2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

[1eyedog]

Yeah, I did watch it. I thought Melbourne were fantastic and controlled the game and played it on their terms. It made me worried about our game, but we were able to grind out a win when previously we would have folded.

Roos has got Melbourne on the right track finally.

Fair enough. I'll reserve judgement until I see them play someone in the top 8.

[always right]

They had to improve simply by virtue of the fact they have better players now than they did last year. Viney in his second year, Tyson who is a real talent (and a Luke Hodge lookalike the way he moves), Christian Salem who has excellent kicking skills.......and of course Daniel Cross.

[Twodogs]

The set shot was from a free, but you're right the other two were classy goals in the run of play, especially his first with the beautiful fake handball then wheeling onto the right and slotting it.

I reckon the 50 metre goal was a good effort given a player with a hamstring injury usually can't kick it as long as they normally do.

[bornadog]

I reckon the 50 metre goal was a good effort given a player with a hamstring injury usually can't kick it as long as they normally do.

you mean a calf.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Wallace said on SEN this morning that "Melbourne has a more balanced list" than us.

I nearly threw up.

We have a number of areas we need to improve upon, but that is such a ridiculous statement.

[Remi Moses]

Heard snippets of what he said.
They should have better younger players than us considering they've been on the bottom for 7 years.
Also got the best out of that compensation disgrace, but I think we've Definetly got the better senior players.
I caught the bit about our old players, and I agree they're going to be difficult to replace.
Terlich, Matt Jones, Dunn. Not sure they're going to take them to the next level.

[lemmon]

Wallace said on SEN this morning that "Melbourne has a more balanced list" than us.

I nearly threw up.

We have a number of areas we need to improve upon, but that is such a ridiculous statement.

Is it really so ridiculous if we are talking balance? No doubt in my mind we have them covered in terms of young smalls but they do have Dawes and Frawley who are tested and relatively young, Tom McDonald looks like he will be a solid tall back and Hogan is a massive talent, if Clark had stuck around it looks even more impressive. You can realistically point to those guys and see the Dees spine in five years time.

In comparison to our list I would bank on Roughead being a good tall back in five years time but who else is there? Jones may make it, Talia is in a similar boat while the rest are a mix of incredibly untested, retiring or ideally ruckmen. I would much rather our crop of smalls and mids but in terms of a spine it's an area we are still yet to develop and it does skew the balance of our list.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Got around to watching the replay of the game last night. Was waiting to see the 'soft' Crameri free that had a lot of Melbourne supporters up in arms. Whilst it was soft i thought it was still there. However, what hasnt been mentioned was when Jones was absolutely manhandled in our 50 following the centre clearance after Crameri's last goal. If that had been Dawes or Frawley it would have been paid or at least BT would have complained

[Ozza]

What about when Morris was dragged to the ground by Dawes, and Tyson ended up getting a goal from it in the third quarter....was extremely blatant and a disgraceful non-decision. I'm told they (of course) didn't even look at it again or discuss it on tv. I was ropable! And the very soft Jamar free followed that.

At that point, I turned to my Melbourne supporting mate, who knew they were getting a good run, and said "You know we'll get an even-upper at some point. I just hope its with 5 minutes to go in the match".

[jeemak]

We wouldn't have done this against anyone else bar errr Melbourne.




Not really I'm pleased with the win but I think we can play better, don't you? I'm just not looking through rose-coloured glasses because we beat Melbourne.

I think we can play better, but in the wet against a side that is very well matched on us and probably at least as progressed development wise as us it shows a good effort.

[Remi Moses]

Is it really so ridiculous if we are talking balance? No doubt in my mind we have them covered in terms of young smalls but they do have Dawes and Frawley who are tested and relatively young, Tom McDonald looks like he will be a solid tall back and Hogan is a massive talent, if Clark had stuck around it looks even more impressive. You can realistically point to those guys and see the Dees spine in five years time.

In comparison to our list I would bank on Roughead being a good tall back in five years time but who else is there? Jones may make it, Talia is in a similar boat while the rest are a mix of incredibly untested, retiring or ideally ruckmen. I would much rather our crop of smalls and mids but in terms of a spine it's an area we are still yet to develop and it does skew the balance of our list.

Agreed they have us covered for talls. But the comment on a more balanced list isn't right .
They've had to recruit guys like Cross and Vince to even look competitive in the midfield stakes.
McDonald, Hogan ( back issues already) Dawes has come good granted, but if they lose Frawley they look ordinary down back.
Please don't classify Lynden Dunn as a decent tall. Our forward half hardly strikes the fear of god into teams managed to score with ease last Saturday night.Credit to Plough for putting his opinion forward, but it's not quite right.