WB Game Day V Geelong R14 2020

[KT31]

Also hasn’t won a flag at geelong
They need to pretty quickly

Careful Remi, I pointed this out in an earlier post and got told it was irrelevant and to "pull on other one".

[jazzadogs]

For me, the Cats set up really poorly in the first quarter allowing us to use the release handball that we love, and giving us plenty of space to move the ball quickly upfield.

They adjusted their structures at quarter time, as you would expect from a side with their experience and talent, giving us less space at the contest and around the ground. We held them at bay for most of the next two quarters despite that.

In the last, we completely ran out of legs and our structure fell down. They kicked away.


I'm extremely flat after that, but this was never going to be a six goal game no matter what we did after quarter time. We squandered chances and made bad decisions, but it was a long way from our worst performance of the year - just happened to be up against one of the best teams for 3/4 quarters.

[Remi Moses]

Careful Remi, I pointed this out in an earlier post and got told it was irrelevant and to "pull on other one".

Isn’t the point of the recruiting of such senior players ? To actually win a premiership
It’s all well and good getting to the pointy end
But they haven’t won anything

[angelopetraglia]

I have missed not going to the footy so much this year. It is just not the same on TV. The ritual of actually going to the ground. Sharing the game experience with my extended family. Sitting with the normal crew around us in our reserved seats. Being able to see the entire ground and feeling more connected to what is happening. The noise of the crowd. Belong to the Bulldog tribe. Hopefully we can return to normality next year.

[Grantysghost]

I have missed not going to the footy so much this year. It is just not the same on TV. The ritual of actually going to the ground. Sharing the game experience with my extended family. Sitting with the normal crew around us in our reserved seats. Being able to see the entire ground and feeling more connected to what is happening. The noise of the crowd. Belong to the Bulldog tribe. Hopefully we can return to normality next year.

Hear hear.

[EasternWest]

Pull the other one Mate,
What useless irrelvancies. really?
This is why people just can't be bothered posting any more,.
The last two weeks there's been scarcely an article about Danger and plenty about Bonts.

Ah yes. Articles written about a person. Another relevant metric for a player's output.

Careful Remi, I pointed this out in an earlier post and got told it was irrelevant and to "pull on other one".

Do you need your hand held, mate?

Such petulance simply because someone disagrees with you is so churlish.

Dangerfield won them that game.

It is irrelevant this year how many flags he's won. And if you think he didn't put his hand up to lead them, well I refer you back to the game. If you want to keep saying "but we won in 2016" and think that's good enough well that's fine, but I want more.

We're obviously not going to win in 2020 so I'd dearly love to scupper some hopes on the way, and I'm disappointed we didn't.

Bury your head in the sand all you want, but I'm not.

[Eastdog]

I have missed not going to the footy so much this year. It is just not the same on TV. The ritual of actually going to the ground. Sharing the game experience with my extended family. Sitting with the normal crew around us in our reserved seats. Being able to see the entire ground and feeling more connected to what is happening. The noise of the crowd. Belong to the Bulldog tribe. Hopefully we can return to normality next year.

Great post angelopetraglia. I feel exactly the same.

[jeemak]

Yeah I don't buy Bevo's excuse. We're playing a shorter quarters They had Toohey and Taylor with injuries,

What happened was we were second to the ball from the first bounce of the second quarter because we crapped oursleves and the wanted it more. That had nothing to do Vanders and Wood injuries.

If all that we take out of this game is that we lost because of that then Bevo learned nothing.

I turned the coverage off immediately after the final siren.

It's OK if you don't buy what I say or what Bevo says, I couldn't care less and without speaking for him I don't think he would either. However, it was clear we were not coping with pressure in the second and as fatigue hit we struggled to get to each ball or cope with pressure as the game wore on.

To your point though, the time of the quarters is irrelevant, because the game is played at a pace according/ relevant to time. I get you're not happy, but I'll take his summation over yours because firstly it's aligned with mine (massive win ) and secondly because it's never as simple as you've stated.

Yes we didn't adjust to pressure in the second, but we did afterwards and our fatigue just made it harder to sustain due to not having the rotations.

[SonofScray]

What to make of that?

On the surface it was pretty clear cut. We went two men down and you just don't win games of AFL footy when the opposition has a two man advantage. A win here would have been celebrated as an absolute affirmation of G&D all the stuff we love about our Club.

But we didn't win. The writing was on the wall when we went a man down and not through lack of effort, we couldn't hold back the tide. I'm almost content to leave it at that. It's the wise move I think.

The rest of my post isn't entirely reasonable, so beware if you can be bothered reading on.

The nagging part of me, just under the surface, reaches for the serial nature of it. Our best footy works. It is scintillating and I believe our best footy beats everyone else's best footy on its day. But we just don't have enough days. Why? Maybe a mystery.

Teams adjust and we don't respond. We're all in on one way. Too often Plan B is do Plan A better. Our best footy at the moment isn't particularly resilient. It needs many cogs all spinning in unison, it is susceptible to catastrophic failure. It is undermined by some stubborn coaching and selection. Those injuries killed us, but seeing the extra duress it put on Gardner, who battled manfully but was absolutely torched, a liability with the ball in hand, was really disheartening for me. Seeing Bruce "almost" perform but mostly bumble around and waste his chances. Watching Dicko come from the clouds and not get a kick. Some of that could have been reasonably foreseen? We might as well have had no-one left in the last.

Dunno. I've been angrier. I've been more flat. If how we play was a feeling, that's what I feel like. Dunno.

I feel like we are never too far away from failing. Or flying.

[SonofScray]

I have missed not going to the footy so much this year. It is just not the same on TV. The ritual of actually going to the ground. Sharing the game experience with my extended family. Sitting with the normal crew around us in our reserved seats. Being able to see the entire ground and feeling more connected to what is happening. The noise of the crowd. Belong to the Bulldog tribe. Hopefully we can return to normality next year.

Same. I try to not think too hard about it because when I do someone starts cutting onions. Its a huge hole in my life at the moment and while I am glad we have some footy to watch its not exactly solace.

[jeemak]

Ah yes. Articles written about a person. Another relevant metric for a player's output.



Do you need your hand held, mate?

Such petulance simply because someone disagrees with you is so churlish.

Dangerfield won them that game.

It is irrelevant this year how many flags he's won. And if you think he didn't put his hand up to lead them, well I refer you back to the game. If you want to keep saying "but we won in 2016" and think that's good enough well that's fine, but I want more.

We're obviously not going to win in 2020 so I'd dearly love to scupper some hopes on the way, and I'm disappointed we didn't.

Bury your head in the sand all you want, but I'm not.

I don't think we'll win it this year, but tonight actually reminded me of a game we played at Geelong in 2016 albeit with a lopsided start that didn't really reflect the quality differential of the two teams.

We were up to our eyeballs in this game and nothing from tonight says to me we can't win the remainder of our games and finish somewhere sixth to eighth.

But that's by and by, only the future will tell.

I understand that Dangerfield was great tonight, and Bont wasn't. I understand that this year Bont has also been shown up in a game where Dusty dominated as well. I guess however that tonight we and a number of players off their food and we almost won. Geelong also had some players out and won, and some of their players were a bit down. Having said that I reckon our players being down had more of an impact as a result. If we make it I won't fear Geelong.

[kruder]

So its round 10 2021, does anyone think Dunkley will still be rucking? I'm scared to answer the question.

[Eastdog]

https://www.westernbulldogs.com.au/n...h-loss-to-cats


Bulldogs overrun in tough loss to Cats
A gallant Bulldogs outfit couldn't withstand a late charge from Geelong, falling by 11-points on Friday night.


Geelong recovered from a 36-point deficit to defeat a gallant Western Bulldogs by 11 points at Metricon Stadium on Friday night.

The Bulldogs, who finished the game with two fit players on the bench after Laitham Vandermeer and Easton Wood succumbed to hamstring injuries, were overrun by the Cats in the last quarter.

Geelong kicked five goals to two in the final term to secure the win, including the last three of the game, after the Dogs held a 10-point lead at three quarter time.

The Bulldogs led for almost the entirety of the match after a scintillating opening, but the Cats hit the lead at the 19-minute mark of the final quarter when Tom Hawkins kicked truly from a set shot.

The loss leaves the Dogs with seven wins and seven losses after 14 rounds, ahead of a bye in Round 15.

Their finals destiny will be revealed in the last three games of the 2020 campaign, in matches against West Coast, Hawthorn and Fremantle.

Lachie Hunter kicked a goal and led the possession count for the Bulldogs with 27, adding 10 score involvements to be his team’s most influential player.

Jack Macrae (26 disposals) also found plenty of the ball, while Aaron Naughton booted two goals and took four contested marks.

Patrick Dangerfield was Geelong’s most consistent performer with 32 possessions.

The Bulldogs could do little wrong in the opening quarter, kicking six unanswered goals from individual sources as their pressure and ball movement proved too slick for their opposition.

From there though, the Cats gradually worked their way into the contest, reducing the margin to 18 points after kicking the only three goals of the second term, and to under two goals by the final change.

The teams went goal-for-goal early in a frenetic last stanza, until Geelong kicked clear in the final minutes.


MATCH DETAILS

Western Bulldogs 6.3 6.6 7.7 9.7 (61)

Geelong Cats 0.3 3.6 5.9 10.12 (72)


GOALS
Western Bulldogs: Naughton 2, Dunkley, Crozier, Bontempelli, Liberatore, Richards, McLean, Hunter
Geelong Cats: Hawkins 2, Miers 2, Rohan 2, Stanley, O’Connor, Dahlhaus, Duncan


BEST
Western Bulldogs: Hunter, Daniel, Crozier, Johannisen, Macrae
Geelong: Dangerfield, Stewart, Guthrie, Rohan, Parfitt, Henry



INJURIES
Western Bulldogs: Vandermeer (hamstring), Wood (hamstring)
Geelong: Tuohy (ribs)

[Stefcep]

I turned the coverage off immediately after the final siren.

It's OK if you don't buy what I say or what Bevo says, I couldn't care less and without speaking for him I don't think he would either. However, it was clear we were not coping with pressure in the second and as fatigue hit we struggled to get to each ball or cope with pressure as the game wore on.

To your point though, the time of the quarters is irrelevant, because the game is played at a pace according/ relevant to time. I get you're not happy, but I'll take his summation over yours because firstly it's aligned with mine (massive win ) and secondly because it's never as simple as you've stated.

Yes we didn't adjust to pressure in the second, but we did afterwards and our fatigue just made it harder to sustain due to not having the rotations.

So you've got you head in the sand as much as he has? Fine. You win. Enjoy your loser mentality.

As far "adjusting afterwards" is just not reality. When did this "afterwards" happen, exactly. We actually competed more in the last quarter than we did in qtr 2 and 3. How does that work if you're tired, exactly?

Its an absolute cop out that we lost it because of 2 injuries

Beveridge was out-coached and certain senior players need a blow torch put to them.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

It’s pretty simple. Geelong lifted their intensity after quarter time and we predictably fell to water. However we certainly have improved since the festival of footy. We rarely got killed out the back and our intensity was a lot better. Unfortunately tonight we looked buggered after one quarter and when we lost the speed of Vanders we were too few as we were carrying 2-3 players as it is (Bruce, English and Dickson).

Our one way game plan just isn’t sustainable and we need to learn to adjust to the tempo of the game. You could see exactly what Geelong wanted to do. Control possession. Because we man space they just chipped it up to centre half forward and then bombed it into our deer in headlights defence.

Look I’m happy with the improvement but I’m still far from convinced we’ve got a solid framework in place to really take us places.

Lastly, I don’t want Bruce or English in the side for the remainder of the season. Timmy is riding two awesome games for too long. Seriously he has been pathetic the last few weeks and a complete liability. He looks spent 5 minutes in but if so why is he being selected and not rested?