Round 3 vs Carlton is a BIG game.

[jazzadogs]

To win we have to kick 15 goals. If Darcy kicks 6 where are the other 9 coming from? If Darcy dont kick 6 where are the rest coming from? McKay and Curnow will get their lick of the ice cream this week. They have Silvagni and Williams as their next 2. I rate them ahead of our 3rd and 4th forwards. So we need someone to have a big night

Carlton scored 69 points against Richmond, and 60 against Hawthorn.

Why are we giving up 15 goals to them?

Also only one week ago we kicked 17 goals.
3 to Naughton and VDM, 2 to Dale, Mcneill, Sanders, 1 to Darcy, Davidson, Freijah, Richards.

We're capable of defending teams to very low scores, and equally capable of putting big scores together (particularly at Marvel).

[SonofScray]

Big game.

Anticipating a bit of a come down after a hot round one, and a huge week for the Club last week culminating in a “valiant” loss.

i think we’ve shown that the boys have been well prepped for the season, despite the injury list, and I’d have had this a 50-50 game before a ball was kicked. We’re a chance to put them away in form. But I think circumstances have conspired against us.

[mjp]

To win we have to kick 15 goals. If Darcy kicks 6 where are the other 9 coming from? If Darcy dont kick 6 where are the rest coming from? McKay and Curnow will get their lick of the ice cream this week. They have Silvagni and Williams as their next 2.

Silvagni had 6-kicks for 1 goal last week...Williams also had 6-kicks - he got 2 goals.

Are these guys really the ones we're worried about??

Aside from that, in Round 1 they kicked 8 goals and in Round 2 they kicked 9 goals...isn't their entire 'M.O.' that they are strong defensively but poor offensively...

I don't understand why we have to kick 15-goals to win...last week:

Hawthorn: 12 goals = Win
Pies (sadly): 10 goals = Win
Adelaide kicked a million goals and so did Port.
The saints would have lost without goal 15
Sydney kicked 9 and that was enough...
Brissy kicked 14 and won....

I'm all for saying we have to kick 15-goals but that basically means averaging 100-points per game and I don't think anyone did that in 2024. Expecting Darcy to kick 6? Geez.

[Mofra]

Fun fact: Carlton are 0-8 across their last 8 games when playing the Bulldogs at Marvel as the home team.

[Axe Man]

Fun fact: Carlton are 0-8 across their last 8 games when playing the Bulldogs at Marvel as the home team.

They are also 2-9 from their last 11 games with wins against North and West Coast.

[MrMahatma]

And we really only beat them last year cause Curnow kicked 95 behinds. But he's not up and about, yet.

If Jones is back (and there's no reason to think if he is, he's not 100% ready to go), then our defence is probably as strong as it'll get. It's still the mids that are going to have to carry us forward. It's a dynamic mix in there now with Ed and Freja. It's different and damaging, but likely to be inconsistent. We won't have any other notable players back for a couple more weeks after this so those mids really need to continue to gel.

It's going to be fascinating. I hope we're mentally locked in here. Their form line is irrelevant. If we don't bring the pressure they're still capable of a day out.

[Critter]

Exactly why I want us to go taller in defence this week.

Some teams win "small", and some teams win "tall". Curnow & McKay are their keys to victory, with Silvani & Kemp swinging forward & back. If we can free up Khamis/JOD as the third to provide that chop-out on long entries, we can make it very hard for them to kick a winning score.... a team that has kicked 17 goals cross 2 games.

Agree totally. Our experience has been that Curnow causes us grief. Including Jones, JOD and Buku in the team gives us options at either end of the ground.

[1eyedog]

I'm exhausted by conversations about players who aren't playing and those who could maybe be playing in 2026.

Meanwhile - back in the world of the game played on grass - we are playing Carlton on a Friday night. It wasn't long ago our club would have dreamed of this exposure.

So far this year:

- Carlton:
Lost to Richmond despite have + 25 inside 50s.
Lost to Hawthorn - the expected score for the game had them winning.

Basically, we are playing against a team that is playing WELL but hasn't won yet and is being attacked in the media.

Our situation? We still have a lot of injuries...and despite a loss last weekend everyone is saying that we played tremendously well and were robbed by poor umpiring.

In short - I'm not loving this narrative at all and my concern right now is we're going to head out on Friday night and get rolled by an oppo that has been primed all week to be desperate...and we wont be able to match their intensity as we bask in the glow of a 'GOOD EFFORT'.

Anyone feeling the same?? Am I getting this wrong??

No I think Carlton have absolutely everything to play for and will put together a winning score.

If they don't at least nearly kill themselves in the contest tonight their supporters will burn IKON Park to the ground.

I expect they'll be too desperate for us tonight.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

I think the guys met the brief MJP.

I reckon that was a hell of a performance.
Sometime as supporters we have unreasonable expectations that everyone in the 22 is going to have mistake free games, or that we have to dominate a game for 4 Qtrs in all aspects for it to warrant praise.

We got jumped last night by a team that were staring down the barrel, and who would've felt the weight of the Carlton supporter expectations on their shoulders.
I agree with Bevo, we didn't do a heap wrong early on, other than make stupid mistakes and then fail to capitalise when we had our chances.
I loved our game last night, we withstood the heat in the kitchen, when it would've been easy to make excuses.
Newish-old leopards did change their spots, VDM, McNeil, Buku, all stepped up in key moments in situations they've previously fluffed. McNeil's recovery from an awful miss to kick a wonderful goal was so nice to see.
Gallagher looked more comfortable with his new role, Baker really put his body on the line. And I know he copped it, but he plays a nightmarishly risky role - I thought Bramble was just fine and unlucky too.

We can tick a lot of boxes from the first 3 weeks. The thing is though, this has to be the standard... and for mine, we've been longing for a win like this for ages, to reinforce the coaching team's messaging, and to build belief amongst the group that we can do some very good work even without Bont, Treloar, Weightman, JUH.
if JUH doesn't get motivation to want to be an AFL player and particularly as a part of this group after a performance like that, then I don't know what what it will take.

[Hotdog60]

I think the win last night meant something to the players as there was a lot of hugs going around.

[Bornadog]

I think the guys met the brief MJP.

Bailey Dale's spoil, follow up and hitting JOD to goal is what it is all about.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

I think the win last night meant something to the players as there was a lot of hugs going around.

It's honestly refreshing to see. I'm liking the new energy. We look faster. We look like we give a damn.

[jeemak]

I think the guys met the brief MJP.

I reckon that was a hell of a performance.
Sometime as supporters we have unreasonable expectations that everyone in the 22 is going to have mistake free games, or that we have to dominate a game for 4 Qtrs in all aspects for it to warrant praise.

We got jumped last night by a team that were staring down the barrel, and who would've felt the weight of the Carlton supporter expectations on their shoulders.
I agree with Bevo, we didn't do a heap wrong early on, other than make stupid mistakes and then fail to capitalise when we had our chances.
I loved our game last night, we withstood the heat in the kitchen, when it would've been easy to make excuses.
Newish-old leopards did change their spots, VDM, McNeil, Buku, all stepped up in key moments in situations they've previously fluffed. McNeil's recovery from an awful miss to kick a wonderful goal was so nice to see.
Gallagher looked more comfortable with his new role, Baker really put his body on the line. And I know he copped it, but he plays a nightmarishly risky role - I thought Bramble was just fine and unlucky too.

We can tick a lot of boxes from the first 3 weeks. The thing is though, this has to be the standard... and for mine, we've been longing for a win like this for ages, to reinforce the coaching team's messaging, and to build belief amongst the group that we can do some very good work even without Bont, Treloar, Weightman, JUH.
if JUH doesn't get motivation to want to be an AFL player and particularly as a part of this group after a performance like that, then I don't know what what it will take.

Good post YHF.

I've been a long time critic of our playing group's attitude and hunger, when most of the heat has gone onto the coach. While we lament our injuries or absences in Bont, Treloar, Weightman and JUH, plus JJ and everyone else who hadn't played prior to last night, there's more to consider with Macrae, Smith and Daniel leaving contributing to a massive change in personnel at the club.

And with that probably a bit of a change in terms of hunger across the group. These absences have created a huge amount of selection pressure, and selection pressure is the healthiest thing a club can experience if it wants to generate hunger. We need to make sure whoever comes into the side from here embraces that (star or otherwise) and steps up to match or better that hunger. We can't have anyone comfortable or complacent, now we've remembered what hunger can deliver.

[jazzadogs]

The difficulty in Bevos tenure has been maintaining the rage for more than four weeks.

We put together one of our most impressive months late last year, beating Carlton, Cats, Swans and Dees, then backed it up with a bad loss to the Crows.

The true sign that we have 'changed', in my eyes, will be when we get to week 5-6 and are still playing the same way with no lapses.

[SonofScray]

The difficulty in Bevos tenure has been maintaining the rage for more than four weeks.

We put together one of our most impressive months late last year, beating Carlton, Cats, Swans and Dees, then backed it up with a bad loss to the Crows.

The true sign that we have 'changed', in my eyes, will be when we get to week 5-6 and are still playing the same way with no lapses.

Circuit breaker could be the reintroduction of some quality around that time. Right when we are about to botch things, Bont is back etc.