What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 4

[Dogs_r_barking]

Yes it is. Right after Meltank hand back theirs.

And Essendon, for salary cap cheating, Geelong for having Dank at their club, and some questionable players with drug use, Melbourne for tanking to get players, Swans for using COLA to get Tippet after they won a flag not supplementing players salaries with it. West Coast for drug use, i.e. Cousins, Adelaide for cheating us with that goal not been paid in 1997 (probably a Crows fan).

But a team that practiced all year, with the handball club, to give us a point of difference are the cheats, right.

 

[Doggy Dan]

Bloody JJ blabbing off to the world about the handball club was the worst thing that em happened. It was a secret weapon we were using to great impact and he told the world about it allowing them to copy and/or scrutinise it. I remember Bevo being ropable after JJ had spilt the beans to the media about it.

 

[Bulldog Brent]

Bloody JJ blabbing off to the world about the handball club was the worst thing that em happened. It was a secret weapon we were using to great impact and he told the world about it allowing them to copy and/or scrutinise it. I remember Bevo being ropable after JJ had spilt the beans to the media about it.

When was that?

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

F

Fair call.

LOL yeah nah it’s nonsense

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

Hi do you take criticism

Not from ****wits

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

When was that?

2016 I believe

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

Shouldn’t be surprised the dickhead even brought up the Grand Final

Especially cry baby longmire

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

The funny thing about all of this, is that all of them are in some capacity, touching the hand/thumb/knuckle before the ball is released.

So, what defines a legal handball?

If it’s a slight touch, isn’t it technically still a handball? A throw is a throw. I just can’t see how these are classified as throws unless they are trying to add in that there’s not enough power coming from the hand.

correct and why is anyone complaining about fast play football

 

[Philthy1]

Can some post The Age article on Bont. I can't get past the paywall

One phone conversation had Bontempelli destined for the Bulldogs

Marcus Bontempelli has become a generational player at the Western Bulldogs, a star on and off the field.

www.theage.com.au

 

[Mantis Toboggan]

It’s a bit of a grey area isn’t it, by the letter of the law (ie not the interpretation we all use) do you have to be tackled to get pinged incorrect disposal, is incorrect disposal & holding the ball the same thing? It’s amazing that I don’t know these things about a sport I’ve been watching since the day I was born. But shows how hard it is to umpire,

Is a throw and incorrect disposal the same rule? Does that mean in reality if you drop the ball when not tackled should it be considered a free against too? I guess the interpretation for the umps is whether it’s a throw or a fumble, but technically is there a difference? What if I fumble the ball into the hands of my teammates, now it’s a throw?

Tough sport to get your head around

There are some instances of HTB that are genuinely a mystery to me. Pinning the arm is a classic. Sometimes the ump will just blow for the ball up if someone is tackled and their arm is pinned preventing disposal. Other times they just delay the whistle and you know the longer the delay the more likely they are to pay insufficient attempt. If your arm is pinned with no prior and you are wrestling to get it free, is that not sufficient intent? I don’t know and it seems the umpires don’t know either.

There’s a few flaws in the game as we all know…but it’s still the best sport I’ve ever had the privilege of watching.

 

[Igloo]

Can some post The Age article on Bont. I can't get past the paywall

One phone conversation had Bontempelli destined for the Bulldogs

Marcus Bontempelli has become a generational player at the Western Bulldogs, a star on and off the field.

www.theage.com.au

Former Bulldogs, now Sydney, recruiter Simon Dalrymple remembers taking a phone call from a scout who worked for the club in 2013 who wanted to give him an update on draft prospect Marcus Bontempelli.
The Northern Knights youngster had played on the wing for Vic Metro in the national championships and was in the AIS/AFL Academy, but not many people had him earmarked as a top-10 selection entering the latter half of the season.

Milestone man: Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli.CREDIT:EDDIE JIM
“He’s a bigger version of ‘Libber’ [Tom Liberatore] around the contest,” the scout told Dalrymple.
That feature of his game had not yet been on display as he’d played outside the contest, but the time was right to take a closer look at the rangy left-footer as the Northern Knights began playing him as an inside midfielder. It did not take long for Dalrymple to upgrade Bontempelli on his charts, with the Bulldogs eventually using the prized fourth pick to add him to the list.

His pedigree read well on his mum Geraldine’s side as she had been an outstanding netballer and her three brothers were excellent local footballers. One of Bontempelli’s cousins was St Kilda star Nick Dal Santo and another, Luke Stanton, was good enough to find himself on Carlton’s list in 2009.
His dad Carlo had not played football, but he worked in construction and was a great, family oriented character.
That meant if Bontempelli was a horse sauntering into the ring at a bloodstock auction he would have commanded a good price, but few apart from the club’s list-management team imagined he could become a generational player for the Bulldogs.
That is what “The Bont″⁣ has become, winning four best and fairests, finishing no lower than fourth in the past eight seasons, as well as collecting a premiership medal and four All-Australian blazers. And the only trouble he has caused in that time has been to disturb the sleep patterns of opposition coaches and his opponents.
On Saturday, The Bont will hit 200 games in peak form. He has reached that milestone quicker than all but 28 players since 2000 (his cousin Dal Santo is 16th on that list).

Bontempelli’s numbers this season show a player who does everything to an elite standard, his performances since round two lifting the Bulldogs back on to the winner’s list and once again, in premiership contention.
The skipper has a penetrating left-foot kick that helps the ball track low and fast towards its targets. His handballs are creative, floating into space like balloons hovering in anticipation that a mobile teammate will pluck them from the air and keep running.
He is a hard runner who can lope like a hunting wolf before accelerating like a cheetah to pounce on the football or break from congestion. And there is a certain panache in the graceful way he plays the game.

Marcus Bontempelli shone for the Bulldogs in the 2021 grand final.CREDIT:AFL PHOTOS
Dalrymple recognised before drafting him that Bontempelli’s coolness under pressure complemented his athletic traits, saying you can “see it in their eyes when they are making a decision, there is no panic”.

Former Bulldog Mitch Wallis saw all that skill on display from close quarters over eight seasons before he finished his 162-game career at the end of last year.
But it wasn’t the skill that made Bontempelli a favourite among senior players such as Wallis.
“There are so many superfluous things that are said about his footballing ability and his leadership and his freakish ability, but I think how balanced he is off the field is why he is so attractive as a friend and as a teammate,” Wallis said.
Bontempelli replaced premiership captain Easton Wood as skipper in 2020, leading the team through COVID and then into the grand final the following season, only to watch the handy lead opened up just before three-quarter-time evaporate like boiling water into steam when Melbourne’s midfield ran amok.
An ankle injury to start last season and an adductor problem to end it made last year uncomfortable, but there were no complaints or excuses from the star, although he showed the first signs that he might be capable of grumpiness.

Wallis said the 27-year-old was hard on himself because he was such a competitor, but he had a balanced outlook on life and football, which keeps his thinking measured. In the end, Wallis said, he just gets to work if something in his game needed addressing.
“He is a really authentic person who has strong foundations and morals and applies that in everyday life,” Wallis said. “[There are] athletic traits he is lucky enough to inherit ... and he is the hardest trainer at the club.”
The benefits of that training (he spent the off-season training in San Diego with teammates) were seen against Fremantle in round six when he dished off a handball at half-back and set off on a gut-busting run forward with young Docker Hayden Young on his tail. Both players arrived in time to compete for a mark in the goal square, but it was Bontempelli who outmuscled the emerging Docker to mark before kicking the team’s opening goal, breaking a frustrating run of six straight behinds.
It was reminiscent of the memorable goal he managed in a tight game against Sydney in round two, 2017 when he pushed his body to run the length of the field as gracefully as a bird flying close to water to get on the end of a teammate’s pass to kick the sealer in the grand final rematch at Docklands.
“There is something special in the way that he glides at pace,” Wallis said. “But then he does some freaky stuff like take big marks and win the hard ball.”

His aerial work has improved and can get better still, but Wallis has no doubt he will be hell to play on if he goes forward later in his career, predicting that if he does that “he is going to be an All-Australian forward”.
Right now, he is the best midfielder in the game with his statistics comparable, if not ahead of those Richmond champion Dustin Martin was recording after six rounds when he tore the competition to shreds in 2017 in a season AFL legend Leigh Matthews once described as the best anyone had played.

The Bont is ranked first for clearances, fifth for contested possessions and third for tackles. The Lamborghini that is Bontempelli is happy racing on the rally car circuit without midfield bull Josh Dunkley, who shipped himself off to the Brisbane Lions at the end of last season.
“I don’t think about it too much. You build your body and your strength through the combative side of things in the pre-season,” Bontempelli said. “We all discussed obviously trying to cover the parts of the game Josh [Dunkley] did really well, and I have looked to try to fill that gap a little bit and explore that part of my game.”

But it won’t be just the many bows to his game that will have all football fans and ex-teammates celebrating Bontempelli on Saturday. It’s because they know he cares about them as much as they care about him.
“[He has] unwavering belief in his values and morals,” Wallis said. “When it was his turn to take over from Easton there was no question he was going to have a long tenure because of how uncompromising he is.”

 

[GetDimmaBack]

Thanks, Igloo.

Great piece!

 

[Wetdog]

If anyone wants to take a trip down memory lane and cry into their cornflakes while they listen to us blow our chances in 97/98 PF, then I will leave this here:

 

[ossie_21]

If anyone wants to take a trip down memory lane and cry into their cornflakes while they listen to us blow our chances in 97/98 PF, then I will leave this here:

There is more chance I would click on a link that is freemoney.com/reallybadtrojanvirus.exe

 

[Fossie 32]

It was a demolition by the time they got round to this edition!

 

[Fossie 32]

 

[Mantis Toboggan]

View attachment 1674736

Who the hell is Marc?

 

[Dogs 13]

It was a demolition by the time they got round to this edition!
View attachment 1674713

My copy had Curnow on the front, which is unusual because half the time my Sunday paper doesn’t even have results from the night before.

 

[Norm De Guerre]

My copy had Curnow on the front, which is unusual because half the time my Sunday paper doesn’t even have results from the night before.

Regional papers hit the road @9pm.

Metro goes out @ midnight.

 

[Dogs 13]

Regional papers hit the road @9pm.

Metro goes out @ midnight.

And yet my Saturday & Sunday papers seem to be a crap shoot as to whether they cover the game from the night before even though I’m in Werribee

Luckily I can read it online, although it’s hard to break the habit of a lifetime reading a real paper

 

[NBates]

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

I watched Bounce last night, sometimes it’s funny, sometimes you can glean some sense out of it.

It finished with the best 5 goals of Bont, with a little side swipe that he has never won goal of the year.

 

[NBates]

I watched Bounce last night, sometimes it’s funny, sometimes you can glean some sense out of it.

It finished with the best 5 goals of Bont, with a little side swipe that he has never won goal of the year.

Side swipe to Bont or the media or whoever picks GOTY?

Can't stand that show of the Buffoons on it. Made fun of a relative of mine who was at the airport for our prelim against GWS. Really low.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Side swipe to Bont or the media or whoever picks GOTY?

Can't stand that show of the Buffoons on it. Made fun of a relative of mine who was at the airport for our prelim against GWS. Really low.

I really can't stand the culture around making fun of fans for their behaviour/what they're wearing etc. It's horrid. BT is one of the worst - if he gets through a broadcast without poking fun at someone who clearly has some form of disability and is just having fun in the crowd, it's a miracle. It's all very gross.

 

[dergert]

I really can't stand the culture around making fun of fans for their behaviour/what they're wearing etc. It's horrid. BT is one of the worst - if he gets through a broadcast without poking fun at someone who clearly has some form of disability and is just having fun in the crowd, it's a miracle. It's all very gross.

His ribbing of a dude in the commentary box next to his last week was awful.

It speaks volumes that the VFL commentary by part timers is far away the best in the country.