Autopsy "The Flu Game" - Bulldogs dismantle Freo

[cherrypie]

Midfield was excellent today. Serong, Brayshaw and Fyfe had 49 fewer disposals and 13 fewer clearances compared to Round 7. Bont, Libba and Treloar led the way and Richards is such a needed X-factor for us, his spread from the contest and delivery inside 50 is excellent.

We adjusted well at Quarter Time to stop their players getting out the back for the quick countering goals. Not sure what we did exactly but their ball movement was stagnant afterwards.

Dale and Bramble excellent off half-back. Bailey Williams had a good game with a few important 1 on 1 wins. Nice to see (nearly) all our forwards contribute - 12 goals between Lobb, JUH, West and Weightman. English competed well in the middle.

Couple of players were our clear bottom but Harmes, Coffield, Darcy and even Naughton will be back soon to fix that. Good to head into the break with a win

 

[Munnez]

I was losing my mind in q1

Whatever team came out after that pls stay

I thought Freo were going to smash us half way through the 1st quarter
Glad to see us adjust and put them to the sword

 

[Chicago1]

Bont's snap for goal after beating three Dockers was sheer magic. The crowd around me went wild. I was also impressed with Westy. He's a real gogetter. His dad was one of my favourite players ever. Wish I could have seen Darcy. I might have to stay around for another year to see him play. And I couldn't believe Bramble. What did he have for brekkie today? Today was the kind of footy that got me addicted 48 years ago.

My brother drove down to Phoenix today from Vegas with an Aussie from Perth who he's known for years as a fellow poker player. He visits Vegas every year. And best of all, he's a Freo supporter. My brother gave him crap about his team 10 thousand miles away!

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[King Harold]

Midfield was excellent today. Serong, Brayshaw and Fyfe had 49 fewer disposals and 13 fewer clearances compared to Round 7. Bont, Libba and Treloar led the way and Richards is such a needed X-factor for us, his spread from the contest and delivery inside 50 is excellent.

We adjusted well at Quarter Time to stop their players getting out the back for the quick countering goals. Not sure what we did exactly but their ball movement was stagnant afterwards.

Dale and Bramble excellent off half-back. Bailey Williams had a good game with a few important 1 on 1 wins. Nice to see (nearly) all our forwards contribute - 12 goals between Lobb, JUH, West and Weightman. English competed well in the middle.

Couple of players were our clear bottom but Harmes, Coffield, Darcy and even Naughton will be back soon to fix that. Good to head into the break with a win

Dale in particular was very good , got us back in the game after Freongot on a roll.

 

[jdz101]

He's always at his best when he can launch at the ball from outside of the pack.

He doesn't have naughtons brute power to jump over or smash packs.

Nor does he have Darcy's core strength that enables him to plant his feet and out reach any opponent.

If we can find a way of getting these 3 to play to their individual strengths then they will be a very difficult combo for any team to negate.

Its likely the most talented forward line I've seen as a bulldogs fan.

Jamarra, Naughton, Darcy are all studs or potential studs. You then have talented smalls in West and Weightman. English swans in from the ruck and bontempelli also spends time down there. Just a lethal combination of players. If they get going against north they could put 200 on the board. They score quickly when the ball is coming in low and to their advantage.

The issue is the lack of balance this has with the rest of the field. The defense still looks way out of sorts to me. You cant really take the team super seriously as a contender when they bleed walk-in goals at the rate they do. Jones has been an honorable servant late in his career trying to anchor the backline, but he makes awful decisions trying to pinch up the field to impact marking contests he can never get to. Khamis' overall positioning is still a bit of a disaster. The quality we have back there is on the flanks and not really defensive impact guys. They need a key backman desperately. They will likely have to overpay in free agency or trade players in that forward line surplus to get a backman.

 

[Munnez]

Midfield was excellent today. Serong, Brayshaw and Fyfe had 49 fewer disposals and 13 fewer clearances compared to Round 7. Bont, Libba and Treloar led the way and Richards is such a needed X-factor for us, his spread from the contest and delivery inside 50 is excellent.

We adjusted well at Quarter Time to stop their players getting out the back for the quick countering goals. Not sure what we did exactly but their ball movement was stagnant afterwards.

Dale and Bramble excellent off half-back. Bailey Williams had a good game with a few important 1 on 1 wins. Nice to see (nearly) all our forwards contribute - 12 goals between Lobb, JUH, West and Weightman. English competed well in the middle.

Couple of players were our clear bottom but Harmes, Coffield, Darcy and even Naughton will be back soon to fix that. Good to head into the break with a win

To me it looked like we chopped out the inboard uncontested mark that often starts the wave running with speed that is very hard to defend.

 

[Dogs till i die]

Westy has such a good football brain, knows what to do and how to do it. In terms of football brains, I'd put him up with Bont. Am I out of order?

 

[Iamspock]

How special for Freo's cheer squad and supporters to see Bont's goal, and his greatness, and Lobb's goal, at the end, up close and personal. Worth the trip over, I'm sure.

 

[brmi]

If we can get/keep our shit together for the rest of the year, look out. We have weapons everywhere. Everywhere.

And that goal from Bont was something else. Absolute magic

 

[mcgleereturns]

Agree his positioning was clueless at times

We wasted 2 years of development as a backman in the VFL playing as a forward while simultaneously drafting generational key forwards that would keep him out as a forward. He’s also not big enough to be a key defender but true he doesn’t know how to defend one on one - but wasn’t taught enough.


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[olimauldon]

Sanders has improved since lowering his socks

 

[Norm De Guerre]

Its likely the most talented forward line I've seen as a bulldogs fan.

Jamarra, Naughton, Darcy are all studs or potential studs. You then have talented smalls in West and Weightman. English swans in from the ruck and bontempelli also spends time down there. Just a lethal combination of players. If they get going against north they could put 200 on the board. They score quickly when the ball is coming in low and to their advantage.

The issue is the lack of balance this has with the rest of the field. The defense still looks way out of sorts to me. You cant really take the team super seriously as a contender when they bleed walk-in goals at the rate they do. Jones has been an honorable servant late in his career trying to anchor the backline, but he makes awful decisions trying to pinch up the field to impact marking contests he can never get to. Khamis' overall positioning is still a bit of a disaster. The quality we have back there is on the flanks and not really defensive impact guys. They need a key backman desperately. They will likely have to overpay in free agency or trade players in that forward line surplus to get a backman.

I agree with this 100%

Especially what you say about the defence.

We can only ever take what the club says about team selection at face value. So one has to believe that Khamis was chosen over Buslinger for the reasons stated. I really like JO'D, but I suspect that he will always be a rangy 3rd tall not really suited to locking down a direct opponent. Pretty much how I see Buslinger at this stage of his career. The saving grace for this is that the the brutish power forwards really only belong to Carlton and us. Most of the rest are rangy marking types like the King bros, Hogan, Daniher, Cameron or Larkey or your typical 3rd talls.

Much depends on whether Buslinger can make the jump into the team and stays. If he doesn't we're going to get a pineapple where the sun dont shine when we are forced to try and pry somebody out of somewhere. Or just go with what we have and tune Croft as a defender and hope he has a Darcy like freakish streak in him. One thing is readily apparent. It can't be Khamis.

I think that the midfield is ok. If today is the blueprint for the future then it's pretty clear that Beveridge is no longer wedded to just using the tried and true of Bont, Libba and Treloar. The mix has been much more balanced in recent times.

It was only in the brief moments when Darcy got first hand to the ball and onto Young with his burst that we looked shaky. I've whinged long and loud about it in here, but Ive come to accept that the swing we saw in the game when it happened today just seems to be a normal part of the momentum swings we see in most games these days.

As we saw today running Richards through the middle for extended periods has been transformational to our side. Dunno if we'll ever seem him in the glorious tri-colours again, but if Smith stays then we'll go from ok, to one being one of the better midfields in the comp.

It's a bit of a problem that we are still reliant on a rookie listed player as our best shut down small defender. And that there is no heir apparent on the list as far as I can tell. Im not sure which one, but I'd love to see us groom one of our fringe mids for the role.

Anyways...

 

[Zeno The Great]

For mine our 3 weakest links chosen week in week out in order are vdm, Gallagher and bramble. The former 2 did nothing to change my view, bramble was brilliant today. Thought he started the season really well, dropped off a cliff, but came back today and dominated, credit to him.

Great win, an even performance across the board. I like buku but geez he was metres off his opponent all day and gave up a lot of cheap goals, time for the .

Otherwise today showed we can beat anyone, swans included if we pull it together at one time, especially with Darcy and astro to come in. Great win, go dogs (enjoyed from the aussie bar in phuket..met a ripper dogs supporterin the bar, horse trainer from kyneton)..

 

[Struggle]

JUH technique on set shots looked a lot more fluid and comfortable than earlier in the year

Hopefully he has sorted out those yips

 

[hoianbulldog]

Also Bont is a god

No he isn't, he is real.

 

[bigdog54]

We wasted 2 years of development as a backman in the VFL playing as a forward while simultaneously drafting generational key forwards that would keep him out as a forward. He’s also not big enough to be a key defender but true he doesn’t know how to defend one on one - but wasn’t taught enough.


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This is what I can't get my head around. He shows potential as a 3rd tall intercept defender but has clear deficiencies in one on one defending/positioning. Goes back to the vfl and plays as a fwd, then brought back to afl to play as a kpd. Its not great development is it?

 

[MaxiBont]

My wife just told me we can’t change our 6 year old daughters name to Marcus, absolutely fuming.

 

[dogwatch]

Rhylee West is Bailey Fritsch with salt load of campaigner in him.

And a less punchable head

Yeah, I guess so. But there’s not much in it.

 

[perro_loco]

View attachment 2020295

The lord Bont has cometh to earth to cleanse our souls!!!!

 

[Bulldog rick]

Fantastic game by the boys today. Bont was at his brilliant best. Treloar and Richards great in the middle. Dale and Bramble had great games down back. West surpurb in his 50th. Lobb had a ripper game as well. I could go on and on. English, Jones, weightman ,marra love them all.
But my main man is Libba. Just bleeds red, white and blue.
Bevo said on his tagging role on serong which he offered to do. .."The glint's in his eyes when he offers, and it twinkles when you agree".
Before Bont get a statue next to EJ they need to have one for libba first.
Libba you are a champion.

 

[perro_loco]

Lots to say & I’ll get to it, but just wanted to give a massive shout to Bramble

A mate of mine, a true blue old doggies supporter, humbly said to me: I Like Bramble! I thought 'stupid old fool. Now I think stupid old me'. Wisdom says, time will tell. Now I hope that I am that stupid old me agrees with my old mate and he turns out to be a star.

 

[RWnBluey]

Anyone know where I could find any radio broadcast replay of today’s game?

 

[Libbaaaa]

Amazing what can happen when you make a seagull like Luke Ryan accountable as well. Rhylee West

14

Rhylee West

Age

24

Ht

183cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.3

3star

K

5.7

2star

HB

6.7

4star

M

2.5

3star

T

1.5

3star

G

0.5

3star

D

12.0

3star

K

6.0

2star

HB

6.0

3star

M

2.7

3star

T

2.0

3star

G

0.3

3star

D

13.0

4star

K

5.6

3star

HB

7.4

5star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.4

4star

G

0.6

3star

smashed him in one on ones.

 

[perro_loco]

A mate of mine, a true blue old doggies supporter, humbly said to me: I Like Bramble! I thought 'stupid old fool. Now I think stupid old me'.

My wife just told me we can’t change our 6 year old daughters name to Marcus, absolutely fuming.

Was going to ask my daughter the same question directly, but I changed my mind. I think the repercussions would have been catastrophic had my wife found out. Thanks for the heads up mate!!! I still have my balls intact!!!

 

[Munnez]

Really good team effort today led of course by Bont. I was getting really worried in the second half of Q3 and start of Q4 but we managed to get it back on our terms.

I was shaking my head after the game at the gulf between our best and worst, it's so frustrating and next to impossible to predict which team shows up.

With Darcy and Naughton to come after the bye it puts us in reasonable shape for the second half of the year and I think it's 50/50 on if we make finals.

Daniel was my only concern today, I just don't see a place in the team for him going forward and I don't see him as good sub either, I'd much rather someone like Garcia or Gallagher as the sub. He's really lacking confidence and even when we were dominating late in Q4 he made a couple of unforced errors.

Caleb is feeling too much pressure to perform, and is second guessing himself and becomes hesitant. Which leads him to hang onto it too long then when everyone is manned up he pulls the trigger a makes for a much more difficult kick. And it spirals from there I cannot for the life of me see a role where he can succeed.
Might be time for a fresh start for him elsewhere. Refresh his mind and a second chance may rejuvenate him or possibly the game may have gone past him hope not but it looks grim for him