WB Game Day V Port Adelaide R10 2020

[Eastdog]

Margin:
First goal:
Best on ground:

[Eastdog]

Bump

[chef]

Port by 80
BOG Macrae
First Goal Smith

[DOG GOD]

Port by 67
Ist goal - someone in our team
Bog- Macrae

[Happy Days]

Burns me to say it and I could've reasonably denied it before this week but Port are way better than us. Don't think this game is going to be very cash money.

[Grantysghost]

The Tigers did some homework and devised an effective alternate game plan to combat our A game.
Any chance we can do the same for this game where the odds are heavily against us getting the result ? I personally would at least like to see something similar to what the Tigers did in possession at times. Work the ball by foot more slowly into our f50 and then lock it in like the Hawks did yesterday.

Am I completely crazy thinking we can achieve something like this? I would really like to see this in our arsenal. Or at the very least some ability to adapt to the situation during the game. Be interesting to see if last week was some sort of catalyst for the coaches to try something different. Hard with the short turnaround to be too dramatic of course.

Port by 25
BOG Macrae
FG Wallis

[1eyedog]

Port by 48 points
Macrae BOG
Billy Gowers first major

[Eastdog]

Margin: Dogs by 1 point
FG: Libba
BOG: Macrae

[bornadog]

Very difficult for me to pick the Dogs but in this thread over the past 14 years, I have never put us down for a loss ( I think).

Game - draw

First Goal: Smith

BOG Macrae

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Dunks to play tomorrow vs Port

[Bulldog4life]

Margin: Dogs by 6 points
FG: Bruce
BOG: Macrae

Doggies to come good this week.

[The Adelaide Connection]

I will be there and am hoping for a turnaround, but not holding my breath. I am buoyed by a couple of against the odds wins against Port at AO (last year and in 2016?), but generally speaking it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground.

Dogs by 8
First Goal Bruce
BOG Gowers

How’s that for positivity?

[1eyedog]

I will be there and am hoping for a turnaround, but not holding my breath. I am buoyed by a couple of against the odds wins against Port at AO (last year and in 2016?), but generally speaking it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground.

Dogs by 8
First Goal Bruce
BOG Gowers

How’s that for positivity?

It's pretty insane yeah.

[bornadog]

I will be there and am hoping for a turnaround, but not holding my breath. I am buoyed by a couple of against the odds wins against Port at AO (last year and in 2016?), but generally speaking it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground.

Dogs by 8
First Goal Bruce
BOG Gowers

How’s that for positivity?

Hopefully the boys turn it on for you

[bornadog]

Press Conference

Beveridge baffled by holding the ball rule
The Western Bulldogs remain baffled by the holding the ball rule, with coach Luke Beveridge declaring his team can't really prepare for the way it will be umpired on Monday night.

Debate around the rule has simmered for much of the season, with the AFL changing its interpretation after Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson complained that his side wasn't being rewarded for its tackles following their round four match.

Beveridge was an outspoken critic of the interpretation change at the time, criticising the league for flinching in the face of Clarkson's comments.

A decision paid against Essendon's Andrew McGrath on Friday night reignited the discussion, and Beveridge conceded on Sunday that the Dogs were in the dark about the rule heading into Monday night's meeting with Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.

"We can't address it because we don't know what the interpretation is going to be and we're not sure what the rule is," Beveridge said.

"We'll just play and our players will just do their best to make sure we clear the ball when we get tackled and maybe take the opportunity to really clamp down when the opposition get the footy."

Perhaps even harder to predict than the interpretation of the rule this year has been the Dogs' form, with Beveridge's side running hot and cold. The Dogs were soundly beaten by Richmond on Wednesday night and will now confront the ladder-leaders. However they will be boosted by the return of star midfielder Josh Dunkley from a syndesmosis injury.

"[He] is just a great team player. A great teammate. He does everything right in the game – he works his backside off … and he reads the game really early.

"He's strong and hard in tight, and he really gets out. Our boys have done an inconsistent job over the course of the year inside and out, but Dunks is a really consistent player who continues to apply himself. And he's a shining example within our four walls of what we're after."

Meanwhile Lachie Hunter could be closing in on a return to senior football after taking a break from the game with personal issues.

Hunter has remained in the Dogs' Queensland hub and has been joined by a loved one.

"Maddie's up now, which is great, Lachie's fiancee," Beveridge said.

"They did have plans to get married – I'm not sure how that sits in this COVID-19 world at the moment.

"He'll play in the scratch match today … so that'll be good for him. And we'll see how he comes through over the course of the next week or two and work out whether he's considered to come back into the AFL team."

In more welcome news for the Dogs, key forward Aaron Naughton could return from injury in next Saturday night's meeting with the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

Beveridge also said the $50,000 fine issued to Collingwood over Nathan Buckley and Brenton Sanderson's coronavirus protocol breaches were a reminder of the need to remain vigilant.

"It was a positive message because we've been doing everything to the best of our ability to the letter of the protocols," Beveridge said.

"Fortunately, we weren't one of the clubs who transgressed.

"It seems like a no-brainer that you should stay within the parameters, but at times it's quite easy to revert to what your life has been prior and it doesn't seem so black and white.

"But we've had some reminders and there's no doubt all of us really checked ourselves when the sanctions came out.

"Now it's our challenge to make sure that we remain compliant and keep our heads in what we're here to do."