North Melbourne V Western Bulldogs R17, Thursday 3/7/25 at Marvel Stadium at 7:30pm

[1eyedog]

It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion at times… we can all see our inability to withstand the impact of the frontal pressure but we just continue to roll the dice by hand, rather than take some territory and reset.

I can’t see us being able to compete consistently against the best teams until we are able to protect our defence against the ‘hot’ turn-overs we’ve been regularly been giving up… either that changes or Liam Jones comes back in and plays like it’s 2023.

The oppo is starting to peel off in the back half to one on one situations around the ball carrier as they know we want to move it out by hand. Kicking hasn't been our go but we're being force into it and they're sweating on the turnover.

We've pushed Naughts and English up higher as the get out of doge option with some success but teams are definitely starting to work us out.

Big test this week.

[doggies ftw]

Meh I think people tend to focus on the times in the game when our handballing runs us into trouble too much. That same in tight handballing game has also led to many occasions of us clearing the ball into space and generating worthwhile clearances.

Yeah some times it gets caught out and we turn the ball over or more often get caught and it’s another stoppage, this is at least predictable. Throwing the ball on the foot for a hack kick forward can cause just as much damage, or even more in the modern game when it’s picked off and sent back over your head in a much more unpredictable and hard to defend manner.

Can we improve of course, but let’s not forget we’re the most damaging stoppage team in the comp due to our handballing in tight and will to get the ball to the outside preferences over hack kicks forward. So overall it’s a pretty net positive for us, a lot of people seem to expect perfection for some reason.

[Axe Man]

Coach's votes

10 Tom Liberatore (WB)
7 Marcus Bontempelli (WB)
7 Aaron Naughton (WB)
3 Rory Lobb (WB)
2 Ed Richards (WB)
1 Nick Larkey (NMFC)

Bont rated higher by the coaches than quite a few woof voters, was he marked down because he's the Bont?

[Bornadog]

Bont rated higher by the coaches than quite a few woof voters, was he marked down because he's the Bont?

Bont is very influential on the ground but maybe a bit of reputation as well to get the votes.

[angelopetraglia]

Bont rated higher by the coaches than quite a few woof voters, was he marked down because he's the Bont?

100% yes.