Western Bulldogs V Essendon - 1st Elimination Final 2021

[Eastdog]

Hope as many of our Tassie based supporters can get there. Cheer hard DOG GOD.

[bornadog]

That’s give me great pleasure, but we won’t. Our team don’t have that in them.

I don't agree, I think we are a lot tougher now with the boys more mature.

[bornadog]

Dogs by 24

First Goal Naughton

BOG Bont

[Scraggers]

We’ve now experienced the fly in - fly out format at Tasmania (new to us when we played Hawks)
We’ve played Essendon in form.

We’ve leaned from both of these experiences (hopefully)

If we pick a team to play against Essendon in Tassie, we win comfortably. If we pick a team based on reputation, we go home early.

[Danjul]

We’ve now experienced the fly in - fly out format at Tasmania (new to us when we played Hawks)
We’ve played Essendon in form.

We’ve leaned from both of these experiences (hopefully)

If we pick a team to play against Essendon in Tassie, we win comfortably. If we pick a team based on reputation, we go home early.

Disagree with this. Essendon was pretty hopeless. The Dogs dominated everything except the two things that gave Essendon the win.

Ruck and clearances. Draper and Wright had twice as many hitouts as English and they were twice as clean. This got the ball close to goal quickly and they converted.

In reality we threw the game away with poor forward craft.

Stop the quality entries into Essendon’s forward line from ruck contests and kick goals from our own entries, and a comfortable win should happen.

[Grantysghost]

Sounds fair :

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The Dons beat Hawthorn in Launceston earlier in the season, with Rutten excited by the prospect of support again next weekend.


”The way our supporters down there and our members showed up to that game, it felt like a home game for us. We’re really encouraging all our Essendon supporters down there to get around, really support the game, which I know they will,” Rutten said.

---------

Reverse GWS Prelim. Suppose we can't complain we had the good side of it once.

But...this really does seem a little contrived.

[comrade]

Sounds fair :

----------

The Dons beat Hawthorn in Launceston earlier in the season, with Rutten excited by the prospect of support again next weekend.


”The way our supporters down there and our members showed up to that game, it felt like a home game for us. We’re really encouraging all our Essendon supporters down there to get around, really support the game, which I know they will,” Rutten said.

---------

Reverse GWS Prelim. Suppose we can't complain we had the good side of it once.

But...this really does seem a little contrived.

Let’s piss on the AFL’s parade again.

[SonofScray]

I don't agree, I think we are a lot tougher now with the boys more mature.

We are tougher, that’s fair.
We just aren’t and aggressive, in your face team that are going to really get up in their grill.

[comrade]

We are tougher, that’s fair.
We just aren’t and aggressive, in your face team that are going to really get up in their grill.

There was a bit of it on show against the Demons the 2nd time around. Getting into Harmes and making sure he didn’t have it easy on Libba.

Need to harness that mindset and unleash on the Bombers. They’re as meek as they come and will wilt if we really crank it up.

[1eyedog]

I hope we win but I don't think we can I'm worried we're psychologically damaged.

Good teams have bad patches, bad quarters even bad games but they always manage to turn it around quickly. We've lost three critical games in a row and I'm outta hope.

The toxic nature of selections and our work rate runs too deep now.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

I hope we win but I don't think we can I'm worried we're psychologically damaged.

Good teams have bad patches, bad quarters even bad games but they always manage to turn it around quickly. We've lost three critical games in a row the toxic nature of selections and our work rate runs too deep now.

I'm outta hope.

Me too. There’s bad form and then there’s our last three weeks. We don’t look out of form. We look broken. We look lost. We look like we have no identity. We have no structure or cohesion. How can it go suddenly so bad? I’ve no idea. I hope I’m completely wrong on this. I hope I’ve completely misread it.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

I'm almost convinced we will start well.

But when the tide turns, I have no faith we won't roll over. I can see them raining goals on us quickly.

[jazzadogs]

I hope we win but I don't think we can I'm worried we're psychologically damaged.

Good teams have bad patches, bad quarters even bad games but they always manage to turn it around quickly. We've lost three critical games in a row and I'm outta hope.

I'm psychologically damaged, so I don't blame the team for feeling the same (although I wish they didn't). They're only human, and I feel that as a club we have not coped with the recent lockdown. Maybe I am bringing them in to my own experiences too much, but I have really struggled the last few weeks and the Dogs performances have been icing on the cake. Once the siren sounded on Friday night, I logged off, had a cry about the shit situation we're in, stayed in bed without any technology on Saturday and have emerged from my hibernation today.

I'm genuinely not sure that I can cope with watching the game live on Sunday. I really hope that I'll want to watch the replay.

[Bullies]

If we can't beat Essendon where ever the game is then we don't deserved to be there. We have put ourselves in this position.

They are young and inexperienced side so we should be able to take advantage of them..

We have close to our best side now so no excuses. Dunks and Trealor have had a few games now. Libber wont get tagged as Bombers don't tag. Wright could not possibly have another 7 goal like last time. Martin in the ruck will make a difference and the on ballers will be more accountable in the middle. They should have learnt from the last game the way Essendon move the ball in the middle. They also don't have any accountability in the middle and only know one way.

Win this and we are back in it and on par with those teams who lost the Qualifying Final.

[mjp]

Disagree with this. Essendon was pretty hopeless. The Dogs dominated everything except the two things that gave Essendon the win.

Ruck and clearances. Draper and Wright had twice as many hitouts as English and they were twice as clean. This got the ball close to goal quickly and they converted.

In reality we threw the game away with poor forward craft.

Stop the quality entries into Essendon’s forward line from ruck contests and kick goals from our own entries, and a comfortable win should happen.

I don't think Essendon were 'HOPELESS' but I agree we were the better side that day...Peter Wright kicking bombs from outside 50m really sucked to life out of us as well - here's hoping we have a plan involving Alex Keath.

I agree with what you are saying about Draper and the ruck position...what do you think we can actually DO about it though? I'm really not certain we can expect Martin to come in off such a long break and play strong footy for 4-quarters and I think there is next to no chance Sweet is selected. So that means it is the Young/English combination and...well, I'm not sure what to do about Draper who plays the position with genuine aggression.