Port Adelaide V Western Bulldogs - 2nd Preliminary Final 2021

[chef]

IMO quality game from VDM. Speed and pressure was outstanding.

If hes fit he plays imo.

[bulldogtragic]

If hes fit he plays imo.

Who would you drop for Weightman?

[chef]

Who would you drop for Weightman?

Scott and Cordy will come out for Cody and Keath. Then some unlucky guy will be the sub, could be Laitham.

[dog town]

Thoughts on Schache? Did his time in defence help him?

He seems to have gone up a level or two, and now is a fair AFL standard tall forward.

He has done the little things well since he went forward and it doesn’t look like he is putting too much pressure on himself. Having a time to play is probably helping him focus on what he can do for the team.

Thought it was clever to apply his new found defensive skills to the role on Saturday night. Playing him from behind, getting early body on are all things he would have been doing a month ago. Just a shame he didn’t finish his work with a bag.

[MrMahatma]

Thoughts on Schache? Did his time in defence help him?

He seems to have gone up a level or two, and now is a fair AFL standard tall forward.

His marking overhead/contested surprised me. Haven’t seen that from him for a while. He’s got all the tools. Good on him for grabbing his chance!

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

His marking overhead/contested surprised me. Haven’t seen that from him for a while. He’s got all the tools. Good on him for grabbing his chance!

I think Leppitsch said 'we haven't seen this from him since his Junior days'.
He was super impressed with his performance, I suspect as the coach who drafted him, he'd be pleased to see him do well.

[Mofra]

Shamelessly stolen from a Port Adelaide poster. THIS is a domination:

If the time stamps are correct then:

Ollie Wines - 2 disposals in the first 18 minutes
Travis Boak - 2 disposals in the first 17 minutes, none in the first 9
Karl Amon - 2 disposals in the first 24 minutes
Zac Butters - 3 disposals in the first 20 minutes
Williem Drew - 0 disposals in first 20 minutes
Xavier Duursma - 2 disposals in 23 minutes
Robbie Gray - 0 disposals in first 24 minutes
Connor Rozee - 3 disposals in 23 minutes

16 minutes in it was 32-0. Our midfields disposal count at that time:
Wines - 1
Boak - 1
Amon - 1
Butters - 2
Drew - 0
Duursma - 1
Gray - 0
Rozee - 2

16 minutes in, their counterparts:
Smith - 7
Macrae - 6
Dunkley - 2
Hunter - 4
Liberatore - 7
Bontompelli - 3
Treloar - 3

I just don't get how our midfield could be that unprepared for a scrap in a Prelim Final.

[1eyedog]

Thoughts on Schache? Did his time in defence help him?

He seems to have gone up a level or two, and now is a fair AFL standard tall forward.

Just finished the replay. Incredibly good. Kept Aliir out of the contest and during the second and third quarters in particular had 5 shots on goal and just seemed to be at the end of every foray forward when Port had some momentum. Played defensively and could of had 4 goals easily.

[comrade]

There's been some discussion on here about what our brand is, what it looks like when the Dogs play 'their' footy. I think we saw it on the weekend. Win it at the source, lots of inside 50 pressure, ground ball gets etc. Then when it gets inside D50, scrap and bring it to ground and let our ball carriers like Dale, Williams etc set us up to run it down the ground.

It was all there and it was *!*!*!*!ing glorious.

[Mantis]

There's been some discussion on here about what our brand is, what it looks like when the Dogs play 'their' footy. I think we saw it on the weekend. Win it at the source, lots of inside 50 pressure, ground ball gets etc. Then when it gets inside D50, scrap and bring it to ground and let our ball carriers like Dale, Williams etc set us up to run it down the ground.

It was all there and it was *!*!*!*!ing glorious.

Yep.. that first qtr was pretty much us at our best. We hadn't seen it for a little while, but to produce it at that time with all that was against us was bloody brilliant.

[Mitcha]

Clubs win and lose based on star player output but players 16-23 also need to pull their weight. Have a look back over the Treloar five bounce run which ends with Mitch Hannan slotting his third. Go back and track Hannan's starting position and work rate to get himself into that position for the Naughton handball receive. That's all you ask of your players is the understanding that you may not get the pill yourself but it may make it easier for one of your team mates if you run to cause confusion amongst opposition defenders. It was good that Mitch got on the end of it because in the end it could have been anyone. Role players like Hannan, Roarke Smith, and Gardner will be just as important in two weeks time as our more highly credentialed names.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

Psychologically the return of Stef Martin would have been a big boost to the midfield with Treloar and Dunkley playing much better. The forward line which has been our weakest link was boosted by the vast improvement coming from Hannan and Schache, plus the irrepressible Bailey Smith. Williams Duryea Daniel and Dale continued their outstanding form which with a settled defence has been a significant factor in playing in the GF.
This was arguably our best performance for the year and Luke Beveridge and his support team deserve the highest praise.

[Axe Man]

Only Macrae or Bailey Smith can win the Gary Ayres Medal:

Gary Ayres Award: If anyone can catch Macrae, it's this guy

With just the Grand Final left, only one player can snatch the Gary Ayres Award from leader Jack Macrae

JACK Macrae is sitting pretty atop the Gary Ayres Medal leaderboard with just one week left in the finals series.

But teammate Bailey Smith, who is enjoying a stellar finals campaign, is still a mathematical chance to snatch victory away from Macrae.

Smith, who polled nine votes for his four-goal performance against Port Adelaide, sits in second spot on the leaderboard with 17 votes, while Macrae is eight votes ahead on 25 votes.

Max Gawn polled a perfect 10 votes for his extraordinary performance against Geelong on Friday night.

Check out all the week two votes and the leaderboard below.

For every final, the AFL coaches vote for the best players from their game. The coaches vote for five players, giving them a mark from 1-5. The maximum a player can score is 10 (with five votes from both coaches).

Melbourne v Geelong
10 Max Gawn (MELB)
6 Christian Petracca (MELB)
6 Christian Salem (MELB)
4 Clayton Oliver (MELB)
3 Jack Viney (MELB)
1 Kysaiah Pickett (MELB)

Port Adelaide v Western Bulldogs
9 Bailey Smith (WB)
9 Jack Macrae (WB)
5 Mitch Hannan (WB)
3 Marcus Bontempelli (WB)
2 Aaron Naughton (WB)
1 Adam Treloar (WB)
1 Josh Schache (WB)

Leaderboard
25 Jack Macrae WB
17 Bailey Smith WB
14 Clayton Oliver MELB
13 Christian Petracca MELB
11 Max Gawn MELB
10 Marcus Bontempelli WB
10 Tom Hawkins GEEL
10 Isaac Heeney SYD
9 Travis Boak PORT
8 Tom Liberatore WB
8 Zach Tuohy GEEL
7 Ollie Wines PORT
6 Aliir Aliir PORT
6 Josh Kelly GWS
6 Luke Parker SYD
6 Christian Salem MELB
5 Charlie Cameron BL
5 Mitch Hannan WB
5 Jack Henry GEEL
5 Hugh McCluggage BL
5 Cody Weightman WB

[bulldogtragic]

If I understand it right, if you play the semi final you get an extra game to poll votes, and are more of a chance to win?

Is that right, or do they weight/average it?

[Axe Man]

If I understand it right, if you play the semi final you get an extra game to poll votes, and are more of a chance to win?

Is that right, or do they weight/average it?

No weighting so obviously we are at an advantage and hence why Oliver, Petracca and Gawn can't catch up.