The Bulldogs are a funny side they seem to have patches of good or bad results for four or five games at a time They've beaten the Lions, Adelaide, Collingwood, Melbourne and Hawthorn Yet their attack is one of the poorest in the comp-ranking around 14th "for points for" They were on top of the ladder after round 5 and were 12th by round 9 A real Jekyll and Hyde team. I thought they were very good on the weekend and their pressure threw us off the style we'd been playing in the previous weeks. As a result the errors and turnovers occurred. It was probably typical of our games in the early part of the year...good in parts, not so hot in others.
Yes, when the Dogs are on they are really good. On Sunday, they were outstanding, right at their best.
A combination of their high pressure and the fact we that we lost our composure too trying to hammer in for the final nail to stitch up our Wildcard spot, threw us off our game.
Wouldn't be against them beating the Dees this weekend, meaning Melbourne would play us in the Wildcard round. My playing preference, in order, for our wildcard game is Melbourne, Adelaide, even if it is there, they can be brittle on those occassions, with Collingwood, who are flying, rise to big occasion, and so mentally tough, a distant 3rd.
Personally, we started getting a bit lairy, and were playing selfish footy which resulted in the turnover game being what it was.
The doggies went small and ran, ran, ran against us.
We didnt fare badly, but execution errors really murdered us. Lots of missed handballs. They didnt execute particularly well either, and they set up to chop of the uncontested short football game we had been playing by really applying the pressure, and we needed to play "longer" at times, but failed to take the opportunity.
There didn't seem to be a lot of support on this forum for the wild card round when it was announced Has this changed now that we're part of it?
I don't like it, but will still watch!
Anyone finishing 5th or 6th likes it, anyone finishing 7th or 8th hates it, and anyone finishing 9th or 10th, loves it.
Anyone in the bottom 8 will say that they only fell short by a little bit, and can reach for reasons to justify a poor season.
Personally, finals are the rewards you get for performing throughout the year.
There is one game left, and despite what the ladder says, the body of work across the season is one of the best that I have experienced in the last 24 years, including the year we made the prelim.
We fell short because we didnt manage the moments so well, in similar fashion to yesterdays match vs the Bulldogs.
Al started with Harry being dumb against the boundary.
Bevo pulled off all their talls and their runners went to work, has caused us some headaches because we have a few glacial talls that provide nothing if the games not on our terms.
Thus far team chemistry is looking a bit off.
On current evidence, weitering might be the one thats thrown our balance out. Fun fact, he hasn't played since we beat geelong.
If so, it's not only harsh but robs us of some flexibility. Weiters is one of the best key defenders in the game but that's it. He might put his hand up for the odd ruck contest but he hasn't played as a forward since his second season and has kicked just two goals in the nine seasons since then. Young has shown that he can pinch hit in the ruck and is competent as a KPD or KPF.
I guess that someone has to miss out and whoever does will be stiff.
Hold the phone! So now Weitering replacing Young is harsh? Granted he has played a couple of good games but he is not even in the same discussion as Weters in terms of importance to the team unless I have been on Mars the last few years!
weiters has had a terrible 2026 by his standards.
It is harsh. Lewis youngs played good footy this season even if he isnt as capable.
They are limping into finals, and are looking at the equation of winning the flag the hardest way possible, so they will be looking at making sure they are good to go physically and if that means going interstate, so be it. They can't fall out of finals, there aren't enough games left.
The rest of the ladder is up in the air too much to really worry about where you go or whom you will likely play against. The spots from 3 to 10 are not cemented in enough yet, all that's happened is everyone underneath 12th is mathematically season over.
If the moons allign, they could go as high as 6th, but that means Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Geelong and Collingwood must lose whilst they win both of theirs. Its impossible, as Collingwood face Brisbane, and Geelong have Richmond in the final round.
IMHO< the Wildcards will be Adelaide 7th, Collingwood 8th, us 9th, and the Doggies 10th.
They beat us, we will go to Adelaide, whilst they play Collingwood.
Id rather play Adelaide on recent form.
If they beat us, we are very likely not to play finals at all.
I thought the sniffers were rather keen to impart err.... physical pressure on our blokes (a lot of marginally late, marginally high, borderline excessive stuff), and Acres is certainly doesn't back away from that stuff. I still think sides cling to the trope that we're soft but what I saw on Saturday Sunday suggests otherwise.
It would be unfair to say that our softer players were playing for St Kilda. Pitto certainly had his way with TDK though and I thought that he was looking forward to the final siren midway through the second quarter.
Lyon is never reluctant to resort to questionable tactics but their attempted physicality backfired, like most of Lyon's plans.
I don't think that we've ever been soft but there has certainly been a perception that we are. The addition of Ainsworth, Hayward, Florent, Dean, Byrner, Ison and Derksen has hardened us up.
I think that confidence plays a part too.
Highlight of the day was Byrner going straight through Cam Wilkie.
IMHO, weitering was hardly as dominant as made out.
He had two very poor efforts too which resulted in goals to the saints on Sunday.
1. He assumed a ball was going to carry over for a throw in, just to have a saints player shark it from behind him.
2. Another one where he turned it over in defense.
There was another one where he went the short option to ollie hollands who got caught holding the ball and it was more ollie being indecisive on the next kick than anything else.
Even so, i didnt think he played particularly well against a saints team that wasn't flushed with tall talent.
The Doggies arent overly tall, and our balance is as good as ever. Not sure we need weiters back this week, and would rather play charleson than weiters.
