Tweet
Match preview Bulldogs v Dockers by Dancin’ Douggy
This is my first match preview so please be gentle with me. Hope I’ve covered everything I’m supposed to. Here goes………..
I can’t preview this coming game without reviewing last weeks superb victory.
Not just for the pleasure of it, but because last weeks win was important, and pivotal in so many ways.
Winning games out of the blue happens and it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
We beat North last year, for example, and it didn’t mean anything at all. Just a lucky day.
This win was much much different for several solid, tangible structural & personnel reasons.
Here are 8 reasons why the 2013 bulldogs are an improvement on the 2012 model.
Starting with the backline.
1. Jordan Roughead appears to have gone from ‘experiment’ to realisation.
Did very well on Jonathon Brown and looks to have the strength, agility, and composure to hold down full back. Played a very good game on J. Brown and that’s not easy. A 200cm, 100kg fullback is a pretty formidable piece of armoury.
Improvement on last year? Tick.
2. Dale Morris is back and this no doubt helps Roughead perform his role as well.
Improvement on last year? Huge Tick.
3. Liam Picken is freed up by the arrival of Nick Lower. Picken can now play back pocket on the ‘pest’ small forwards, (think Milne, Ballantyne, Betts etc) He’s perfect for this role. Unflappable, committed, dogged and ruthless. He’ll turn the tables on them all and become the ‘pest’ back pocket! He’s good in the air against players his own size and uses the ball well. Improvement on last year? Tick.
4. Which brings us to Nick Lower. Good tagger and 4cm and 7kg bigger than Picken so we’ve upgraded there as well. Improvement on last year? Tick
5. Brett Goodes. Wow. What a debut. He may not get that many possessions every week but there’s no reason he can’t maintain the standard of the things he did well. Spoiling, marking intercepting distributing the ball etc. He’s been doing it long enough. Improvement on last year? Tick
6. Goodes frees Murphy to play as a forward (Hallelujiah!).
Improvement on last year? Tick.
7. Koby Stevens adds another big (187cm) body into the midfield. He uses the ball well to boot. (pardon the pun). The flow on effect of adding Stevens, Lower and Goodes into the team is that it pushes fringe players like Howard, Tutt, Vez, Grant etc. 3 notches further down the pecking order so they can’t expect to be gifted games. Improvement on last year? Tick
8. Cooney looks fit and fast again.
Improvement on last year? Tick. (fingers crossed it stays that way)
So maybe the year won’t be as bad as many, (myself included) predicted.
The Jury is still out on Tom Young. He looked ok out there on Saturday but not convinced enough yet to give him tick number 9 in my list.
THE DOCKERS.
Well…………the Dockers are a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in Ross Lyon.
They have historically been a very flaky team but Ross Lyon is trying to mould them into a hard nosed competitive outfit that will grind down the opposition and try and smother any flow on football. Awful to watch and I personally hope Ross Lyon’s negative brand of football is never rewarded with a premiership. Which Dockers will turn up on the day? Who knows? Historically pathetic away from home but they did turn that around last year. They have a lot of very talented midfielders so ALL our mids will need to play accountable football. We won’t get it as easy as we did against the lions. Fremantle are undoubtedly a side brimming with talent so this will be a big test for our young mids Smith, Wallis and Libber.
KEY MATCH UPS.
PAVLICH / ROUGHEAD / MORRIS.
Pav is an absolute superstar and one of the most under rated players in HISTORY.
6 best & fairests and 6 x all Australian. I’m a big fan of the Pav.
I’d let Roughead have first crack at him. If Pav starts getting on top, move Dale Morris on to him (I wouldn’t wait too long either). Dale will finish him off. Pav is 192cm so he’s not super tall for a KPP. Well within Dales range. If Roughead is doing well on Pavlich.
Morris should cover Chris Mayne.
If Kepler Bradley plays forward send Roughead straight to him and Morris to Pavlich.
BALLANTYNE / PICKEN.
Ooh baby this will be fun. Worth going for this match up alone.
MCPHARLIN / JONES.
McPharlin is a great player and an exceptionally good contested mark.
He’ll probably take Jones.
My message to Liam would be this. “We don’t care how many marks you take or how many goals you kick. Just present and compete, present and compete, present and compete. From the First bounce to the final siren”. Make sure you stop McPharlin from marking. Punch if you have to. I thought Jones was great last week. His 2nd and 3rd efforts were outstanding and he directly contributed to at least 3 goals from tap ons at ground level.
CROWLEY / GRIFFEN.
I still believe Griffen is our most dangerous mid fielder and expect Crowley to take him.
Crowley does his best /(worst) in heavy traffic. We have enough in and under mids to win the contested ball without Griffen adding to the mob, so I would get Griffen to set up 2/3 possessions away from the clearance in open space and run Crowley off his feet. Head to head in open space Griffen will have Crowley on toast.
Inside mids must look for him though, and have a general idea where he will be. If Crowley is negating Griffen, I’d get Griffen to run with Stephen Hill and hopefully take Crowley with him.
LOWER / FYFE OR BARLOW.
You could toss a coin. Lower heads to whoever’s having the best day I guess?
MINSON / GRIFFIN.
I’ll back Big Will in to beat Griffin in the ruck, in the air and around the ground. Maybe ask Will to aim for 2/3 goals off his own boot to grind Griffin down. Do what Sandilands usually does to us. (Sandilands out is a clear bonus)
OUR FORWARDS / THEIR DEFENCE.
Our small/medium forwards, with Murphy and a fit Higgins spending time there suddenly looks very dangerous. Dixon, Gia, Murph, Higgins and Dalhaus look like a busy swarm of smart intelligent skilled operators. The constant movement and harassment was excellent last week, and that kind of play is easier to maintain week in week out than any single player kicking big bags or taking spectacular marks. It’s also much harder to defend against. The foot passing between all the forwards was great too. Think we should have their backline covered to be honest, but we can’t afford to become static.
PREDICTION.
If this game was in Freo, I wouldn’t give us much of a chance.
But in Melbourne, with our tails up after a spirited win at the same venue, I think we’re a CHANCE. This will be a really tough test for us, but I’m going to say we’ll win by 8pts.
This is my first match preview so please be gentle with me. Hope I’ve covered everything I’m supposed to. Here goes………..
I can’t preview this coming game without reviewing last weeks superb victory.
Not just for the pleasure of it, but because last weeks win was important, and pivotal in so many ways.
Winning games out of the blue happens and it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
We beat North last year, for example, and it didn’t mean anything at all. Just a lucky day.
This win was much much different for several solid, tangible structural & personnel reasons.
Here are 8 reasons why the 2013 bulldogs are an improvement on the 2012 model.
Starting with the backline.
1. Jordan Roughead appears to have gone from ‘experiment’ to realisation.
Did very well on Jonathon Brown and looks to have the strength, agility, and composure to hold down full back. Played a very good game on J. Brown and that’s not easy. A 200cm, 100kg fullback is a pretty formidable piece of armoury.
Improvement on last year? Tick.
2. Dale Morris is back and this no doubt helps Roughead perform his role as well.
Improvement on last year? Huge Tick.
3. Liam Picken is freed up by the arrival of Nick Lower. Picken can now play back pocket on the ‘pest’ small forwards, (think Milne, Ballantyne, Betts etc) He’s perfect for this role. Unflappable, committed, dogged and ruthless. He’ll turn the tables on them all and become the ‘pest’ back pocket! He’s good in the air against players his own size and uses the ball well. Improvement on last year? Tick.
4. Which brings us to Nick Lower. Good tagger and 4cm and 7kg bigger than Picken so we’ve upgraded there as well. Improvement on last year? Tick
5. Brett Goodes. Wow. What a debut. He may not get that many possessions every week but there’s no reason he can’t maintain the standard of the things he did well. Spoiling, marking intercepting distributing the ball etc. He’s been doing it long enough. Improvement on last year? Tick
6. Goodes frees Murphy to play as a forward (Hallelujiah!).
Improvement on last year? Tick.
7. Koby Stevens adds another big (187cm) body into the midfield. He uses the ball well to boot. (pardon the pun). The flow on effect of adding Stevens, Lower and Goodes into the team is that it pushes fringe players like Howard, Tutt, Vez, Grant etc. 3 notches further down the pecking order so they can’t expect to be gifted games. Improvement on last year? Tick
8. Cooney looks fit and fast again.
Improvement on last year? Tick. (fingers crossed it stays that way)
So maybe the year won’t be as bad as many, (myself included) predicted.
The Jury is still out on Tom Young. He looked ok out there on Saturday but not convinced enough yet to give him tick number 9 in my list.
THE DOCKERS.
Well…………the Dockers are a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, wrapped in Ross Lyon.
They have historically been a very flaky team but Ross Lyon is trying to mould them into a hard nosed competitive outfit that will grind down the opposition and try and smother any flow on football. Awful to watch and I personally hope Ross Lyon’s negative brand of football is never rewarded with a premiership. Which Dockers will turn up on the day? Who knows? Historically pathetic away from home but they did turn that around last year. They have a lot of very talented midfielders so ALL our mids will need to play accountable football. We won’t get it as easy as we did against the lions. Fremantle are undoubtedly a side brimming with talent so this will be a big test for our young mids Smith, Wallis and Libber.
KEY MATCH UPS.
PAVLICH / ROUGHEAD / MORRIS.
Pav is an absolute superstar and one of the most under rated players in HISTORY.
6 best & fairests and 6 x all Australian. I’m a big fan of the Pav.
I’d let Roughead have first crack at him. If Pav starts getting on top, move Dale Morris on to him (I wouldn’t wait too long either). Dale will finish him off. Pav is 192cm so he’s not super tall for a KPP. Well within Dales range. If Roughead is doing well on Pavlich.
Morris should cover Chris Mayne.
If Kepler Bradley plays forward send Roughead straight to him and Morris to Pavlich.
BALLANTYNE / PICKEN.
Ooh baby this will be fun. Worth going for this match up alone.
MCPHARLIN / JONES.
McPharlin is a great player and an exceptionally good contested mark.
He’ll probably take Jones.
My message to Liam would be this. “We don’t care how many marks you take or how many goals you kick. Just present and compete, present and compete, present and compete. From the First bounce to the final siren”. Make sure you stop McPharlin from marking. Punch if you have to. I thought Jones was great last week. His 2nd and 3rd efforts were outstanding and he directly contributed to at least 3 goals from tap ons at ground level.
CROWLEY / GRIFFEN.
I still believe Griffen is our most dangerous mid fielder and expect Crowley to take him.
Crowley does his best /(worst) in heavy traffic. We have enough in and under mids to win the contested ball without Griffen adding to the mob, so I would get Griffen to set up 2/3 possessions away from the clearance in open space and run Crowley off his feet. Head to head in open space Griffen will have Crowley on toast.
Inside mids must look for him though, and have a general idea where he will be. If Crowley is negating Griffen, I’d get Griffen to run with Stephen Hill and hopefully take Crowley with him.
LOWER / FYFE OR BARLOW.
You could toss a coin. Lower heads to whoever’s having the best day I guess?
MINSON / GRIFFIN.
I’ll back Big Will in to beat Griffin in the ruck, in the air and around the ground. Maybe ask Will to aim for 2/3 goals off his own boot to grind Griffin down. Do what Sandilands usually does to us. (Sandilands out is a clear bonus)
OUR FORWARDS / THEIR DEFENCE.
Our small/medium forwards, with Murphy and a fit Higgins spending time there suddenly looks very dangerous. Dixon, Gia, Murph, Higgins and Dalhaus look like a busy swarm of smart intelligent skilled operators. The constant movement and harassment was excellent last week, and that kind of play is easier to maintain week in week out than any single player kicking big bags or taking spectacular marks. It’s also much harder to defend against. The foot passing between all the forwards was great too. Think we should have their backline covered to be honest, but we can’t afford to become static.
PREDICTION.
If this game was in Freo, I wouldn’t give us much of a chance.
But in Melbourne, with our tails up after a spirited win at the same venue, I think we’re a CHANCE. This will be a really tough test for us, but I’m going to say we’ll win by 8pts.
Comment