Changes vs Richmond

[Doggies_13]

Wholesale changes will not happen we all know this.

They probably should but they won’t.

We can also be confident we won’t turn to youth.

What will likely happen:
Out: Libba (concussion), Clarke
In: West, scott/daniel

What should happen:
Out: Libba (Concussion), Gallagher, Duryea, Khamis
In: West, Freijah, Buss, Cleary

Gallagher looks tired and needed a spell last week let alone now. Duryea is struggling and isn’t the future, Khamis two stinkers in a row.

Clarke had a bad debut but give the kid another opportunity, don’t destroy his confidence.

Freijah has been far and away our best in the VFL this year deserves a crack. Buss won’t offer any less than Khamis has the last two weeks, use him as third tall, he’s a better kick than Khamis and reads the play better. Cleary is solid can defend and can use the ball well.

Garcia, West and harmes to spend time on ball.

B: Cleary Jones Buss
HB: Richards JOD Dale
C : Freijah Bont Baker
HF: Garcia Naughton Clarke
F: West JUH Darcy
Ruck: English Treloar Harmes
Int: Macrae Williams JJ VDM
Sub: Bramble

 

[Mr. Walker]

In: West, Cleary, Busslinger, Freijah and Sanders
Out : JJ, Khamis, JOD, Bramble, Libba (inj)

The four latter ins are an investment in the future. Get games into them and at least we get something out of 2024.
I was really disappointed in JJ as a senior player. There must be a higher level of bad performance ( if that’s a thing) for senior players compared to kids who might perform badly due to lack of experience. A message needs to be sent.
JOD needs to harden up and not go to ground so much in contests. His collapse in a marking contest against Ginnivan ( I think it was) was very poor. Learn to be more determined.

 

[Mr. Walker]

Bulldog supporting kids of today have it easy sitting 3-5 with a % over 110. And they have the Bont


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I always hoped that a “ successful dynasty” after 2016 would lead to a great number of Bulldog supporting school kids coming through. Sadly we have wasted that opportunity.

 

[TommyD13]

Baker and Bramble try hard, and I really respect they are getting the best they can out of themselves, but I’m just not sure they’re part of our next premiership team so perhaps Cleary, Freijah, Bedendo etc. should get a run instead just to check?

They might be good 100-game players we can rely on for years to come.

 

[hatescaptcha]

Libba’s cliff might come sooner than we expect given his recent concussion / head knocks so we need to get games into Sanders. Considering Macrae is also on the decline and may be offloaded at seasons end for picks / cap space.


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[Dannnnnnnnnn]

We need to decide what we are.

Too many low-impact developmental projects named for us to be a premiership threat.

Too many low-to-moderate-impact veterans playing for us to be taking any sort of list refresh seriously.

Until we clarify this we will continue to be in no man's land in terms of performance output.


As an aside, I was so desperately hoping to be wrong but Khamis is not up to it. You absolutely cannot carry a key defender that is this poor in one on one contests. His ability to give up front position with minimal contact is unreal, and on so many plays he has no idea where he should be. He is fine peeling off but teams have woken up and are now targeting him to ensure he can't be the third man in.

 

[doggybyte]

In: West, Freijah, Busslinger, Sanders (if Libba is out)
Out: Clarke, Gallagher, JOD, Libba (Inj or Susp)

 

[Some Idiot]

Sanders in please, we need his toughness and we need the midfield rotation

 

[Golden_6]

Sanders in please, we need his toughness and we need the midfield rotation

The issue is that his workrate, especially defensively was non-existent.

That’s one of our biggest issues across the ground.

 

[dogwatch]

The issue is that his workrate, especially defensively was non-existent.

That’s one of our biggest issues across the ground.

In what way G6? Sanders seems to rack up quite a few tackles.

I haven't seen much of him in recent weeks. Does he fail to apply pressure acts, fail to chase, not position himself properly to limit possessions to his the opposing midfield, ...?

 

[Golden_6]

In what way G6? Sanders seems to rack up quite a few tackles.

I haven't seen much of him in recent weeks. Does he fail to apply pressure acts, fail to chase, not position himself properly to limit possessions to his the opposing midfield, ...?

Tackles are only one measure and don’t tell the full picture.

Watching the game on the TV, you’d see Box Hill win the ball back through the middle and Sanders would labour back defensively with no urgency or desire to work back or pick up an opponent.

Hes certainly not alone in that regard and it’s one of our biggest downfalls in the senior. I have no idea whether it comes down to coaching or individual personnel but we consistently get cut up through the middle parts of the ground, especially on turnovers.

 

[Doggies_13]

In what way G6? Sanders seems to rack up quite a few tackles.

I haven't seen much of him in recent weeks. Does he fail to apply pressure acts, fail to chase, not position himself properly to limit possessions to his the opposing midfield, ...?

I don’t buy the defensive running issues that were raised when he was dropped. He was doing as much if not more than most of our mids, but none of our mids work hard defensively.

But based on his VFL game yesterday where I watched him very closely (broadcast vision only wasn’t at the ground) he is a player completely out of confidence and with a touch of the sulks. Spent the game head down even on good plays, was frustrated when he got in positions to receive early and then stopped getting to those positions and never got out of first gear on transition.

I don’t think we can play him this week. He’s not working hard in either direction at the moment. His stats on the weekend look good but majority was in close. Outside the initial contest he didn’t do a lot.

 

[hutchy31]

OUT: JOD, Buku, Gallagher, Baker
IN: Keath, Buss, Freijah, West

Don’t love having to recall Keath but Buku has been worked out and JOD needs to find some form. Buss deserves a crack

Bramble sub and Richards to the backline, don’t mind if he rotates for the odd centre bounce but for f**ks sake the forward experiment ended years ago with him.

Clarke looked nervy as hell but willing to back him in again, need a small forward with Cody out and don’t see what dropping him immediately does for his confidence. Maybe shift him closer to goal

Macrae having our lowest non-sub affected TOG is f**ked

It's OK though, at least they didn't make the same interchange error as last week where Bont was languishing on the bench when the game needed to be won.......

 

[ossie_21]

I always hoped that a “ successful dynasty” after 2016 would lead to a great number of Bulldog supporting school kids coming through. Sadly we have wasted that opportunity.

Not the right thread, but I’ve been thinking of this a lot lately.

2016 we were one of the younger sides to win a flag, which really should indicate you are set up for a bit of a dynasty, or more realistic, a sustained run as a top team in the league.

It didn’t happen, but the following 2 points really ****ing hurt:

• The team we beat in 2016 are currently top of the ladder, flying and set for top 4.
• The team we lost to in 2021 are 4th and look every bit like they will be top 4 at seasons end, again, & likely a genuine flag chance.

Then, there is us.

 

[hutchy31]

Tackles are only one measure and don’t tell the full picture.

Watching the game on the TV, you’d see Box Hill win the ball back through the middle and Sanders would labour back defensively with no urgency or desire to work back or pick up an opponent.

Hes certainly not alone in that regard and it’s one of our biggest downfalls in the senior. I have no idea whether it comes down to coaching or individual personnel but we consistently get cut up through the middle parts of the ground, especially on turnovers.

Unless we happen to have 8-10 of the laziest 30 players in the AFL (which would be pretty bad drafting/recruiting) then you'd have to think it's a coaching issues - or at least one related to motivation and standards. To a degree I'm sympathetic if they think the defensive gameplan is poor and don't believe in it, but they should still be able to apply themselves to some of the more basic defensive tasks.

We also have one of the worst forward lines in terms of spacing and KPF movement, we're one of the worst tackling teams, and are consistently poor at handball decisions and execution. These are all coaching issues as well.

I'm not sure what to think in terms of ins and outs - the problems seem fundamental at an organisational level, rather than isolated players not meeting the required standard. It feels like moving deckchairs on the Titanic, so given that I'd probably rather see some of the young players blooded to see how they go, although that could equally be seen as being grossly unfair to expect them to take their opportunity when they're not being set up for success.

TLDR - I don't think team selection will do anything to substantively improve our performances at this stage.

 

[Doggies_13]

The defending is a player issue now buts it’s been created by coaching. Our most senior players don’t do the defensive grunt work and haven’t for a while.

Now this year we tried using Macrae, Dale and Daniel as scapegoats but the issue is it didn’t fix the problem because we still allow treloar, JJ, JUH VDM, Dale (again), Williams etc to still not defend and jog on transition.

When you punish some players for failures to defend whilst allowing other players to not defend it doesn’t fix anything it just creates a poisonness situation and that’s where we seem to be now.

There needs to be a complete reset of the values within the team and a defend first mentality. But what do we never hear from our coaches? That there is a focus and that we refuse to be beaten the same way again. Instead we hear that we are searching.

Our experienced players don’t defend than stand a metre in front of a player looking the wrong way demanding the ball or 15m sideways asking for a kick to stat pad.

 

[Next Waiting]

In order of priority

Out: Baku, Gallagher, JOD, (Clarke gets a mulligan ... won't get one next week), Libba (inj)

In: Buss, Freijah, West, Keath

 

[LondonBulldog]

The defending is a player issue now buts it’s been created by coaching. Our most senior players don’t do the defensive grunt work and haven’t for a while.

Now this year we tried using Macrae, Dale and Daniel as scapegoats but the issue is it didn’t fix the problem because we still allow treloar, JJ, JUH VDM, Dale (again), Williams etc to still not defend and jog on transition.

When you punish some players for failures to defend whilst allowing other players to not defend it doesn’t fix anything it just creates a poisonness situation and that’s where we seem to be now.

There needs to be a complete reset of the values within the team and a defend first mentality. But what do we never hear from our coaches? That there is a focus and that we refuse to be beaten the same way again. Instead we hear that we are searching.

Our experienced players don’t defend than stand a metre in front of a player looking the wrong way demanding the ball or 15m sideways asking for a kick to stat pad.

This, we simple do not work hard enough. Don't jog back and think the ball is not coming your way, sprint back get to your man and spoil. Playing 3 talls up forward is not helping. They simply are not needed in modern footy, 2 is enough so make the call. Actually there weren't needed when we won a flag. Stringer, Smith, Picken and Dickson got it done.

 

[Mojorisin]

In order of priority

Out: Baku, Gallagher, JOD, (Clarke gets a mulligan ... won't get one next week), Libba (inj)

In: Buss, Freijah, West, Keath

I thought Baku was good. His opponent didn't even register a stat.

 

[Mr. Walker]

I thought Baku was good. His opponent didn't even register a stat.

Neither did Baku

 

[Doggies_13]

This, we simple do not work hard enough. Don't jog back and think the ball is not coming your way, sprint back get to your man and spoil. Playing 3 talls up forward is not helping. They simply are not needed in modern footy, 2 is enough so make the call. Actually there weren't needed when we won a flag. Stringer, Smith, Picken and Dickson got it done.

3 of those guys you named would run through a brick wall to put pressure on, outside of West name a player in the forward half this year that would? Maybe Garcia.

I have a different view on the talls but JUHs lack of work rate inflates the problem because Darcy just doesn’t have the athleticism to pressure although he tries to. Naughton puts as much pressure on as he can. VDM is in second gear on defence never seen a player with genuine speed give up so often on a chase.

We can play three talls but need to demand more from JUH and need more from our smalls.

So much gets talked about VDMs repeat sprints but unless they are to pressure or lay a tackle what are they for, cause we all know he fluffs his chances 90% of the time and we are fine with running offensively.

 

[Mojorisin]

Neither did Baku

Exactly my thinking

 

[weltschmerz]

Buku is apparently quite a hard name to spell for only having four letters.

 

[Golden_6]

Libba out indefinitely with concussion.

 

[Sentinel]

Libba confirmed to miss through both suspension and concussion, unsurprisingly on both counts.

The concussion is a concern.