7 March, Rouse Hill: Sydney vs Western Bulldogs

[satchmopugdog]

After all those clangers we won't see Bevo again till round 16.

Who will play quarter back??????????

[Xie Shan]

Who will play quarter back??????????

Jordan McMahon.

(Oh--you meant for us)

[satchmopugdog]

Saw somw images on the AFL site with a bit of a report. The ground looked good surface wise..the evening looked great weather wise and LRT looks as dawky as ever....gotta love him.

[Cant turn right]

The iPhone keyboard cab be a bit of a pain when the pressure is on. Goodes and mcveigh looked slick. Hall dropped a few again. But still dominated. Laidlaw looked impressiv and had a lot of game time. Shaw and Richards rested. Schmidt did not look a happy camper on the sidelines. Vespa was creative.. Orreal doesn't look ready to me but hey what would I know. Didn't see Meredith bit he could have been there

[ShockOfHair]

Meredith wasn't playing. Neither were Pyke, Currie.

See anything of Thornton?

[Alibi Monday]

Saw somw images on the AFL site with a bit of a report. The ground looked good surface wise..the evening looked great weather wise and LRT looks as dawky as ever....gotta love him.

AFL 2009 NAB Challenge - Sydney v Western Bulldogs: The Slattery Media Group, Images - The Official Photographer of the AFL

[Emerald Hill]

Saw somw images on the AFL site with a bit of a report. The ground looked good surface wise..the evening looked great weather wise and LRT looks as dawky as ever....gotta love him.

And Jesse White- winner of the Dean Cox lookalike competition! (Hope he turns out to be as good!)

[Nico]

The kid probably thinks its Nico

Hang on there Al, I haven't yelled at Bevo since 2007.

[Cheer Squad]

Good showing by the team

Just back from the game. Much to like about our performance tonight, especially in the first half. We'd obviously come to play. Hall and Goodes played consistently well when they were on. We took the foot off the pedal a bit in the second half, but overall it was a good run. The Dogs were all over the shop. Nice little ground too.

Let's hope we take this frame of mind into next week's practice match against the Crows.

[Old Royboy]

Just in from the game. Good night. The Swans basically played the "A" team up until half time and went in with a seven goal lead. After that most of our topliners spent plenty of time on the pine. Against the "B" team the dogs pulled the lead back to a bit over two goals before late gioals by Mocca White and Barlow pushed the final margin out to 27 points.

Plenty of pluses tonight, but of couse a few minuses as well.

From the team perprspective the tackling and pressure skills was very good in the first half. Won a lot of turned over ball through pressure. In the first half the Swans dominated the clearances as well.

I was drooling over the amazing close in skills of Craig Bird. Quick clean hands and a quick mind more than make up for lack of pace. I'm looking for a big year from him.

I didn't see Laidlaw.

Goodes looked awesome. Hall returned 4-1 and had the better of Lake, plus had a hand in a couple more goals in about 2 1/2 quarters of footy. As good as I have seen him go pre season. Thornton got through his game OK- in fact 5 minutes after he had come on he had already racked up about 5 possessions, most of them clean and effective too. In a new role Nog spent a lot of time up back looking after Johnson, and did a servicable job.

White and Grundy are starting to look like they belong.

Vespa struggled a bit and needs to work on his marking when at top speed on the lead - dropped several. Jude Bolton still has hands of stone.

Cheese Barlow took a courageous mark running back with the flight, but he still needs to work harder in contests.

Jack got the job on Acker for a while. Acker kicked two goals, but one was from a downfield free and the other when a lucky turnover rewarded him for bludging. Keiren won plenty of hard balls but his disposal was a bit off tonight.

Jolly was the hardest worked man on our team, rucked and marked well but slaughtered two relatively easy set shots. Young Jake only came on for a few short spurts, and I thought he went OK.

[dimelb]

Thanks for the scores and comments. Sounds like a good night out.

[jude_boltons_babe]

had an excellent time go the mighty swans cant wait till the 18th of april

[liz]

Just got home too. Great ground for local footy. Surface looked in excellent condition.

First half the Swans played with a fair bit of intensity, the Dogs very little. Can't say anyone was a standout, though Goodes, McVeigh, Malceski and Hall all looked pretty sharp. ROK kicked a couple of medium difficulty set shots. Wonder if he's been practising! Overall the skill level was reasonable, though quite a few of them were fumbly when the ball hit the deck.

Vez was pretty lively up forward. Kicked the first goal of the game within a minute or so of the start after marking on a well-timed lead. Was one of the cleaner players at ground level, and while he wasn't an absolute stand-out, it looks like he's done enough to find himself in the team come round one.

I thought Moore and Bird were a little quiet (though with no action replays on screen and no elevated viewing it was the kind of game when it was hard to see everything that was happening). Bird did kick one very nice goal though and he looks like he believes he belongs out there - more so than he did for most of last year.

White contributed just a few cameos here and there but he certainly looks like he has lots to work with. He was a bit fortunate with the goal he scrubbed through off the ground (which probably sealed the game after the Dogs had pulled back to within striking distance). Moments later he was in a similar position, racing onto a loose ball with a Dog in hot pursuit. The temptation must have been there to just stick a boot out and see if he could repeat his previous shot but instead he positioned his body well, gathered the ball off the deck and managed to set someone up for a more likely scoring chance.

At half-time, Jude, ROK and Shaw all called it a day. I thought Malceski had too, because I didn't see him again until midway through the final quarter. Brabazon, Orreal, MOD and Thornton all started their matches after half-time. I barely saw Braba and don't think I saw him get a possession. I saw MOD just once, when he took a mark in scoring range but completely butchered the kick. Orreal battled in the ruck. He's progressing but is still some way off. Thornton looked pretty decent, though. Looked comfortable in the company he was in, found a bit of the ball across half-back and mostly used it well, including one perfect pass straight onto the chest of Hall.

Speaking of the young'uns, I saw Currie and Murphy walking around the ground together. Currie looks huge. Murphy is listed at 197cm and I reckon that is about right - he and White look almost the same height standing next to each other. Yet Currie absolutely towered over him - looked closer to a 3 inch difference than the one inch his 2008 listed height of 200cm implies.

[liz]

I didn't see Laidlaw.

Pretty sure he wasn't playing. He wasn't in the original team list and I didn't spot him out there at all.

[desredandwhite]

Great night out. The ground is in excellent shape and I was very impressed by the playing surface and lighting - far in advance of any other local Sydney footy ground I've been to.

I didn't pay 100% attention to the game - being unused to ground level, I lose all concept of depth with any action taking place more than about 60m from the fence, plus I was there with friends and was taking photos - so I don't have a lot more to add to the insights as to who played well etc...

Some additional photos by myself if you want to see a bit more of tonight's action and of the ground itself.

Photos by Des, Janelle & Phoebe!- powered by SmugMug

I particularly like the high-tech coaches' box