Fail

[The Boy From Brasil]

Watching our second-stringers pack their dacks under heavy pressure is of the most unedifying spectacles you can have.

That was the thing that really worried me. Okay our A grade players had terrible second halves. But our second and third stringers completely wilted under the pressure. And the pressure we recieved today will be standard fare in finals.

On a good day, our best can match Geelongs best, but Geelongs players 12-22 are the flemington straight in our players ranked 12-22.

 

[KouDogg]

2nd half was a joke, but i agree the lose may bring about some positives to work towards.

Now the Bulldogs recruiting staff will need to take a very good look at the trading period this year and try and get a tall power house forward because today showed exactly why we need one. I know we have gone fine without one all year but have a look at what happened today, it was just a kick in hope and Geelong's defenders just mopped it up like they where playing by themselves.

Throw whatever we can at J.Brown and Fev IMO, don't really care what we give but get them.

 

[Gooka]

2nd half was a joke, but i agree the lose may bring about some positives to work towards.

Now the Bulldogs recruiting staff will need to take a very good look at the trading period this year and try and get a tall power house forward because today showed exactly why we need one. I know we have gone fine without one all year but have a look at what happened today, it was just a kick in hope and Geelong's defenders just mopped it up like they where playing by themselves.

Throw whatever we can at J.Brown and Fev IMO, don't really care what we give but get them.

Not the solution. Not really the problem either.

 

[AngeloPetraglia]

Gutted. Just realised that we will not be able to beat Geelong.

Only 14 points down at 3/4 time, but looked way out of of depth from half time onwards.

I still can't believe how dominant their backline was. We seemed to kick it straight to them every time. They payed our forwards no respect and just zoned off all day. Hahn and Minson had absolutely zero impact.

Their ability to stay composed with the foot in their hands under pressure and our ability not to even hold the ball for any length of time was the biggest difference.

I just hope that we can learn something from today.

The conditions and their home ground did not help. They appeared to judge the ball so much better than us through the air today. How many cheap marks did their forwards take from reading the ball better in flight.

 

[jeemak]

2nd half was a joke, but i agree the lose may bring about some positives to work towards.

Now the Bulldogs recruiting staff will need to take a very good look at the trading period this year and try and get a tall power house forward because today showed exactly why we need one. I know we have gone fine without one all year but have a look at what happened today, it was just a kick in hope and Geelong's defenders just mopped it up like they where playing by themselves.

Throw whatever we can at J.Brown and Fev IMO, don't really care what we give but get them.

A tall power forward would not have made much of a difference today, although obviously there is still a need. The only reason why Mooney was able to towell us up was because the Cats were more organised moving forward and were composed when disposing of the football. Put simply, we were the opposite.

I think our effort was better in the first half, but a few 50m penalties may have flattered us a little on the scoreboard. The way we used the ball moving forward throughout the game was horrible. The second half was pathetic, and it just shows that a quality side like the Cats (and the Hawks, Swans, Pies etc) will smash you if you are not committed to the football and the man).

We need to bounce back next week against the Blues and attack the ball and player with some ferocity.

 

[Gooka]

That was the thing that really worried me. Okay our A grade players had terrible second halves. But our second and third stringers completely wilted under the pressure. And the pressure we recieved today will be standard fare in finals.

On a good day, our best can match Geelongs best, but Geelongs players 12-22 are the flemington straight in our players ranked 12-22.

If your good players don't play well, your 2nd tier aren't the problem.

If the A graders all had rippers and then we lost, then the 2nd tier can be laid to blame.

Who's to say the Geelong 2nd tier are better than ours? How have they performed when their best players have been horrible?

 

[corby]

So we lost by 60+! DONT LOOSE FAITH!!!

I have said to a mate thet has the old mentakity that when we loose " The world has ended". Christians dont loose faith in christianity despite thier troubles, why should we?

Things need to be worked on, but we are still in there with a chance.

Geelong are the best side going around by a mile. For 3 quaters we took it up to them. Sure we made mistakes but this will strengthen our resolve.

Port beat them late in the season at SS and look at what happened to them in the GF!

DONT LOOSE FAITH!!!!!

We are still there with a shot at ultimate glory. Rember that the numbers stack up!!

 

[trev106]

So we lost by 60+! DONT LOOSE FAITH!!!

I have said to a mate thet has the old mentakity that when we loose " The world has ended". Christians dont loose faith in christianity despite thier troubles, why should we?

Things need to be worked on, but we are still in there with a chance.

Geelong are the best side going around by a mile. For 3 quaters we took it up to them. Sure we made mistakes but this will strengthen our resolve.

Port beat them late in the season at SS and look at what happened to them in the GF!

DONT LOOSE FAITH!!!!!

We are still there with a shot at ultimate glory. Rember that the numbers stack up!!

I havent lost faith in our boys and I never will. We still are a chance for the flag and hopefully we have learnt a lot from this Geelong team. Come on doggies we're still in it.

 

[Johnno_6]

Did we have any injuries or reports today?
I don't think so, well at least I hope not. Then it's not a total disaster.
If all that happened today was a loss, a bad one at that, well then we live to fight another day. Don't forget it was played at Skilled Stadium, with crowd support about 99% for Geelong.
I am sure we will learn from this and it will make us stronger. Williams, West, Callan and Higgins all possibly due back over the next few weeks. We must now focus on the road ahead and on the Blues next week, as they are no longer easy-beats.
Go Doggies!

 

[Code_Nerd]

Yeah, I guess a 10-goal loss is great.

I can't get over how easy the Cats were able to run up the ground in the second half without any pressure whatsoever. It was like a hot knife through butter.

Very, very disappointing.

Mate where did I mention that 10 goal loss was great?

I'm as gutted as the next doggies supporter, but the players need to learn from this and move on quickly!! Which I'm sure they will do..

 

[Code_Nerd]

What will we take out of it?

We have played the best, we have played the benchmark for '08 what don't you take out of it.

 

[Tonycam*]

2nd best in ther league is very good spot to be at , this tim of the season. Anything can happen come september guys and remember you can sure play better football than you played today. class act guys

 

[acker]

Lets pop a few bubbles

Johnno ......pop
Harbrow.....pop
Boyd..........usefull tagger....but not midfeild dynamo pop
Lake..........good backman.....not best backman pop


Not a failure today, just a reality check.

 

[The Standfield Principle]

nice use of the word unedifying dude

 

[catzfan]

So we lost by 60+! DONT LOOSE FAITH!!!

I have said to a mate thet has the old mentakity that when we loose " The world has ended". Christians dont loose faith in christianity despite thier troubles, why should we?

Things need to be worked on, but we are still in there with a chance.

Geelong are the best side going around by a mile. For 3 quaters we took it up to them. Sure we made mistakes but this will strengthen our resolve.

Port beat them late in the season at SS and look at what happened to them in the GF!

DONT LOOSE FAITH!!!!!

We are still there with a shot at ultimate glory. Rember that the numbers stack up!!

Yeh the 60 points worth of numbers

Nah couldnt help it. You guys played well for three quarters. We lost to Collingwood by 80 earlier this year and were better for it and I'm sure we're a better side. Look at this years form not single match. Looking forward to meeting Doggies in the GF hopefully.
Doggies are the only other side that I'd like to see win it

 

[Cohzee]

I'd also like to add that you guys had a decent turnout of fans, and very vocal ones at that!

Great game for 3 quarters, your boys will be better for it.

Was great to see two teams play footy, not go for the man.

 

[Gooka]

Lets pop a few bubbles

Johnno ......pop
Harbrow.....pop
Boyd..........usefull tagger....but not midfeild dynamo pop
Lake..........good backman.....not best backman pop


Not a failure today, just a reality check.

Perhaps a bit harsh. Guys have bad days. Some more regularly than others, but Lake and Boyd especially are having great years... and Harbrow has played about 10 games of AFL.

 

[immortalmike]

Lets pop a few bubbles

Johnno ......pop
Harbrow.....pop
Boyd..........usefull tagger....but not midfeild dynamo pop
Lake..........good backman.....not best backman pop


Not a failure today, just a reality check.

While your at it, lets throw all our players under a bus.

Akermanis....selfish and bad under pressure (a downhill skiier perhaps) pop.
Morris....not good enough pop
Gia...too pretty pop.
Cooney....has red hair pop.
Eagleton...head looks like ball.
If we're going to overrreact based on one game lets do it properly.

 

[The Boy From Brasil]

We have played the best, we have played the benchmark for '08 what don't you take out of it.

Yep we played the best and wilted under the pressure and our intensity level came up short against the premiers A grade game.

Thats what I got out of it. That unless we change something when we play these sides in finals, we are a risk of just making up the numbers. Which would be a tragedy given such a fantastic start to the year and how well the boys have played.

 

[SonOfScray]

Yep we played the best and wilted under the pressure and our intensity level came up short against the premiers A grade game.

Thats what I got out of it. That unless we change something when we play these sides in finals, we are a risk of just making up the numbers. Which would be a tragedy given such a fantastic start to the year and how well the boys have played.

I agree.

Its a loss that probably should have happened weeks ago given we've just cruised along and been doing just enough to get a result. Some days we've done it comfortably but you simply get punished by good teams. Geelong switched on after half time but they weren't playing terribly in the first either, our pressure was at the level it needed to be to hold them over the half. Meanwhile we were woeful by hand and foot, and had players looking for a cheap kick, playing from behind! A lot of players were guilty of it and had poor games.

I'm not that rattled by the loss that I can't see the result being different on another day. I'm not sure if it is a case of "what ifs" but I'd be more worried if we'd played well and still been beaten, you simply have too many players not up for the game and that's what happens. Same story with the Cats and Collingwood IMO.

You walk away from it and have a think about why we had so many players down, if it was because each one of them were well beaten in their position by superior opponents.... we'll yeah we're struggling. I'm more inclined to believe it was just as much our own errors in skill and judgement which worked heavily in favour of Geelong. They broke us down when the pressure stopped and we weren't able to bring enough players into the game when it was on.

No doubt in my mind that we'll come back well.

 

[Hobdog]

Did anyone else notice that things seemed to go pair shaped when that 50 was given against Johnno in our forward line?? I'm sure there was only a kick in it at that stage and then the Cats took the ball down and scored. (I'm not blaming that decision for the loss either) I think not long after poor little Harbrow kicked it straight to Harry Taylor who slotted another easy goal. I think a few goals were probably gifted to Geelong through errors by our players but ultimately we lost because we stopped doing the fundamental things that matter in footy.

Now that I've slept on it I can actually see some positives.

• We were level at half time because we showed we can put Geelong under sufficient pressure.

• We were level without a majority of our best players having much impact at all

• We were playing the Premiers at their home ground, which is never an easy assignment.

• We are still second on the ladder, which is certainly no fluke

The best thing now is that we have a learning tool (video of yesterday's game) that we can study to death over the next 7 weeks. If we had of won the game we may have thought that we were now elite and possibly overlooked many areas of potential improvement.

The key is to now get ourselves focused on Carlton and try and make our own statement. Sure some supporters of opposition clubs will revel in the fact that we got thumped and they will probably try and downplay any further victories we have. The key for us is to just plain ignore these people, not argue amongst ourselves, not crucify the players and try and look no further ahead than each weekend.

Thanks to all the Geelong supporters who have given genuine feedback and been very humble in victory. I'd say to supporters of all clubs, please don't be put off by sensitive dogs fans who are just gutted (as all dogs fans are) by Saturday's loss. We value any good contributions on our board as I'm sure most of you do as well.

Heads up Ladies and Gents

 

[boydsno1]

guys im still confident we can beat the cats in the finals.

our pressure in the first half had geelong worried and being run down and sloppy something i havent seen them be.
also the finals won't be at skilled stadium it will be at the g. the geelong players just knew where the ball was gonna drop in the forward line which exposed our backline big time. so that is one advantage they won't have.
also once they got about 2 goalsl up the crowd just got loud and well thats when they finally lifted and again another advantage they won't have come finals time.
williams just showed how important he is to our backline as mooney ran riot. i still have faith we can get glory this year.

 

[boydsno1]

also if people are writing us off because we got smashed are stupid. geelong got hammered at full strength against geelong so does that mean geelong should be written off or they will lose should they face the pies?

chin up were second and it's not over yet.

 

[Rik E Boy]

All I can say is this.

Geelong >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Flemington Strait
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Rest of the competition

I hope the Pies knock the Cats out in the finals.

If the Pies do that they'll have to knock out either you guys or the Hawks to do it.

regards,

REB

 

[boydsno1]

they can knock out the hawks.