Football Pope
Norm Smith Medallist
- Sep 24, 2009
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At
Round 8, a third of the way through the season and the Lions travel to Ballarat to take on the Western Bulldogs at Mars Stadium. Just a little under 12 months ago the Victorian Government committed $15 million to help bring Mars Stadium up to AFL standard, it aint there yet. Mars stadium now has a capacity of 11,000 spectators including 5,127 undercover seats. And now a place the Western Bulldogs can play interstate sides in Regional Victoria......
Forecast
Possible shower
Temp 5°C - 15°C
Chance of rain: 80% (1-5mm)
Humidity: 9am: 98% 3pm: 69%
Wind 9am: W 19km/h
Wind 3pm: W 22km/h (increase)
That 15o C will feel more like 8o C and finally the old conundrum of water on Mars will finally be solved.
Down to the nitty-gritty....
This will be an interesting game,
Winnable.
but will be a very hard at it contest...
We match up pretty well with the Doggies with one exception, (based at the time of writing this) the Bulldogs' on ball unit is rated 2nd on clearances ..Young Ruck Tim English has been giving some good feed to the likes of as Liberatore, Bontempelli, Macrae, Wallis, Daniels and Lachie Hunter. I expect Dunkley to be given the shutdown role on Neale and the midfield is where the battle needs to be won...It is going to be hard to beat them.. Match ups will be crucial and if we don't get it right... it gives them multiple avenues to goal and the floodgates will open..
Their forwards of Lloyd, Gowers and Dixon looked to be beatable by our defense..Naughton has been played into form by the Tiges, will certainly stretch our defense.. but with Andrews and Bailey up for selection we’re up to it... Having said that, only twice this season have the Bulldogs scored more goals than behinds, five of the seven games they’ve had equal or more scoring shots than their opponents...and rain is predicted making it a slippery scrap
Our forwards McInerney , Cameron McStay, Hippy (provided he only cops a fine) and McCarthy should run rings round their defense of Trengrove, Crozier and attacking half-backs Johannisen and Richards..
So, it all comes down to the center clearances. If we can get on top of their midfield then we should be a good chance.... but I’m not confident... having been well and truly pants by the Pies and Bombers..
Go Lions...
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