Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

As bad as we were, and we were pretty awful, we were still in with a shot until about 6 mins to go.

Our fitness levels look good, as late in the game we were running better than the weagles. (just not executing skills too well)

Poor disposal hurt us.

We did have a chance to win a game that as it progressed, looked like we had no right to, is actually a bit of a positive.

Hopefully we can get some hunger back for the blues......they have had the wood on us for the last couple of years.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

First 5 games is always just damage limitation -- we're aiming to peak in September not April. Definitely showed enough, despite short turnaround, travel, heat. It was definitely a disappointing performance, but it wasn't unexpected or inexcusable. I was far more upset when we lost to North in Round 9 last year because it was more in the guts of the season and was a worse time to lose form.

Sydney don't put much stock in first 5 rounds but make the finals every year, Geelong were trashed in Round 5 last year and didn't lose another home and away game for the rest of the year.

Having said all that:
- Hill playing FF was weird, got outmuscled all the time and dropped a few gimme marks.
- Where was the run? Too many long kicks to contests -- I thought we were supposed to be a handball-happy, run through the middle type team? Today we just stopped and propped and let West Coast man up.
- Eagle was a bit confused today as to which team he was supposed to play for. Maybe it was because he was playing the Eagles. The pub I was in was filled with ironic jeers everytime he got the ball. Just really unlucky/piss-poor. Hitting the post from 20 metres right out in front, kicking into a player from 5 metres out. I mean, you can see he's trying his heart out, but what the heck. He and Adam McPhee can join the same club of guys giving their all but just short on something -- luck or skill or something. Could be so much more, but.
- Pinned the Eagles back for long periods for zero scoreboard pressure. Not good enough up forward. And Johnno, geez you're a gun, but decision making is simply not a forte.
- Cal Ward oozes class.
- Really missed Coons today. Don't realise how good he makes everyone else look until he's gone -- there were those here saying he wasn't 100% anyway, but he takes their best midfielder and everyone else gets an easier gig. Today, they all moved up one rung and didn't look up to it.
- Picken + Addison = my new favourite players

[Scraggers]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

I've just come home from the game and read all of the posts in this thread ... There are a few 'Chicken Littles" here

We didn't lose the game because of the heat ... we were flat in the warm-up before the game started.
We didn't lose the game due to the travel (or the six day turn around) ... the Eagles have won three premierships doing this fortnightly.
We didn't lose the game due to bad umpiring decisions ... as atrocious as they were, the bad decisions went both ways.

There is two reasons we lost this game ...
1. The Eagles wanted it more than we did; their intensity was higher, their running in packs more frequent, and their attack more direct
2. Our poor decision making ... the amount of times we bombed the ball long to a two on one contest absolutely blew my mind today. Our running game requires us to follow our first instinct and play on at all costs ... we didn't do that, when running with the ball we waited for a second option allowing the Eagles to man-up giving us no choice.

But in saying all of this, we can still be serious contenders this year ... we don't have to win every game (Hawthorn certainly didn't last year), but we do have to win the important ones.

The most important thing from this game is how we bounce back and play next week ... 14 - 15 wins should ensure a top 4 finish, lets concentrate on that

[Before I Die]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

- Where was the run? Too many long kicks to contests -- I thought we were supposed to be a handball-happy, run through the middle type team? Today we just stopped and propped and let West Coast man up.

I only saw the first half on the TV (in a pub with no sound), but it looked to me like the Eagles were using a midfield zone and we had no answer today. I would be interested to hear from any poster who actually was at the game, as the TV gives you nothing with regard to game plan or zoning.

Did we tag Kerr? I couldn't identify anyone who was running with him and couldn't work out if Picken had any run with role.

According to an article on Minson a few weeks ago, he has been asked to be a leading target rather than just a long target. I don't understand this as he just doesn't hold enough marks to be a leading target and it stops him from contesting the long ball and bringing it to ground for the crumbers, which he did well at times last year.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

Fresh and fresher blood.

Welsh, Murph, O'Keefe, Skip.

3-1 is still a great start but some of the guys did suffer from another trip over west i think. Big two weeks coming up.

Yesterday was the worst example of umpiring i've seen in a long while. WTF was with that "mark" from Tom? Ball up? The ball wasn't in dispute, nobody was disadvantaged. Disgrace. Umpire round my arse.

[Dazza]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

Thought Hargrave bombed the ball aimlessly a few too many times today.

[dog town]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

This was always on the cards. We have not played fantastic footy so far this year. We have really been carried by a brilliant backline and our ability to win the contested ball. Our use of the ball moving forward has been well down all year. Our use of handballing has been brilliant but our kicking has been disgraceful. I saw a stat on the weekend that has us number 1 for turnovers but 4th best for scores against from turnovers. This is a massive pat on the back for our backline and a huge kick in the arse for our ball users and forward set up. It is not panic stations at all but its a problem we need to counter.

Our defense was fantastic again imo. Not only were they keeping the opposition out but they were launching the majority of our attacks as well.

We have clearly made concerted effort to use handball in close and I think its been a real feature of our play. Something that really annoys me though is when a receiving player gets past the contest before the player gains possession of the ball. In the first quarter I think this cost us 2 goals. Aker is brilliant at holding position over the ball and releasing players by hand. Twice he got in position to do this only for his teammate to be 2 metres past him by the time he had the ball. Aker turned it over here but it was not his fault at all. It might sound old fashioned but his teammate should have tread water and stayed front and square to the contest. Happened at other times around the ground as well.

Hammered at the stoppages mainly due to the hit outs to advantage Cox was able to effect. We needed to keep the ball in close from the taps but they were able to clear the area pretty easily. The midfield should be stung by that performance.

Hahn- Just not working hard enough. I have always said second and third efforts are the big indicator with Mitch and at the moment they are not evident. Even in round 1 he got quite a few gift goals so that performance was a little bit overrated. He just needs to lift his work rate so he can impact more contests.

Minson- It was set up for him to stamp himself on the game yesterday. He didnt have an impact. I have generally given Minson the benefit of the doubt but if we have guys performing below him then we should expect more than that from him.

Hargrave- One of the in form defenders of the competition. Spoiling yesterday was absolutely first rate and he is one of our best uers of the ball. Cant speak highly enough of him at the moment.

Aker- In very good form. Certainly wont be resting him if he doesnt get suspended.

Guido- Not sure whats going on. Injured or just in bad form?

Griffen- Does not work hard enough. Waiting for the penny to drop. Would also like to see him take more care of the footy.

Eagleton- Was deplorable by foot. In his defense I think he was going for some miracle kicks due to the way we were set up.

Picken- Was questioning his selection until the second half. Good signs and showed he is more than just a tagger or at least has other aspects to his game.

Gilbee- Didnt see anyone trying to free him up or block for him. He was awful in his own right but he needs some help.

Higgins- Very good at times. Seems a bit unsure overhead at the moment, not sure why that is. Seems to be fading out of games.

Hill- Again forced to play him deep to give us an aerial target. Its an indictment on Minsons presence in the air that Hill is more of a threat in that situation.

Harbrow- Least influential game I can remember from him. Little bit out of character I thought.

Will continue later.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

I didn't get to watch the game, just heard it on a very biased radio station.

My thoughts are: we have not really played as well as we can yet. Freo were just so awful that it made us look good. Hard wrestle with North Melbourne, but they have gone down a peg or two from last year IMHO. Richmond, well Melbourne beat them, and to think we struggled to score against them in the first quarter

Still all in all, I think it is better to peak later in the season and not this early ala St Kilda, who I suspect will start to mount the injuries as the year wears on (they have already lost Kosi for a couple of weeks).
We have Carlton next week who are coming off a couple of losses, who will see us as an easy beat this week going by their past record and our loss to WC, this could give us a psychological edge - we have to beat them to restore some credibility, for the fans
not the media.
Three wins our of four with Cooney at half mask and no Murphy or Welsh is not too bad. This loss well get the media off our back and allow us to fly more under the radar which is when we play our best footy.
Next couple of weeks are going to be interesting. We need to beat Carlton, even if we lose to the Saints, we have them again later in the season and that is when we should knock them off.
I think we keep judging ourselves on the standards that Geelong have set, which is not realistic, other premiership team have had their losses along the way.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

We also are missing our two best players...Murphy and Cooney

And its only round 4

You really should include another, Guy!!!!!

[Sedat]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

Picken- Was questioning his selection until the second half. Good signs and showed he is more than just a tagger or at least has other aspects to his game.

Great wrap-up as always DT. Quick question? Why on earth wouldn't Picken be assigned to Kerr from the very start of the match? By all accounts, Boyd was assigned the job but gave Kerr too much latitude and he torched us before Picken was given the job. Was Picken put onto Rosa at the first bounce? What a strange decision by the match commitee if true.

[mighty_west]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

I've just come home from the game and read all of the posts in this thread ... There are a few 'Chicken Littles" here

We didn't lose the game because of the heat ... we were flat in the warm-up before the game started.
We didn't lose the game due to the travel (or the six day turn around) ... the Eagles have won three premierships doing this fortnightly.
We didn't lose the game due to bad umpiring decisions ... as atrocious as they were, the bad decisions went both ways.

There is two reasons we lost this game ...
1. The Eagles wanted it more than we did; their intensity was higher, their running in packs more frequent, and their attack more direct
2. Our poor decision making ... the amount of times we bombed the ball long to a two on one contest absolutely blew my mind today. Our running game requires us to follow our first instinct and play on at all costs ... we didn't do that, when running with the ball we waited for a second option allowing the Eagles to man-up giving us no choice.

But in saying all of this, we can still be serious contenders this year ... we don't have to win every game (Hawthorn certainly didn't last year), but we do have to win the important ones.

The most important thing from this game is how we bounce back and play next week ... 14 - 15 wins should ensure a top 4 finish, lets concentrate on that

Well said scragger, you call em Chicken Littles, i call them Mike Sheahans, wants players heads after a bad performance etc etc, we are world beaters one minute, the next we are poo etc etc.....

Have to give West Coast credit, they were ON, and not only on, but hitting targets etc, they had a real structure, a forward line, not pinning their hopes on a skinny flanker [Josh Hill] as their main target.

It was like West Coast of the 90's, the positive was that we wearn't blown away, but we did look as flat as a tack, just hope the players can recover for next Sunday, yesterday was grooling, the players looked spent by half time.

To me, even though it was round 4, it was almost a finals type of game, the pressure etc, and we crumbled, especially up forward, thankfully our defence is holding up strong, just wanted a few clearances though, we got BELTED from the middle.

If Welsh was taken over with the team, why didn't he play? I would have even given Grant a game, at least giving us some sort of a structure up forward.

[dog town]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

Great wrap-up as always DT. Quick question? Why on earth wouldn't Picken be assigned to Kerr from the very start of the match? By all accounts, Boyd was assigned the job but gave Kerr too much latitude and he torched us before Picken was given the job. Was Picken put onto Rosa at the first bounce? What a strange decision by the match commitee if true.

Not sure on this one. Perhaps they were not keen on breaking up that core center square group? I must admit when I saw that he hadn't gone to Kerr I thought it was a bit of a waste of a position to have him in the side particularly up in the Perth heat. Glad to say he had a real impact at stages with his pressure skills and dropped off nicely to get a few important touches.

I think Boyd and Kerr went in a bit of a shoot out but Kerr did too much damage at the stoppages. I think if we had our time over again we would go a bit more defensive at the stoppages because the eagles mids got an arm chair ride from the ruck division. I think we may have been better off doing what some clubs do to us by making it a bit of a scrap around the ball.At the very least a little more attention on Kerr might have made it a bit tougher for them.

[Desipura]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

I believe Boydy's disposal has improved over the last 1-2 years which is pleasing, nailed a nice goal from the pocket yesterday.

[Sedat]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

Not sure on this one. Perhaps they were not keen on breaking up that core center square group? I must admit when I saw that he hadn't gone to Kerr I thought it was a bit of a waste of a position to have him in the side particularly up in the Perth heat. Glad to say he had a real impact at stages with his pressure skills and dropped off nicely to get a few important touches.

I think Boyd and Kerr went in a bit of a shoot out but Kerr did too much damage at the stoppages. I think if we had our time over again we would go a bit more defensive at the stoppages because the eagles mids got an arm chair ride from the ruck division. I think we may have been better off doing what some clubs do to us by making it a bit of a scrap around the ball.At the very least a little more attention on Kerr might have made it a bit tougher for them.

Thanks DT, much appreciated. From my perspective, just a bizarre decision not to put Picken onto Kerr, who has proven frequently in the post Judd/Cousins era that he cannot handle the really close checking tag, not to mention the fact that he is by far the most important weapon in West Coast's midfield.

Did West Coast adopt the zone set-up against us? All 3 of our opponents in the first 3 rounds have used the zone liberally, with only North succeeding with it to some extent. West Coast have been a staunch one-on-one side until this year but their use of the midfield zone was very noticiable against Brisbane and Port in the first 2 rounds. It also sounds like we were quite static when we did have the ball yesterday, which is in sharp contrast to our run and carry by hand in the first 3 weeks of the season.

[dog town]

Re: Game Day - Bulldogs vs Eagles

Thanks DT, much appreciated. From my perspective, just a bizarre decision not to put Picken onto Kerr, who has proven frequently in the post Judd/Cousins era that he cannot handle the really close checking tag, not to mention the fact that he is by far the most important weapon in West Coast's midfield.

Did West Coast adopt the zone set-up against us? All 3 of our opponents in the first 3 rounds have used the zone liberally, with only North succeeding with it to some extent. West Coast have been a staunch one-on-one side until this year but their use of the midfield zone was very noticiable against Brisbane and Port in the first 2 rounds. It also sounds like we were quite static when we did have the ball yesterday, which is in sharp contrast to our run and carry by hand in the first 3 weeks of the season.

Definetly employed the zone against us. We still tried to push through it by hand but obviously it is a very long ground and at times we were always going to need to find a target further down the ground. Without Murphy and Welsh we probably lacked that target coming up the ground. I actually thought we looked at our most dangerous when we kicked the ball through the corridor coming out of defense and then used handball from then on. It was high risk stuff because they were running a zone but it meant we were penetrating deeper as it made up for that extra half kick in length that Subi has.

When we used exclusively hands out of defense if we didnt find an out rider in space who could continue the ball carrying then we seemed to be a kick and a half away from our next target. That resulted in a lot of kick and hope type situations. It was a little similar to watching us play say the crows 3 years ago.

Nothing to worry about too much as we still looked more than dangerous at times. Getting first hands on the ball would eliminate a lot of these problems anyway.