Fixture Changes VS Carlton Round 9 - The Liam Jones Cup

[Libbaaaa]

When Libba was out against the Hawks we didn't go back to Macrae getting 90% CBAs, wonder if we will follow suit again this week? For us it all depends on big Timmy. He should absolutely monster Pittonet and TDK (if he plays), and I mean absolutely pants them.

 

[doggies ftw]

When Libba was out against the Hawks we didn't go back to Macrae getting 90% CBAs, wonder if we will follow suit again this week? For us it all depends on big Timmy. He should absolutely monster Pittonet and TDK (if he plays), and I mean absolutely pants them.

Pittonet especially (with help from TDK) completely destroyed Timmy only a year ago, and pretty much won them the game in the first half, was something absolutely ridiculous like 15 hit outs to advantage to 0 in the first half from memory.

Obviously Timmy has come a long way and he will destroy him around the ground but Pittonet is a beast in the ruck contests and it’s that aggressive centre square bullocking ruckman paired with some big bodies like Cripps which are my biggest concern for this weekend IMO. If we win the middle we should win this game.

 

[Golden_6]

When Libba was out against the Hawks we didn't go back to Macrae getting 90% CBAs, wonder if we will follow suit again this week? For us it all depends on big Timmy. He should absolutely monster Pittonet and TDK (if he plays), and I mean absolutely pants them.

Why do you think that? Tim will easily beat Pittonet around the ground but he's a mature & experienced ruckman in the actual ruck duels. He's comfortably won the ruck contest duel the past 3 weeks against Marshall, Williams & McInerney.

 

[Libbaaaa]

Pittonet especially (with help from TDK) completely destroyed Timmy only a year ago, and pretty much won them the game in the first half, was something absolutely ridiculous like 15 hit outs to advantage to 0 in the first half from memory.

Obviously Timmy has come a long way and he will destroy him around the ground but Pittonet is a beast in the ruck contests and it’s that aggressive centre square bullocking ruckman paired with some big bodies like Cripps which are my biggest concern for this weekend IMO. If we win the middle we should win this game.

Tim's biggest improvement this year for mine has been not getting dominated by the hustle and bustle ruckman. He handled Nankervis who is miles ahead of Pitto as a well. Zero reason for Tim to be physically overmatched anymore.

 

[doggies ftw]

Tim's biggest improvement this year for mine has been not getting dominated by the hustle and bustle ruckman. He handled Nankervis who is miles ahead of Pitto as a well. Zero reason for Tim to be physically overmatched anymore.

I hope so, bad memories from last years game still burnt in my mind though

Just needs to be competitive in there because we know he will dominate around the ground with plenty of intercept & contested marks. Becoming such a weapon of a player!

We’ve lost the midfield battle two weeks in a row against Hawks & GWS so need a full team effort in there this week against a much better outfit

 

[True Dog]

Jamarra on 7 news said he has sore adductor.

Maybe Bruce takes his spot?

I saw him in discomfort after he kicked his first goal and thought it’s the reason he was not his usual mobile self but nothing was mentioned so assumed it was just an off night. If he misses then Buku has to come in

 

[TiAn_]

Tim's biggest improvement this year for mine has been not getting dominated by the hustle and bustle ruckman. He handled Nankervis who is miles ahead of Pitto as a well. Zero reason for Tim to be physically overmatched anymore.

He's attending a career high number of ruck contests (~20% more than last year and currently the second most in the league, behind only Witts) at the same time as winning career best percentages of hit outs and hit outs to advantage. He's taking the last step toward being the best ruck in the game. He also seems to be directing his taps better and doesn't hit down to follow up himself nearly as much, to my eye.

Separately, Lobb has the second most total hitouts of any key forward and his 45% hit out wins is clearly the best of any key forward and pushing up toward the elite rucks. I don't think we'd be getting close to that output in the ruck from Darcy and I think there's a lot to be said for having Lobb shield him from that responsibility for a couple of years. Might have been a lesson learned from the way we developed Tim.

 

[Optimistic Dog]

If JUH has an abductor injury this is getting ridiculous with the amount of these type of injuries this season. Something is not right with our fitness staff. Weight program, running drills, recovery, Skinner reserve not sure why but big questions need to be asked.

On another note, I just hate it when a team you are playing gets heaps thrown at it the press you can be sure they will be fired up and we need to match their intensity.

 

[doggies ftw]

He's attending a career high number of ruck contests (~20% more than last year and currently the second most in the league, behind only Witts) at the same time as winning career best percentages of hit outs and hit outs to advantage. He's taking the last step toward being the best ruck in the game. He also seems to be directing his taps better and doesn't hit down to follow up himself nearly as much, to my eye.

Separately, Lobb has the second most total hitouts of any key forward and his 45% hit out wins is clearly the best of any key forward and pushing up toward the elite rucks. I don't think we'd be getting close to that output in the ruck from Darcy and I think there's a lot to be said for having Lobb shield him from that responsibility for a couple of years. Might have been a lesson learned from the way we developed Tim.

Wild how this area is now such a strength for us after being such a big problem for as long as I care to remember.

Frustrating that our Midfield carried our rucks for years on end and now our Rucks can finally match the competition and our midfield sucks.

flipping imagine we could just piece it all together for once, the life of a bulldogs supporter I guess. A million small forwards, no tall forwards, a million tall forwards, no small forwards

 

[doggies ftw]

On another note, I just hate it when a team you are playing gets heaps thrown at it the press you can be sure they will be fired up and we need to match their intensity.

It annoys me too but it’s a cop out to be honest, I mean if it’s so simple to just turn it on when there’s a bit of heat applied from the media then shouldn’t it be simple enough for us to turn it on, knowing that the opposition will come out hot?

It’s not really an excuse to not be switched on, and I don’t think it really has much bearing on the end result IMO - even though fans and the media love to build it up. But we’re biased as shit, it’s always the worst time to cop an opposition for us, “We’re so unlucky to get Carlton this week, Cripps neighbours best friends dog just died so they’re surely going to be fired up for that” etc etc

 

[Optimistic Dog]

It annoys me too but it’s a cop out to be honest, I mean if it’s so simple to just turn it on when there’s a bit of heat applied from the media then shouldn’t it be simple enough for us to turn it on, knowing that the opposition will come out hot?

It’s not really an excuse to not be switched on, and I don’t think it really has much bearing on the end result IMO - even though fans and the media love to build it up. But we’re biased as s**t, it’s always the worst time to cop an opposition for us, “We’re so unlucky to get Carlton this week, Cripps neighbours best friends dog just died so they’re surely going to be fired up for that” etc etc

Yeah, agree should not matter but somehow it does look at us against the lions after 2 losses and an absolute shocker against the saints we played with so much more intensity the attack on the ball and the tackling was first rate from the first bounce it for some reason was missing in the first 2 weeks.

 

[Marbyriver]

How do we get into this game? Looks like l3 only at the moment.

 

[ringa5]

Out Skinner reserve rock surface

In the old western oval soft mud surface.

No coincidence now with so many similar injuries.
If Jamarra can't play we are extremely lucky to have Baku or Bruce as a replacement. Like others have said bring in Cleary and juggle for Treloar.

 

[NBates]

I'm worried about this game. Need to pummell them early. I think they're a team that plays on confidence or the alternative - let's make it the alternative. No Adz is going to hurt.

 

[Martyn_30_]

Carlton's biggest issue all year has been ball movement and that's something that teams generally don't flip a switch with. They're scoring has poor for close to an entire season, which isn't that surprising when they have the worst non tall forwards in the league. If McKay and Curnow both kick 70 for the year it's only six in total for a game on average.

 

[Dog 36]

I'm worried about this game. Need to pummell them early. I think they're a team that plays on confidence or the alternative - let's make it the alternative. No Adz is going to hurt.

And media is doing their best to make sure they come out to prove everyone wrong.

 

[weltschmerz]

If JUH is out, Khamis is an obvious in. Kicked 4 in the magoos last week. No idea who comes in for Treloar though, West isn't lighting the world on fire in the VFL, McLean hasn't been able to bring it at AFL level, McComb just isn't much of an AFL player. Maybe someone like Cleary to free up someone like Richards for a run through the middle.

 

[TiAn_]

If JUH is out, Khamis is an obvious in. Kicked 4 in the magoos last week. No idea who comes in for Treloar though, West isn't lighting the world on fire in the VFL, McLean hasn't been able to bring it at AFL level, McComb just isn't much of an AFL player. Maybe someone like Cleary to free up someone like Richards for a run through the middle.

May depend slightly on who they rotate into the middle to cover for Treloar.

If it’s Smith, which I think it will be, then McNeil can come in and play his HFF/wing role. If it’s Macrae, then maybe McLean or West. But probably still favour McNeil.

 

[_Cerberus_]

Do we tag Cripps?
If so, who?

Don't need to tag him. Our midfield just need to play smart and win the centre clearances. And minimise them breaking free on the spread fast. Carlton banged on 4 goals in less than 5 minutes last season when we lost control, and kicked like 6 of 7 in a quarter or something like that. When we played them last year. We slowly chipped back in the second half, but the damage was done.

Carltons mids have struggled to move the ball and have low metres per disposal this season. But don't underestimate them, they have a bit of depth there and can hurt us on their day. We have been matched in the centre clearacnes the past two games, need to get back to controlling it this weekend.

 

[doggies ftw]

Don't need to tag him. Our midfield just need to play smart and win the centre clearances. And minimise them breaking free on the spread fast. Carlton banged on 4 goals in less than 5 minutes last season when we lost control, and kicked like 6 of 7 in a quarter or something like that. When we played them last year. We slowly chipped back in the second half, but the damage was done.

Carltons mids have struggled to move the ball and have low metres per disposal this season. But don't underestimate them, they have a bit of depth there and can hurt us on their day. We have been matched in the centre clearacnes the past two games, need to get back to controlling it this weekend.

It’s all well and good to say just win the centre clearances but it’s easier said than done when you’re coming up against one of the best clearance bulls in the comp, a really strong tap ruckman and a really strong supporting cast midfield.

We’re going okay, and I’m not saying I’d start with a hard tag but we 100% need to be able to find a way to lockdown on a gun mid when they’re putting us to the sword. Whether it’s 1 players job, 2 players, a whole team effort, I don’t care but there needs to be some thought into this - if the whiteboard in the rooms says “play smart footy and win the clearances” we’re gonna have a very bad time.

This stubbornness is still hurting us badly, I mean JHF ffs won Port the game against us out of the midfield 3 weeks ago, Newcombe had a red hot crack at dragging a shit team over the line & Green nearly did it again 2 days ago.

We’re past the point of backing the system on this, gun mids are winning games against us off their own boot way too regularly, there needs to be some compromise to our own system to stop this. And relying on Bont to drag us over the line isn’t really a solution either but that’s pretty much all we’ve got at the moment when another teams midfield gets on top.

Carlton’s midfield sure as shit isn’t Hawks/GWS, we need to have a plan B, C & D this week

 

[ossie_21]

Tim's biggest improvement this year for mine has been not getting dominated by the hustle and bustle ruckman. He handled Nankervis who is miles ahead of Pitto as a well. Zero reason for Tim to be physically overmatched anymore.

This was my biggest concern with him over the years, but he is more than stepping up to those challenges now. I think Reeves surprised him and played the game of his life, but he put it behind him as he was great against Flynn on the weekend.

Now that he’s physically matching other rucks, all that’s left is to stop looking behind him at boundary throw ins to see what they are doing and just focus on getting to the drop of that ball and using his strength to stop them getting a clear shot at the ball. He usually gets moved to the side when that happens and the other ruck slips around him for pretty much a free tap

 

[doggiesin08]

I hope so, bad memories from last years game still burnt in my mind though

Just needs to be competitive in there because we know he will dominate around the ground with plenty of intercept & contested marks. Becoming such a weapon of a player!

We’ve lost the midfield battle two weeks in a row against Hawks & GWS so need a full team effort in there this week against a much better outfit

What’s burnt in my mind from that game is Pittonet turning Gardy on the HFF boundary line. Coniglio doing it last week was one thing but Pittonet

 

[Snarls Barkley]

I agree with the Jones/Keath match ups but If Gardners only taking a 3rd tall surely there’s no point playing him? Needs to lockdown on a key tall to justify his spot IMO.

I wonder if Bruce comes straight back in, only missed 3 weeks so shouldn’t be too rusty if he’s fit

It's not my ideal scenario. I would prefer the intercepting option as the third defender but just don't think that option is there at the moment. I think I'd rather Gardner attempting to come over the top as a spoiling third over trying to lockdown one of their big boys.

I thought Bruce was solid in the first few weeks. Certainly better than what I was expecting but wouldn't be bringing him straight in.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Tickets look like they are almost sold out for the general public. There looks to be one row left.

 

[Cudi]

Yeah was looking to grab some GA but cant get anything.