WB Game Day V Geelong R14 2020

[Grantysghost]

Very true. Geelong have a different approach to us with their ruck set-up and we are pushing Dunkley to be something he shouldn't be

The worrying part about that for me is the thought process behind it.
Short term thinking.
You might remember me from crazy propositions like Easton Wood as a forward or Lewis Young as a forward then a nowhere.
To think this crazy idea of Dunkley as a ruckman would somehow hit paydirt with k dirt against the cats because it was a winner against the lowly Demons really baffles me. Not the move, more the intrinsic thinking behind it which has been shown on a few occasions. Not Bevo bashing, but bevo bemused ? Does that work, I'm going with it.
Even the Tigers who used to use Grigg now have Soldo and Nankervis in the same team.
Sweet simply needs to get a chance.

[angelopetraglia]

What has happened to the Josh Dunkley who polled Brownlow votes in 5 of the last 10 games last season? He has vanished into thin air. Even before the idiotic into the Ruck move he wasn't the same player. Even his early form before injury he wasn't the same player.

[azabob]

What has happened to the Josh Dunkley who polled Brownlow votes in 5 of the last 10 games last season? He has vanished into thin air. Even before the idiotic into the Ruck move he wasn't the same player. Even his early form before injury he wasn't the same player.

Maybe coming back from a serious injury and then playing as a ruckman hasn’t exactly helped his cause.

[SonofScray]

What has happened to the Josh Dunkley who polled Brownlow votes in 5 of the last 10 games last season? He has vanished into thin air. Even before the idiotic into the Ruck move he wasn't the same player. Even his early form before injury he wasn't the same player.

He's playing as our first ruck.

[angelopetraglia]

He's playing as our first ruck.

It's a factor. No doubt. Just hasn't appeared to be the same player.

[kruder]

I think we are making too much of the injuries too be honest, the game was lost in the second quarter when only Vander was down.

There is a two speed economy right now at the Bulldogs. We fell off the cliff in the second quarter, as we did last week against Melbourne, the pressure drops, the tackles slide, the midfield get out worked oh and yes Dunkley gets badly beaten in the ruck.

Are we just young? Are we fit enough? Are we still satisfied from 2016? Do we rely too much on Bevo's themes to motivate?

I cant wait until we can become a consistent top 4 side that you can trust week in week out. There is no doubt this list is capable, I just hope we don't waste the Bontempelli & Naughty era.

[angelopetraglia]

Sliding door moment.

That JJ miss in the second quarter is massive. The Cats have adjusted at quarter time. This will get the game back on our terms. They are starting to dominate us. We then get a soft opportunity against the flow of the game. To go another goal down at that point in time would have been a confidence killer for the Cats and belief booster for the Dogs. That it quickly became a two goal turnaround made it even worse.

Similar moment in the 2016 Semi-Final against the Hawks at the MCG. Breust had a chance to kick a goal to put them five goals up. We had all the momentum at that point (but could not convert) but they kept kicking goals against the flow. If he kicks that and we drop our heads, lose our nerve. It's probably game over.

[angelopetraglia]

Cats one of the oldest teams in the competition. Last night they were far more experienced and older than us even with Selwood and Ablett not playing.

Age

Cats 27y7m
Dogs 25y4m

Games

Cats 136
Dogs 89

More than 150 games

Cats 10
Dogs 2

How do they keep refreshing? When are they going to collapse in a heap. I'm so over them.

[Grantysghost]

Cats one of the oldest teams in the competition. Last night they were far more experienced and older than us even with Selwood and Ablett not playing.

Age

Cats 27y7m
Dogs 25y4m

Games

Cats 136
Dogs 89

More than 150 games

Cats 10
Dogs 2

How do they keep refreshing? When are they going to collapse in a heap. I'm so over them.

I think they mentioned the ten most experienced players last night were cats. No team will win a flag with the human bath tub Jack Steven in their side.

[angelopetraglia]

Watched the last two minutes again.

JJ. 1:12 left on the clock. Takes off just inside our D50. The ground is opening up. It looked like we could get out the back. Just had to have more game sense. Needed to kick it quicker or handball to the running Williams. That was another huge opportunity blown from him. (The fumble earlier in the last quarter when again it looked like we were out the back was another. Disappointing from one of your most experienced and highly paid players.)

[azabob]

Watched the last two minutes again.

JJ. 1:12 left on the clock. Takes off just inside our D50. The ground is opening up. It looked like we could get out the back. Just had to have more game sense. Needed to kick it quicker or handball to the running Williams. That was another huge opportunity blown from him. (The fumble earlier in the last quarter when again it looked like we were out the back was another. Disappointing from one of your most experienced and highly paid players.)

JJ also deciding he’d rather not take a hit to the body than take a handball receive as we were running out of our D50 late in Q4 was also telling.

[jeemak]

JJ also deciding he’d rather not take a hit to the body than take a handball receive as we were running out of our D50 late in Q4 was also telling.

Yeah I'm furious with him and want to say really nasty things about him.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Yeah I'm furious with him and want to say really nasty things about him.

He's made it difficult to defend him this year hasn't he? More than a few moments where he's really shirked the contest.

[mjp]

Watched the last two minutes again.

JJ. 1:12 left on the clock. Takes off just inside our D50. The ground is opening up. It looked like we could get out the back. Just had to have more game sense. Needed to kick it quicker or handball to the running Williams. That was another huge opportunity blown from him. (The fumble earlier in the last quarter when again it looked like we were out the back was another. Disappointing from one of your most experienced and highly paid players.)

Yeah - sure...but that was NOT holding the ball....honestly.

If Crozier holds either of 2x 'almost' marks in the last quarter we win - both drops resulted in goals (the second one was the banana kicked by Dalhaus. Then if Hunter holds/stays on his man rather than coming in to (unnecessarily) confront Dalhaus we win...but he didn't, his opponent received and kicked to Hawkins on the lead...goal. The earlier handball - mentioned as the one JJ didn't take because he wanted to avoid contact - well, why would we give that? JJ was going to get smashed...we had the ball, running in space, facing the goals...why would you handball that to a player who would be killed if they received it?

Oh - and there was a clear deliberate oob by the Cats late in the game on the nearside (to camera) wing not paid and not mentioned buy the commentators...clear as day. If that is paid we win...

And if we could have actually kept the ball in our forward line for more than 2 seconds at a time in the last q we probably also win.

There is a lot of good commentary here but I think we may be losing sight of the fact that we played the team ranked #1 for both offense and defense right down to the wire and if the last quarter played out 10 times with a couple of different outcomes (Crozier holds those marks for example) I think the result falls our way 8/10 times...I know, I know, it didn't. And "good teams" win these games...but sometimes a lot of it is down to the bounce of the ball or the rub of the green and things didn't go our way late.

[GVGjr]

There is a lot of good commentary here but I think we may be losing sight of the fact that we played the team ranked #1 for both offense and defense right down to the wire and if the last quarter played out 10 times with a couple of different outcomes (Crozier holds those marks for example) I think the result falls our way 8/10 times...I know, I know, it didn't. And "good teams" win these games...but sometimes a lot of it is down to the bounce of the ball or the rub of the green and things didn't go our way late.

Geelong have been a good team for a long period of time, what lessons can we learn from this?