anchor?

[Scorlibo]

Wow! 19 touches, 6 tackles and a goal in a low scoring game. Clearly not consistently behind the ball. He was down on the last few weeks but so were most and he is coming off a massive month, but an anchor?

That was my impression after watching the game. Admittedly the stats sheet works in his favour, maybe the replay will also. I just distinctly remember him on a number of occasions either fumbling the ball or being pushed off of it. He has credits in the bank, but played poorly imo.

[1eyedog]

That was my impression after watching the game. Admittedly the stats sheet works in his favour, maybe the replay will also. I just distinctly remember him on a number of occasions either fumbling the ball or being pushed off of it. He has credits in the bank, but played poorly imo.

In the words of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger "Stop talking crazy!"