Bowden's game

[scooter600x]

My main query on this experiment is that Bowden is only 190cms. There will be some CHF monsters that he will not be able to match-up on. Still, an experiment worth perservering with until the end of the season. Where does that leave Rawlings?

Harris will get the monsters (Gehrig, Tredrea, Brown, Richardson), Rawlings gets the ruckman (Lade, Stafford, Ottens) Bowden gets the mobile guys (Lucas, Kingsley, Miller).

We still don't have an answer for Riewoldt or Lloyd, but then few do.

 

[Dog Town]

I reckon there's plenty here who are slagging off Bowden just because he's the scapegoat of the week (after all, Harrison's not playing and Bandy's past making fun of).

I went to AAMI stadium yesterday with Localyokel and we spent a fair amount of time specifically watching Bowden and McGregor.

McGregor was good and presented well, beat Bowden on the day, but our backline was dead set under seige and I thought Bowden held up fairly well. McGregor took two contested marks in the square for his two goals but good players do that sort of thing (he also missed a soda or two).

Neil Craig would be more pleased with McGregors work rate than anything. He worked hard and took a lot of marks low down on the lead. I thought there was probably only 2 or 3 times Bowden could have done much more than he did (could have spoiled harder in the square at the northern end for instance).

Bowden took their best forward and did OK. Remember it's probably his 4th game as a CHB.

.

Similar to my thoughts.McGregor has been great over the last 6 or 7 weeks and was always going to be a handful for Bowden.

I thought he did very well to keep him quiet early but then slowly lost his concentration a bit and gave him a little bit to much latitude.In the end he has actually got one more possesion than McGregor.The part that killed him was the areas of the ground that Bowden gave him to much space.

I suppose the encouraging thing for Bowden is that the mistakes he made were all very fixable problems.He is never going to be a very tight sort of touch and feel defender but if he can just improve his judgement of when to go to his man and lay some body on him then he could still make it as a defender.For example the 2 goals he gave up in the goal square were inexcusable.He should have been in front of McGregor with touch on him and protecting the space.If you take those 2 goals out of the equation then he has done a really good job.Obviously McGregor let him off the hook a couple of times but a couple of those misses were a similar situation to the goal square ones.He just needs to know when to play tight and when to back his judgement.

 

[bulldogtragic]

Bottom line on Bowdo is that he has another year at the dogs. He wont be traded because he's worthless. He has got a maximum of 30 games to prove himself. Let time judge him I say. I'm not a fan, but here's with us until the end of next year, try him in the god damn ruck if need be, he has got talent and is getting paid well too. We have to give him every opportunity and if he don't takle it let him get dumped like 99% of talls weve had since i've been alive.

 

[OldSchool]

My main query on this experiment is that Bowden is only 190cms. There will be some CHF monsters that he will not be able to match-up on. Still, an experiment worth perservering with until the end of the season. Where does that leave Rawlings?

How tall is Chad Cornes and Leppa? 190cm is tall enough if you are good enough. Let him be trained to play as a defender and see what happens. I think he reads the play well and if he learns how to stop his man from getting on the lead or getting a run to jump over him for a mark then he might prove to be a more than decent defender.

Writing people off is really easy but Eade is a teacher so if he and his team works with Bowden that might just be able to teach him some of the basics for playing in defence that will make him a better footballer.

 

[The_Bulldogs_Bite]

They should play Bowden in the backline for the rest of the season. It's no point dropping him, now that I think about it. The season's over, we've gotta see if he shows any improvement.

IMO he has potential to be a solid defender, much like his brother but a bit bigger, so I wouldn't write him off just yet. We're not going to get anything for him, so I'd give him another year. Needs to be taught by a good backmen though over the pre season.

Time will only tell what happens to him.

 

[ErnieSigley]

I just wanted to bump this thread to stir Scooter.

 

[#1 Dogs Fan]

I just wanted to bump this thread to stir Scooter.

lol good work Ernie

 

[Gooka]

haha. Nice bump.

Harris, Bowden and Rawlings

vs

Harris, Morris, Williams, Everitt

Fair bit of improvement in a couple of years. Pretty good illustration that Clayton and Eade are trying to fix deficiencies we have - and none of those are quick fixes.

 

[dogman22]

As a side note, I heard today from a pretty good source that P Bowden has signed to play with Balwyn in the Eastern Football League for season 2008, alongside former Bulldog team-mate Adam Morgan

 

[scooter600x]

That Bowden bloke was a missed opportunity.

I reckon he would have been a good player if we had played him loose across half-back.

Perhaps we should have recruited his brother to give him some easy ball.

 

[John Gent]

Good skills but went to bed with the light on.

 

[Throughandthrough]

Good skills but went to bed with the light on.

And had to take his mum with him to all the interstate games to tuck him in.

 

[Fossie 32]

That's a cue for a song!

"Hey Bowds its Balwyn calling......."