Only mystery is how Bulldogs gots so close to Geelong

[Mantis]

Only mystery is how Bulldogs got so close to Geelong
Mike Sheahan | September 07, 2009 12:00am

THOSE in the Western Bulldogs camp honest enough to confront the truth will say they got stage-fright on Saturday. They were outclassed by Geelong early in the game and never produced the exhilarating football that had carried them to third place.

The Cats had the best seven or eight players in the game, even allowing for the persistence of Lindsay Gilbee and Brian Lake, and Jason Akermanis's three goals.

Nothing of any consequence from way too many, principally Ryan Griffen, Josh Hill, Daniel Giansiracusa, Mitch Hahn and Will Minson. Even Bobby Murphy had a poor one by his standards.

So, how the hell did the Bulldogs finish just 14 points short?

Had Adam Cooney, the Brownlow medallist, and Brad Johnson, the captain, converted relatively simple opportunities in the last quarter, who knows what might have eventuated?

Oddly, the Doggies kicked 10.9 after quarter-time to Geelong's 8.7.

And this is a Geelong with Gary Ablett, Matthew Scarlett, Corey Enright, Jimmy Bartel, Darren Milburn, Cameron Ling, Joel Corey and Andrew Mackie all at or near the top of their game.

It's crazy, really.

Perhaps that's why Rodney Eade says the Doggies aren't done with just yet.

They face the Brisbane Lions, the banged-up Lions, at the MCG Friday night.

Eade has to decide to keep the faith in the players who took the club to third, or inject fresh blood.

Andrejs Everitt springs to mind.

The Doggies look cumbersome with both Minson and Ben Hudson in the team. Everitt could be used like the Lions have used Jared Brennan, a smaller, more athletic ruck type.

Not sure what the coach has in mind in front of goal.

The Doggies and their supporters can say what they like about how heavily the team has scored this year, but finals are different.

When players are under pressure, the bail-out tactic is to kick long and hard, and hope.

Not really the textbook way when the bloke camped under the long bomb is Akermanis, Johnson, Hill, Nathan Eagleton or Shaun Higgins.

The key indicators - contested possessions, clearances, inside-50s - were almost identical, as the margin suggested, yet Geelong had all the good players.

I'm not sure about either of them just yet.

[LostDoggy]

Nothing of any consequence from way too many, principally Ryan Griffen, Josh Hill, Daniel Giansiracusa, Mitch Hahn and Will Minson.

And this is a Geelong with Gary Ablett, Matthew Scarlett, Corey Enright, Jimmy Bartel, Darren Milburn, Cameron Ling, Joel Corey and Andrew Mackie all at or near the top of their game.

Not sure what the coach has in mind in front of goal.

Not really the textbook way when the bloke camped under the long bomb is Akermanis, Johnson, Hill, Nathan Eagleton or Shaun Higgins.
.

The only mystery here is how a bloke who can't put a grammatically correct sentence together runs a writing department for a major daily. None of the above sentences would pass a basic language test.

[bornadog]

The only mystery here is how a bloke who can't put a grammatically correct sentence together runs a writing department for a major daily. None of the above sentences would pass a basic language test.

Good comeback, disgraceful journalism.

[Remi Moses]

Well it is the daily tabloid. Makes Robinson look like a genius

[azabob]

Forget the grammer etc etc, he is right.
How did we get so close?

Who does this say more about?

Geelong or the Bulldogs.

[Mantis]

Who does this say more about?

Geelong or the Bulldogs.

Geelong.

Their best players played well and our best players played poorly yet they still only beat us by 14 points. They were absolutely ripe for the picking and we didn't take our chance.

We really blew this one.

[Sedat]

Geelong.

Their best players played well and our best players played poorly yet they still only beat us by 14 points. They were absolutely ripe for the picking and we didn't take our chance.

We really blew this one.

I reckon it's all academic. St Kilda are comfortably better than the field at the moment and have been all season. I'll go as far as to say if Adelaide overcomes Collingwood next week, they will make the GF. Geelong are just going - still enough brilliance and class to get the job done against us but we could not have played into their hands more if we tried. Adelaide will not indiscriminantly bomb the ball into their forward 50 like we did - plus they actually have some overhead quality up forward that Geelong's defenders will need to pay closer attention to rather than peel off and consistently play 3rd man up.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Geelong.

Their best players played well and our best players played poorly yet they still only beat us by 14 points. They were absolutely ripe for the picking and we didn't take our chance.

We really blew this one.

If this season does not end with a Grand Final appearance that it is going to be the painful cross to bare all summer

It was absolutely there for the taking, and our senior players played with none of the desperation required.

Extremely disappointing

[Desipura]

If this season does not end with a Grand Final appearance that it is going to be the painful cross to bare all summer

Exactly my thoughts but some people want to wait until the end of the year to make the call. It makes no difference, if we do not at least play off in a GF, I do not believe we would have improved as a team from last season.

[The Coon Dog]

Exactly my thoughts but some people want to wait until the end of the year to make the call. It makes no difference, if we do not at least play off in a GF, I do not believe we would have improved as a team from last season.

Me!!

[bornadog]

Exactly my thoughts but some people want to wait until the end of the year to make the call. It makes no difference, if we do not at least play off in a GF, I do not believe we would have improved as a team from last season.

The one thing we have done which is an improvement, is we have got more game time into some young players like Ward, Harbrow, Hill, Higgins, Stack, Reid, gave Grant a taste and Minson has more responsibility and is starting to mature at 24 years old.

Hopefully after this week we can say we have gained more improvement by belting Brisbane and St Kilda

[Desipura]

Me!!

Why is it too early to see we would not have improved on last year if we do not play in a GF? TCD, you and I and alot of posters have been to far too many losing prelim's

[The Coon Dog]

Why is it too early to see we would not have improved on last year if we do not play in a GF? TCD, you and I and alot of posters have been to far too many losing prelim's

I just reckon its too simplistic to say we're better or worse dependent upon whether we win or lose a Prelim.

[Desipura]

I just reckon its too simplistic to say we're better or worse dependent upon whether we win or lose a Prelim.

I think its that black and white or should I say red white and blue. If we lost a preliminary final with a young key forward that we had discovered during the year, as well as Williams playing good consistent footy down back, that would be another story.
Sure we have found improvement in individual players, however our team structure has similar weaknesses to last year,

[Bulldog Joe]

I just reckon its too simplistic to say we're better or worse dependent upon whether we win or lose a Prelim.

Agree with that.

I do believe we have a better side in 2009, but of course the competition does not stand still. St Kilda have undoubtedly improved more than any other side and we have seen significant improvement in Collingwood, Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton and even Essendon.

The sides that slipped were Sydney (aging list), North Melbourne (Shinboner Spirit only goes so far) Hawthorn (Injury, Premiership Hangover and a couple of rule chnages) and Richmond ( Tanned Terry's non contact game had reached its used by date around September 2000).

The challenge is that continual improvement is required just to maintain your position relative to the competition. To advance requires a significant improvement.