Round 5 2008 Match Preview. Dogs v Tiges

[Sockeye Salmon]

Thanks for the opportunity. I tried to get a head start and do as much as I could before Richmond’s game on Sunday and then had to delete most of it and start again!

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Match: Western Bulldogs v Richmond – Telstra Dome – Sunday


Recent Form:

The Tigers are all over the shop. They managed a first up win over Carlton after falling behind early, then were disappointing for the next two weeks before putting in probably their best performance in a couple of years last Sunday. Competitive against North (without ever looking like they might actually win), insipid against Collingwood and excellent against Freo. Who knows what they'll dish up this week.

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Last time they played:

Rd 4 2007 - MCG – Friday Night - Western Bulldogs 20.12.132 def Richmond 14.16.100
A year ago to the day but it seems so much longer. Since then we’ve had both a massive slump and now a fantastic high. They’ve been consistently crap (until Sunday). Harbrow and Williams were brought in for their debuts and we thought Darcy and Murphy were back when they kicked 4 goals each only to later realize it was a false dawn. This time around we know Murphy is back and Hudson has taken over from where Darcy used to be. Westy picked up a lazy 35 touches, 6 tackles and 3 Brownlow votes in just another day at the office.

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Players missing / At the selection table:

Western Bulldogs: The news is slowly getting better. No new injuries this week and we could see the return of any or all of Williams, Ray and Everitt at Williamstown. West said on Friday night that he thinks he’ll be back for this week as well. It’s hard to find a defensive matchup for Cam Wight this week so he is could be the unlucky one to make way for Westie. Jarrod Harbrow is the other possibility.

Richmond: Pettifer is due back from suspension and Bowden had a good game for Coburg but will Wallace want to change a winning lineup? McGuane hurt a shoulder and might free up a spot for Bowden, I expect Pettifer to run around in the VFL for a week at least, he was hardly setting the world on fire before he got suspended. Raines missed this week and Coghlan made a return to the VFL.

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Style of play / team structure’s:

Western Bulldogs – I won’t repeat what others have said, only that there are two things that must happen if our gameplan is going to stand up - we must pressure the ball carrier, always, and we must hit targets. We were down in both in the middle two quarters on Friday and nearly got bitten on the bum.

Richmond – Unfortunately the Richmond–Freo game wasn’t on free-to-air this week so I haven’t seen it so I’m confused as hell. I watched Richmond play Collingwood the previous week and their gameplan seemed to be to handball round and round in circles until either they turned it over or until someone got enough space to kick it to the opposition.

They must have made some pretty big improvement over the course of a week.

Last week they had more handball than kicks, this week they’ve had one and a half times as many kicks to handballs. I also notice that this week they had a massive 48 running bounces, their average before Sunday was 19.6. They are now 1st in the comp for bounces (ave. 26.2), we’re second (ave 22.5). The instruction was obviously to run, run, run.

The most obvious change was to play Richo up the ground and Polak at full forward. Deledio spent more time up the ground as well.

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Key Match-Ups:

This is tough this week.

Brad Johnson v Bowden – Bowden’s been given the job on Johnno before and I can’t really see too many alternatives.

Adam Cooney v Jake King – I doubt Cooney will play another game without a hard tag for the next 10 years.

Will Minson v Jay Schulz – No-one else slow enough for Schulz to play on.

Robert Murphy/Scott Welsh v Kelvin Moore/Will Thursfield – I expect Thursfield will take Welsh but young Moore will have a few sleepless nights this week if he gets the job on Murphy. I can’t see him being with 10 metres of him.

Richo v ? – This is the toughie. If Richo plays up the ground again Lake won’t be able to go with him, Richo has a massive engine for such a big man. If he pushes forward he’ll destroy Morris or Wight in the air.

If Richo is going to be a winger, play him on a winger, just make sure that when he floats forward, as he will surely do, he gets manned up by someone with a bit more size. In the meantime, a real winger should be able to do some damage himself.

I’ll go with Hargrave when Richo is up the ground with instructions to kick 3 goals while Richo is complaining to the umpires. Richo will outmark him but he will do that to everyone anyway.

Nathan Brown v Dale Morris – Morris gets the most dangerous forward and Brown is the most dangerous forward. Brown’s not a patch on the player he was before he broke his leg but is still capable and will burn you if not respected.

Brian Lake v Graeme Polak
Matthew Boyd v Nathan Foley
Scott West/Daniel Cross v Kane Johnson/Shane Tuck.

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Player’s under the pump:

Western Bulldogs:

Not too many when you’re 4-0 but there’s still some who could improve. I can’t remember Brad Johnson playing two shockers in a row like he has these last two weeks. Ryan Hargrave is struggling a little and Robert Murphy had more skill errors last week than I suspect he has ever had before.

Richmond:

A week ago you would have named most of the side, what a difference a week can make. Johnson was in danger of getting dropped and had 35 touches. Without checking, I’m sure Puntroadend would have been a lot kinder to Jordan McMahon this week as well. Richard Tambling released a bit of pressure and Jay Shulz is showing he might make it as a defender after all.

Nathan Brown still hasn’t played a blinder but 19 touches and 2 goals is an improvement.

Terry Wallace will be the one breathing the biggest sigh of relief.

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Who will win and why:

One swallow doesn’t make a summer – . It’s going to take more than 1 win to convince the football world that Richmond have turned the corner.

It’s one thing to outrun the pedestrian Dockers but they really shouldn’t be able to do that to us. Richo will cause havoc and take a dozen marks but if we can get him taking them on the wing the resultant damage will be minimal.

I can’t believe Richmond can possibly have fixed their kicking problems in one week. White, King, Johnson, Tuck and Hyde will turn it over if under enough pressure and we can do the business on the rebound.

Too many midfield guns for Richmond to stop and too many avenues to goal.

Dogs by 39+ going away, but as always with a proviso. If the pressure’s not on the ball carrier we will lose.

[GVGjr]

Perhaps I haven't erased the nightmares of 2007 from my memory but these are the games that worry me the most.

The Tigers have a talented forward line with Richardson, Brown, Morton, and Polak and I'm still not convinced that Lake is in great form.
The will have their confidence high after their impressive away win and of course the added spice of Wallace, Brown and now McMahon against their old side.

The game will be won if we can control the midfield so Cooney, Griffen, Cross and co must have good games.


Great report to read SS.

[Sedat]

The game will be won if we can control the midfield so Cooney, Griffen, Cross and co must have good games.

Westy has destroyed Richmond in the past and his loss will be felt by us more this week than against the Bombers. The likes of Boyd/Cross/Cooney/Griff will have to bring their a-grade game to ensure we don't allow Foley and Johnson first purchase out of the middle. Richmond have only been really poor against Collingwood this season, and even then they murdered the Pies at the clearances but butchered the ball through overuse. We will lose if we play at the same level of intensity that we did in the middle stages against Essendon.

[LostDoggy]

Well said SS.

Richo is a real concern, and lets face it, we have no one to go with him. Providing he lines up on the wing again i would like to see Griffen go to him and play totally offensive and burn him early with a few goals. That will make Richo play more accountable, something he wouldnt like. Wallace might have no other option but to move him back to the forwardline which would be a win for us because Richo was a weapon last week on the wing.

I think we will have a win, although im not as confident as id like to be after the performance the Tigers conjured up last week.

[Go_Dogs]

Good preview. Didn't get to see the Richmond game either, but was pretty annoyed to see they won - I was looking at 8/8 until Carlton and then Richmond got up...so it's going to be interesting to see how they go about it this weekend.

I think we'll have too much speed and body strength in the middle of the ground. If we work hard enough, we should win quite comfortably. We really need to atone for some pretty average patches last Friday, so hopefully we can come out, smash them and send a message that we really are serious this year.

I think Richo will spend more time close to goal this week, if he doesn't I think your right SS, perhaps any of Hargrave/Wight/Morris could take him if he played further up field, or we could put someone like Eagle or Hill on him and try to run off him hard.

[Dry Rot]

Good preview SS - understand why Sunday buggered up your previous work.

Wallace claimed he pit his runners against slow Freo giants and it worked. Ditto he pulled the Richo on a wing move out of his arse.

Wonder if he;ll repeat it with Richo this week or be tempted to pit talls like Richo and Polak against our reputed undersized backline? Richo on a wing is a match-up nightmare.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I knew I'd leave out one bit.

Wallace said after the North game that the reason they lost was their 10 day break. We might be in trouble, we have a 9 day break.

Watch for Wallace excuse no. 43972 "they had longer to recover and prepare than we did".

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Good stuff SS.

Johnson needs to lift, Brad - that is. He was a contributor against Melbourne but has played poorly against St. Kilda & Essendon. We all know that Johnno is a champion player, but I think there should be a little bit of pressure on him to perform better. He's dropped marks, made silly decisions & missed targets far too frequently. Again, he's an elite player of the competition but he needs to play better footy than he has for the last two or so weeks.

Addison/Callan are interesting ones and you could argue we can't afford to play both in the same side. On Friday Night they really did turn the ball over too many times and when either of them have the ball in their hands, it's not exactly a 'safe' feeling. I was paying close attention to Addison and in the second quarter he was already absolutely buggered - he could barely contest and lost a couple of situations or turned the ball over because of this. It's something he clearly needs to work on if he's to be a regular - we needed him to step up in Westy's absence and TBH, he didn't. In his third? year now, he should have a better fitness base. I suspect if he struggles again this week he'll be dropped.

Although not under the pump, 6-8 players need to play as they did in Rounds 1-3 as they were ordinary last week. Murphy, Cooney, Gia, Hahn, Lake & Morris to name a few. I think with the 9 day break we'll be better placed to play a better brand of football, we looked spent several times throughout the Essendon encounter. An interesting stat to note is that The Tigers are #4 in the league for contested footy, if I recall correctly. Although we're currently #1, we desperately need to keep this type of style up otherwise we'll fall to bits ala last year. Should we keep playing the way we have and our key's from last week who didn't play too well perform better - which they really should - I would expect a 36+ point win.

[dog town]

They were bloody fantastic yesterday as much as I hate to say it. Best game I have seen from a Richmond side for quite a while.

Richo was awesome on the wing pushing down to half back to create a switch then bolting forward to become another option. I suspect he will find it a bit harder on a smaller ground where his ground level skills will be called into question more often.

They used a pretty mobile forward line anchored by Polak who was very dangerous in the air. Lake will probably go to him you would think unless Richo starts deep in the forward line. The rest of the forward line damage was caused by guys like Brown and Morton.

I dont think this weeks game will be overly complicated tactically. Big key against Richmond is to apply enormous pressure on the ball carrier and then watch them turn it over. On the wide open spaces of Subi they had time to settle and kick to space (they are actually quite a quick side now) but hopefully on a smaller ground we can put pressure on them and force them to cough the ball up. As a rule about half of the tigers side is horrendous by foot. We must squash them early or the belief will flow through them pretty quickly after last week.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Although not under the pump, 6-8 players need to play as they did in Rounds 1-3 as they were ordinary last week. Murphy, Cooney, Gia, Hahn, Lake & Morris to name a few. I think with the 9 day break we'll be better placed to play a better brand of football, we looked spent several times throughout the Essendon encounter. An interesting stat to note is that The Tigers are #4 in the league for contested footy, if I recall correctly. Although we're currently #1, we desperately need to keep this type of style up otherwise we'll fall to bits ala last year. Should we keep playing the way we have and our key's from last week who didn't play too well perform better - which they really should - I would expect a 36+ point win.

I gave Lake BOG this week and most have given Cooney votes as well. You're hard to please!

[dog town]

The Ox said on the coverage that Cooney is carrying something. Hope its nothing major. Thought he worked his way into the game well after a poor start.

[ledge]

The Ox said on the coverage that Cooney is carrying something. Hope its nothing major. Thought he worked his way into the game well after a poor start.

Yeah he is carrying the ball and has got leather poisoning.

[bornadog]

I can't believe posters are suggesting either Hargrave, Morris or even Griffen could match up with Richo

Matthew Richardson is 195cm and weights 104kg, so he is a man mountain. Hargrave is 20kg lighter and 5 cm shorter. Morris is 10kg lighter and 5cm shorter. They are not a match up at all.

If Richo plays in the forward line then Lake is our man to go with him. He is the only one with the same height, weight and strength. If Richo plays up the grlound like on Sunday, then the only option is Wight, we don't have any one else with the motor and agility.

[bornadog]

Although not under the pump, 6-8 players need to play as they did in Rounds 1-3 as they were ordinary last week. Murphy, Cooney, Gia, Hahn, Lake & Morris to name a few.

BB, sorry don't agree with you - here is why.

Murphy - Still managed to pick up 21 posessions and most times did something with the ball. He had a couple of clangers, but overall I thought he had a great battle with Ryder.

Cooney - almost BOG with 24 disposals and 14 fantastic handle balls that created many goals. Wasn't running like his usual self, but was getting the hard ball and pumping the ball out.

Gia - Agree, didn't have a great game.

Lake - I thought it was his best game so far this year and is improving each week. Took 7 marks and saved us many times.

Morris - nine marks, 15 disposals. Did get beaten a couple of times, but I still think he played well. Needs to improve his long kicking accuracy.

Those do have to lift:

Addison - strted well in the first quarter but didn't get a disposal in the second half of the game

Eagelton - I thought was an ordinary game, but coming off an injury his confidence was down.

Gia - per above, we need more out of him.

Minson - Need four quarters, not just last quarter.

[Mantis]

Good stuff SS....

As previous posters have stated we must maintain our pressure on the ball carrier for extended periods. The momentum changed at the start of the last qtr against Essendon when we started to get numbers at the contest, like we did against against St.Kilda the week before. Let's hope we learnt our lesson last week and apply more pressure to the 'receiving' types. I was simply astonished that we did not pay close attention to Stanton last week who is quite comfortably the biggest sheepdog in the game, but if you pay him no respect he carves you up. Richmond have a few like players so lets hope we are show more accountability through the midfield.

Agree with bornadog that Wight looks a good match-up for Richo if Richo plays up the field, otherwise Lake is the man if Richo plays forward.

Big test for Hargrave this week, he was ordinary last week and with Williams and Everitt getting closer to a return he is one player who will feel pressure to stay in the team. Same too for Eagleton with Ray coming back shortly.

With a few extra days break and with Richmond coming back from a hard running game in Perth we should win this one comfortably. Would be disappointed with anything less than a 6 goal win.