Elimination Final 2010 - Bulldogs v Swans Game day thread

[hot potato]

Just home from the game and that was poor at the very best. I don't care whether 22 blokes played their guts out. As Robbo said, we choked. To let that lead slip was unforgiveable. Some of the brain fades and deporable turnovers were beyond comprehension.

Grundy - worst on the ground. He dropped his head twice for dropped marks and turnover goals.
Moore - Fair dinkum useless off the ball. That turnover in the 3rd quarter from a crappy little chip for a turnover goal is about where he is at. In the last quarter Harbrow running off him slaughtered him. Moore was nowhere to be seen. Refuses to move the ball on.
What was going through the brains of Jack and McVeigh standing with the ball like stunned mulletts in the dying moments, looking for a short option when the only option to win the game was a quick long kick to the top of the square.
McVeigh - wanted the soft option all night.
Hats off to Shaw, Kennelly, Kennedy and Jetta who worked their butts off all night. I thought Jetta really showed tonight how good he is.
Ted's best game for the club.
The backline only let through 11 goals.
My hobby horse being the poor centre clearance work haunted us once again. When it got tough in the second half we went to water in the department.
Hannaberry has a lot of work to do on his kicking off season. I think maybe he had come to the end of his tether as he wasn't running as hard and making space as he usually does.
Jack needs to get the ball off by hand rather than thinking he can crash packs.

TDL was off his game but could it have been because the forward structure changed with Bradshaw coming in? When Bradshaw was on early we went long and direct. After half time we went wide, kicks dropped short, dropped marks we went short. I lost count of the number of times when we had 2 players one on one up forward in the 3rd quarter, but they took too long to move it on or they went sideways or backward.

Horribly disappointed to lose a game we should have won.

You are very good at summing a game up Nico.
Bradshaw and Mcglyn were OK, but the winning structure of the last weeks seem to be badly altered by the changes.
By the half time break The Swans looked pretty weary, and the typical 3rd Q was abysmal to watch.

Roosy has done a wonderful job, but I'm looking forward to some 'new coach changes' to our playing style.
Well done Dogs you yappy little pests.

hp

[Go Swannies]

bitterly bitterly disappointed.

people who think that we are on the cusp of a golden age are deluding themselves. it is really hard to get to a prelim or even a gf. we are only one or two injuries away from going backwards - dont assume that it will just happen so this was a seriously wasted opportunity. the teams like melb, adelaide will be back and coming next year. i think we will rue this year.

goodes was terrible, rok clearly injured, grundy well beaten

on the upside bradshaw showed really strong hands, shaw did well, kennedy is a potential inside superstar, and our half backs did ok - but gees i wish they would shepherd occasionally.

Do you really think we had a chance of winning the Premiership this year? Somewhere over this three weeks we were going to lose. Sad it weas this week when we could have won. And we might have won next week. But were were never going to beat the Pies or cats in a GF until the team played better and gelled better than they have so far. We got further than we had a right to expect and we should be proud of the whole club for that.

Don't agree on Goodes but yes on ROK. If Heath got a pass away sometime before he hit the ground in a tackle, it'd be nice.

Braddy - yep, it'd be great if he could score six pointers with his hands.

I asked Shaw why we didn't shepherd a few weeks ago when we were down after the Tigers and Dees. He said "we're hardly playing for each other right now! But shepherding isn't part of our drills. I don't know why."

[Tooth Fairy]

. moore is seriously overrated on this website

Hallejuah or some spelling like thast

[Blue Sun]

Just back from the game. Still can't believe we lost it.

Top of mind thoughts:

• Grundy's two dropped marks either side of half time cost us three goals. The first was tough and the 2nd may have technically been in-the-back against Hall, but he should have held them both.

Ahh yeah. Forgot about that.

Late in the 2nd Grundy dropped an absolute sitter which cost us a goal.
Straight after the bounce it went down there for a soft free and another goal.

Those 2 goals to the Bullies (within a minute) got them back to 16 points down going into half-time.

[Young Blood]

The most glaring for me was late in the game when Shaw was pulled by the shoulder by Hall right in front of the umpire. Replay clearly showed it was an obvious free. Ball spilled out for a goal.

Yep. One of many. Holding the ball was only paid against one team until the final quarter.

[Tooth Fairy]

Just home from the game and that was poor at the very best. I don't care whether 22 blokes played their guts out. As Robbo said, we choked. To let that lead slip was unforgiveable. Some of the brain fades and deporable turnovers were beyond comprehension.

Grundy - worst on the ground. He dropped his head twice for dropped marks and turnover goals.
Moore - Fair dinkum useless off the ball. That turnover in the 3rd quarter from a crappy little chip for a turnover goal is about where he is at. In the last quarter Harbrow running off him slaughtered him. Moore was nowhere to be seen. Refuses to move the ball on.
What was going through the brains of Jack and McVeigh standing with the ball like stunned mulletts in the dying moments, looking for a short option when the only option to win the game was a quick long kick to the top of the square.
McVeigh - wanted the soft option all night.
Hats off to Shaw, Kennelly, Kennedy and Jetta who worked their butts off all night. I thought Jetta really showed tonight how good he is.
Ted's best game for the club.
The backline only let through 11 goals.
My hobby horse being the poor centre clearance work haunted us once again. When it got tough in the second half we went to water in the department.
Hannaberry has a lot of work to do on his kicking off season. I think maybe he had come to the end of his tether as he wasn't running as hard and making space as he usually does.
Jack needs to get the ball off by hand rather than thinking he can crash packs.

TDL was off his game but could it have been because the forward structure changed with Bradshaw coming in? When Bradshaw was on early we went long and direct. After half time we went wide, kicks dropped short, dropped marks we went short. I lost count of the number of times when we had 2 players one on one up forward in the 3rd quarter, but they took too long to move it on or they went sideways or backward.

Horribly disappointed to lose a game we should have won.

SO SO SO SPOT ON. and Jetta...... Best game all year as far as attack on the ball. Particularly last quarter. He needss to channel that next year

[dimelb]

The worst thing that happened to us tonight has hardly been mentioned: Mummy was injured near the end of Q2 and we weren't the same afterwards. We missed our extra midfielder.

[aardvark]

Late in the 2nd Grundy dropped an absolute sitter which cost us a goal.
Straight after the bounce it went down there for a soft free and another goal..

Poor old Reg. What a time to have your worst game of the season. Oh well what doesn't kill you makes you stronger..........

[Tooth Fairy]

Thats right.

The opportunities to win this game however, really were there and "shoudda" been taken.

This is the AFL, and the players are paid a (fairly hefty) salary to kick goals.

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge........Bradshaw.

I'll give you this... And I'll lay it out for you straight... He should have got those goals (he was underdone) BUT WHITE WOULD NEVER HAVE GOT ANYWHERE NEAR THE @@@@ING STATS THAT BRADFSHAW GOT TONIGHT. Man for man I'm talking. Put White inthere with Bradshaw and a whole new kettle of fish. If you want to blame anyone, blame RYAN O'KEEFE. Useless player (I don't want to swear too much) he was. As far as I'm concerned, ROK can @@@@ off to any other team he desires. USELESS!!

[Blue Sun]

I'll give you this... And I'll lay it out for you straight... He should have got those goals (he was underdone) BUT WHITE WOULD NEVER HAVE GOT ANYWHERE NEAR THE @@@@ING STATS THAT BRADFSHAW GOT TONIGHT. Man for man I'm talking. Put White inthere with Bradshaw and a whole new kettle of fish. If you want to blame anyone, blame RYAN O'KEEFE. Useless player (I don't want to swear too much) he was. As far as I'm concerned, ROK can @@@@ off to any other team he desires. USELESS!!

ROK is one of the best we've got (obviously not tonight), but he is INJURED.
He shouldn't of been played. Simple.
Bevan deserved his spot.

I'm not talking about White, we're talking Bradshaw here. He took some great marks, but missed the easy ones when they COUNTED.

3 goals 4 behinds isn't really a great conversion rate now is it?

[Matty10]

Do you really think we had a chance of winning the Premiership this year? Somewhere over this three weeks we were going to lose. Sad it weas this week when we could have won. And we might have won next week. But were were never going to beat the Pies or cats in a GF until the team played better and gelled better than they have so far. We got further than we had a right to expect and we should be proud of the whole club for that.

We should have beaten the Dogs tonight. We would have been a big chance against the Saints, based just on form and belief. Could we have won the GF? Anything can happen in a two-horse race. Yes, based on history we have big problems against both clubs, but I would not have written us off if we had made it. The reality of course says that we did not make it, and thus were ultimately not good enough and deserved our fate - I suppose that is right.

But when you are 5 goals up in a winnable semi-final, and then level-pegging 15 minutes (of playing time) later, the result sits funny in your guts.

[Big Al]

Elimination Final 2010 - Bulldogs v Swans Game day thread

blame RYAN O'KEEFE. Useless player (I don't want to swear too much) he was. As far as I'm concerned, ROK can @@@@ off to any other team he desires. USELESS!!

How charming...

[Go Swannies]

I'll give you this... And I'll lay it out for you straight... He should have got those goals (he was underdone) BUT WHITE WOULD NEVER HAVE GOT ANYWHERE NEAR THE @@@@ING STATS THAT BRADFSHAW GOT TONIGHT. Man for man I'm talking. Put White inthere with Bradshaw and a whole new kettle of fish. If you want to blame anyone, blame RYAN O'KEEFE. Useless player (I don't want to swear too much) he was. As far as I'm concerned, ROK can @@@@ off to any other team he desires. USELESS!!

Do you feel the same way about B2? His injury probably costs us the chance to win tonight, too. How about Mummy, he came into the game with an injury too?

Presumably ROK and the selectors thought he was the best choice tonight. It looks like they were wrong. But slamming one of our best players - who has a few years left to run I hope - because he fell off the pace while injured just seems mean spirited.

[bodgie]

Bradshaw was impressive but took a few good players out of our game. Such as TDL, no role for a lame ROK close to goal. Moore was needed early in the season but his role was overtaken by faster TDL and a more accurate Jetta.

[bodgie]

Do you feel the same way about B2? His injury probably costs us the chance to win tonight, too. How about Mummy, he came into the game with an injury too?

Presumably ROK and the selectors thought he was the best choice tonight. It looks like they were wrong. But slamming one of our best players - who has a few years left to run I hope - because he fell off the pace while injured just seems mean spirited.

He shouldn't be slammed but he should not have played.