Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

[SlimPickens]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

Shoulder, hurt it laying a shepherd. Slim whats your diagnosis?

Edit- he's back on after the delay, my guess is it's an ongoing AC joint issue

Don't think it was a stinger simply because immediately after the incident he held his arm to his stomach. Generally a stinger would cause the player to drop their arm to their side as the arm feels heavy or dead. I agree with you grey and suspect he may have a AC joint issue. In general AC issues bloody hurt especially when they are jammed together like a hip and shoulder.

He did have alot of padding on it against Brisbane. Would highly doubt it will cause him to miss any footy.

[Bornadog]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

Thomas boots six as North down Dogs


North Melbourne's Lindsay Thomas has booted six goals to deliver his side a comeback 13-point win over the Western Bulldogs in an AFL practice match in Ballarat.

Thomas' haul included three majors in the final term as the Kangaroos kicked nine for the quarter, including the last four, to storm home 18.10 (118) to 16.9 (105).

Comeback Western Bulldogs star Adam Cooney kicked four goals in his first AFL game of the year.

While the Kangaroos would have been very happy to snatch the win in an entertaining clash, it came at a cost, with forward Matt Campbell badly injuring his hamstring just before halftime.

He joins ruckman Hamish McIntosh, key defender Nathan Grima, Ryan Bastinac, Levi Greenwood and Ed Lower as players to miss the start of the season through injury.

Key forward Drew Petrie, who showed good marking touch and kicked four goals, will miss the opening round clash with Essendon through suspension.

Evergreen captain Brent Harvey showed he will remain a force this year, with plenty of classy touches in the midfield, while young rookie-list backman Luke Delaney worked hard to keep Barry Hall quiet.

For the Dogs, Cooney's return from hamstring and knee injuries in his first game since round 21 last season, was the major positive.

But they would have also been pleased with rookie-lister Ed Barlow, recruited from Sydney, who impressed enormously with his attack on the ball and opponents in defence, although his kicking sometimes let him down.

Skipper Matthew Boyd won a heap of the ball, while young key forward Jarrad Grant kicked three goals.

[Missing Dog]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

A NINE-goal last quarter flourish has helped North Melbourne score a thrilling come-from-behind 13-point win over the Western Bulldogs in their NAB Challenge match at Eureka Stadium in Ballarat on Saturday afternoon.

The Kangaroos trailed by 28 points late in the third term, but were dragged back into the contest by the brilliance of small forward Lindsay Thomas, who ended the match with six goals.

Ballarat boy Drew Petrie was another outstanding contributor for the winners. He booted four majors and posed a threat in the air whenever his team went forward.

However, Petrie is one of many North Melbourne stars who won't be available for the club's meeting with West Coast in round one of the home and away season.

Petrie will be sidelined due to suspension, while small forward Matt Campbell also looks set to miss the game after suffering a hamstring injury during the hit-out.

Campbell went down while chasing Easton Wood just a minute before half-time, and was carried to the change rooms by two trainers.

Shaun Higgins continued his sterling pre-season form by dominating in the midfield for the Bulldogs, while Adam Cooney kicked four goals and Jarrad Grant three.


NORTH MELBOURNE 5.2 8.6 9.8 18.10 (118)
WESTERN BULLDOGS 6.2 9.4 13.6 16.9 (105)

GOALS
North Melbourne: Thomas 6, Petrie 4, Adams 2, McKinley, Swallow, Urquart, Adams, Thompson, Anthony
Western Bulldogs: Cooney 4, Grant 3, Hill 2, Jones 2, Higgins, Hall, Picken, Minson, Djerrkura

BEST
North Melbourne: Thomas, Petrie, Harvey, Anthony, L. Delaney, McMahon, Goldstein
Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Higgins, Griffen, Picken, Hudson, Williams, Wood, Djkerrura

INJURIES
North Melbourne: Campbell (hamstring)
Western Bulldogs: Nil

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/109226/default.aspx

[Doc26]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

Any word on Morris and Murphy today ?

[DOG GOD]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

No surprise with Petrie...he always is a major problem against us, and ofcourse those small fwds that kick 4+ goals a game. Thomas today.

Seems we need Lake back NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ive said all along, that he is the MOST important player in our side.

[G-Mo77]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

They played Williams in the ruck in the last quarter until we lost our 4 goal lead. Don't know why it wasn't changed sooner, maybe they were experimenting?

The back line was in disarray. No Lake or even Markovic left us fairly lite down back and Williams was beaten pretty convincingly by Lemontrie. I didn't realise Thomas kicked so many goals, don't rate him just an opportunist really. The good thing about that is he won't do it again for the rest of the year.

I had Djerrkura BOG. I thought he was the most consistent player on the ground.

It seemed like there was very little intensity for most of the game. In the third we showed how much stronger we were, tackled hard and really North could not do anything when we did step up. The last quarter they relaxed and as I said earlier tried things differently. I really wouldn't panic to much about it. Of course you'd rather a win but it seemed more important to NM than it did us.

[Greystache]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

I had to leave with about 5 mins left, so didn't see the last two goals.

Did Barlow get a run in the ruck?

No, when Minson went to the bench and then forward we used Williams. It was probably as much because Petrie was towelling Williams up, so we tried him in the ruck.

Thanks for all the updates guys. Shame about the result. Wouldnt want anymore 9 goal last quaters this year. As they say its good to get it out of the system early. Good the hear that cooney played a good game. How did Gilbee end up going?

Pretty poor, looks off the pace. His kicking was a bit better, patchy, but hit a few targets which was good.

A tough hit out with good signs from Cooney, Libba, Griffen, Minson etc is a real positive. Would much rather that than finishing up with a rout against Brisbane or GWS for example.

Our back line without Lake is a huge worry. I think we need to throw Markovic in there just to give us some extra height, especially against Essendon who will probably play Ryder/Hille deep with Bellechambers rucking after a very good pre-season campaign.

Interested to hear from those that attended how our tackling pressure was. Greystache mentioned the Roos were walking through the middle in the last qtr - hopefully that didn't occur all day.

The back line without Lake was a huge concern for me today for two reason- 1) We couldn't contain Petrie, Williams just can't contain a talented key position forward, and Morris was too small today. 2) and the bigger concern for me is it becomes really obvious when Lake's not there how much he covers up for the lack of midfield defensive pressure we apply. When North got a run on our midfield virtually accepted North would run the ball away and get the ball inside 50m, no one seemed particularly concerned, they (Boyd, Higgins, Cross, Cooney) all just ran to positions where they could receive the ball if we rebounded it. Unfortunately with Lake absent, everytime North got an inside 50 they scored. If Lake is out for an extended period I fear we could concede some huge scores.

Is Hall a concern so close to round one? Would have thought he would have kicked a few today on lowly opposition. Did they not go to him, was he out of sorts, or just out classed?

He was poor today, didn't find any space, and also uncharacteristically dropped a couple of overhead marks. What was more concerning was it was obvious North were targeting his direct oponent to rebound the footy through. Jones, Grant, DJ were all applying pretty good defensive pressure but Hall's man was too often the relief valve. Only early and Baz hasn't had a big preseason, but it's something to keep an eye on.

Any word on Morris and Murphy today ?

Morris was beaten by both Thomas and Petrie, a day to forget for Dale. We also seemed to regularly have 3 defenders going up leaving 2 North crumbers free, that's fine so long as the spoil clears the congested area, but more often than not we only brought the ball to ground which played into their hands. Pehaps we felt the need to compensate for Lake not being there. Murphy did a couple of nice creative things, but didn't get a lot of it, and was exposed a couple of times in defence. Although the ball was coming in pretty freely.

[Greystache]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

They played Williams in the ruck in the last quarter until we lost our 4 goal lead. Don't know why it wasn't changed sooner, maybe they were experimenting?

The back line was in disarray. No Lake or even Markovic left us fairly lite down back and Williams was beaten pretty convincingly by Lemontrie. I didn't realise Thomas kicked so many goals, don't rate him just an opportunist really. The good thing about that is he won't do it again for the rest of the year.

I had Djerrkura BOG. I thought he was the most consistent player on the ground.

It seemed like there was very little intensity for most of the game. In the third we showed how much stronger we were, tackled hard and really North could not do anything when we did step up. The last quarter they relaxed and as I said earlier tried things differently. I really wouldn't panic to much about it. Of course you'd rather a win but it seemed more important to NM than it did us.

I spoke to a couple of people after the game and they said the same. Personally I thought he was terrible, I describe him as 100% intensity 20% efficiency. He has the worst ball handling skills I can remember, I almost couldn't recall a time he handled the ball cleanly. He certainly got in the play a lot, but very little of it resulted in a positive for the team IMO.

It seems I'm the only one who thinks this so maybe I'm wrong.

[GVGjr]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

The back line without Lake was a huge concern for me today for two reason- 1) We couldn't contain Petrie, Williams just can't contain a talented key position forward, and Morris was too small today. 2) and the bigger concern for me is it becomes really obvious when Lake's not there how much he covers up for the lack of midfield defensive pressure we apply. When North got a run on our midfield virtually accepted North would run the ball away and get the ball inside 50m, no one seemed particularly concerned, they (Boyd, Higgins, Cross, Cooney) all just ran to positions where they could receive the ball if we rebounded it. Unfortunately with Lake absent, everytime North got an inside 50 they scored. If Lake is out for an extended period I fear we could concede some huge scores.

You have saved me a lot of typing. Our midfield pressure needs to improve if we are to cover Lake missing some of the early games this season.

To see Petrie dominating isn't a good sign for us and whilst Williams had a poor game he didn't get a lot of assistance from his team mates. I can see Essendon trying to exploit us by throwing some talls into their forward line.

[Missing Dog]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

So who did you see as the best players?

Thanks.

[Missing Dog]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

It sounds as if the defenders were hung out to dry by the lack of pressure through the midfield, it highlights how good or bad they can be made to look depending on the pressure further up the field.

It's also disappointing that Stack wasn't able to back up his solid performance from last week.

[GVGjr]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

I spoke to a couple of people after the game and they said the same. Personally I thought he was terrible, I describe him as 100% intensity 20% efficiency. He has the worst ball handling skills I can remember, I almost couldn't recall a time he handled the ball cleanly. He certainly got in the play a lot, but very little of it resulted in a positive for the team IMO.

It seems I'm the only one who thinks this so maybe I'm wrong.

No you are not on your own. His use of the ball at times was ordinary.

[G-Mo77]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

I spoke to a couple of people after the game and they said the same. Personally I thought he was terrible, I describe him as 100% intensity 20% efficiency. He has the worst ball handling skills I can remember, I almost couldn't recall a time he handled the ball cleanly. He certainly got in the play a lot, but very little of it resulted in a positive for the team IMO.

It seems I'm the only one who thinks this so maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe I'm wrong. I do value a lot of smaller things a little higher than a lot of others. He was certainly not as clean as you would like but he was not terrible. He tackled well won a lot of the ball and did a lot of things behind the ball which I liked.

He's a lot shorter than I thought he would be. Around the same height as Harvey.

[G-Mo77]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

It sounds as if the defenders were hung out to dry by the lack of pressure through the midfield, it highlights how good or bad they can be made to look depending on the pressure further up the field.

It's also disappointing that Stack wasn't able to back up his solid performance from last week.

While the midfield pressure was a concern their delivery was not that flash IMO. Petrie one on one was the key to this game for North we had no answer for it.

[AndrewP6]

Re: Dogs v Roos in Ballarat

I wasn't there, didn't see it and only have these and other online reports to go on, but I'm really disappointed. I thought we'd account for Norf comfortably. Lake missing obviously hurts, but it sounds like we have no cover if he does miss time. I really hope Griff's injury is just a stinger. From these reports, Coons got through OK and did alright, and it's great to read of Li'l Libba's good game. With only a couple of weeks till Rd 1, we seem to have lots to do.