Toast Round 2 = Western Bulldogs 70-76 Collingwood

[Apex36]

A lot of Darcy's marks were a 209cm bloke with his arms out stretched jumping in the air. Murphy at 193cm wasn't going to bridge that 16cm gap, even 3rd man up.

Exactly. I hate saying it because Darcy has one of the most punchable faces in the AFL (although I probably couldn’t even reach it to connect), but when he’s going up and marking the ball at the highest point of his leap with arms fully outstretched like last night I don’t think there’s a player in the AFL who can stop him.

 

[jimmy35]

Good to bank a win that’s for sure. Kudos to the Bullies though, I thought they were outclassed and starting to feel the pinch but they ground out a real Sons Of Scray effort on their big night.
The improvement we’ve got to come is exciting though.

 

[YouBeauty]

Many salty deliberate out of bounds videos going around. We were shafted at the SCG last year so consider it payback you campaigners.

 

[J Albert]

Reckon this win is being undersold by a few on this board.

We were very sloppy in front of the big sticks, yes, and were probably a 4-5 goal better side on that performance with even average goalkicking.

But to ship a 20 point deficit early, and reel it in, and dominate the run of play for the vast majority of the next 3 quarters, and to do it all while the doggies were playing inspirarionally brave footy on their 100 year anniversary, in their biggest game of the year, with Libba and Darcy and Richards all putting in career games...

...I don't know, I thought it was gutsy as hell. We ground it out and showed a lot of heart when the game script and the occasion couldn't have been more against us.

The dogs are undermanned, but they won't play with that intensity again all season. And we didn't just withstand it, we kinda dominated it (just didn't put it on the scoreboard).

Really good win, I thought

This is exactly what I thought too. Great summary! Add reef going down and affecting morale too.

 

[partypie]

After having slept on it I'm still not enthused about how we played last night, but I'm mindful that last year we were losing games when our collective performance was not up to standard against mid-table teams (including the Bulldogs), whereas last night we found a way to win.

Might be hard to keep things in perspective from week to week, but we're coming off a long run up after the myriad issues we had last season so if we can keep scrapping out these wins when we aren't playing at or reasonably close to our best in this first half of the season then it will put us in good stead for later in the year.

Really need to find a way to plug that hole in the lock down KPD spot down back though, Moore did pretty well after that reset at half time with not sagging off Darcy as much as he was. Now we need either Frampton or Dean to come in and play a role for the full season now, so we can continue to free up Moore (and Howe) to play their intercept game as a lot of our quicker ball movement comes directly from those intercepts down back.

 

[Pleasedontfail11]

Good to bank a win that’s for sure. Kudos to the Bullies though, I thought they were outclassed and starting to feel the pinch but they ground out a real Sons Of Scray effort on their big night.
The improvement we’ve got to come is exciting though.

Felt like we were the better team for most of the night, we just didn't convert many fairly easy shots on goal. The umpires definately favoured us but not many decisions got us direct goals.

 

[Silky23]

Exactly. I hate saying it because Darcy has one of the most punchable faces in the AFL (although I probably couldn’t even reach it to connect), but when he’s going up and marking the ball at the highest point of his leap with arms fully outstretched like last night I don’t think there’s a player in the AFL who can stop him.

Darcy is a unicorn .... That's why it's imperative that you put body on legally and don't allow him a proper run and jump at the footy.

Moore continued to play 3-4m off him and allowed him to run and get the ball at it's highest point.. You cannot play Darcy that way, and unfortunately for Moore, that's how he likes to play so it allows him an opportunity to intercept.

Moore is gonna have to improve as we have nobody else to come in to play on a Darcy type and wrestle given Howe plays the exact same way and Frampton doesn't have the size.

 

[domus]

McCreery won 3 out of the 4 center bounces attended.

Lipinski really needs a rocket for his lack of physical want and effort in contesting the ball in dispute or making it into a contest at all. Slowed up to not contest and backed out multiple times. It costs us.

Bad luck to Reef hopefully he recovers well.

Howe and Steele stood up, Pendles had some moments in the last Q too.

Not sure with Pendles they need to experiment more with him either HFF or HBF.

Pendles was superb in the last term-no experiments required!

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

I did a comment in the game day thread saying this too.

Said McStay has money in dogs and you can’t convince me otherwise. (Joking of course for those who can’t discern such things)

He had a shocker. Few brain fades. Nothing much went right for him.

He kicked poorly in general, but he still had 4 scoring shots, 14 disposals, 5 marks, 4 I50s (even if one was directly to WB) and 5 score involvements. If he kicks 3.1, which he should have, it’s a big game

Exactly. People are acting like he played like curnow. He was heavily involved, just had a mare with decision making and execution

I thought he was perfectly ok in the first half

I just legitimately believe that terrible miss before the half just sapped all his confidence and nothing went right for him after that

The only truly positive thing he did in the second half was that strong contested grab in the last, which he then almost immediately ruined with a hospital pass to Schultz

 

[Pistol Night]

Many salty deliberate out of bounds videos going around. We were shafted at the SCG last year so consider it payback you campaigners.

Let the flogs melt away. Like all the videos and let them melt more

 

[partypie]

He is the best KPF in the game already. There’s going to be an exciting era of watching him, Thilthorpe and the Kings terrorise defences. Just hope we can land one of them.

Thilthorpe would be a good get, but the small window of time where he might have been gettable is long gone now. Fella probably needs to trim down a bit though going forward, he's turned into a gorilla in an era where KPD's are built and cover the ground more like thoroughbreds.

 

[JuniorB]

Darcy is a unicorn .... That's why it's imperative that you put body on legally and don't allow him a proper run and jump at the footy.

Moore continued to play 3-4m off him and allowed him to run and get the ball at it's highest point.. You cannot play Darcy that way, and unfortunately for Moore, that's how he likes to play so it allows him an opportunity to intercept.

Moore is gonna have to improve as we have nobody else to come in to play on a Darcy type and wrestle given Howe plays the exact same way and Frampton doesn't have the size.

Frampton is actually the only one that has the size, because he's the only other defender we have that's over 200cm.
He might struggle athletically against Darcy, though.

 

[Piesinmyeyes]

Let the flogs melt away. Like all the videos and let them melt more

Agree, melt as much as you like.
Add the Freo draw last yr.
Blatant rip off.

 

[sr36]

Sam Darcy actually wrapped his leg over Darcy’s leg so he couldn’t kick even if he tried!
Very harsh HTB in my opinion.

Those ones with no prior but ball not pinned, but can't really dispose really irk me.

 

[partypie]

Frampton is actually the only one that has the size, because he's the only other defender we have that's over 200cm.
He might struggle athletically against Darcy, though.

Might struggle physically against Darcy as well, he (Frampton) is not really adept with his 1v1 body work or defensive positioning in marking contests and his movement in general is sometimes noticeably lacking when he "loses" his opponent when he is having an "off" day.

It is no coincidence that the games where he has managed to play a bit tighter and not let his opponent get off the chain (and not crack the shits as much or just drop his head when he loses a contest) are the ones we've generally given him a pat on the back for, we just need to see more of those efforts and less of the games where he looks all at sea.

If he can find a way to maintain focus and intensity at a level where he can play tighter and halve most of the marking contests he is involved in (ie. not get totally exposed) then that will go a long way to shoring up our back line.

 

[Silky23]

Might struggle physically against Darcy as well, he (Frampton) is not really adept with his 1v1 body work or defensive positioning in marking contests and his movement in general is sometimes noticeably lacking when he "loses" his opponent when he is having an "off" day.

It is no coincidence that the games where he has managed to play a bit tighter and not let his opponent get off the chain (and not crack the shits as much or just drop his head when he loses a contest) are the ones we've generally given him a pat on the back for, we just need to see more of those efforts and less of the games where he looks all at sea.

If he can find a way to maintain focus and intensity at a level where he can play tighter and halve most of the marking contests he is involved in (ie. not get totally exposed) then that will go a long way to shoring up our back line.

Yep spot on

Moore is the only one with enough defensive nous and height/size to truly play on a guy like Darcy

Frampton has the tools but isn't strong enough and lacks the defensive knowledge to get the job done

Billy is going to have to improve leaps and bounds if we are a serious threat when we play teams with the big keys

 

[partypie]

Sam Darcy actually wrapped his leg over Darcy’s leg so he couldn’t kick even if he tried!
Very harsh HTB in my opinion.

With the way umpires are adjudicating holding the ball free kicks now that is essentially the perfect tackle, lock up one arm and impede the ability to get the ball onto the boot.

I have to admit I'm actually a fan of how they're rewarding the tackler more now, none of this "rotate 1080 degrees and then get a handball off or manage to have the ball glance off your toe 5 seconds later" crap that we used to see.

 

[Silky23]

With the way umpires are adjudicating holding the ball free kicks now that is essentially the perfect tackle, lock up one arm and impede the abolity to get the ball onto the boot.

I have to admit I'm actually a fan of how they're rewarding the tackler more now, none of this "rotate 1080 degrees and then get a handball off or manage to have the ball glance off your toe 5 seconds later" crap that we used to see.

I completely agree

My issue and it has been this way for a millennium is the complete inconsistency with the HTB rule

Darcy gets pinned where it looked like he basically had zero prior, yet players with an opportunity to dispose and completely drop the ball get called play on far too many times.

 

[jmac70]

With the way umpires are adjudicating holding the ball free kicks now that is essentially the perfect tackle, lock up one arm and impede the abolity to get the ball onto the boot.

I have to admit I'm actually a fan of how they're rewarding the tackler more now, none of this "rotate 1080 degrees and then get a handball off or manage to have the ball glance off your toe 5 seconds later" crap that we used to see.

Unfortunately there were a number of tackles after, that were not rewarded.

 

[thebaldfacts]

Just happy to get a win. It was always going to be a fired up Bulldogs for their 100th anniversary and the fact we lost McInnes so early to what unfortunately looks like an ACL, didn’t make it any easier. It was a credit to our guys that they wrested back control and were It not for poor kicking at goals and dropping easy marks, the result would of been a comfortable 3-4 goal win. The game showed also how important Checkers is to us. With McStay having a shocker in front of goals and Membrey being unsighted, think we really missed Checkers up and down running. Howe is still such an integral part and his safe marking a feature.

Lots of room for improvement but premierships aren't won in March.

 

[TradeDraft]

Houston had a Quite Game I thought

Had moments but not a Full Game

 

[sr36]

I completely agree

My issue and it has been this way for a millennium is the complete inconsistency with the HTB rule

Darcy gets pinned where it looked like he basically had zero prior, yet players with an opportunity to dispose and completely drop the ball get called play on far too many times.

It's because the ball wasn't pinned.

 

[Silky23]

Houston had a Quite Game I thought

Had moments but not a Full Game

Think a lot of that came down to Reef going down and the back 6 needing to have a major reshuffle. Houston was then asked to play a bit deeper to help provide cover, which meant he couldn't play the true roaming game we want him too.

The moments you speak about though - 55m snag and huge intercept mark in the 4th were massive moments for us.

 

[Exambolor]

Let the flogs melt away. Like all the videos and let them melt more

No one was getting outraged over the Sydney game last year….. but any other club they do

 

[TradeDraft]

Think a lot of that came down to Reef going down and the back 6 needing to have a major reshuffle. Houston was then asked to play a bit deeper to help provide cover, which meant he couldn't play the true roaming game we want him too.

The moments you speak about though - 55m snag and huge intercept mark in the 4th were massive moments for us.

Very Good Point and Yeah his Moments where Big