Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

[GVGjr]

This is the discussion thread for todays game.

Who's you tip to kick the first goal for us? I'll go with Murphy

[BulldogBelle]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

I hope that Murphy gets the first goal too. One news article said that he had gastro on Friday and is a doubtful starter for today.

Too much of that magnesium powder and fancy North Fitzroy street foods maybe.

[Dry Rot]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

Will the G better suit McDougall?

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

Will the G better suit McDougall?

If he works as hard as he did in the pre-season, I'd imagine so. But if he doesn't, he'll get caught out.

MCG's a ground whereby if you're mentally strong and physically fit, you'll perform well. We know Doogs is certainly physically fit, very agile; but has he got the motor? Jury's still out, but today's a good chance for him IMO.

[dog town]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

This game is probably as good an indicator as we are likely to get in terms of where we are at and how much we have improved. The crows are a bloody good side and they will be hunting us. We need to lose the tag of being a team that can be shut down with enough pressure. We need to be able to scrap out wins against sides like the crows.

[dog town]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

Half Time

Game going exactly as the crows would have wanted. They are working ten times harder than us and we are playing dumb and pretty footy. We need to go longer more often to give them something else to think about. You can see we are trying to lift but we haven't had the execution to reward our improved workrate.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

Continuing the tradition of losing games people expect us to win.

[GVGjr]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

What a difference a week makes?
Last week we were disciplined and executed our game plan well and this week Rodney Eade was out coached pure and simple plus a large number of our players made decision errors on a regular basis throughout the game.
In a day famous for the finest chocolates we were more like the cheapest bag of boiled lollies you could buy at NQR.
The Crows executed everything so well and created loose men through the middle that they moved the ball beautifully and made the right decisions throughout the night. As a contrast we over used the ball and often handballed to players in a bad or worse position.

Craig should be lauded for his masterful performance today and the Crows zoned off so well at the kick outs there was no end to end flow that we have been able to do so regularly since Eade arrived. The pressure the Crows put our midfielders under was so consistent during the game what they ended up doing was make our otherwise good decision makers totally ineffective and almost junior league like with the turnovers and the amount of times we fumbled the ball or simply slipped over in a contest.

The zone was so effective that other teams will pick up on that Rocket so you better find a remedy ASAP.

Eade left Griffen in the midfield for way too long which impacted us severely at the centre bounces. Griffen has yet to show that he is capable of playing in the centre square just yet and was more at home in defence.
Minson battled away hard but really wasn’t effective. Darcy probably did slightly more.

The Crows got every one of our defenders on the players they wanted. Every time Gilbee tried to switch off so that he could get further up the field they would simply run him back deep into defence and we would have to switch. Gilbee got plenty of the ball but so did his opponents who converted their chances against him.

The vast majority of players were inept today. It started off in an encouraging way. Power and Eagleton were doing well in the first quarter and we played with a bit of structure but really the Crows were a far superior outfit in every sense.
The 2nd and 3rd quarters belonged to the Crows and in the end the scoreboard actually flattered us.
Harris will return next week but I’m not sure what Eade can do to turn this around. The Crows once again outplayed us and we really do struggle against disciplined outfits.

Thoughts?

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

What a slap back down to Earth. There wasn't anyone missing from our midfield/forward - so what happened since last week? Not that there is anything wrong with losing, so long as you give it your best - just didn't seem to me that I was watching the best of the Bulldogs tonight. Is it mental immaturity? Way too much hype in the media of late. It's okay for fans to get carried away with the excitement of it all, not so for the players.

It is difficult to believe our skills dropped off in a week- as you said GVGjr, it was like junior league at times. I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of Eade being out-coached. Is that what happened or were our players simply not disciplined enough? Those loose Crows players everywhere were doing my head in - and then our players would kick straight to them.

[GVGjr]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of Eade being out-coached. Is that what happened or were our players simply not disciplined enough? Those loose Crows players everywhere were doing my head in - and then our players would kick straight to them.

All the match-ups went the Crows way which is why I think Craig got the better of Eade in a big way.

The way they zoned up for our kick outs made us look indecisive and inept and on top of that it didn't get better at all throughout the game. Eade was unable to find a counter to it and our normal good decision makers and skillful kickers floundered under the pressure.
St Kilda will be looking to implement the same plan next week.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

I would like to know how come the Crows could run the ball (apparently) so easily out of our forward 50 and up the ground to their forward 50? Is that because of the way they matched up to our players? Our players seemed to be spectators at times (but I am not too au fait with the technical intricacies of footy). I am trying to work out if we were simply out played by a superior team or whether there was a lack of intensity from our team. I am now very worried about next week. Saints will be looking to redeem themselves also.

[GVGjr]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

I would like to know how come the Crows could run the ball (apparently) so easily out of our forward 50 and up the ground to their forward 50? Is that because of the way they matched up to our players? Our players seemed to be spectators at times (but I am not too au fait with the technical intricacies of footy). I am trying to work out if we were simply out played by a superior team or whether there was a lack of intensity from our team. I am now very worried about next week. Saints will be looking to redeem themselves also.

I think it's a combination of a couple of things.
1) We didn't play with the same level of intensity in the forward 50 like we would normally do. Robbins didn't hunt and of them down like he normally would plus there HBF are masters of knowing when to run off their opponent at exactly the right time.
2) They are a very good team that really does match-up well on us. We couldn't free up our prime movers and we couldn't restrict theirs.

Poor Guido. Every time we kicked the ball to him he had to wait under it for what seemed to be an eternity before he would get swamped. It just summed up our game.
Griffen in the midfield just didn't work for us and he was far better when moved to defence. Morris wasn't great tonight and fell down and fumbled a fair bit. McMahon was brilliant at times but coughed up the ball a few times that rebounded quickly and cost us goals. It's a shame because he really did provide us with some sparkling run at times.

[Bornadog]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

Gia looks very unfit and can hardly run at the moment, surely he isnot carrying an inury into the game?

[GVGjr]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

Gia looks very unfit and can hardly run at the moment, surely he isnot carrying an inury into the game?

Thats for the coach and the fitness team to decide. While he was out of sorts, we did him no favors with our passing into the forward 50. It really was 2nd rate.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: Game day - Bulldogs vs Crows

What I was a little perplexed about was why was McDougall not placed in the backline in the first 3 quarters, poor Gilbee had a bag kicked on him and clearly was struggling against the height factor. I realise he always plays above his height but today he was absolutely mauled.