Bulldogs gameday thread

[top40]

Gee I'm sick of travelling to see the Swans. This loss in Canberra makes it seven losses in row, including a NAB Cup against Port Adelaide back in February.

For my record it's:
Hawthorn MCG R15 2008; Bulldogs Manuka R18 2008; Bulldogs MCG SF 2008; Port Adelaide Manuka NAB Cup 2009; St Kilda Docklands R1 2009; Fremantle Subi R5 2009; Bulldogs Manuka R10 2009.

At least I had a nice relaxing train trip down to Canberra; but should I just stop travelling and just watch all future games in Sydney?

[dimelb]

Gee I'm sick of travelling to see the Swans. This loss in Canberra makes it seven losses in row, including a NAB Cup against Port Adelaide back in February.

For my record it's:
Hawthorn MCG R15 2008; Bulldogs Manuka R18 2008; Bulldogs MCG SF 2008; Port Adelaide Manuka NAB Cup 2009; St Kilda Docklands R1 2009; Fremantle Subi R5 2009; Bulldogs Manuka R10 2009.

At least I had a nice relaxing train trip down to Canberra; but should I just stop travelling and just watch all future games in Sydney?

So you're the one responsible?! Yes, stay home!

[Q...]

Was to be expected. We?ve been shown up against the saints, cats and dogs now, all quite a bit ahead of the rest of the comp. Perhaps, like a few on this forum, the boys got ahead of themselves after lasts week result and fell away from the things that made us such a great team over the years, namely; intensity at the contest and stopping their direct opponent for their mates. Once they got back to this in the second half they managed to get an even percentage of ball use. Yes the clangers cost us a few goals in the first half, actually lots, but we should not hide behind turnovers - the fact is the doggies smashed us all over the park in the first half. It will take some time for the younger boys to play like bloods. It was good to see Crouch shut down Aker. He couldn?t have done that from the other side of the fence.

Agree with the point starting at "intensity". I also agree that we've been shown up by the Cats, Saints and Dogs.

However, I don't believe that our games against the Saints and the Dogs add any weight toward the notion that those three teams are "quite a bit ahead of the rest of the comp".

That's psychology. None of them are. They tend (at least two of them (on a weekly basis)) to display that they are. But they're not.

We (and a bunch of other teams) can beat them any time. As soon as any team shows the way, they will become frail. They are simply a collection of 22 individuals (talented as they may be) playing a game.

[Q...]

ABC also gave goodes BOG - and noted it was one of the first times a player whose team had been so comprehensively beaten was the standout.

But once again the match demonstrated just how poor the tail end of our list is (perhaps not list but the 22 selected). We have been very unlucky with injuries losing kennelly, fosdike, schmidt, meredith etc.

But our bottom 6 in games where we are beaten are often anonymous - grundy, LRT, Moore, Jack, all struggle to get it or cant get it in a contest. And when you look at it our season has been determined by a mattner tackle and a jack snap, a hawthorn game where the other side was shockingly down in personnel.

I think we willget done over the next three rounds at which point (5--8) it will be virtually impossible to finish other than 6-12. And I dont think I ever would have said this but I would prefer to be going somewhere rather than merely treading water beating crap sides and getting smashed by the better sides.

I get the feeling we are like those cyclists in the tour de france who fall off every time the hill gets steeper and catch up on the downhill - what phil liggett calls the rubber band effect which stretches until it finally snaps. I reckon we are not far from snapping at the moment

Whoa... Perhaps as sleep is in order. Not just because I don't agree with your idea that our last ten games have been defined by two individual efforts and one undermanned team, but also because your ability to add up seems to have disappeared...

[Midfield]

Agree with the point starting at "intensity". I also agree that we've been shown up by the Cats, Saints and Dogs.

However, I don't believe that our games against the Saints and the Dogs add any weight toward the notion that those three teams are "quite a bit ahead of the rest of the comp".

That's psychology. None of them are. They tend (at least two of them (on a weekly basis)) to display that they are. But they're not.

We (and a bunch of other teams) can beat them any time. As soon as any team shows the way, they will become frail. They are simply a collection of 22 individuals (talented as they may be) playing a game.

I've been waiting for the cats to become frail for a long time now. Belief and confidence in the game plan is a big thing Q. Much can be achieved when those 22 individuals are on the same page.

[Bas]

Roos stated it was one of the worst displays he's seen under his reign.

He had his eyes closed in previous poor efforts.

[Bas]

[QUOTE=Nico;440791]
I didn't see the game today and switched on in the second quarter to hear we were 57 popints down. The commentators said the doggies were playing good footy but we were horrible. At one point they said our blokes were just walking around the field while the Dogs were rampant.
QUOTE]

Well they would have been standing still but the freezing wind forced them to run around..............but not near the ball.

[Bas]

It was also one of his worst coaching performances.What coach sits back and watches the opposition post 10 goals without trying something different?

Our coach. Regularly.

[mcs]

Agree with the point starting at "intensity". I also agree that we've been shown up by the Cats, Saints and Dogs.

However, I don't believe that our games against the Saints and the Dogs add any weight toward the notion that those three teams are "quite a bit ahead of the rest of the comp".

That's psychology. None of them are. They tend (at least two of them (on a weekly basis)) to display that they are. But they're not.

We (and a bunch of other teams) can beat them any time. As soon as any team shows the way, they will become frail. They are simply a collection of 22 individuals (talented as they may be) playing a game.

Um we can beat them any time, except for the Dogs, the Pies, the Crows, the Cats and looking more like it the Saints as well. If you can't see that the Saints and Cats are a long way ahead of the rest you aren't trying very hard, and the next few weeks will probably show the dogs to be a fair bit in front as well.

I'm still waiting for a team to show the way and make Geelong 'frail'. They might have lost the GF last year, but thats about 1 of 3 or 4 losses in about 3 years. Don't look too 'frail' to me!

[Hazcam]

We need 2 more good tall defenders, 1 star midfielder and another 2 really good 2nd tier ones. an in form and focussed Nick Davis and lastly a skills coach that can teach us how to play swift football like Geelong and WB.

/end wishful thinking

Seriously though, how poor has our bread and butter style been...meaning our low number of clearances, contested marks, marks inside 50, high # of points scored against, high clanger counts etc. The only shining light has been above average goal kicking accuracy.

It's clearly evident that the top 4 sides in any season since 2007 are more than equipped to get a massive run on and string together 6-7 (or in yesterday's case 13) goals very quickly and shut us out (notwithstanding the usual futile last quarter comeback to pretty up the scoreboard).

As much as the Sydney market can't handle it, we probably need 2 consecutive years of bottom 4 performances to revitalise the list because there is a gaping hole in skill level in our 2nd tier players vs the competition benchmarks.

What I saw in that 1st half and even the 2nd was some poor decision making and some massive shockers all around the ground. Turnovers, stupid inefficient pressure handballs and no goal awareness. To think we could've got within 20 points at the end is beyond belief. The biggest reflection on the day was in the 3rd quarter when a player was tackled as we were in attack and he passed back to Bevan who then proceeded to get tackled by the bulldogs player on the ground which resulted in another turnover. Drove me up the wall.

Oh and why bother passing back and milking possessions in going nowhere around halfback if you haven't got the ability to control the tempo. Grrr

[Hazcam]

Um we can beat them any time, except for the Dogs, the Pies, the Crows, the Cats and looking more like it the Saints as well. If you can't see that the Saints and Cats are a long way ahead of the rest you aren't trying very hard, and the next few weeks will probably show the dogs to be a fair bit in front as well.

I'm still waiting for a team to show the way and make Geelong 'frail'. They might have lost the GF last year, but thats about 1 of 3 or 4 losses in about 3 years. Don't look too 'frail' to me!

Yeah all those teams have had the wood on us easily.

The list Geelong has is a once in a decade/generation type list. They really should've won in 08 as well but I reckon they'll spend another 2-3 years on top even after this season. They've got a chance of winning a few more flags. The Lions made 4 gfs in a row and I wouldn't be surprised if the cats feature in 09-10-11 gfs before they start troughing.

[top40]

Watching the game from mid way through the first half to half time, was like watching in slow motion car accident. An extraordinary 81 point turnaround in just 45 minutes of football. Just horrible.

I can not myself remember the Swans conceding 13 straight goals in a game, and I would be interested to know anyone who, with some degree of accuracy, can remember such a terrible streak in a single game.

But just isolating that infamous second quarter where Sydney lost by a margin of 51 points, it represents the worse quarter in 16 years, since Round 8 in 1993 against the Brisbane Bears, where the Swans lost a first quarter by 66 points. (Although they also lost a first quarter by coincidently, the Western Bulldogs, in a Qualifying Final in 1997 by the same margin of 51 points).

[Q...]

Um we can beat them any time, except for the Dogs, the Pies, the Crows, the Cats and looking more like it the Saints as well. If you can't see that the Saints and Cats are a long way ahead of the rest you aren't trying very hard, and the next few weeks will probably show the dogs to be a fair bit in front as well.

I'm still waiting for a team to show the way and make Geelong 'frail'. They might have lost the GF last year, but thats about 1 of 3 or 4 losses in about 3 years. Don't look too 'frail' to me!

I'm still waiting for that too and they certainly don't look frail to me either. The emphasis of my point was made earlier in reference to their belief in their effective game plan, 22 players that play their role and the confidence that is required for these two things to occur. Only one of these three ingredients can be affected by other teams and that's the last one.

I'm not claiming that other teams will be able to diminish the confidence of the cats, saints or dogs. My only claim is that it is in the power of the other teams and if that happens then the other two ingredients will disappear too.

[Lohengrin]

ABC also gave goodes BOG - and noted it was one of the first times a player whose team had been so comprehensively beaten was the standout.

Goodes looked in great touch - very dangerous whenever near the ball. But Giansiracusa was given BOG by some other media, which is fair enough as he had a great game and was instrumental in the first half when the game was up for grabs.

[Legs Akimbo]

It was my opinion prior to the season that the end result of 09 was not that important so long as we blooded some of the next generation of players. The fact that we got flogged yesterday with Crouch and Ablett in the team is...disappointing. I presume Bird was out due to concussion.

I hope that Currie, Laidlaw and Thornton get into the seniors soon because from the sounds of it, their form warrants selection ahead of some others.