3 Things Learned - Round 17, 2025 vs North Melbourne

[Sedat]

1. Midfield mix isn't quite right - I think we need more centre bounce time for the likes of Kennedy and Harmes (when he returns) and have someone defensive side of stoppage at all times. We aren't protecting our back 6 well enough.
2. English was ultimately beaten at stoppage but he was very proactive and hurt Xerri the other way with his massive tank. The Xerri and Meek types are his kryptonite but he really tried to be more assertive at stoppage and hold his ground.
3. Dale struggles with hard attention in D50, and it was excellent coaching to swap him with Williams and get him positively impacting further up the ground (particularly on the scoreboard).

[westbulldog]

Having Poulter Bramble Coffield Duryea Hynes McNeil Garcia and VDM all in same team wont win games against the big boys. Cannot have Bramble Duryea and Coffield all in the same side

I wholly agree with the above comments of Scott2016. IMO 5 of them aren't AFL standard.

[NAUGHTY100]

The positives ; Naughton is back to his marauding best in that forward line , his last 2 weeks has shown how lethal he can be .
Darcy even though he didnt have a big night still managed 4 goals , i'll take that ever time , one night when everthing cliks for him he will kick 10 .
Libba and the Bont were great , Bont was gonna make sure Libba's 250 was a win .
Negatives ; Im sorry but we will not beat the top sides with Coffield and Duryea in our side , we have to try Sellwood and Busslinga and see what they can do .
L . Jones has to come back into that side as well , or we will get carved up by the top sides , i think O'Donnell plays better with Jones and Lobb beside him .
Freijah not that he is a negative , but we some times forget he is in his 2nd year of AFL football , virtually won a game for us last week , but had a quite one this week , look for him to bounce back next week .
Garcia needs to stay in that side , lets not be tempted to bring in Scott after one good game in the 2nd's at the expense of Garcia .

[Go_Dogs]

19 years old and literally won us a game last week against a much better side btw. Front runner be for real.

Is your fridge running? Send BIdS to catch it.

[FrediKanoute]

1. North are better than their league position indicates;
2. Right decision to move on Caleb, but he will always be a BullGod
3. Great to see out leaders step up tonight.

[dog town]

1. We are not premiership material with the defence combination that played last night.
2. Bont can have an ‘out of form’ patch. Because he is Bont, he still impacted and his tackling was superb but in the last two weeks, he has actually…fumbled.
3. Cooper Hynes has “it” and is a deserving top 10 pick, and showing more each week.

Shooting Bambi areas but Bont is actually in the middle of a patch where he hasn’t really had a classic Bont game against a contender in a little while. It would be hard to paint him negatively statistically but I want him to really rattle a good team.

We need a big clearance and impact game from Bont this week, it’s small margins with the very best but for us to beat the best we need him to be a match winner.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

19 years old and literally won us a game last week against a much better side btw. Front runner be for real.

Well I said appeared a front runner this week i.e. in a letdown after winning the game for us last week.
Ok I can be harsh, not keen on front running habits temperament wise, except Eagleton.
I'm definitely not saying Freijah lacks a hard edge or courage.
A 19yo can be excused for a poor game after a great one.

[Rusty12]

1 - We have room for Harmes and Davidson to come back in, and they should.

2 - I still don't understand what we are trying to do with D3, or the "3rd tall". Coffield is not it. Given how poor we are at defending, can we try JOD at D3, and someone else at D1? We can't loose any more 1v1s, and we can't win any less 1v1s outside of Lobb as it is. I think JOD is ready to be a good player for us, but not as the deepest defender.

3 - Tim English has come up against 2 beasts, in great form in the last 2 weeks, and to be fair, beaten soundly in the ruck contest. However, it is different, it doesn't look like Tim just accepted it, he kept coming, won a few of his own important hitouts, and worked very hard, to hurt them both once the ball gets out.
Some in the media wanted to highlight contests where the Oppo ruck took the ball straight out, whilst ignoring the moments when Tim did the same the otherway.

[Go_Dogs]

Teams are applying body contact below his waist (Darcy) and it’s almost like he’s being tunnelled every contest. I hope we have a chat to the AFL about it. It’s dangerous.

Glad this happened. Thanks Bevo.