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

[GVGjr]

I have to admit I was getting frustrated last night with our inability to defend Larkey.
North went back to their heritage last night with their Pagans paddock, Long bomb to Snake set-up and we were really exposed.
Had Larkey got a goal with his last kick in the 1st quarter it really would have lifted them.

We can be happy the the 49 point result but in some way it brought us back to reality and highlighted our weaknesses.

[Bulldog Joe]

It was a hard slog to win and we had quite a few below normal output.

Particularly Freijah and Dale. Sam Darcy couldn't take a trick early.

I thought we had to nurse a few through from the physical game against Sydney, but Bont and Libba were immense.

Naughton back flying for his marks and holding them is a great plus. I am sure he is benefitting from the attention being given to Darcy.

The 9 day break to Adelaide game hopefully gets everybody primed for an important win.

[Bornadog]

It was a hard slog to win and we had quite a few below normal output.

Particularly Freijah and Dale. Sam Darcy couldn't take a trick early.

I thought we had to nurse a few through from the physical game against Sydney, but Bont and Libba were immense.

Naughton back flying for his marks and holding them is a great plus. I am sure he is benefitting from the attention being given to Darcy.

The 9 day break to Adelaide game hopefully gets everybody primed for an important win.

Good summary BJ.
I can't wait for the Adelaide match, it will be a real test

[SonofScray]

Bank the points and move on.

North are a bunch of pissants. Their celebration a joke.

[josie]

I thought English had a decent game. He competed hard against a stronger opponent and certainly was more telling around the ground. I cannot recall Xerri taking more than 2 or 3 steps with the ball in hand or taking any telling marks. If anything, in the first half, I thought our mids were being outpointed at the stoppages. That's not all down to Tim The blame must be shared. Libba's response in the second half in particular was a huge factor in the win.

I also thought Tim had a decent match. He was reasonably aggressive, kicked 2 goals & took a number of important marks including at least one in Roos F50. It’s guessing a lot of the boys were sore. L from heavy SCG & Swans tough guy tactics.

[dog town]

I think we have a big issue with our balance on when we try to chain out by hand at all costs and when to kick and take some ground.

I completely understand why we try to shape out of the contest but teams are hunting our handball chains now and there are times that we need to be willing to kick to a contest.

Once we are stopping, propping, looping and trying to create space by hand to me the percentage option is taking some ground.

Our press holds up when we get some territory but blatant turnovers will be scored on. It feels like we are ringing the dinner bell to good pressure sides when they scout us overusing by hand the way we have. I also sense from the language coming out of coaches/players that they are trying to address it.

In my view the key to stripping a few goals off our points against in the run home is getting this balance right. Goals from stoppages and centre bounce last week are hopefully an anomaly but we can defend with the ball slightly more without giving up our potent scoring power.

[dog town]

Not sure where to put this but it was pretty obvious to me that Richards got injured trying to change his technique to avoid head injuries. Not a criticism but he made a concerted effort to turn which put him in danger of shoulder/CB/rib injuries.

Not saying it’s wrong but I reckon front on more than likely it’s just a standard contest.

[Mantis]

I think we have a big issue with our balance on when we try to chain out by hand at all costs and when to kick and take some ground.

I completely understand why we try to shape out of the contest but teams are hunting our handball chains now and there are times that we need to be willing to kick to a contest.

Once we are stopping, propping, looping and trying to create space by hand to me the percentage option is taking some ground.

Our press holds up when we get some territory but blatant turnovers will be scored on. It feels like we are ringing the dinner bell to good pressure sides when they scout us overusing by hand the way we have. I also sense from the language coming out of coaches/players that they are trying to address it.

In my view the key to stripping a few goals off our points against in the run home is getting this balance right. Goals from stoppages and centre bounce last week are hopefully an anomaly but we can defend with the ball slightly more without giving up our potent scoring power.

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.

[Go_Dogs]

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.

As long as we pick the right option (eg if the first hand clears the path, or the 4th). I get that sometimes it won’t work at all and we’ll need a different approach but that should open up opportunity for us too.

The fact we’re able to score from a range of sources and now have a good few deep marking options and smalls who can win ground ball in the F50, we’ve got enough tools.

[jeemak]

I'm hoping we see a tightening of full ground defence as learned last year, this coming week against Adelaide.

If we don't then I question what all the effort put into it previously was worth in the first place. Go back to 2009/2010 and everyone was worrying about Collingwood playing wide offensively, only for them to install a defensive structure that pushed teams wide to play into the hand of their scoring structure. This is the type of long term planning we should be about to hit the competition with, because you can't just drop one for another.

[Bornadog]

I watched the replay and I don't think Darcy missed out on any free kicks. He should have held is marks more in the first half.

[GVGjr]

I watched the replay and I don't think Darcy missed out on any free kicks. He should have held is marks more in the first half.

He also needs to stop pleading with the umpires when the ball is still live. He needs to get on with things a lot quicker.

[Mofra]

I watched the replay and I don't think Darcy missed out on any free kicks. He should have held is marks more in the first half.

There was one over the shoulder that he definitely should have been paid. Otherwise he just needs to learn to deal with body pressure a bit better, which as a 21 year old you think he will.

[azabob]

He also needs to stop pleading with the umpires when the ball is still live. He needs to get on with things a lot quicker.

Yep. I said this earlier in the thread. His first half was embarrassing the way he sooked it up.

He needs to stop whinging and get on with the game and try to impact the contest.

[Bornadog]

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)