G.F. Day Thread. Sydney V Western Bulldogs. MCG 2.30pm.

[Velour&Ruffles]

Anytime a team goes A HALF of football ' 2nd and 3rd Q 'and the only free they get is for out on the full where no interpretation is needed you have to wonder about the umpires. It did have a huge effect on the outcome of this match and it IS disgraceful.

Shame on you for not embracing the irresistible fairy tale. If it was good enough for the umps it was good enough for you.

[ASSASSIN]

Nope, we need unbiased umpiring.

I've been saying and RETWEETING this point for YEARS. bias Melbourne umpiring is a major issue for the AFL

[Industrial Fan]

I thought Mills was well off the pace. Cost a few goals through poor positioning and poor judgement of flight.

Umpiring reached its peak with the Rampe htb and rubbish free for high contact and goal. No mistake they played well, but with fair officiating I thought we should have been 3-4 goals up at 3qtr time. The reverse free and 50 and then goal before half time stopped all our momentum and didn't do justice to our great 2nd qtr.

Mcglynn is done. What happened to Rohan? Nankervis > tippett. Papley had a red hot go.

Kennedy could have won the norm if we had a closer loss. He was immense.

[ASSASSIN]

I thought Mills was well off the pace.

Mills had a shocker, but then again, so did many others. Worse on field by a country mile must go to the UMPIRES

[stevoswan]

Yes, this is true. I hope something is said of the one-sided umpiring in the media. Did Horse mention it in his post match press conference?

Every team deserves a fair go in a GF.

Horse was asked about the lopsided free kick count and about Wood's slide into Hanners in the press conference, but didn't take the bait.....diplomatic as always.

[stevoswan]

Yeah not McGlynn's day today but you can fit any dozen of swans players in the bottom 5. I like McGlynn, he has grit.

9 disposals, 1 behind, another finals shocker.....he's gone.

[Velour&Ruffles]

but we need to find why rohan goes misisng in grand finals aside form an odd cameo...

Yep.
Rohan crapped it in 2014 and again in 2016. Despite the occasional flair, we need sterner stuff.
Parker crapped it in 2014 and again in 2016. He's no use if he doesn't produce on the biggest stage when it counts most. Carving it up in round 13 is great, but so what? Clear him and keep Mitchell, who gave a good account of himself.
Grundy, Rampe and Lloyd redeemed themselves after poor 2014 GFs. Ticks to them all.

Tippet was awful, just ghastly. Murdered out of the centre every time he was there. Naismith was vastly more effective as a ruckman, although he still got beaten. The only run on we got was in the second quarter when they put Naismith in the middle for a prolonged period. His palm from a ball up late in the second quarter was brilliant. Piss Tippett off too. He's also shown he isn't made of the right stuff when the heat is on. I've defended this @@@@@ for years but he was lamentable today. Keep Nankervis, who has some brute about him, and let Tippo go make daisy chains in Nimbin.

[Industrial Fan]

Rohan 5 disposals. Mcglynn 9. Tippett 10. 1 goal and 10 marks between them.

[Steve]

So according to Horse we've lost yet another big game due to 'lack of work rate'. 2 finals this year, and our last 2 GF's.

Personally, that message is wearing a bit thin - it's got to the stage where he needs to question his preparation of the players and game plan just as much.

If we don't beat up sides in the middle, everything else falls down - which has exposed us against GWS and today when they can match us at the contest.

To have 5 x All-Australians, the Rising Star, plus the likes of Heeney, Grundy, Mitchell etc playing major roles, it is disappointing we restrict ourselves to relying on a high pressure style to maximise opposition errors, rather than trying to outplay them on the merits of our players.

Rohan, and even Buddy and McGlynn are casualties of that - the roles they're put in rely of ball being won far more effectively up field.

It really is gut-churning that we made poor selection decisions, were out-coached, we played so poorly with that apparent (and if so, inexplicable) lack of work rate, suffered injuries and were on the wrong end of very poor umpiring - yet we're still level half way through the last quarter.

I think this is much worse than 2014 - at least then we were blown away by a legendary team.

We're also at a crossroads similar to Hawthorn at the end of 2012 - underachieved in terms of premierships for our talent and opportunities. Even for those who played in 2012, anything less than another 2 flags in the next few years is going to leave them/us unfulfilled, lamenting what could have been a great era.

[0918330512]

I'm sorry, but someone has to win a game, someone has to lose. We lost today. In the most even season I can remember, there was 2 wins separating the minor premiers and 7th at the end of the season & the Dogs 15 wins would have had them top 4 most seasons. We played more debutants than we just about ever have in a season & a third of our side had played less than 50 games.
At the start of the season, most had us on the slide and rebuilding.
While I'm disappointed about the grand final result we are still in ok shape.
Talk of trading Parker ... simply post-loss, heat of the moment absurdity; trade Tippett? His importance to our forward/ruck structure is understated; Nank instead of Tippett? Tip was All Australian ruck form until his mid-season injury. Nank works hard but is slow and no better a forward than Tip so far (Nank is still developing and handy, but replacing Tippett with Nank is dumber than replacing Mummy with Pyke). Mills had a shocker? He wasn't the only one ... & he's a kid! He'll get better. McGlynn "cooked"? His semi and prelim finals were pretty good and on that form probably justified his selection (sure his GF was a let down, the the 2 preceding games were good - and you only past recent form to base your selection decisions on).
There really should be a rule that heated , impulsive, off the cuff negative posting be delayed for a couple of days after a loss, to let emotions settle and a restoration of rational thought & expression.

[Industrial Fan]

Tippett is the better player but Nank did just as much as him in his one outing against the crows. Tippett had no impact yesterday whether for his own game or making space for the mids. Hindsight Nank would have been better imo

[Melbournehammer]

I'm sorry, but someone has to win a game, someone has to lose. We lost today. In the most even season I can remember, there was 2 wins separating the minor premiers and 7th at the end of the season & the Dogs 15 wins would have had them top 4 most seasons. We played more debutants than we just about ever have in a season & a third of our side had played less than 50 games.
At the start of the season, most had us on the slide and rebuilding.
While I'm disappointed about the grand final result we are still in ok shape.
Talk of trading Parker ... simply post-loss, heat of the moment absurdity; trade Tippett? His importance to our forward/ruck structure is understated; Nank instead of Tippett? Tip was All Australian ruck form until his mid-season injury. Nank works hard but is slow and no better a forward than Tip so far (Nank is still developing and handy, but replacing Tippett with Nank is dumber than replacing Mummy with Pyke). Mills had a shocker? He wasn't the only one ... & he's a kid! He'll get better. McGlynn "cooked"? His semi and prelim finals were pretty good and on that form probably justified his selection (sure his GF was a let down, the the 2 preceding games were good - and you only past recent form to base your selection decisions on).
There really should be a rule that heated , impulsive, off the cuff negative posting be delayed for a couple of days after a loss, to let emotions settle and a restoration of rational thought & expression.

that was one of roosy's rules - don't speak just after a game when you are too emotional.

I honestly felt like we played about as well as we can play with this team - which has its weaknesses. the coaching and structures which i'm still not sold on are what they are.

the problem is a pretty fundamental one with our team. we don't get quite enough reward for effort as kicking set shots from 45 metres is a 50-50 proposition whereas the scramble around the goal square that the dogs manufacture goals from often gets a shot from fifteen metres.

the dogs and gws are our achilles heel - sides that are as good on the inside and faster on the out make us look second rate as we start so much of the game from so deep inside our half.

the umpiring was appalling and i can't really express my dismay at the umpiring. i just don't like it when two sides are playing but one gets the rub of the green in such an obvious way. i don't buy the conspiracy theories. i just find the whole thing frustrating.

[Melbournehammer]

So according to Horse we've lost yet another big game due to 'lack of work rate'. 2 finals this year, and our last 2 GF's.

Personally, that message is wearing a bit thin - it's got to the stage where he needs to question his preparation of the players and game plan just as much.

If we don't beat up sides in the middle, everything else falls down - which has exposed us against GWS and today when they can match us at the contest.

To have 5 x All-Australians, the Rising Star, plus the likes of Heeney, Grundy, Mitchell etc playing major roles, it is disappointing we restrict ourselves to relying on a high pressure style to maximise opposition errors, rather than trying to outplay them on the merits of our players.

Rohan, and even Buddy and McGlynn are casualties of that - the roles they're put in rely of ball being won far more effectively up field.

It really is gut-churning that we made poor selection decisions, were out-coached, we played so poorly with that apparent (and if so, inexplicable) lack of work rate, suffered injuries and were on the wrong end of very poor umpiring - yet we're still level half way through the last quarter.

I think this is much worse than 2014 - at least then we were blown away by a legendary team.

We're also at a crossroads similar to Hawthorn at the end of 2012 - underachieved in terms of premierships for our talent and opportunities. Even for those who played in 2012, anything less than another 2 flags in the next few years is going to leave them/us unfulfilled, lamenting what could have been a great era.

fascinating post - you see the game almost exactly the same way i do.

Obviously I couldn't agree more. I'd add that the high pressure style causes us difficulties and has done all year in that our players are often genuinely exhausted by the end of games. our first quarters are great. our last quarters are woeful. and we need some genuine leg speed in this team. to see stringer run away from smith like he was standing still and joey kennedy run past smith to put the pressure on reminded me just how slow our back six are individually. mcveigh, mills, laidler, grundy, smith, lloyd - they are all so slow that it stops us from being able to break any lines from the back half. if you compare that to jason johanison who just burst off their half back line you get the picture.

[Faunac8]

Here's the thing Faunac8- the biased officiating is bad for the AFL and bad for the Bulldogs. Everybody will now wonder if they should have won the flag. Instead of celebrating an untainted win, the 2016 GF will be remembered as the flag that was won by umpiring decisions.

That's not fair on the players of either team.

Bias is generally based on perception . Was it biased or as others have so eloquently summarised simply @@@@?????
I don't argue that poor umpiring had a huge impact and we can only surmise the actual score effect , however this will be soon forgotten by all but the most embittered Swans supporters.
My opinion is that we were simply not good enough on the day again and were beaten by a better team who, incidentally were the only team we didn't beat this year.

[stellation]

The Bulldogs' fairy tale run saw them winning free kick counts of;
GF: 20-8
PF: 23-13
SF: 19-14
EF: 17-13
For an overall total of being in front 79-48. That seems kind of remarkable, particularly considering it includes noted "assume the other guys will get the calls" opponents of Eagles at home and Hawthorn.

I thought the umpiring was poor and did impact on the game (I thought it did against GWS the week before, too), but I don't think it's a conscious conspiracy. Either the Bulldogs are doing something right with making sure the umpires see everything, or perhaps the umpires are not doing a good job of avoiding being caught up in all the hoopla that the media bring.