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

[ledge]

Well the great thing is we aren’t the team to drop one against a lower side and can sit back, relax and watch one of the others in the 8 slip .

[Mantis]

You take the nearly 50 point win and look forward to well deserved and needed 9 day break ahead of a big couple of weeks.

Our back 6 are a worry in both their positioning and ability to defend 1:1, but they get little help from their teammates up field.

Well done to Libba, and well played tonight.

[ledge]

Seeing the Krakours , one looks like he has been through the wringer .
Drugs and did time if I remember rightly,
Sad.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Good win.

Just need to tinker with this back half, but we don't have a lot of options. I see value in playing Jones or Buss - Lobb and JOD need support. I'd also consider Khamis for his intercept game, but we really need some genuine defenders.

Darcy getting hacked and chopped, still kicks 4. Naughton outstanding. English very good too.

[doggies ftw]

Not to be negative after a big win, lots of obvious positives like Naughty finding form over the past few weeks, but think I learnt a lot about who I don’t want in this side. With Dale moved out of the backline it put a lot of heat on the other guys down there and I don’t think many stood up.

Doc wasn’t the worst, Coffield grew into the game, all of them probably had better 2nd halves but geez they were shaky under immense pressure in the first half and that’s what stuck out for me.

Doc & Coffield gotta go I think, glad Bramble has found some form last few thought he was alright tonight. JJ finding a bit of touch late is a bonus. Poulter yeah nah, again wasn’t the worse and can see what we’re trying to do with him but he just doesn’t have anywhere near enough tricks to play that 3rd tall fwd role at AFL level.

Thought Garcia was alright, he’s by no means the perfect player - quite a few flaws but I just like what he brings, I think he has a spot in this front half. I think like early days West he has a knack of just making good things happen around the ball, and like West I don’t think we appreciated that enough at the start of his career. Doesn’t have the tricks that west has but just similarities in the impact they can have on contests.

I think Jones needs to come back, JOD had a great patch and he’s going to have ups and downs which is fair. I think he’s a potential superstar defender. But at this stage of his career I think both him & Lobb need a jones alongside them. I don’t think we lose much by swapping Coffield for another tall in Jones to be honest.

Im bringing Jones back and I’m settling the backline around the trio of Jones, Lobb, JOD and the run of Williams, Dale, JJ & Bramble. It’s not defensive enough especially in the smalls but we just don’t have any better options so it is what it is. This is our best backline let’s settle it in now for the run home to finals.

Missed Davo on the wing big time tonight, he’s had such an impact on this side. Straight back in. The midfield and wing rotations are obviously pretty set in stone. Love Sanders in that role too it really suits him and I actually quite like his ‘short game’, we have a lot of direct players who get the ball and go long, I don’t mind balancing it with someone like Sanders who is a bit of a space maker for the more direct guys.

In the forward half we’re starting to see our best mix too. Naughty & Darcy are thriving and with English and Bont rotating through I can see why we think we’re covered for talls without a Buku type. I think we can really succeed with some chaos makers at ground level below them.

a mix of West, Harmes, Garcia is probably lacking some class but they’ll scrap it and get it going our way. West in particular is just an incredible footballer, probably my fav player to watch to be honest. Just does some absurd things on the field his strength for his size is out of this world.

And Hynes, yeah kid has got it! Could be a star. His production is very low still but geez the the little moments he has are something special, I’m not sure if he’s in our best team for finals, he’s maybe just a touch of a passenger at times still but to be honest his impact can be so high if he can just get it a few more times he may just lock in a spot this year, and offer another hybrid option for us.

So much potential in this squad, I think we’re a 4th-6th rated side realistically right now. There’s footy in there which is well and truly good enough to win it all and we’re getting there but still some teething issues in the way we play that just don’t really seem to be getting much better

[doggies ftw]

Well the great thing is we aren’t the team to drop one against a lower side and can sit back, relax and watch one of the others in the 8 slip .

Feel like over the past few years we’ve usually measured up well against the top teams but dropped those stupid banana peel games you shouldn’t be losing. This year we’ve flipped the script and haven’t lost a single one of those games against the bottom teams, which usually is what you have to do to make top 4. But just haven’t been able to finish off enough of the harder games which is a shame.

We need to go at least one of the next two at least and then we’re genuinely on for a good finish, win both and we’re top 4. Going to be very very tough, need to win minimum one though and I really want that to be this week to get some momentum really kicking. If we drop this one against the crows the drums start beating a bit louder and it gets harder and harder to crack the next one

[josie]

Good win.

Just need to tinker with this back half, but we don't have a lot of options. I see value in playing Jones or Buss - Lobb and JOD need support. I'd also consider Khamis for his intercept game, but we really need some genuine defenders.

Darcy getting hacked and chopped, still kicks 4. Naughton outstanding. English very good too.

Khamis is horrible when ball hits ground. I think his position is forward/ruck backup with backline only an option if one if our defenders is injured mid game.

Hoping one of youngsters we drafted steps up asap as a smaller, quicker defender who has tenacity in spades. And hoping Buss is given an opportunity soon, or Jones can turn clock back a few years.

[kruder]

This side gives me 2015 vibes.... There is so much to like but our defence will continue to be our achilles heel.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Khamis is horrible when ball hits ground. I think his position is forward/ruck backup with backline only an option if one if our defenders is injured mid game.

Hoping one of youngsters we drafted steps up asap as a smaller, quicker defender who has tenacity in spades. And hoping Buss is given an opportunity soon, or Jones can turn clock back a few years.

You're not wrong, but he at least has a strength which can help. He CAN intercept. He needs pressure on the ball coming in but as we saw v Geelong last year, he can impact. I don't see Coffield impacting positively at all. In truth I would play one of Jones/Buss, but if for whatever reason we don't, I can live with Khamis' flaws for the potential trade off.

In short, it's a reflection of our options rather than Khamis as a defender. When Gallagher is fit, I'd also play him over Duryea for similar reasons - he can win contests and run, neither of which Duryea can do anymore.

[jeemak]

Umpiring was horrid tonight .
Who would have thought it would be 49 points at 3/4 time .
Good to get it done and see the problems ,
Thought Garcia did well and I think he is in front of McNeill.
A few changes no doubt with Davidson coming back

I did, didn't you read my posts that you yourself questioned Ledge!

[jeemak]

I think one of the biggest sucker punches of all time is ahead of us, and that's how we go from 13th in the competition for defence to top four to six for the remainder of the season.

We can't outscore the very best teams in a shoot out with our current defensive set up. The entire league knows it. But the best thing is we've shown we can implement a system over the last twelve to eighteen months where defence is just as important as offence, and have since taken our offence to another level.

Expect to see a much more defensively minded outfit on the park the next two weeks and thereafter. We've done the hard work offensively against the lesser teams to get our percentage up, if we're serious we'll tap into last year's experience and become a lot more frugal for the remainder of the year.

[Bornadog]

Bevo mentioned Coffield in his presser and was pleased with his game. I thought he was a bit shaky in the first half but did come good in the end.

Dale ended up more wing half forward in the second half, he was not playing well at all in that first half.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Fourth with third best percentage looks good.

[Bigdog]

We have 7 weeks to tighten up our defense. If we can do this we can win a flag. If not will be lucky to make the 8.

The big forwards are getting to many 1v1 looks and there is too much space more system rather than personal.

[Eastdog]

A good Thursday night at the footy at Marvel. Very solid win in the end and we make it 4 wins in row. North certainly for a fair portion of the match had our measure. We have bigger fish to fry in the coming weeks against finals type teams in Adelaide next Saturday at Marvel and Brisbane up at the Gabba.

Great game by Naughton who has recaptured some form and Darcy got into the game after it was a bit of a struggle early. Richards was very good as was Libba in his 250th. English did good as well. The offensive game is really going well.

The concern is definitely our defence as the champion data stats tell us and Bevo and the coaching team will definitely need to get the structure right down there for when we face those stronger teams. Wasn't great when we allowed Nick Larkey 4 goals in that first quarter and not able to quell his influence so need that to be much better. We aren't very good 1 on 1 in defence. Plenty to work on.