Wins BRING the heat. Beat GC.

[Bornadog]

Suns develop Darwin fortress, but is it the best 'home away from home'?

GOLD Coast has been unbeatable in Darwin in recent years and its raging success means it holds the best overall 'home away from home' record around the League.

The Suns will head to the Top End on Thursday afternoon to embark on an eight-day, two-game journey that pits them against the red-hot Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn.

It will be the fourth consecutive year they've travelled to Darwin to play two games, clean sweeping the previous six against North Melbourne (2022, 2024), the Hawks (2022), the Bulldogs (2023), Adelaide (2023) and Geelong (2024).

With its high humidity, extreme heat and depth of local talent in Suns colours, the Northern Territory's capital has been a genuine fortress.

Despite losses to the Dogs in 2012 and Carlton in 2020, the overall record of 6-2, and win percentage of 75, is the best in the AFL.

It just pips Hawthorn and its long-standing arrangement of playing in Launceston.

We have played 10 games there and lost 3

[Axe Man]

We have played 10 games there and lost 3

Yeah but have only played there once in the past 12 years (and lost)! I think their Darwin form in the past 3 seasons is a little more relevant than our games there 15-20 years ago.

But we'll still beat them.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

Gold Coast have beaten four of the bottom five and pipped Adelaide, so a lot of their high spot in the ladder can be chalked up to their fixture so far. And they lost to Richmond.
Darwin or not, I don't see any reason to be especially scared of them.

- BNC

[Happy Days]

Suns are a 99 overall in Darwin, I don’t expect to win at all.

[azabob]

The next three are tough. We must win this game.

Gold Coast in Darwin off a seven day break
Essendon at Marvel off a seven day break
Geelong at Sedat Pak off a five day break.

[Sedat]

We have played 10 games there and lost 3

I reckon it's 4 losses so far. We lost to Port twice (the first game there in 2017 and that other one that was played in near freezing conditions with a 3.20pm start time - awesome job AFEL fixturing dept). Adelaide also pipped us by less than a kick in Ballarat one year, as did GWS when they came from a mile back at half time.

[Axe Man]

I reckon it's 4 losses so far. We lost to Port twice (the first game there in 2017 and that other one that was played in near freezing conditions with a 3.20pm start time - awesome job AFEL fixturing dept). Adelaide also pipped us by less than a kick in Ballarat one year, as did GWS when they came from a mile back at half time.

BAD was talking about Darwin.

[Axe Man]

Not sure the best place to put this:

Bulldogs’ burning question: Have they unlocked the ultimate key to a premiership tilt?

The Bulldogs are firing on all cylinders and the numbers stack up. As it stands, the Bulldogs are the number one team in the competition for ball movement for AND against. It’s an exemplary profile that history shows can be the key to a premiership. Of the last five teams to have those dual number one rankings this deep into a season, four have gone on to win the flag that year. “Don’t they look the full package?” Richmond champion Jack Riewoldt posed on Fox Footy’s On the Couch. “They look complete at the moment,” Hawthorn champion Jordan Lewis added. “Right now, I think they’re the hottest team in the competition and in terms of stability both offensively and defensively, they look really sound.” “Their best looks pretty good,” Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley said. Midfield maestro Ed Richards is humming and recorded the second highest ranked game by any Bulldog since Champion Data began taking statistics against Port Adelaide, while Tim English had a whopping 17 score involvements in that game. Joel Freijah and Ryley Sanders continue to develop, and the versatility and talent of Luke Beveridge’s list is becoming enviable to the rest of the competition.

Link

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Not sure the best place to put this:

Bulldogs’ burning question: Have they unlocked the ultimate key to a premiership tilt?

The Bulldogs are firing on all cylinders and the numbers stack up. As it stands, the Bulldogs are the number one team in the competition for ball movement for AND against. It’s an exemplary profile that history shows can be the key to a premiership. Of the last five teams to have those dual number one rankings this deep into a season, four have gone on to win the flag that year. “Don’t they look the full package?” Richmond champion Jack Riewoldt posed on Fox Footy’s On the Couch. “They look complete at the moment,” Hawthorn champion Jordan Lewis added. “Right now, I think they’re the hottest team in the competition and in terms of stability both offensively and defensively, they look really sound.” “Their best looks pretty good,” Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley said. Midfield maestro Ed Richards is humming and recorded the second highest ranked game by any Bulldog since Champion Data began taking statistics against Port Adelaide, while Tim English had a whopping 17 score involvements in that game. Joel Freijah and Ryley Sanders continue to develop, and the versatility and talent of Luke Beveridge’s list is becoming enviable to the rest of the competition.

Link

Oh great get ready for a loss everyone.

[comrade]

Oh great get ready for a loss everyone.

Yeah, they were gushing similarly before the Hawks final and I bought in completely. I'm wary, it's round 8 and they're talking about unlocking the key to a premiership? The media loves to build em up just to rip em down.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Yeah, they were gushing similarly before the Hawks final and I bought in completely. I'm wary, it's round 8 and they're talking about unlocking the key to a premiership? The media loves to build em up just to rip em down.

I can't ever recall a time where we've succeeded as a "premiership favourite".

We've been born to be underdogs. It'd be nice to overcome that.

[Boots]

4 of our first 6 games were in extremely hot conditions, 2 of those at Marvel (I was at both, and have worked at TIO for AFL games). It was as close to TIO as I have experienced; it was putrid. It would have been better if they occurred in the last fortnight, but combined with the new facility and heat training availability to even a couple of years ago, no excuses for me. Dogs are well-prepared.

I agree, I expect GC to come out hunting, off that performance, but it is not like they didn't have full motivation against the Lions in a Sunday night feature. Match that intensity for long enough; they will drop off.

My mind is already on Geelong, it is unhealthy how much I want the Dogs to smash them.

Smash them, salt the earth.

Geelong delenda est

[Boots]

I don't subscribe to the theory that when you go on a bit of a winning streak it increases the likeliness of a loss. Games tend to stand on the basics of form , fitness, planning and execution.

Agreed - Fate has a sense of humour, but no sense of justice.

[Rusty12]

To the eye, it looked like the conditions got the better of us, and then we finished with a flurry, so did they?
So were we prepared and handled it well, or weren't we?

Was it it fatigue leading to poor decision-making and skills, or was it the slippery conditions?

Did we run the game out, or did they stop?

I don't think Bont and a few other key movers were running as hard defensively as they would otherwise. Was that the conditions, or, when you keep butchering the footy and wasting oppitunites, does that D running just start to get too much?

[mjp]

Was it it fatigue leading to poor decision-making and skills, or was it the slippery conditions?

I think the decision making was 100% aligned with how we have been playing. Move the ball from lane to lane, changing angles. Look for the opening....GO. But the problem is you can't do that when the ball isn't behaving as normal - when kicks have to be more 'careful' because your ball drop isn't as secure...and when marks are a bit more of a 50-50. That short target? It isn't a guaranteee. That handball > 5m? Hell, that handball > 3m? No guarantee to hit it's target or be hauled in.

I have no issue with the way we are playing but it isn't the plan for Darwin. Keep it simple. Look longer. Hinge around the contest for support on both sides - at the same time, fight desperately to keep the ball coming FORWARD from a marking contest at all costs (over the back is death) and just be prepared to play an imperfect game.

We just tried to be too clever. Trying to hit up in the corridor when DTL would have done. As it turned out, we still nearly pinched it but really - GC were the better side.

We played footy. They played footy in Darwin.