Preview Round 2, 2023: Western Bulldogs v St.Kilda - Marvel Stadium, Saturday 25th March, 7:25PM AEDT

[Sully111]

G’day.

Congrats on a great win. A shame I didn’t get to watch it.

Is Ross Lyon using a full-time tagger? Who are the best candidates to do the role? Bytel? Windhager when he’s fit?

I only ask because I used to love it when Ryan Crowley would shut down the oppositions best midfielder when he played under Lyon at Freo. I found it enjoyable to watch when the opposition’s best midfielder struggled under the tag and was noticeably pissed off. Gary Ablett comes to mind (although he still did pretty well).

Would like to see someone go to one of the doggies best midfielders this weekend and shut them down. I just love the tagging tactic. Call it negative… but I think it’s a great game plan.

Too early to tell at this stage

 

[George]

Windhager will be the only in when it comes to players returning from injury.

Can't see Windhager for Butler as they play different positions so maybe Windhager for Bytel.

Unfortunate because I want to see more of Bytel but you have to take out one.

 

[bird_man]

We are never going to get a real handle on Bytel and Byrnes if we don't give them a real crack at it. With injuries to Ross, Billings, Jones etc. there won't be a better chance to find out. Drop them now in the current circumstances and you might as well stamp their papers.

The ball is well and truly in their court

Byrnes is zero chance of getting dropped after that game. He was terrific

Bytel is Bytel. Needs to find more footy.

Windhager will be the only in when it comes to players returning from injury.

Can't see Windhager for Butler as they play different positions so maybe Windhager for Bytel.

Unfortunate because I want to see more of Bytel but you have to take out one.

I can’t see why Windhager can’t play that role. He was drafted as a mid/forward and his pressure is very good.

I’d prefer to see him in the middle though

 

[George]

The ball is well and truly in their court

Byrnes is zero chance of getting dropped after that game. He was terrific

Bytel is Bytel. Needs to find more footy.


I can’t see why Windhager can’t play that role. He was drafted as a mid/forward and his pressure is very good.

I’d prefer to see him in the middle though

Dunno, I see him as a pure midfielder. He could play half forward and rotate, and that's probably what he will do, but I still reckon Bytel is the one that goes.

 

[malevu]

I think Butler goes out for him if he's fit. Gives you a bit more freedom to rotate the mids and forwards. Butler is too one dimensional.

Lyon showed in his first stint at the Saints that he likes a small pressure forward. He used McQualter in that role.
With Higgins and Gresham ahead of Butler, I reckon Butler will have his work cut out, if and when we get to field a full team. With the likes of Windy, Jones, Ross, Billings and Coffield all vying for spots I could easily see Butler getting squeezed out and spending a fair while at Sandy. He really needs to lift his game in the next 5-6 weeks otherwise he'll just become a spare parts player.

 

[prophetic1]

Perhaps it's been asked, I am not sure, haven't read enough if the forums... But are we a faster thinking team without MEMBREY.... EVen without KING.... there's a lot to suggest the young bloods are not fettered by our stodgy recent past!

 

[tim_saints]

Lobb out with an ankle, had minor surgery on it today

 

[dougiemac]

Dogs are a bunch of gormless mouth-breathers. We've got this.

 

[DougalHoward]

Lobb out with an ankle, had minor surgery on it today

That helps them if anything

 

[Plugger35]

I think given the dogs backline atm especially if Jones doesn’t get up, we can score anyway, we saw that last night against a good defense

No need to rush them back, we want 15-20 good games out of them the rest of the year

We only scored 10 goals though, we won't win many games like that, we were just fortunate to play a team whose forward line was worse than ours.

We still need to improve our forward line and get more goals which will obviously happen when we get King, Membrey and Hayes back but in the meantime we have to make do with what we've got.

Bringing in Sharman would be about the only meaningful change we could make to the forward line personnel wise so improvement mostly needs to come from improving our forward entries which were quite poor at times yesterday. Too often we bombed the ball in like King was still there and were outmarked by the Freo defenders, with a smaller forward line we need to lower the eyes and hit up our forwards on a lead rather than bombing to packs.

 

[malevu]

If you're tired of all the negative Saints media eg. from dickheads King and Barrett then try this article. Not mainstream media but still nice to read for a change.

St Kilda v Fremantle - The Big Questions - The Mongrel Punt

Grit and determination were the words best used to describe the Saints' efforts against Freo as they proved the critics wrong in Round One

themongrelpunt.com

 

[tim_saints]

We only scored 10 goals though, we won't win many games like that, we were just fortunate to play a team whose forward line was worse than ours.

We still need to improve our forward line and get more goals which will obviously happen when we get King, Membrey and Hayes back but in the meantime we have to make do with what we've got.

Bringing in Sharman would be about the only meaningful change we could make to the forward line personnel wise so improvement mostly needs to come from improving our forward entries which were quite poor at times yesterday. Too often we bombed the ball in like King was still there and were outmarked by the Freo defenders, with a smaller forward line we need to lower the eyes and hit up our forwards on a lead rather than bombing to packs.

Yup 100% I spose that comes with the inexperience down there, if Freo have a strength though it is their defense, looking forward to what it looks like when we get the boys back in the forward line, to go along with some of the younger brigade Owens/Pou

We need to keep Gresh deep forward too because he’s flat out useless kicking inside 50, have him taking shots at goal around his body roving packs and keep him there

 

[2ballz]

Lobb is a bit of a spud but always seemed to turn up against us for Freo, so I'm pretty happy with that news

 

[Plugger35]

Lobb is a bit of a spud but always seemed to turn up against us for Freo, so I'm pretty happy with that news

He was next to useless against Melbourne but at his best he is capable of having a day out and kicking a bag so I'm happy to see him miss this one.

Liam Jones missing this one would be handy too but all reports are saying that his injury was at the minor end and he should be fit to play against us.

 

[Barrels]

- If Webster is fit and Windhager is fit, then Butler out for Windhager for mine. Paton was valuable as the sub, and you don't go making many changes after a win like that.

- If Webster isn't fit, but Windhager is, then Paton to the 22, Windhager in, and Butler to the sub.

- If Webster is fit, and we're cautious with Windhager, then no change.

- If Webster isn't fit, and we're cautious with Windhager, then Paton into the 22, and someone into the sub spot.

Likely XXIII

IN: Windhager
OUT: Butler

B: Webster - Howard - Wilkie
HB: Wang.-Mil. - Battle - Sinclair
C: Hill - Clark - Wood
HF: Gresham - Caminiti - Windhager
F: Owens - Cordy - Higgins
Foll: Marshall - Steele - Crouch

Int: Phillipou Bytel Byrnes Stocker
Sub: Paton
​

Worth noting Lobb and Weightman are going to miss through injury, and Jones is banged up.

We're an outside chance here, gang.

 

[bird_man]

would have made sense for the Dogs to drop one of their big guys anyway. They were way too big and slow on the weekend.

Even the backline now with Jones, Bruce and Keith. If we can use the ball a bit better going forward we may be a chance.

 

[Saintos The ITK]

- If Webster is fit and Windhager is fit, then Butler out for Windhager for mine. Paton was valuable as the sub, and you don't go making many changes after a win like that.

- If Webster isn't fit, but Windhager is, then Paton to the 22, Windhager in, and Butler to the sub.

- If Webster is fit, and we're cautious with Windhager, then no change.

- If Webster isn't fit, and we're cautious with Windhager, then Paton into the 22, and someone into the sub spot.

Likely XXIII

IN: Windhager
OUT: Butler

B: Webster - Howard - Wilkie
HB: Wang.-Mil. - Battle - Sinclair
C: Hill - Clark - Wood
HF: Gresham - Caminiti - Windhager
F: Owens - Cordy - Higgins
Foll: Marshall - Steele - Crouch

Int: Phillipou Bytel Byrnes Stocker
Sub: Paton
​

Worth noting Lobb and Weightman are going to miss through injury, and Jones is banged up.

We're an outside chance here, gang.

Could almost do a perennially injured best Saints 22 from that last few years.

 

[lewdogs]

Their backline looks putrid.

Their forward line seems all over the shop.

Marshall should destroy English.

We are a huge show here.

 

[SteeleSaints]

Lobb out injured is significant for us managing their tall forwards -

Dogs tall undergoes surgery, forward to miss weeks

Rory Lobb has been ruled out of the Bulldogs' clash against the Saints

www.afl.com.au

 

[sammm]

In the presser he said a couple will come back. So Windhager and Membrey? Not sure who else would be ready.

On Pixel 7 Pro using BigFooty.com mobile app

Maybe Ross?

 

[George]

Lobb out with an ankle, had minor surgery on it today

Now just need 13 more.

Or maybe it doesn't matter

 

[PoppedCorn]

im rather confident

i think the team will be as well, they know what they can do now

only thing i worry about is can the pace be kept up for 4 qtrs each week


other than that i think we are genuine chance against most teams on our day with no injuries


us by 4 goal and the crowd to be even bigger and louder

windy in for bytel which is tough but too bad, its only going to get tougher as injuries come back into the side over the next six weeks

 

[triggering bro]

Remove Butler from the 23. Windy & Paton into the 22. Bytel sub.

 

[King_Steele]

Remove Butler from the 23. Windy & Paton into the 22. Bytel sub.

 

[hangdog]

NGL, I'm terrified of the Bulldogs forward line monsters (4 players between 196cm and 206cm). Tallest Freo forward yesterday was Taberner and Jackson when he wasn't rucking and if we're relying on our defence to hold us up under the Lyon gameplan - it'll be interesting to see how it pans out with so many players of that height. We felt bloody small yesterday, personally felt Marshall filled the hole SO many times in the game to cover for our height and make contests just that little harder. It'll be a massive challenge but I've always never rated the Bulldogs backline so hopefully that kinda evens out with our makeshift fwd line atm.

Keep Bytel in, start Windhager HF to replace Butler with midfield rotations.

Lobb is out.