2014 Game Day Round 5 - Western Bulldogs V Carlton

[LostDoggy]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 5 - Western Bulldogs V Carlton

Fair enough......but I don't understand your Jones comment. 20 what?

Sorry, 20 games.

[GVGjr]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 5 - Western Bulldogs V Carlton

On a positive note this is my 2000 post.

Well done...and thanks

[Eastdog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 5 - Western Bulldogs V Carlton

On a positive note this is my 2000 post.

Good on you HD60.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 5 - Western Bulldogs V Carlton

So disappointed. They are shit and we just managed to be shitter.

Can't believe how we just let it become a shootout straight up. Carlton are a team that is decent when it thinks it is, and we allowed that early. We should have made it a slog in that first quarter and just forced them to grind out every goal. Should have been accountable, tough and rough. Make them doubt that they could do it and make sure that when they did they earnt it. Instead we let them run around us and their belief and confidence was sky high 10 minutes in.

Really missed Morris down back. Needed a key defender that could win his position, Young and Williams both got done that first quarter and Talia would've too if Casboult was remotely talented and held his marks. I have always liked Williams ever since his run down the wing of the MCG on debut, but the time has come to say that he is now purely backup, and if Talia and Roberts are fit, they get priority at the selection table. Williams continues to be outbodied and pushed out of marking contests incredibly easily for a man of his size, and very rarely manages to at least halve the contest. For mine he has the rest of the year to show he can offer something up forward, otherwise I think he is done.

Our midfield got done. Minson has been so disappointing this season. Last season it wasn't just his hitouts, it was his domination of the ballups for the entire game that was his strength. He owned that 5m space around the ball up and was awesome to watch. Tonight he was beaten, and beaten easily by bloody Robbie Warnock. And we thought being beaten by Giles was bad. Griffen as a positive started to show old Griffen type behaviors, trying to drag us back into the game, although Carlton did as well as anyone in managing to avoid being made to look silly when Griffen and Macrae tried to put their moves on, so much so that I'm convinced that some of Macrae's crap handballs in the last quarter were because he no longer believed he was going to get round the Carlton player if he tried. Bontempelli was very encouraging, I thought Boyd was decent in the first half at least, but Libba and Wallis both had shockers.

Crameri was dangerous up forward, but he is a very average mark. If he can just clean up some of his fumbles it means he breaks away into space instead of having to put on the afterburners to regain the space he bought by working his arse of to receive in the first place. That last quarter missed shot was disappointing, but prior to that he had nailed all the big goals this season, something Essendon fans were all too happy to tell us he sucked at. Stringer was marginally better today, he actually played in front and managed through handballing to set up some goals/should be goals. I'm still not convinced he is doing anywhere near enough to justify his spot though, and not sure why he is being given a different rating sheet to guys like Hunter. I was actually fairly pleased with Jones today. I don't think he kicked a goal but he looks intense and as if he wants to hurt people, which isn't the worst thing to have in a contested marking key forward.

As for the umpiring it was shithouse, and yet the worst call of the night was calling play on after Jong got ran down. Unless that somehow landed on Jong's foot it was absolute textbook holding the ball and I wouldn't be surprised if it's in the "rules of the game" video next year as a demo to what holding the ball is.

That was very disappointing: we continued our run of woeful first quarters, we let the game develop into a shootout, something which doesn't suit us at all, and despite to our credit staying in the game until the last 5 minutes, we failed to take the chances we earnt and as has happened all season, everytime we make a poor error we get punished for it.

The game was probably lost in the first quarter when Warnock had 11 hitouts to Will's nil. We are the only club in the AFL that persists with one ruckman. Geelong in fact play three as does Hawthorn if you count Roughead. Surely that says something is wrong.
Campbell does give you a strong target up forward and is a competent ruckman. You can not lose your two tall defenders in Roughead and Morris and expect second string replacements in Williams and Young to fill the gap. We need to look past Williams. I agree that going forward that Talia and Roberts are better options and I wouldn't discount Austin as well. We were still in the game late but missed goals from Boyd Crameri and Macrae proved too costly. This was in spite of us struggling all day. I thought Malthouse by playing tags on Liberatore and Murphy outsmarted us. Our disposal simply isn't good enough to match it with the better sides and there is urgent work required at training to bring it up to a desirable standard.