Game Day Thread - Sydney V Western Bulldogs

[SimonH]

Not adding much more to others' thoughts, but:

• Crouch was terrific; really had the zip of old back.
• Liz's mid-week summary of Brabazon was spot on. Competed hard, did some team things, ran hard, even took a screamer mark. But getting a lot of the footy in your first game has its downside, too: people can more readily see what you have and haven't got. He is not really super-quick, and there is nothing about him that really hurts an opponent; certainly not an opponent with the Dogs' class.
• White was poor bordering on embarrassing for most of the day despite a terrific chase for a turnover in the 4th q. Put it down to experience and mark his card 'not before 2009-- and even then, only if he starts learning something about positional play'.
• Vespa was everything we hoped he'd be. And a bit more (apart from straight-kicking). The guy is built.
• BBBH played like a real professional; started woeful, but didn't lose it, didn't spit the dummy, and worked his way right back into the game as it went on, to the point where you'd back him to win a one-on-one by the end.
• McVeigh had one of those once-in-a-career games, and unfortunately what should have made it 7 for him (in the 3rd q) was one of those easy shots that cost us the game.
• There are no more Andrew Dunkleys in modern football. If you don't have good disposal skills, you don't play. You can't risk Brennan kicking in the back-lines or you give up goals that cost you the game, and you can't let him take crunch shots for goal or he'll cost you the game. After 6 years in the system as an adult (plus however long as a kid), it's fantasy to think his kicking will get up to standard. Great grab, Luke, but sorry.
• Grundy tried hard but for the most part took a big leap backwards today. It was like all of the improvement of 2008 went out the window. No doubt not helped by the fact that he was swung to every position on the ground at random intervals. For gawsakes, on the SCG next week stick him in the goalsquare and let him play FF for a night. I can guarantee he'll make a better fist of it that White did.
• JBolt is actually in good form. And is one of the best milkers of free kicks in the whole AFL.
• No matter what any of us say about LRT, it makes no difference. He's the great white project, now going on for half-a-decade. Bringing back Heath James is starting to look appealing.
• Bird gave a big slap in the face to whomever said during the week that he won't make it. Give him another season under his belt, and he'll be picking up Brownlow votes.

You can get away with being 3 or 4 real top-liners short against lesser sides. But against a bunch of hard-runners like the Dogs, who can beat us for pace at the best of times, to be lacking guys of the ilk of Malceski, Goodes, MOL and Barry is gunna hurt you.

[TheMase]

Remember that White has been spending his time in the reserves in the backline (or so it's been reported). You can't just expect him to walk in and play FF after playing most of the season at FB or CHB.

Oh absolutely, I agree. I guess with out lack of KPP depth, we have to hope that all will come good for us in these areas.

[mcs]

I am very disappointed in todays effort, not because of the game as such but because we wasted a great chance to win after such a brilliant start. I know we had a very young team comparitively and injuries have hurt us, but with a start like we had we should of went on to win when you look back and think we dominated so much of the game. A lot of schoolboy errors (Mainly from players who know better) really hurt us today.
My thoughts on the game overall:

-We dominated 3 quarters I thought but could not put it on the scoreboard. We wasted too many good chances in goal today. Better then last week's effort but again it cost us dearly especially early in the 3rd when we kicked 4 or 5 behinds in a row.

- McVeigh was sensational. Cut them apart and popped up everywhere. By far the best player on the ground.

- Vespa and Brabazon both impressed me. Vespa was very solid. Wayward in front of goal but looked lively, led up very well, no way out of place and looks like he could be a gun player in the future. I'd like to think today might possibly be the first of a long stretch of games in the team (I certainly would be disappointed if the went the way of other rookies and got dropped after 1 or 2 more games).

-Well done to Crouch. I still dont think he should be in anything but the short term focus for the team, but he was quite good today. I have been a big doubter of his return, but I must give credit where credit is due.

- Brennan I thought also did alright today. But sadly his disposal is not good enough.

-White really struggled to make any impact at all. He certainly has the build for afl but sadly he didnt show much today.

- Our defence was dreadful. I can remember at least 6 goals we conceded directly from turnovers either in our defensive 50 or just outside, and mainly from elementary mistakes. I know we are down on personnel but those errors absolutely killed us
.
- How hard is it to wear the correct footwear! Several times the dogs got away with their run because one of our idiots either slipped over/ couldnt stop quick enough etc etc. And nearly every time it was because they had the wrong studs on. It is an elementary area that really hurt us imo.

- Our skills at the moment are just not good enough. We drop too many simple marks, far too often miss our targets with our handballs, kick poorly and then miss our chances. If we are going to compete with our game plan then we have to have our skill level right up there like 2005. If not, then we are simply fodder in September.

- And as I seem to write every week after a game where we lose by less then say 4 goals, why did we wait till about 10 minutes from full time to take some chances and open it up. If we had of come out at the start of the 4th quarter like we played the last 10 minutes and went for it and played on hard like we did late on, we might of been able to snatch it. That really bugs me everytime.

- Hall improved as the game went on but Im still far from convinced he is right mentally or is simply up to playing at the consistent high level we have grown accustomed to from him. To me he looks tired, ragged and possibly dare I say it past it.

For even though you can say it was a decent performance considering our injuries etc, it was disappointing to me because there in no doubt in my mind that the doggies were there for the taking today. They showed me that they like probably 13 or 14 other teams in the comp that they havent got a hope in hell of beating Geelong come the crunch games in the finals. They were distinctly average imo (Except in front of the sticks again!) and really didnt impress me at all.

[swansrule100]

i am more optimistic about the future, but feel gloomy about the current season, will take a dramatic form change from here to give the finals a shake.


Mcveigh is developing into a gun, will end up better than his brother, has developed quicker.

Birdy is going to lead this midfield over the next decade, had one woeful handball, and was a bit handball happy today, but he is so much more composed than a lot of his senior team mates.

I though the two new guys did enough to be happy for their futures.

Other than that hall and crouch were ok in patches, i thought white showed promise in this game, spida actually put in an okay peformance.

The problem is the under performance of guys like Ablett, has he played a decent game this year?

I think injuries are a convenient excuse. Goodes and a fit malceski would make a big difference, but as good as Magic and Leo have been what difference would they make to today, Magic would of had the same woeful delivery the others had.

Also Roosy the forward line is not where you hide struggling players, how about attacking??

[hot potato]

Stupid comment of the year. OK, not quite, but up there. Richards is one of the most underrated players in the competition. He is consistently one of our best players, and was again fantastic. LRT, while not playing as well as he was back in 05, for example, was still very solid today, and has strung two good performances in a row. He's getting back on his feet. He was a damn sight better than White, for example, and Grundy, LRT's closest player-for-player comparison, was no better.

YEP, I CONCUR, LRT IS GOING OK, HIS KICKING HAS IMPROVED A LOT, I DON'T KNOW WHY HE HE GETS SUCH A BAGOUT.
TED DROPPED WHAT HE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN BUT BOBBED UP EVERYWHERE.
HIS BRAIN FADE PLAYING ON IS FORGIVABLE I GUESS.

The Dogs are one very busy team and run in packs, The Swans all take time out sometimes to imitate statues that's true.

[Legs Akimbo]

Birdy is going to lead this midfield over the next decade, had one woeful handball, and was a bit handball happy today, but he is so much more composed than a lot of his senior team mates.

I am Bird's biggest fan, but watching him on the replay, I think the club should work with him in two areas. The first is handball technique. He almost seems to move his front hand as he strikes the ball, which not surprisingly reduces his power. I think some of his handballing is untidy as a result. He needs to dig up a few Diesel Williams tapes and study them. The second is the penetration of his disposals. He is great at extracting and finding a player with space, but where he falls down is when he is the receiver either running or stationary. He tends to look for a close option instead of kicking low and long to advantage. Love his workrate and strength though.

As for Vesz, his kicking is a joy to watch and I don't think he'll have too many games where he kicks 1.4.

[Legs Akimbo]

...and can someone teach Luke Ablett that losing your feet, falling over ,sliding to the ground is not a good strategy when chased by a faster player.

[Legs Akimbo]

...and Mcveigh looked elite at times. LRT was better than earlier commentary suggested. Crouch did much better than I had expected. He deserves his place in the team on today's performance.

Ted Richards tries hard and does some good stuff, but tends to undo a lot of it with brain farts.

We played okay today and if we had put it on the scoreboard, we could have won.

[ugg]

Hall v3 ? Sigh.

Surely not again? Sydney sweat on Hall review - realfooty.com.au

[Jeffers1984]

Hall v3 ? Sigh.

Surely not again? Sydney sweat on Hall review - realfooty.com.au

well i didn't think there was much in it when i saw the replay of it, but because it's Barry Hall i think we may be in trouble again.

[swansrule100]

I am Bird's biggest fan, but watching him on the replay, I think the club should work with him in two areas. The first is handball technique. He almost seems to move his front hand as he strikes the ball, which not surprisingly reduces his power. I think some of his handballing is untidy as a result. He needs to dig up a few Diesel Williams tapes and study them. The second is the penetration of his disposals. He is great at extracting and finding a player with space, but where he falls down is when he is the receiver either running or stationary. He tends to look for a close option instead of kicking low and long to advantage. Love his workrate and strength though.

As for Vesz, his kicking is a joy to watch and I don't think he'll have too many games where he kicks 1.4.

i agree with that, i think bird has the elements to develop those skills.

[AnnieH]

From my front row seats, they played like crap.

Clearly, the second quarter cost us the game.

On the other hand, Crouchy looks so god-damn buff I almost didn't recognise him.

McVeigh walked past during the third quarter, and I told him in no uncertain terms that he really needed to lift himself and go out and kick a few more goals - today was the day he needed to do it.

Six.

Faaarrrrrrrrkkkkkkkk. (As my dead friend Graeme would say.)

Never saw that coming!! Finally.

[Lucky Knickers]

I was pretty happy with that effort. At half time my worst fears had been realised - our squad cobbled together by Macgiver - were seriously outclassed in the midfield.

There was plenty to like with the fight back. But for our typically poor set shots we were close to pulling off the upset of the round.

I didn't have this pencilled in as a win so find it hard to be other than mildly disappointed.

Welcome back Crouchy. I hope a few players watch your tape and see that it isn't impossible to run straight up the middle.
HELLOOOOO Veszpremi!
McVeigh I salute you.

[ScottH]

I think the biggest disappointments from the game, were the form of Jolly, B2 and Ted.

Jolly did good in the ruck but seemed to do little else around the ground.
B2 made some awful mistakes.
Ted seemed drop more marks than he took.

All 3 have had godd solid season, but I thought they were below there best.

[BSA5]

I think the biggest disappointments from the game, were the form of Jolly, B2 and Ted.

Jolly did good in the ruck but seemed to do little else around the ground.
B2 made some awful mistakes.
Ted seemed drop more marks than he took.

All 3 have had godd solid season, but I thought they were below there best.

Agree with the first two (though I think it's a bit harsh on Jolly, he absolutely dominated the taps), but I thought Teddy was great. He took 10 marks, so I doubt he dropped many, and none stand out. I thought he was one of our best.