Three things you've learned finals week three 2021 v Port Adelaide

[Ghost Dog]

1. Tim English is going to be the player we imagined him to be. No longer a diamond in the rough. A diamond.
2. Bailey Smith is the new Brad Johnson.
3. Following a small club can be like buying shares in a company. It was pay day for the patient investors, more patient than me, who have been following this club since their childhood. When, it would have been really easy to choose another club. Reward for faith.

[Go_Dogs]

1. Amazing how quickly the media narrative has returned to us being one of the two best teams all year. It’s true. Just shows how fickle things get, and how quickly people can jump off. Persistence and faith being rewarded now.

2. Our forwards and forward coach, execute a plan last night that was exceptional. We created space, one v ones, lead, blocked, crumbed, ran forward with confidence and most importantly we kicked straight when the game was on the line (which with hindsight was the first 10 minutes only, not that i started to Feel comfortable until Q4).

3. While Martin was quiet, and not as effective as he’s been, he nullified and made our boys walk taller around the clearance and contest. Next week will be harder as Gawn will make him work back and defend the aerial ball. But his experience and confidence he gives us critical.

[Ghost Dog]

1. Amazing how quickly the media narrative has returned to us being one of the two best teams all year. It’s true. Just shows how fickle things get, and how quickly people can jump off. Persistence and faith being rewarded now.

2. Our forwards and forward coach, execute a plan last night that was exceptional. We created space, one v ones, lead, blocked, crumbed, ran forward with confidence and most importantly we kicked straight when the game was on the line.

3. While Martin was quiet, and not as effective as he’s been, he nullified and made our boys walk taller around the clearance and contest. Next week will be harder as Gawn will make him work back and defend the aerial ball. But his experience and confidence he gives us critical.

Good point.
Port missed some straight forward set shots.

[azabob]

1. Last night is was quite evident we have slightly shifted our kick to handball ratio which allowed us to get the ball in quickly to our forward line, have repeat entries and we also chose to just keep pushing the ball forward rather than take the extra handball backwards which invites the oppositions pressure.

2. Bontempelli will go down as not only our greatest player, but potentially our greatest captain.

He played one of the all time low key games since the 2016 GF. Not sure he will feature in the votes here or in the media but his game last night appeared so clean and damaging especially considering he looked odds on not to play.
20 touches, 2 goals, 446 meters gained, 10 inside 50's, disposal efficiency at 80% and only 73% game time.

3. Aaron Naughton is better without Josh Bruce in team.

[ratsmac]

1. The Dogs can absolutely win the flag this year

2. Our relentless pressure around the ball is back baby. No coincidence that big Stef was back making sure the ball either dropped in close or never got ripped out the ruck and booted away.

3. Melbourne thought they served an ace but the mighty bulldogs just returned serve! Game on toffs

[DOG GOD]

1. We won convincingly without Bont being dynamic. He will be 100% in 2 weeks.
2. The #1 ruck spot is our most important position. Martin made our midfield stand tall and deliver.
3. Bailey Smith could win the Norm Smith

[Mofra]

1. With 92 wins and 2 GFs, Bevo is now officially our greatest ever coach

2. We can carry a 70% TOG Stef Martin due to our running power

3. October 2014 is barely a distant memory anymore

[Mantis]

1. We won convincingly without Bont being dynamic. He will be 100% in 2 weeks.
2. The #1 ruck spot is our most important position. Martin made our midfield stand tall and deliver.
3. Bailey Smith could win the Norm Smith

20 touches, 2 goals and led them team in inside 50’s and clearances… all whilst having his feet up for the bulk of the last qtr.

He played a damn good game considering the injury cloud and the fact he’s been down on form.

[comrade]

1. Bazlenka served up some humble pie to the haters like me. Last night he played his role to perfection, just charging up and down as a high half forward. No centre bounce attendances at all which is the first time in at least 10 weeks, which also shows the importance of Dunks coming back. The midfield is humming now, great timing.

2. I asked myself who will be our 2021 prelim version of Clay Smith/Tory Dickson and it turned out to be Mitch Hannan. He was just insanely good last night, particularly when the whips were cracking in the first half and he was in everything. I'm excited to see what he can do on GF day against his old mob.

3. The ability for Martin to physically compete just shows how important a big bodied ruck is for our group. Not once did the oppo ruckman get a clean look at a clearance against him, no pulling it out of the air and driving it forward to put our defence under pressure. I hope he recovers really well over the next fortnight and has 80-100 minutes of footy left in him.

[dog town]

20 touches, 2 goals and led them team in inside 50’s and clearances… all whilst having his feet up for the bulk of the last qtr.

He played a damn good game considering the injury cloud and the fact he’s been down on form.

If he plays the last qtr you assume he ends up with 24-27 and might have even cashed in on scoreboard. Excited to see what he can do on the big stage with a two week rest.

[bornadog]

1. Who would ever have thought Schache, Roarke, Gardner would be so important and get us into a GF

2. I was wrong about Hannan, I thought he was a good player, but questioned why we needed to recruit him. He is a very good medium sized forward.

3. I have never wavered from backing Bevo, and he has proven what a great coach he is

[Dry Rot]

1. Hannan CAN play

2. Our bottom six again played well

3. Smith is turning into one of those explosive, highly dangerous, goal kicking mids