Game Day NAB 3, Western Bulldogs vs Collingwood. Etihad Stadium 1:10.

[GetDimmaBack]

As they saying in racing, the Dogs will be better for the run.

Blew out some extra large cobwebs today.

 

[fronkalicious]

Didn't see the game but how did Redpath and Toyd look up forward?

Shite. It just doesn't work at all imo. Redpath is completely useless anywhere outside 50m.

Boyd was excellent, and pinched Red's spot for round 1 imo.

 

[Super Hans]

Credit again where it's due, Treloar super impressive for Pies today, as well as Moore. Like De Goey as well.

Finish on a negative for Pies though, what has become of Travis Cloke?

Seriously, how good is De Goey? I find him easily the most impressive of the Pies young players. Easily. He's going to explode this year.

 

[Dogs Rule]

Shite. It just doesn't work at all imo. Redpath is completely useless anywhere outside 50m.

Boyd was excellent, and pinched Red's spot for round 1 imo.

Class wins out in the end. Love Red's heart, but Boyd will zoom past him this year.

 

[Pugz89]

I'm sitting by the bench, BTC was doing run throughs and such, looked to have a little discomfort when doing it. I'm no doctor though.

I should have checked bf earlier. Was in same area.

 

[Fossie 32]

Buddy I am Topdog69 some off the poster have not respond to me reply in past but when I told them that had cancer in middle off the year in 2015 last but I am slowly getting weaker and will die in the coming week or month

I missed it if you said that before. I'm sorry to hear that buddy. Hope you hang on until the boys win the Big One for us.

 

[Pannalstaroz]

Ok
Love Boyd. Much better ruckman than I though.
Murphy sucked and cost us 2 goals
Stringer couldn't be bothered
Adams is a competitor. Plays for mine.
Daniel a star
McLean needs to get faster and stop launching at every opportunity.
Redpath quiet but we don't have anyone else
Biggs is limited
JJ was great
Hunter is very important linking the play
Suckling kicks it as good as anyone I've seen. Gets it to its destination like a rocket.
We will make top 4
When everyone was fresh and our pressure was at its highest, we smashed them.
Collingwood overrated.
Was going to leave at half time. Should have.

 

[stefoid]

Efficiency stat can be deceiving and it really was in Adams' case. The number of times he held up play by missing a target was, frankly, too large. Our players often ran onto it but it smashed our ball movement and played into the Pies' hands.

Adams might be 23 or whatever his age is, but he is a raw recruit who spent at least a year out of the game when his brother was injured.

He is tracking nicely to even be remotely considered to play round 1.

My only issue is that too much blue collar work was left to too few - dare I say we needed a few more guys to CRACK IN

 

[Pugz89]

Treloar (overrated), De Goey, Pendles. This will be some midfield.

They just need to figure out how to free Aish from the umbilical cord now.

Pendles only has a few yrs left you'd think.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Was pretty sad to see how frustrated Bob was getting with himself by the way, just did not have his kicking boots on.

Adams might be 23 or whatever his age is, but he is a raw recruit who spent at least a year out of the game when his brother was injured.

He is tracking nicely to even be remotely considered to play round 1.

My only issue is that too much blue collar work was left to too few - dare I say we needed a few more guys to CRACK IN

Agree with you. Just don't think his disposal woes can be downplayed at this stage. Missed the target too much today.

 

[DognBones]

Thought it was a great hit out, made crystal clear what the round one team is. I think we once again showed that we are a good Side, but if we drop our guard even for a moment we are venerable. We showed it last year when we lost to Stkilda after leading strongly, we had the pies covered, but we relaxed a fraction, they responded.

Very excited about what I saw today. Tom Boyd, must have the doubters extremely nervous. Redpath complimented him. We didn't have a KP defender in sight so that area will improve I hope.

Biggs is in round 1. Superb from him, playing on talls. Daniel is in. Hope TC is ok, is was great early.

Great hit out, Pies are the real deal. We'll go into round 1 with a reality check.

Indeed, we are a bunch of venerable chaps, but as you so rightly point out TK, we can also be very vulnerable.

 

[fargy]

Was pretty sad to see how frustrated Bob was getting with himself by the way, just did not have his kicking boots on.



Agree with you. Just don't think his disposal woes can be downplayed at this stage. Missed the target too much today.

Just tweeted and said it's time for Murph to hang up the boots.



And get new ones, those ones sucked!

 

[the conch]

Thanks for the reports guys. Missed this game as well as the last.

The best news seems to be the form of Daniel, T.Boyd and JJ. Also it seems Biggs played a solid game. Is that right?

Not overly concerned with the result or even the less-than-brilliant efforts from Bont and Libba. I think they will lift when the real stuff starts, and with another couple of weeks' work under their belts. Hoping Dickson is right for Rd 1.

Like others I'm still to be convinced of the value of Stringer in midfield other than for a brief change of structure and matchups. To me, he always looks more dangerous as a forward.

Biggest concern is the ruck. We are in trouble if neither Minson nor Campbell are fit for Rd 1. Roughead seems a long way back and I don't like the idea Boyd rucking all day, or Redpath rucking at all.

Just some questions for those who were there:

• Not much discussion of Mitch Wallis and Matt Boyd who seemed to rack up some good numbers. Did they look as good as the numbers suggest?
• Was McLean's performance in 47% of game time worthy of an early game in the seniors (even if not Rd 1)? I haven't seen enough of him in his 4 senior games last year and one NAB Challenge that I saw him live. He just seems to me like he's not quite ready yet. Both in physique and impact.

Mitch and Moyd played very good games. We fail to appreciate enough what a great hard working player Wallis is. Does so much bruising inside work but there he is kicking spectacular soccer goals in the goal square or making a massive tackle 30 out of opp goal.
Some of matty boyds kicks were a lot better than Murphs today.
The doggies just seemed to loose their motivation, will in the third. Pies lifted but they were getting first hands and running free. Bev not gonna like that. How much was us? How much them?
A lot of players on both sides looking a bit rusty.

 

[DognBones]

Disagree. IMO we'll only be venerable if we win three flags on the trot.

Bugger, you beat me to that one Dogwatch!

 

[Pugz89]

A few notes.

McLean is the new J selwood when it comes to ducking.

Bont needs to find a fifth gear. Ran down once and just avoided few other times. Evasiveness isn't always going to compensate for a slow canter.

Seemed like a team focus to get Boyd some goals to get his confidence up.

 

[darthbards]

It was only a practice game but we do have form at giving away big leads,and in a hurry. First half was good but Collingwood were very sloppy to start.
I thought jj,Macrae,Hunter and Wallis were our best.
Daniel will definitely play round one I think
Toyd is going to still take time but he is going to be excellent for us. Showed a bit today.
I don't think Libba will play round one,personally I don't know which way I'd go but something tells me the match committee are going to want him to get some confidence and more match practice first.
Hope one of Minson or Campbell come up.

 

[LittleG]

My only issue is that too much blue collar work was left to too few - dare I say we needed a few more guys to CRACK IN

Just for suggesting this horrible concept, you can have a five minute break to truly consider whether we need to hear those 2 words again....

 

[Super Hans]

Am I the only one who didn't think Macrae was bad? Besides that horrible shot on goal I liked his game.

His work in traffic is so important to us. He's a real point of difference to Libba, Wallis, Bontempelli.

 

[the conch]

Wallis was hard at it all day and fierce in every contest. Probably our best for mine. M Boyd I didn't notice as much but he is a work horse and just gets it done every week without needing to stand out.
Mclean is a bit over rated on this board, in my opinion. Great potential but not yet AFL quality.

I thnk MClean did all right. He was involved! Ina lot of contested stuff

 

[TempleKelvington]

Indeed, we are a bunch of venerable chaps, but as you so rightly point out TK, we can also be very vulnerable.

Lol bloody spell check!

 

[immortalmike]

Am I the only one who didn't think Macrae was bad? Besides that horrible shot on goal I liked his game.

His work in traffic is so important to us. He's a real point of difference to Libba, Wallis, Bontempelli.

Yeah. Am flabbergasted by the negative comments on his performance.

 

[Igloo]

Am I the only one who didn't think Macrae was bad? Besides that horrible shot on goal I liked his game.

His work in traffic is so important to us. He's a real point of difference to Libba, Wallis, Bontempelli.

I thought he was one of our better players. Other than a few crappy loopy handballs over his shoulder.

 

[the conch]

A few notes.

McLean is the new J selwood when it comes to ducking.

Bont needs to find a fifth gear. Ran down once and just avoided few other times. Evasiveness isn't always going to compensate for a slow canter.

Seemed like a team focus to get Boyd some goals to get his co

Think that run down was Varcoe whose speed was rhe difference between the teams today imo

 

[TempleKelvington]

While I agree with most of this post, the only way Redpath complimented Boyd was when he told him he had a nice arse pre-game.

Fair enough IM, but I just can't agree. Two KP forwards is the way to go. We just need them to contribute. Boyd started ruck, Redpath was competing forward. Just works for me.

 

[Pannalstaroz]

Wow going through the posts. What the hell? Macrae was sensational in the first half and good after that. Boyd was rucking in the centre then pushing forward - he worked his arse off today.

Just thought he was very quiet in the first half and then in the second half went to ground easily and made some bad decisions with the ball

Looking at the stats very surprised at the amount of possession he had

Unreal in the first half and stitched up by poor teammates in the 2nd half. Super game IMO. Might have looked different on tv.

Suprised Bevo didn't even attempt to play any defensive brand of footy in the practise match considering what went down in last years final.

But to see Tommy Boyd play like he did today was absolutely fantastic. Its more important than anything. People compare his ceiling to that of Hawkins. But I've never seen Hawkins get that high and take a pack mark like that!
He seemed to have a bit of mongrel in him too today which was even more pleasing. None of us could have possibly expected him to play that well today.

I did