Post Game Thoughts

[pauly_moss]

Major difference between the 2 teams I thought was the bottom 11 players from each side. Bulldogs had a couple of guys that had good games but lots that got badly beaten by Pies players. I love the toughness Brown brings to the side and especially when he stood up to Hall get these blokes in the UFC cage. The best part about Jolly's below par game was how good Fraser was as a back up thought he was very good and I think its a good thing that if 1 quality ruck has a bad day we have a very good 2nd option. Ball was terrific some wonderful handballs in close freeing up the runners.

L.Brown may be having a week or two off me thinks would like to see Reid come in for him only if he is forced to take a holiday by the tribunal. The mix of smalls/talls looked really good

 

[Dylz48]

Some of my thoughts

I'm not sure if it was a pressure/ or round 1 thing but both sides seemed to make a lot of silly mistakes. In the backline especially we would do something really good to work it out and turn it over immediately.

I think Heath Shaw said the theme for the year is playing for each other and this really showed especially in the first quarter and post match celebrations. If we can replicate that first quarter for a whole match we will be near unstoppable the question is can we do it?

finally MEDS is back

 

[Jie_Hodge]

One thing that I don't get, is a little trait of Travis Cloke, not sure if its his decision or a gameplan thing but there was an example yesterday and happens a bit I think;

A player (cant remember who) marked on centre wing, maybe towards our goal a little bit about 10 - 15 metres in front of a leading Travis.

Now instead of doubling back and sprinting back to space and provide an option around our 50 down the line, such as a Reiwoldt would do, Travis sprinted around the back of the player got the handball recieve and proceeding to bomb it long into the 50 not to anyone in particluar and there was a 3 on 1 against Leigh Brown I think.

This happens a bit i think, and i dont really understand it as; 1). Would rather Cloke do the first thing and create an option providing no-one is free or leading into that space where he could double back too and 2). I dont think that Travis is at all a good field kick into the foward line.

 

[Magpies696]

Its great to see in the paper today that they are talking about Heath Shaw and Alan Didak together for how good they were as players

 

[mattys123]

Apparently that whigning prick named Rodney Eade has a new excuse for how the Bulldogs played, THE FLU.

What a ****ing joke, can't he just give a side credit for out performing his side, really, that's just pathetic and stinks of "bad loser" sydnrome.

There are even rumours going around that some Collingwood players also has the flu, which would make his "excuse" even less valid. The pies players named include Beams, MaCaffer, Goldsack and Sidebottom, although I don't believe any of it, as the only pre match reports I heard were that Goldsack was carrying something, then again he may have passed it on.

Well done Rodney, showing your absolute lack of class and respect once again.

 

[TradeDraft]

Apparently that whigning prick named Rodney Eade has a new excuse for how the Bulldogs played, THE FLU.

What a ****ing joke, can't he just give a side credit for out performing his side, really, that's just pathetic and stinks of "bad loser" sydnrome.

There are even rumours going around that some Collingwood players also has the flu, which would make his "excuse" even less valid. The pies players named include Beams, MaCaffer, Goldsack and Sidebottom, although I don't believe any of it, as the only pre match reports I heard were that Goldsack was carrying something, then again he may have passed it on.

Well done Rodney, showing your absolute lack of class and respect once again.

Well Then I have lost all respect for Rocket. Sore bloody Looser

 

[TradeDraft]

Re: Post Game ThoughtsThoughs on Ball and Jolly's 1st Proper Game for the Pies

Luke Ball - Played a very solid game did nothing special but did his thing in Packs and Lay Tackles that Stick. Give him 6-10

Darren Jolly - Started Terribly but got into the Game and was 1 of the main reasons we won the game in the 4th

Agree and what are your Thoughts?

 

[Histrionics]

Great win by the boys. Everyone has pretty much covered everything.

A couple of other things;

The way Medhurst uses his body in one on one contest against ususally a taller opponent is fantastic. Really uses his brain in a marking contest.

L.Brown should play forward all the time. Love the way he throws his weight around. Trav should take a look at the way Brown goes about it.

 

[Return of the Pies]

Apparently that whigning prick named Rodney Eade has a new excuse for how the Bulldogs played, THE FLU.

What a ****ing joke, can't he just give a side credit for out performing his side, really, that's just pathetic and stinks of "bad loser" sydnrome.

There are even rumours going around that some Collingwood players also has the flu, which would make his "excuse" even less valid. The pies players named include Beams, MaCaffer, Goldsack and Sidebottom, although I don't believe any of it, as the only pre match reports I heard were that Goldsack was carrying something, then again he may have passed it on.

Well done Rodney, showing your absolute lack of class and respect once again.

It's not as if it's the first time the Dogs have had a nasty w*g go through their club. One of them even won a Brownlow!!!

 

[shawthing09]

We have a tough 5 or so rounds to open the season and most of us said in a thread a while ago that we would be pretty happy to be 3wins-2 losses after the first 5 rounds the dogs where the form side of the pre season and in general we out played them pretty comfortably with a lot of players playing below par can't help but be happy with that.

I do agree with MDC on the Bj / Heater / Dids / Swan padding though it's something that I'd hope is addressed and stamped out pretty quick.

 

[DaVe86]

Point 1: Thought Sharrod Wellingham was hugely influential in the first half. He helped set it up.

From what I could see, he was tagging Cooney and working off him. Absolutely smashed him. Went quiet in the 2nd, but copped a bit knock and may have been suffering.



Point 2: Thought Dale Thomas was excellent. Tagged Griffen absolutely out of it. Griffen was perhaps Worst on Ground and Dale is the reason. Plus he set up a lot of goals. Still needs to get more of it and be more consistent. But very positive today.


Point 3: Dane Swan truly an A grader, no arguments.

Point 4: Medhurst is back. Beat his nemesis today in Hargrave. Hargrave smashed him twice last year.


Point 5: Leigh Brown did some awful things, but overall more than justified his spot in teh side. Set up a number of goals, and swung back on Minson at times too.


Point 6: Heath Shaw truly brilliant. BOG.

Point 7: Maxwell and Harry are just brilliant. Great games by them

Point 8: Slow starts from Ball and Jolly. But they will improve massively. Jolly got better as the game wore on. Ball was in and under. Still took 7 tackles which is his trademark and was great under the packs. Both can only get better.

Point 9: Pendlebury had a dissapointing first half. Very lazy. Wasn't running and dealing with the attention he was getting. Boyd got away from him in the 2nd. But fought back in the 2nd half. Still a lot of improvement needed from Pendlebury. Thought it was as bad a first half as I've seen from him. His tackling and chasing was non-existent. Lifted in the 2nd half thankfully.


Point 10: Didak and Davis belong forward. When you have these 2 and Medhurst kicking 11 goals between them, we are going to be hard to stop. Each still gets a bit of midfield time, but great to see them play closer to goal and step up against a quality side.


Point 11: The Achilles heel is still our tall forwards. Leigh Brown, Cloke and Anthony only kicked 2 between them...1 off a lucky 50. Thought Cloke was OK, but just did not get near it and had little impact as a marking option. His best work was actually at ground level. Jack looked sharp but went very quiet. Leigh Brown gives his all but does not hurt on the scoreboard. But the smalls make up for it.


Point 12: Sidebottom had a poor one I think. I reckon he'll be dropped for Beams next week. That's ok because it doesnt mess with our team-balance, and means both of our high profile kids get a run early in the year. Steele was promising, but just made a few errors.


Point 13: next week is our most important game of the year. Lose to Melbourne and we undo all the hard work. It should be a shoe-in, and I'm not concerned, but we can't afford to lose these easy ones.





Point 14: GO PIES

 

[No SPIN]

Great win - but to beat a side like WB, while getting smashed in the centre clearances was particularly encouraging.

We will be very hard to beat once we fix this part of our game.

 

[robertg22]

One other pleasing thing is that I think we played the Dome as well as I've seen us - is important considering we have the Aints there in a couple of weeks.

 

[mattys123]

Leigh Brown gives his all but does not hurt on the scoreboard. But the smalls make up for it.

Hey Dave, agree with most of your points there, although maybe not this one, but my viewpoint is from a different perspective.

Yes, Leigh Brown is a terrible kick for goal, but he was directly involved in 6 goals yesterday, and it should have been 7 with the Didak roll through handball.

I don't know whether any stats site keeps "goal assists" stats, but Leeroy would be leading the league in this category at the moment.

2 magical ones were the spin and handball to Davis for the sealer, and also the first goal of the last quarter where he tackled 2 players, knocked the ball to Didak who then goaled.

Leeroy and Medhurst will set up more goals combined then any 2 players in the AFL this year, and goal assists are a massively under rate stat in the AFL.

And just on Pendlebury, does anyone think the metal rod in his leg might be restricting him a little bit, it seems from the pre season games and round 1 that he takes a while to "warm up" and get into the game.

 

[Return of the Pies]

And just on Pendlebury, does anyone think the metal rod in his leg might be restricting him a little bit, it seems from the pre season games and round 1 that he takes a while to "warm up" and get into the game.

This combined with the fact that the extent of his influence on the team was amplified when he was injured in the finals last year. He has possibly moved into the 'number 1 target' category for opposition tags, although Swan and Dids probably made claims again yesterday. Gee he just oozes quality though, his vision and awareness is as good as anyones. He will be fine.

 

[dswan]

If Dane Swan does not get 3 Brownlow votes i will be shattered. Won't you?

 

[2 Minits Turkish]

Overall very happy with the game. Couldn't ask for much more:

Qtr 1 - Best quarter I've seen from us since..well, the first Bulldogs game LAST year when we kicked 7.1

Qtr 2 - Wasn't quite as poor as it looked. We still managed to have 9 scoring shots to their 10, difference was, we missed far too many easy ones, and fumbled a little more under some intense Bulldogs pressure

Qtr 3 - Settled down well, and was great to see us not only keep the dogs at bay, but then kick away toward the end when they must have been buggered

Qtr 4 - I just think both teams were completely rooted, so it was more a matter of the wind being taken out of the dogs after Minson's (Shrek's) brain freeze. Good to finish strong though.

Players:

Wellingham was amazing. Glad he's starting to repay the faith we've had in him. Although he only played REALLY well in the first half (BOG up to 1/2 time) I'm sure the knock on the scone affected him somewhat in the secdon half.

Harry and Heath were just trampolines back there all day. Perfect back flanker's games.

SO SO SO SO SO rapt Medhurst is back. I don't think many realsie how important his good form is to us. Him and Pendles being injured last year really hurt us.

Daisy and Neon played fantastic negating roles yesterday on Griffen and Harbrow, while also winnign the ball themselves and kicking 4 between them. What else could you ask for?

Jolly, Cloke and Jack worried me a bit though. Expected the 3 of them to do far more, especially with Morris out.

Overall a pretty good game, and good to see we could beat the dogs with us only playing our 'top tier' football for one quarter.

Our first month will tell us everything we need to know about our chances this year I can assure you.