Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

[Bornadog]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Some of the malaise in the second quarter coming out of defence was exacerbated by wanting to bring the ball grandstand side rather than the defensive side. This made it easier for the Hawks to set up, increase pressure and score.

You'd hope that in an actual game of footy more of the ball coming out of defence would be directed via the Hawkins wing.

Was there an issue with the wind and which way it was blowing?

[SonofScray]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Watching the replay now.

Sanders, Darcy, Buku, West and Coffield the players that raised my interest.

As a contest, there wasn’t much to take away or get excited about. On the replay though I have enjoyed the connection between Lobb and Naughton, as well as some of the quick movement through traffic. Saw a real commitment to keeping the ball in motion at times.

Just need to see a few things occur under duress and I’ll be all in.

[SonofScray]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Was there an issue with the wind and which way it was blowing?

I was surprised the commentary played down the wind. It was blustery as all hell a few hundred meters away on campus at work.

[jeemak]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Was there an issue with the wind and which way it was blowing?

It seemed from the vision it was a souwester blowing towards the intersection of Gordon and Barkly, making the attacking side the grandstand side.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Great to have the footy back! Watched the game sitting next to Libba snr too, he would have been very pleased as Tom run around and did his thing, as he always does.

Always a positive time of year and these games you just hope the guys get a run, the kids show a bit and no one gets hurt (hoping JOD's ankle is just a tweek)

The positives I took out of it;

- Riley Sanders, WOW we've certainly got one there. Zips around accumulating, great vision, V good disposal and does all the defensive stuff too. With an ageing midfield and uncertainty around Baz's future I'm wrapped they chose Sanders over Watson.

- Good day for the Rhylee's. Westy was fantastic and should be a lock for Round 1. Dominated across HF, particularly the first 1/4. Good link between mid and forward line.

- Talls - despite the wind, all the talls were dominant in the air. Naughts marked everything and looks great up the ground. Lobb took some strong contested marks up on the wing also. Darcy will be a wonderful forward/R2 for a long time. Not sure how that mix works come round 1. If all fit Darc may well start in the VFL, but won't be there for long.

- McNeil, played a good small forwards game and also probably played himself into Round 1 also.

- Clear plan and defined roles - Collectively there was a clear plan to at least try and move the ball forward at all times and quickly. There was very little going backwards and they seemed to get the balance right between the short/long ball movement. Under the roof at Marvel this quick ball movement will make the talls hard to stop.

The players also seemed to have far more defined roles and weren't thrown around and there didn't seem to be any Easton Wood forward, ridiculous role changes experimented with.

The squads were well organised to allow fringe players maximum time in their roles. Some examples were the pairing of Poulter/Baker on the wing in the first game, Bedendo/Freija in the 2nd. Lobb/Darcy and English/Smith. Pushing Bont and Treloar into the seconds game gave great exposure to Sanders and Gallagher in the midfield. The defined roles for all players, particularly the youngsters will go along way to helping them settle and thrive.

The second 1/4 fade out was a concern as oppo run ons was a huge problem last year, hopefully this area continues to improve.

Battle for Round 1 spots for me:

Defenders - I've still got JOD over Gardy (pending fitness) Buku and Coffield over Dureya and Cleary.

Wings - Williams, Poulter and Scott, over Baker and Bedendo.

Small forwards - Weightman, West and McNeil over Arty and Clarke

Unless they find room for both I've got Lobb just shading Darc for Round 1.

Some really nice observations here Palace03. It's great having some real selection headaches for the match committee ahead of the season.
Totally removed from the low level of opposition we were up against in both games, I too was really impressed by what we brought, and your observations above are in line with a lot of of what I took away from the perspective of the things we can control and want to see from our guys at this time of year. A lot of good barometers for a focused and confident group ahead of round 1.

[dog town]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

It seemed from the vision it was a souwester blowing towards the intersection of Gordon and Barkly, making the attacking side the grandstand side.

I thought our ball use in the second was the main reason they got some momentum. We just didn’t get it right into the wind and made some shocking decisions. Even some of our shallow entries on slow plays to central areas were just dumb.

Throw a 50 metre penalty goal in and a red time goal caused by Naughton taking a dive instead of playing the percentages and the qtr quickly looked worse than it should have.

[jeemak]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

I thought our ball use in the second was the main reason they got some momentum. We just didn’t get it right into the wind and made some shocking decisions. Even some of our shallow entries on slow plays to central areas were just dumb.

Throw a 50 metre penalty goal in and a red time goal caused by Naughton taking a dive instead of playing the percentages and the qtr quickly looked worse than it should have.

The Cleary one really stood out to me.

[Before I Die]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

FINAL SCORE:14.21 105 to 3.6 24

Looks like it was a walk in the park, which was to be expected with a number of our topline players participating. Did anyone note the goal kickers? I'm assuming from some of the above comments that Clarke had a good day.

[doggies ftw]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Looks like it was a walk in the park, which was to be expected with a number of our topline players participating. Did anyone note the goal kickers? I'm assuming from some of the above comments that Clarke had a good day.

Clarke had 5, Bont 3 & Marra 3-4 I believe from a report I read

[ledge]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Looks like it was a walk in the park, which was to be expected with a number of our topline players participating. Did anyone note the goal kickers? I'm assuming from some of the above comments that Clarke had a good day.

It very much was , I think some of the hawks players might have been in awe of watching the Bont and thinking OMG I can’t compete with this.

[jeemak]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

What does the first game look like with Bont, Treloar, English, Richards, Dale, Weightman and JUH playing? I wouldn't be surprised given Hawthorn's outs it was arranged that we'd water down our game one team.

[ledge]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

What does the first game look like with Bont, Treloar, English, Richards, Dale, Weightman and JUH playing? I wouldn't be surprised given Hawthorn's outs it was arranged that we'd water down our game one team.

Thing is which game was their strong team?
If it was the first game and we had very good players out. Even though we only won by 25 it was a cruise .
Second game was a belting so to me it means they have got an extremely weak list .
If they want to fall back on injuries as an excuse in the first game , think of who we didn’t play in that game.

[Curly5]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Thanks for all the reports.

Ok, it was only a ?simulation? match but I was thrilled for Lachie McNeil, he played so well. I hope he gets lots of opportunities this season. (His ?twin? Anthony Scott also did well, I hear)

Others whose games I liked, apart from the recognised stars, were West, Coffield, Khamis, Poulter (he’s understated but effective), and Harmes. Sanders was impressive in his debut.

We can be hopeful for the season ahead

[GVGjr]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Hmm, what’s with the substitution of a question mark for an apostrophe? Something to do with not typing it but selecting an auto word? Let’s see… Let’s see…

It's a challenge with iphones and ipads etc. It's being worked on but proving challenging for the IT expert to fix.

[Mofra]

Re: Western Bulldogs vs Hawthorn - Practice Game 23/02/24

Thanks for all the reports.

Ok, it was only a ?simulation? match but I was thrilled for Lachie McNeil, he played so well. I hope he gets lots of opportunities this season. (His ?twin? Anthony Scott also did well, I hear)

Others whose games I liked, apart from the recognised stars, were West, Coffield, Khamis, Poulter (he’s understated but effective), and Harmes. Sanders was impressive in his debut.

We can be hopeful for the season ahead

Lachie McNeal has forced his way into the Round 1 side based on his pre-season so far. In ex-Williamstown players terms, he's transformed himself from Cavarra to Schultz.