Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

[Dancin' Douggy]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

I don't want to talk about it.

[Hot_Doggies]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

Neither took their foot off the pedal, they spent plenty of petrol tickets early and we started to outrun them.

You take your foot off the pedal when you're 84 pts up at half time and coast home to win by 88.

We were still half a chance last night until Welsh had his brain fade.

Fair enough.

Maybe i would of been more accurate to say we can't produce decent footy until the pressure drops.

[Mantis]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

I don't want to talk about it.

Thanks for sharing that with us.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

Neither took their foot off the pedal, they spent plenty of petrol tickets early and we started to outrun them.

You take your foot off the pedal when you're 84 pts up at half time and coast home to win by 88.

We were still half a chance last night until Welsh had his brain fade.

Your 100% right on everything here

My #1 concern is that after loosing to Geelong, St Kilda x2 and Collingwood is that by the time the late September action comes around (assuming we make the prelim this year) is that our confidence will be shot after loosing to all of these 'top' teams

It pisses me off that in all of these games we let the opposition run all over us in the first half...we arent going to get anywhere if we play from behind against quality teams

[Mofra]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

It pisses me off that in all of these games we let the opposition run all over us in the first half...we arent going to get anywhere if we play from behind against quality teams

We shouldn't have allowed ourselves to get that far down, but at least we know we can fight it out if we are behind.

Unless of course we end up with only 18 fit players at the start of Q4. Our second quarter was disgraceful & our forwardline is disfunctional. When most of your goals come from midfielders the forward line has to pick up slack & chase extra hard. Hill certainly didn't, Minson was ineffective up forward, Welsh & Johnno hampered, Murph injured, Hahn battles hard but is rarely going to be a match winner.

I wonder if anyone against a 1 year deal for Hall would be rethinking their opinions based on last night's efforts. A smart forward who knows where to lead and can take a contested mark would have made a massive difference for a side that matched teh Saints for F50 entries.

[Dancin' Douggy]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

Thanks for sharing that with us.

You're welcome.

[DOG GOD]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

Hmm....well that was a waste of money flying to melb to see. Very disappointing indeed. I'm not sure how many times Eagle made me scream my lungs out.

It proved to me and those around me that the dogs have a long way to go before they can handle constant pressure for 4 qtrs. When i was watching the guys fumbling in that first qtr i thought "gee when saints REALLY pressure we are in trouble", and that was correct. It seemed that when we had the interchange free against us we dropped our heads and saints picked up on it.

We have a LONG way to go before the finals to turn this around...we need to BELT freo and weagles to get some confindence back, and then take that into the last 3 games against bris, geel and coll. Those last 3 games will be a tell tale of how we go in the finals, as top 4 is nowhere near sealed just yet.

[Bornadog]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

The stats at half time showed we were ahead in clearances, hard ball gets and even on inside 50's, so it was a matter of keeping up the intensity. We put our selves back in the game during the third quarter, however, with Higgins and Murphy going down, our rotations began to suffer as well as any creativity in the forward line. The 19 men on the ground, really hit us hard and the Saints then got up their momentum, and we were gone.

We need to now move on and try and sow up a top four as we have several teams breathing down our neck.

[Mantis]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

The stats at half time showed we were ahead in clearances, hard ball gets and even on inside 50's, so it was a matter of keeping up the intensity. We put our selves back in the game during the third quarter, however, with Higgins and Murphy going down, our rotations began to suffer as well as any creativity in the forward line. The 19 men on the ground, really hit us hard and the Saints then got up their momentum, and we were gone.

We need to now move on and try and sow up a top four as we have several teams breathing down our neck.

Agree with much of that.

Personally I don't think the loss was as bad as some people have made out. We were able to match the best team in the comp for the best part of 3 quarters. The 2 early goals in the last qtr (19 on ground & Lake turn-over) took the wind out of our sails. When you consider that Riewoldt & Milne kicked a couple out of their arse and we only had 2 fit men on the bench we were always going to struggle.

We must learn quickly from this effort and after getting past our next 2 games find a way to beat teams that are as good if not better than us. Big job ahead, but I still have faith that we aren't that far away.

[Sedat]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

Agree with much of that.

Personally I don't think the loss was as bad as some people have made out. We were able to match the best team in the comp for the best part of 3 quarters. The 2 early goals in the last qtr (19 on ground & Lake turn-over) took the wind out of our sails. When you consider that Riewoldt & Milne kicked a couple out of their arse and we only had 2 fit men on the bench we were always going to struggle.

We must learn quickly from this effort and after getting past our next 2 games find a way to beat teams that are as good if not better than us. Big job ahead, but I still have faith that we aren't that far away.

Agreed with all of the above, with the exception of the work of our forward line in preventing opposition rebound - this issue has reared its head consistently this season against the fellow top 4 teams and IMO is a major concern come September. And it looks no closer to being addressed than it did at the start of the season.

The media have been overly effusive in their praise of the Saints this week only because they have been so neglectful towards them all season so far. Before junk time set in they were losing both contested possessions and clearances, and allowed the ball into our forward 50 almost as much as they have against anyone all season - you could count on one finger the number of times all that has happened against the Saints this season. I'd like to think that we will not make so many glaring unforced errors to gift-wrap 12 goals on the rebound to an opponent again this season. And I'd also like to think that we can make the most of the half a dozen early clear cut chances in our forward 50 come September.

No Kosi, Dawson and Gardiner means nothing the way St Kilda plays - they work for the betterment of the jumper, no matter who is in it. That means someone like an Eddy is just as important as a Dal Santo if it means Eddy is in a better position to benefit the team in that particular passage of play.

[Mantis]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

Agreed with all of the above, with the exception of the work of our forward line in preventing opposition rebound - this issue has reared its head consistently this season against the fellow top 4 teams and IMO is a major concern come September. And it looks no closer to being addressed than it did at the start of the season.

Agree with that.

The Daniel Cross article on the Dogs day board quotes him as saying that players aren't following the coaches instructions. One of the things Paul Williams was going to bring our forward line was a desire for the forwards to play for each other (our goal assists have improved) and an increased desire to apply offensive pressure. The latter point hasn't improved so I am not sure if this is due to the make up of our forward line (old & slow) or that these players just aren't doing what the coaches want them to.

We seriously need to find a small FP player who is willing to sacrifice everything else in his game such that his main job is to chase and harrass the opposition. We also need the rest of the forward line to increase their work-rate in this area because as you say you can't allow good opposing teams free rein in creating offence from defence.

[Bornadog]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

We seriously need to find a small FP player who is willing to sacrifice everything else in his game such that his main job is to chase and harrass the opposition. We also need the rest of the forward line to increase their work-rate in this area because as you say you can't allow good opposing teams free rein in creating offence from defence.

How about something from left field........... Lynch.


Alternative - Tim Callan in and Harbrow moves forward.

[Mofra]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

We seriously need to find a small FP player who is willing to sacrifice everything else in his game such that his main job is to chase and harrass the opposition. We also need the rest of the forward line to increase their work-rate in this area because as you say you can't allow good opposing teams free rein in creating offence from defence.

He may not be as small as the others, but Stack? Sure he goes missing in games at times, but he has the agility, and if he concentrates on beating an opponent and shows once or twice a game some of that X factor he has, he could cement a spot in the line up.

[Dry Rot]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

We seriously need to find a small FP player who is willing to sacrifice everything else in his game such that his main job is to chase and harrass the opposition.

We've got a ready made one already. He's proven he can harass and has been surprisingly good near the goals.

Picken.

[Bornadog]

Re: Game Day - Western Bulldogs vs St Kilda

We've got a ready made one already. He's proven he can harass and has been surprisingly good near the goals.

Picken.

That is a pretty good idea.