Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

Said the same thing on ABC radio. Taggers need more attention from our bigger blokes.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

I watched him for ten minutes in the third quarter. He stood and watched play from a position about 30 metres away from our bench and very occasionally jogged 10 or 15 metres and then stood and watched play again.

I had to hold myself back in my original post, but that was close to the worst game I have seen Higgins play.

It was bordering on pathetic.

[lemmon]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

I watched him for ten minutes in the third quarter. He stood and watched play from a position about 30 metres away from our bench and very occasionally jogged 10 or 15 metres and then stood and watched play again.

I've accepted there's no way to get through to him, we wanted a Trent Cotchin but he looks like he's leveled out as an Angus Monfries. Good, ordinary player

[lemmon]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

One thing the commentators highlighted (and I can't really comment on from watching on tv) but all Freo players were making sure to give Griff a bump or elbow at every opportunity and really helped Crowley with his tag. We need to get better at continually applying blocks and creating space to help Griff beat his man.

I don't think that's accurate, saw them all getting into Crowley, Cross looked like he made it a special mission at one point to get into him

[Bornadog]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

I will say on the positive side, after Freo kicked the first 5 goals in the first 15 minutes, from then on we matched them for the rest of the day. We cannot afford to give teams big starts like that.

[Go_Dogs]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

I don't think that's accurate, saw them all getting into Crowley, Cross looked like he made it a special mission at one point to get into him

Good to hear, thanks.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

Even sans-Ballantyne and Sandilands, I think Freo might just pip us. However, if we play like we did last week that's all I want to see. The score is irrelevant beyond that. The last thing we want to see is Freo get a run on and our boys shrink back into their shells.

Freo by 12.
BOG Wallis — it's the type of game he excels at.
First goal Dickson

As I said before the match, happy that we didn't shrink into our shells and let Freo run over us, 28 points is about right to me, about where I see us in the grand scheme of things, so I'm not disappointed any more than any other loss.

Will be a lot of kicking at goal at training this week!

Anyone else starting to doubt Freo's claim to finals ascendancy?
Good teams don't take their foot of your throat.

We've won just about every stat in this game!

I saw it as a team not wanting to kill themselves in Round 2. If it was Round 18 I'd agree.

[G-Mo77]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

It was hard not to get excited about last week but we really got put back down to Earth against a much better team. One thing I noticed was the speed of Freo on both ends. The way they created space was impressive and they closed the space quickly when we managed to find some.

Not disgraced today by any means which was alright. Got jumped early and didn't really recover.

[Hotdog60]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

Ross Lyon said this on the AFL site:

Minson's 34 hit-outs and 18 possessions gave the Bulldogs a key edge in the midfield battle.

Lyon said it was crucial for Dockers duo Jon Griffin and Kepler Bradley to limit the influence of the 27-year-old.

"I always thought it was won and lost in the midfield. It gives you supply and protects your defence," Lyon said on Thursday.

"Will's a big, strong, competitive ruckman. He plays a real robust game.

"He can push forward and kick a goal and take contested marks.

"So we'll have to match that and spread offensively to give him something to worry about as well."

The Bulldogs flew under the radar during the pre-season, but Lyon is impressed with their squad and has done extensive analysis on them.

"We've gone to school on them. We've prepared like we would as if it was a Grand Final," he said.

I think they will go hard early to get the ascendancy.

Pretty much what happened

[Mantis]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

We've won just about every stat in this game!

Go and ask Hawthorn if this means anything.

Only stat that matters is the score.

[soupman]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

I've come out of that game a little dissapointed, but mostly positive. I think that was a big improvement to last year. We were competitive, fought the game out and I think there's a lot to take out of that.

Our forwardline was the worst performed portion of the team. Struggled to find space and possessions and didn't take chances when it needed to. Freo are a much better defensive team that most of the AFL and it showed in their ability to get numbers back and block up our options. Higgins, Dickson and Giansiracusa were all poor today, particularly the first two. Struggled to find the ball and didn't use it well when they did. Cordy at times continued last years trend of being half a metre away from where he needs to be, and thus not impacting contests. He needs to start doing this, but even so he is moving better than last year and I'm happy to persist with him. Jones does make a contest and his defensive efforts are very good. Also had a hand in a couple of our earlier goals. This year he is going to have quiet games, but he will have games where he gets more involved and I can forgive him for struggling to get possessions under a defence that strangles the supply and outnumbers our forwards. Dahlhaus was good in bits, but I thought today at times he didn't quite put as much effort into stuff as usual.

The good thing to see with our forwardline was that structurally we always had numbers up there, it contested well and it chased well. Unlike last year there were no bombs to an empty forward 50 and Freo had to work it out instead of stroll out of defence.

Freo posed a much better challenge for us as an opposition than Brisbane. They are well drilled and very good defensively, and have a number of attacking outlets. I was impressed. I hope we learn a bit from playing them, and we should benefit from playing against a side that gives you very little time and space. We actually acquitted ourselves very well after quarter time and if it wasn't for a few minor errors in execution at times the scorebaord could have been a lot closer (Freo also got some very questionable frees early on that helped them). Having said that we did give up a few soft goals including a training drill one at the start of the 3rd.

One thing the commentators highlighted (and I can't really comment on from watching on tv) but all Freo players were making sure to give Griff a bump or elbow at every opportunity and really helped Crowley with his tag. We need to get better at continually applying blocks and creating space to help Griff beat his man.

Just prior to that patheitc Pavlich free Crowley had to run into about 6 bulldog players on his way back to the middle.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

Go and ask Hawthorn if this means anything.

Only stat that matters is the score.

Right! well said

It's a concern for us when our young blokes are the ones putting in the big effort, and our more senior players like Higgins and Dickson, are having bad days. Onwards.

[Eastdog]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

Really liking my reserved seat. Came out of the match today disappointed like most on here. The way we kept on going in the end proves our fitness is a lot better. I don't think we were terrible today and at least we didn't lose by 10-12 goals. Our midfield in a few years time is going to be hard to compete with. The umpiring was awful at times.

[Mantis]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

Really liking my reserved seat. Came out of the match today disappointed like most on here. The way we kept on going in the end proves our fitness is a lot better. I don't think we were terrible today and at least we didn't lose by 10-12 goals. Our midfield in a few years time is going to be hard to compete with. The umpiring was awful at times.

Our midfield today was very hard to compete with... The midfield, well at least the centre square, isn't an area in which we need great improvement, our areas of concern are elsewhere.

[Eastdog]

Re: Game Day - R2 Western Bulldogs vs Fremantle

Our midfield today was very hard to compete with... The midfield, well at least the centre square, isn't an area in which we need great improvement, our areas of concern are elsewhere.

Forward line and defence Mantis?