Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

[GVGjr]

This is the discussion thread for tomorrow tonights game.

Who's you tip to kick the first goal for us? I'll go with Higgins

I suppose the big question is around how Eade will manage to curb the Crows midfield.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Matty Boyd first goal

[GVGjr]

Not really related to Game Day but there is a very good article on Tom Williams in the Age today. As soon as anyone can find can they post it here? I have had a check and cannot find the link.

[bornadog]

First goal Bob Murphy. Lets hope the boys show some passion and fight and are competitive.

[BulldogBelle]

Giansiracusa to get the first goal

[LostDoggy]

Cooney to kick our first.

[Dry Rot]

Grant out, Tiller in.

[GVGjr]

Off to a good start with the first two goals.

[LostDoggy]

If we can kick 13 or 14 goals we will win this. The Crows are great at bunching it up on us though. It seems like it's always 2 of our players against 3 of theirs.

[LostDoggy]

Nice pass from Street to Eagleton for a goal but the late goals by the Crows have wrecked us a bit from having a lead. That Higgins error cost us.

At least we are pushing back on the Crows. Happy that we have kept the scoreboard moving along

[Bulldog Revolution]

I know we didn't get the result we were after but I thought it was a much better performance - I am not accepting that, but I want to see us play a better brand of footy over the final two weeks. We seemed to me to work a lot harder when we didn't have the footy, and our ability to win the contested footy was better. We just made too many mistakes when we did have it.

Tiller looked genuinely promising today. Williams and Everitt continue to grow. The return of Gilbee and Street was a positive - Gilbee was all class. Murphy now looks in good form.

[bornadog]

Much better performance, but a lot of errors going into the forward line. For some reason we keep bombing the ball into the forward line instead of looking for someone. But then again not too many players leading out, they seem to just stand there, including Darcy. This is something we need to work on.

Agree that we need to play our natural game for the next two weeks instead of that bullshit tempo rubbish that we don't know how to play.

Could be an opportunity to play a couple more youngters.

[Go_Dogs]

Even bringing the ball up from half back we were very stagnant yesterday. I was actually shocked at how little work was being done, there were occasions where perhaps 10 players were just standing around in the corridor clogging space and maybe one player making a lead out on a wing not even at full pace. Perhaps that was our tactic to really slow it down and take it casually but it certainly didn't help us moving forward. Far too many handballs and kicks missed there targets and far too many took the wrong option. The skill level of the whole game was really a good indication that it was a 10th v 11th battle, it was pretty average. Too often when we had the option to quickly move the ball by foot, we didn't - at times running forward we'd suddenly handball to a stationary target and this was at a time when someone in the forward line was actually leading to create something. Some of it was pretty ordinary. At a few stages our intensity seemingly lifted a notch, the pressure went up, we went in hard but as soon as we looked like we could kick a goal and get on a roll, a simple skill error turned the ball over, the confidence was shot and we were back to being a bit dejected.

I thought good players were Eagleton - even did a few ok right foot kicks, who worked hard and looked to create. Gilbee, Boyd, Cooney, West. Tiller was again reasonably impressive for mine, and I thought Skipper did a few ok things around the ground at times. Darcy got good value for his limited out put and his hit on Massie was almost the highlight of the game - until Massie got up and stole the ball off us.

It was good to get down there and have a watch, at least it was a close fought game, even if it was very scrappy. Hopefully as you say the next few weeks we go back to a hard running, goal scoring game - let's play some kids and get back to basics.

[Bulldog Revolution]

I agree McMahon and Bornadog - the desperation, and work of our players was markedly improved. We played a style of game that is far closer to being successful formula for us. We gave talls opportunities in the forward line - Skipper, Darcy and Tiller - and actually kicked it to them, to at least make contests. Our backline with Gilbees footskills plus Morris, Hargraves, Harris, Williams and Everitt on occassions looked ok also. Our real failing was the inability of Gia, Ray, Cooney, Boyd, Aka etc to really hurt the opposition with their disposals going forward.

[GVGjr]

Our real failing was the inability of Gia, Ray, Cooney, Boyd, Aka etc to really hurt the opposition with their disposals going forward.

This point is exactly what Mantis has been saying for several weeks now. I suppose you could add West to that list as well.