Training Preseason 22-23

[House_of_Dahl]

Defence has to be whole team anyway not one player. I like Dunk as a player but if we are brutally honest we are better balanced by trading him (with 2 firsts in an allegedly super draft to come too).

Dunks form has been way down ever since he left anyway

 

[dogwatch]

Bont and even McCrae having a below par year, made Dunkley look better. When these two are firing, Dunkley is back in the shadows.

You're probably right but 2022 was also Dunkley's career best. It also helps when you stay sound and can front for 23 games instead of 12 or 15.

 

[Mantis Toboggan]

Keys is a good player. But your point remains, even with Bont/Libba/Macca and Bailey Smith/Adz/Dunks running through the middle our midfield was dominated by Selwood, Atkins, Guthrie and Danger both times last year. The structure simply wasn’t working.

Keays is a decent player. I haven’t seen him get a hold of many games like he did against us though.

 

[Shacf501]

Guessing the lingerie isn't coming out tonight then?

No mate, its been locked up for a while now!

 

[immortalmike]

Dunkley’s defence is the most overrated part of his game.
Teams often played through his man because he is slower than treacle. It resulted in us being opened up just as much as Smith's poor positioning or Treloar's lack of defensive intensity.

Anyhow he's gone now. Onwards and upwards.

 

[BeMoreBont]

The best our midfield has looked with the current crop was the second half of 2019. We had Bont, Macrae and Dunkley basically playing as 3 main midfielders. They attended 90% of centre bounces, with small chop outs from Lipinski/Baz. Libba was injured for the last few games.

Bont won the coaches award and Macrae and Dunkley finished top 10. All three completely dominated until we rolled over in the final against GWS.

Yes it's nice to have flexibility and unpredictability with high rotations rolling through the midfield. Being predictable isn't always bad either. Melbourne do it with Oliver, Petracca, Viney. Oliver and Petracca in particular play very high game time.

No reason that can't be Bont, Macrae and Libba this year. With Baz and Treloar giving the odd chop out.

 

[Boyd oh Boyd]

Dunkley’s defence is the most overrated part of his game.
Teams often played through his man because he is slower than treacle. It resulted in us being opened up just as much as Smith's poor positioning or Treloar's lack of defensive intensity.

Anyhow he's gone now. Onwards and upwards.

I reckon I've seen teams play through every man in our midfield at some point (except Bont). Maybe we just set up too predictably and it's too easy to tell where the biggest holes are going to be. On the other hand Geelong and Melbourne don't seem to set up players for a specific role in the middle, they're all just ready and capable of dealing with whichever way the ball goes.

 

[DognBones]

In the recent trade/draft period I thought our two greatest needs were for a KPD and a burst midfielder with good kicking skills. We did the best we could on the former but the cream of the midfielders were gone well before our picks.
Why do we need another classy mid?
Our midfield is rather one-paced and can be opened up by quicker opponents running through the centre of the ground.
Run and speed also helps to support our often under pressure defence.
In big games where we have struggled in recent times it is our midfield that has been mentioned in numerous game day threads as not playing to its potential or not playing with intensity for 4 quarters. Think our recent Elimination Finals against StKilda (of all teams!), GWS and Freo.
Undoubtedly our midfield is good and if English can hit another level it may yet remain near the best. Some of our main rivals however, have improved their midfields by some margin, particularly Richmond, Brisbane and Geelong.
Hopefully, as many argue here, improvement this season will come from within. It will need to if we're to challenge for the flag.
More depth in this important part of team structure is always a good thing. Therefore, next draft period, bundling our two firsts for the best midfielder available seems like good policy.

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

You should only speak for yourself, and there's plenty here who have agreed with me that Smiths disposal is sub par. At least I'm using some metrics to back it up instead of just "yeah nah".

At ANY point have I suggested I want to trade him? No, but you're just making s**t up again. He brings MANY things that this team badly needs. I enjoy watching him play too, he just needs to kick it better.

Simple.

LOL you really have no sense of humour

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

Taking on the roll of a policeman is fair enough, and up to you obviously.
Not sure though that it’s good form to speak for others. I’ve seen you do this on multiple occasions now.

Relax mate you are taking it far too seriously

Any poster is free to say whatever the hell they like including the Bailey bad kicking obsessed just as I am free to respond how I like

No doubt we all piss each other off and bore each other shitless at times but it’s a forum so no harm done

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

I think people have to get used to the idea that we are no longer going to dominate opposition midfields.

Dunkley is massive loss despite his deficiencies. B&F winner in his prime, and what he brought to the team in terms of tackling, pressure and toughness is not something that can be replaced by simple personnel or coaching changes. To say that "Mclean will fill that role" etc is absolute b.s.

Treloar being injured is less of a loss, but when on the park is our third best ball user behind Bont and CD. No point in having all these tall forward targets with the ball not being delivered well. I don't think we have anyone ready to step up here who could match Treloar's output. Garcia is a tryer, West is agressive but still raw and doubt he can step into the midfield full time and Bailey Smith's ball use was woeful for most of last year.

Hunter was much maligned, and probably the only player we could really afford to lose.

As you may guess, I'm not at all confident this year.

Yeah we will

 

[Bulldogs Legend]

Defence has to be whole team anyway not one player. I like Dunk as a player but if we are brutally honest we are better balanced by trading him (with 2 firsts in an allegedly super draft to come too).

Dunks form has been way down ever since he left anyway

Certainly the likes on Insta have dried up

 

[Golden_6]

A lot of boys not participating in the main session/match simulation today.

At least Baz, Keath, Gardner, Busslinger, McComb, Gallagher, O’Brien & Crozier. Treloar & Daniel not training at all.

 

[_Cerberus_]

In the recent trade/draft period I thought our two greatest needs were for a KPD and a burst midfielder with good kicking skills. We did the best we could on the former but the cream of the midfielders were gone well before our picks.
Why do we need another classy mid?
Our midfield is rather one-paced and can be opened up by quicker opponents running through the centre of the ground.
Run and speed also helps to support our often under pressure defence.
In big games where we have struggled in recent times it is our midfield that has been mentioned in numerous game day threads as not playing to its potential or not playing with intensity for 4 quarters. Think our recent Elimination Finals against StKilda (of all teams!), GWS and Freo.
Undoubtedly our midfield is good and if English can hit another level it may yet remain near the best. Some of our main rivals however, have improved their midfields by some margin, particularly Richmond, Brisbane and Geelong.
Hopefully, as many argue here, improvement this season will come from within. It will need to if we're to challenge for the flag.
More depth in this important part of team structure is always a good thing. Therefore, next draft period, bundling our two firsts for the best midfielder available seems like good policy.

We certainly could do with a Petracca type player in the middle, and a natural elite winger.

My concern is still the center bounces. We are not exactly quick on the burst, nor agile as in the hips. So if a team scoops the ball out, and finds someone on the spread, we cannot chase them down. Whether it is mental, structural, match ups, or we just are not good as we thought we were. Starting with the Grand Final vs Melbourne. Go through a few of our games last year and you will find a few games were we let teams go on a quick 5-6-7 goal burst out of the middle in a quarter or across a matter of minutes. They just walked it out of their like our midfield do not even exist.

This is where our defence was shown out for being poor. 6 on 6 situations and still lose their opponent, or allow a big run on the lead. Bevo likes to make excuses on turn overs leaving us exposed at the back, which is fair. But 6 on 6 from the middle bounces, zero excuses really, they all have their own man, be accountable.

We need our midfield and forwards to not only get back to our 2021 best of restricting opponents coast to coast ability. But gaining control of the center again. We still do well at stoppages, and clearances. But its the ability to not look like a deer in the head lights this year, and adjust quickly to teams running the ball out, and not allowing those kind of game killing runs. That is what I want to see.

I'm good with using 3 high picks on mids over the next two seasons. Age profile is a little unbalanced in the middle.

 

[Dazb86]

Definitely need to find an elite wingman for the current set up. Someone with pace and a penetrating kick who runs hard both ways.

Looking to the future we're still a KPD short and need to start finding quality mids. The forward line is completely sorted.

 

[Smiley Boy]

Sam Darcy is going to rip teams apart in the next couple years

 

[Golden_6]

Darcy should definitely be in our round 1 team as a defender. Surround him with 2 of Jones, Gardner & Keath.

Taking contested marks against Naughton & Lobb is no easy feat.

 

[VitalDread]

Watching the second half of the match Sim and 6v6 drills to full field coverage

Dogs footy is going to be quick this year
A lot of handball carry and spread the ground

Darcy will dominate and held Naughton in the Sim I watched

McLean looking so strong, even brought down libba with a hard tackle

 

[Libba39]

Thanks for the rundown Eeyore

I liked Schache, but we couldn't afford to lose him? That's a new one

Ummm...was talking about the midfield

 

[Libba39]

You lost me at Treloar’s a better kick that Dale


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Put Dale in the pressure of the centre square and see how he would fare instead of getting easy kicks off half back. Zero comparison.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Watching the second half of the match Sim and 6v6 drills to full field coverage

Dogs footy is going to be quick this year
A lot of handball carry and spread the ground

Darcy will dominate and held Naughton in the Sim I watched

McLean looking so strong, even brought down libba with a hard tackle

Careful of those 4 knees!

 

[Doggy]

Ummm...was talking about the midfield

You weren't clear..

And that's also debatable

 

[Nat Fyfe]

Watching the second half of the match Sim and 6v6 drills to full field coverage

Dogs footy is going to be quick this year
A lot of handball carry and spread the ground

Darcy will dominate and held Naughton in the Sim I watched

McLean looking so strong, even brought down libba with a hard tackle

Don't know if that's a massive positive for Darcy or negative for Naughton...

Loving the development of Darcy, but hope Naughton doesn't start losing match ups against 2nd year players

 

[geoffjennings79]

Not a gambler at all, but if I had $100 to spare on a Toby McLean Brownlow/Coleman/Norm Smith combo....

 

[geoffjennings79]

You are boring me and everyone else now.

No, HE'S not....

Lighten up Francis.