Game Day - Bulldogs vs Bombers

[GVGjr]

Were you at the same game, Hudson dominated the ruck with 22 hitouts to Hille's 10, Laycocks 6. Yes Hille got a few disposals around the ground and kicked a couple that made him look good, but Hudson also picked up 15 disposals, mainly hand balls and his second efforts were sensational. The rucks were the difference in the end, feeding the midfield who turned the screws up in the last quarter.

I know what you are saying but the Bombers big men played a slightly different role in the ruck than they otherwise would because of the necessity to push forward and provide options. Yes Hudson did well with the hit outs but the Bombers rucks were pretty good as well.

[1eyedog]

Were you at the same game, Hudson dominated the ruck with 22 hitouts to Hille's 10, Laycocks 6. Yes Hille got a few disposals around the ground and kicked a couple that made him look good, but Hudson also picked up 15 disposals, mainly hand balls and his second efforts were sensational. The rucks were the difference in the end, feeding the midfield who turned the screws up in the last quarter.

I was at the game and I saw his hit out stats in today's Herald Sun. I must admit it didn't look that way to me but stats don't lie. Two glaringly obvious mistakes are just stuck in my head where he hand balled to absolutely no-one (once into the Essendon goal square). Others on the forum have also said his second efforts were fantastic. It was just my opinion after the game but I stand corrected.

[dog town]

That game should be a bit of a wake up call for us. Good sides dont only go flat out when they need to. You cant just flick it on and off like a switch. You become a tough and hard side by doing the hardest thing every time the question gets asked of you and I thought we failed that test at times on friday night. It is a good sign that we still won when we were down but I would hope we improve on that effort.

I said to a mate late in the first quarter that I saw signs we were taking the foot off the pedal. Gilbee kicked one off the ground instead of putting his head over it and Addison didn't go back with the flight where he normally would have. These were signs that we were pretty satisfied with how we were going.

I thought we tried to be a little bit pretty with the ball before the last quarter. We were too intent on getting the ball to a free man and then trying to spot up the short pass. Towards the end of the third quarter and all through the last we started to pump the ball in a bit quicker and were able to take some marks and get some crumbing goals. A few of the marks were off scrappy kicks that our forwards just read better but thats ok because it was unpredicatble. We got far to predictable earlier and Fletcher was just loving mopping it up.

We also lifted our intensity right up in the last quarter. I dont buy the excuse that they were down 2 players. They missed 2 players for 20 minutes so I wouldn't think its that big a deal. We had Cooney and Cross spending huge parts of the game on the bench in the 2nd and 3rd quarters which really helped later on IMO.

I liked that we adapted and stopped over committing to tackles. The bombers love to release with handball after drawing a player. As the game went on we started hanging back and making them kick or go backwards which caused turnovers.

Callan- Really enjoying watching the way this guy is going about it. His courage is in the Colbert/Grant/Teague sort of category. He is leaving his man to chop off leads and basically just throwing his body into every contest he gets to. As long as the rest of his game stays up to scratch he will become a permanent fixture in our side. He is shutting out an opponent and has been pretty clean with the ball so all is well for him at the moment.

Griffen- Continues to give that new edge to the midfield. Allows us to have more damaging clearances and really helps Cooney, Cross and Boyd by hitting the contest at pace. We find the ball squirting out of packs into our hands after 2 or 3 of there guys are forced to stop Griffen flying through. Absolutely brilliant pass to Guido at one stage. Kicked it over 2 people and dropped it in Guido's lap. Not sure how he is such a good kick because he has the worst ball drop going around. He is all talent at times and has enormous potential for improvement. Does some things that are just not footy smart and it probably costs him 10 touches a game. Runs past contests and the ball drops front and square leaving him out of the contest. Little things like that can be improved for him to take another step pretty quickly.

Hudson- Struggled to keep up around the ground but was still great value in close. Came on during the last and pushed everyone outside 50 leaving him one out in the square. It almost came off because he juggled a one hander but couldn't quite hold onto it. Needs to be careful of guys standing off him at ruck contests and waiting for him to grab it. The bombers were hunting him for holding the ball at times.

Welsh- Has anyone else noticed that he is probably the best player in the league at intercepting opposition passes. Just a very clever player. Was a little bit wasteful at times but still a very valuable contributor.

Aker- Was the most damaging player out there but I still think he can play better. I prefer him doing the crumbing up forward than being the target man. We really missed him at ground level when he was stuck in marking contest on the lead. Brilliant football brain on his shoulders.

Johnson- Struggled a bit but I liked a few signs from him in terms of leadership. Gave a goal off to Aker in the 2nd and tackled more than I have ever seen him.

Murphy- I thought he was well down but he just accumlates touches. Still had 10 marks and 20 touches. Contributed. Needs to abgle his leads a bit more so that players can sit the ball in front of him. It makes it alot tougher for the defender to chop your arms if you go at an angle. If he leads straight at the ball carrier then if the kick is not perfect the defender just runs past him and punches away. 3 or 4 times defenders got an arm in when they shouldnt have been able to.

Addison- His skills are certainly a concern but atleast he is getting the footy when he comes on. Probably needs to make himself a bit more dangerous by getting outside a bit more. I noticed he was rarely manned up on the night but rarely was he used.

Cross- Stood up when the game was up for grabs and won some important balls. Showed an ability as a lead up player for a brief period aswell. Must have taken 4 or 5 really clean marks on the night.

Minson- Worked his way into the game well. Not used often enough as the deep forward IMO. We dont really kick to his advantage we tend to just pump it in as a last resort. If he presents then we need to use him.

Hahn- Had a down game. He was just out of sorts. Tried to snap one over his shoulder with a guy hanging off him at one stage. Would have been forgivable if he didn't have 3 guys running past screaming for a handball. He will come back from that though.

Gilbee- They shut him down a little bit. Might need to be a bit more versatile and move into the midfield when they shut him down. We rely on his ball use way to heavily.

[LostDoggy]

Just watched most of the replay.
Hated how most the commentators barracked for the bombers during the game.

I also hate bombers fans. Every 1/10th of a full free they screamed blue murder while for the obvious ones against them they thought they were being robbed each time.

[bornadog]

Just watched most of the replay.
Hated how most the commentators barracked for the bombers during the game.

I also hate bombers fans. Every 1/10th of a full free they screamed blue murder while for the obvious ones against them they thought they were being robbed each time.

ES, they are the biggest whingers about free kicks in the AFL. They had the most frees for most of the night, yet still yelled blue murder for the whole game. As for Channel 7 and their commentators, they have a lot to answer for. Up himself, Buckley is useless and yes he never gives us praise. I know many people don't like the OX, but I actually don't mind him.

As usual, the media this week has focused on how Essendon lost not how we beat them.

[camwoof]

I noticed the bias of the channel seven commentators. Could it have anything to do with the fact channel seven sponsor essendon?

[Sockeye Salmon]

I actually don't think it's anything sinister. Commentators always go for the underdog because it makes for better viewing (and ratings).

[LostDoggy]

I liked that we adapted and stopped over committing to tackles. The bombers love to release with handball after drawing a player. As the game went on we started hanging back and making them kick or go backwards which caused turnovers.

Was immediately noticeable in the last quarter. This, I thought, was the main reason why Essendon's run was stifled (rather than injuries.. the injured Essendon players were playing up forward anyway and had little to do with the Dogs midfield being overrun.. the commentators/analysts just talk so much crap).

The little fast Bombers were just drawing then running past Dogs players who were committing at full-pace to tackles, but the moment we started hanging back and played off a stable base in a zone type system they found it much, much harder to run past a well set-up wall of players.

The Crows and others have been doing this to us for the last two/three years, and the Bombers will soon find sides doing the same to them. The difference, I suppose, is that they have legitimate tall targets in their forward 50, but a well-set up zone can really cut their ball supply off.

The change was clearly an instruction from Rocket at three-quarter time; again, great coaching to be able to adjust a losing game plan/style, and a credit to our players and our pre-season tactical training that they were able to carry this out as well as they did.

This is also why I don't think we played all that badly (apart from a few glaring exceptions already mentioned elsewhere), although we did take our foot off the gas close to the end of the first quarter. It was more a case of the Bombers exploiting our high-pressure game style, then us adapting in the last quarter to counter their run. No doubt a better pre-season and more mature bodies also helped us run out the game better.