2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

[Mofra]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Only saw the first and last quarters, but it was an odd feeling at the bar of Matt Jones' old football club when he had two shots on goal in the last quarter and missed them both, with myself and one woman on the other side of the room getting death stares as we cheered the Bulldogs to victory.

His junior club are the Bulldogs, yes they wear red, white & blue.

[jazzadogs]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Melbourne had 55 inside 50s and Scored 23 times


We had 42 and scored 24 times. Better than 50%.

Not bad for a dysfunctional forward line.

While I think we did a fantastic job at forward pressure and locking it in once we did get it in there, I still felt we broke down across the centre/half-forward quite regularly and could have had more inside-50s if we were more efficient through the centre. The lack of forward structure for large parts of the game remains a significant concern for me, as we weren't very effective attempting the 'sling-shot' style.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

I'm pumped for Tommy Williams. As Bmac suggested, our own camp has been really hard on him. A memorable game for the big fella and great to see him play a role; We couldn't have won it without him tonight.

[Cyberdoggie]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

I'm pumped for Tommy Williams. As Bmac suggested, our own camp has been really hard on him. A memorable game for the big fella and great to see him play a role; We couldn't have won it without him tonight.

Did he really do that much?

6 disposals, 1 mark, 2 goals from free kicks.

Apart from the goals, Jones's stats are better, and Williams had the lowest number on the ground apart from Dickson who was subbed.

[Hot_Doggies]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

I couldn't believe the boos from the crowd every time Jones went near the ball (which was not many). Boy do they have a short memory. Didn't Viney break someone's jaw a week ago doing the same thing and the football world went crazy? It was a great bump from Jones, he was unlucky that he collected Terlich high (Terlich was even more unlucky). He tried to get down as low as possible. However he will get weeks for it.
I was at the game last night and I thought it was a horrible game to watch but I couldn't take my eyes off it. It was like pulling teeth at times. The umpiring was as bad as I think I have ever seen it. Surely Nat Jones was caught holding the ball and not disposing of it correctly as least once. The bloke runs 10 metres with the ball getting tackled, drops it, it causes everyone to jump on the pack, no free kick, ball up every time, go and get *&#@ed (excuse the French). I it didn't help having Melbourne supporters in front of me who don't know the rules and whinged all night that they were getting hard done by.
Is it coaching or is it just the players, but we are scared to take the game on and move the ball on quickly. And when we do try to move the ball forward quickly we don't look where it's going, we just slam it on the boot and it is 9 times out of 10 straight to the opposition. Last week we seemed to link up with handball quite well but forgot that we had to kick it eventually. This week we hardly had a good chain of handball and we played a stop start kick long down the line turn over style. Our forwards have no idea how the ball is going to be coming in so they don't know where to lead and our midfielders have no idea where our forwards will be leading. We have the most dysfunctional forward line/delivery in the league. I can't remember a lace out piece of play?
Effort though, wow. That was definitely the most pleasing and very pleasing part of our game last night and has been all year for that matter. Our effort was outstanding. We didn't give up ever. It was a real grind. Our players tackled like their lives depended on it. It was an ugly game and we won ugly, that's right, bloody oath we won!

Players were told not to lead at the ball carrier this week. Worried about Demon players dropping off and running out of defence. That's why we kicked long down the line to contests.

[1eyedog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Not bad for a dysfunctional forward line.

The media tomorrow will be typically pro-Roos. The narrative will be about Melbourne wasting their good chances, having young players playing well and or better than they did before Roos came, and Liam Jones smashing someone's head in.

There won't be a lot about our conversion rate. There won't be a lot about us being a rotation down.

Go the Bulldogs! I'm loving this.

We wouldn't have done this against anyone else bar errr Melbourne.

Seems we've got a hard crowd to please.

Not really I'm pleased with the win but I think we can play better, don't you? I'm just not looking through rose-coloured glasses because we beat Melbourne.

[Bornadog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Did he really do that much?

6 disposals, 1 mark, 2 goals from free kicks.

Apart from the goals, Jones's stats are better, and Williams had the lowest number on the ground apart from Dickson who was subbed.

Don't recall that at all? He snapped one with the left foot, one with the right foot and had a set shot that was close to being touched?

[The Underdog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Don't recall that at all? He snapped one with the left foot, one with the right foot and had a set shot that was close to being touched?

The set shot was from a free, but you're right the other two were classy goals in the run of play, especially his first with the beautiful fake handball then wheeling onto the right and slotting it.

[The Underdog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Did he really do that much?

6 disposals, 1 mark, 2 goals from free kicks.

Apart from the goals, Jones's stats are better, and Williams had the lowest number on the ground apart from Dickson who was subbed.

He played a half with an injury that will likely see him miss 2-3 matches. Just staying on the field and letting us keep our midfield rotations in order was brave, let alone kicking 2 goals with the injury.

[azabob]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Did he really do that much?

6 disposals, 1 mark, 2 goals from free kicks.

Apart from the goals, Jones's stats are better, and Williams had the lowest number on the ground apart from Dickson who was subbed.

Don't recall that at all? He snapped one with the left foot, one with the right foot and had a set shot that was close to being touched?

The set shot was from a free, but you're right the other two were classy goals in the run of play, especially his first with the beautiful fake handball then wheeling onto the right and slotting it.

C-Dog you are being very harsh on Williams. His set shot was from around 50m out and was a great kick. After half time he was basically on one leg, but played through pain, when in theory he shouldn't have been out on the ground. He allowed us to keep our forward structures in place and allow Crameri and Jones to have one on one contests rather than two on one.

And surely a 3 goal game regardless of the number of touches is a great effort?

[Bornadog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

C-Dog you are being very harsh on Williams. His set shot was from around 50m out and was a great kick. After half time he was basically on one leg, but played through pain, when in theory he shouldn't have been out on the ground. He allowed us to keep our forward structures in place and allow Crameri and Jones to have one on one contests rather than two on one.

And surely a 3 goal game regardless of the number of touches is a great effort?

Plus the nice handball to Libba who snapped truely.

[chef]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Not really I'm pleased with the win but I think we can play better, don't you? I'm just not looking through rose-coloured glasses because we beat Melbourne.

I dont think Melbourne are the easy beats that they were over the last few years. They played very well last week over in Adelaide didn't they?

And nobodies saying we were perfect.

[1eyedog]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Seems we've got a hard crowd to please.

I dont think Melbourne are the easy beats that they were over the last few years. They played very well last week over in Adelaide didn't they?

And nobodies saying we were perfect.

Did you watch the Melbourne game against Adelaide? Adelaide were absolutely horrible - not sure what it is with the Adelaide Oval but they have been terrible there. Melbourne were beaten by probably the only team worse than them (debatable), St. Kilda by 3 goals, by GWS by 5 goals, lost to the Suns at the MCG, were smashed by West Coast by nearly 100 points and caught a very out of form Carlton off guard. Wait until Melbourne play a top 8 team, or worse still for them a top 4 team and then we'll know the full extent of just how poor Melbourne really is.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Did you watch the Melbourne game against Adelaide? Adelaide were absolutely horrible - not sure what it is with the Adelaide Oval but they have been terrible there. Melbourne were beaten by probably the only team worse than them (debatable), St. Kilda by 3 goals, by GWS by 5 goals, lost to the Suns at the MCG, were smashed by West Coast by nearly 100 points and caught a very out of form Carlton off guard. Wait until Melbourne play a top 8 team, or worse still for them a top 4 team and then we'll know the full extent of just how poor Melbourne really is.

I think Melbourne have stepped it up the last few weeks but its really been their defensive side that has improved. Their attack is still deplorable so it was disappointing to let them get as many inside 50's as they did. That was my greatest concern.

[chef]

Re: 2014 Game Day Round 8 - Melbourne V Western Bulldogs

Did you watch the Melbourne game against Adelaide? Adelaide were absolutely horrible - not sure what it is with the Adelaide Oval but they have been terrible there. Melbourne were beaten by probably the only team worse than them (debatable), St. Kilda by 3 goals, by GWS by 5 goals, lost to the Suns at the MCG, were smashed by West Coast by nearly 100 points and caught a very out of form Carlton off guard. Wait until Melbourne play a top 8 team, or worse still for them a top 4 team and then we'll know the full extent of just how poor Melbourne really is.

Yeah, I did watch it. I thought Melbourne were fantastic and controlled the game and played it on their terms. It made me worried about our game, but we were able to grind out a win when previously we would have folded.

Roos has got Melbourne on the right track finally.