At one stage the ruck contest was Cripps vs Kennedy just to back up the smaller more mobile setup. They forced us to make moves by making moves themselves by surrendering the ruck.
I thought that was good thinking by Crippa to make the Doggies take Chugga out of the ruck contests. When it’s Chugga vs a second ruck, he can provide an advantage but he just couldn’t compete against Crippa.
The Bulldogs had 58 inside 50s to our 48. That indicates a breakdown in team defence and significantly more pressure on our defenders, as does the Bulldogs 16 tackles inside 50.
Despite that, our defenders, ably led by Weiters, allowed the Bulldogs only ten marks inside 50 and prevented them from kicking a winning score. Weiters took as many marks as the Doggies’ forwards did inside 50 but he did take several up the ground. Our defenders grabbed 50 marks between them, most inside our defensive 50.
It’s our midfield coaches that need to address defensive deficiencies, not Ash Hansen.
i just think someone Ash hansen should be moved on been there long enough
If anyone goes, he has to be most likely but, as I said previously, he has done a great job with our defenders this season and Fraser is full of praise for him.
I thought that we dominated the game but some wayward kicking from quarter time onwards kept the Bulldogs in the contest.
100% agree, the stats are most likely good because we had 2, 3 or 4 good disposals in the row then burnt the last one, at least that is what I saw but I wasn't there live!
It's probably another good example of how stats can retrospectively paint the wrong picture, or cause people to draw the wrong conclusions.
Yes, we had a bazillion more disposals than the Doggies and most hit the target, as our bazillion more uncontested marks shows.
More often than not, that ill-directed or overly aggressive kick came at the start of what should have been a possession chain. That often gave the Dishlickers the pill forward of their defensive 50 and their rebound caught our mids and defenders out of position.
It seems to me that, if we nail the first couple of disposals, we’ll usually put together a chain of possessions that results in an inside 50.
On occasion, we have a problem converting dominance into scoreboard results - 20 points up 10 mins into the second quarter, we should have been looking to turn the screw. Instead, we became patchy again, and our inside 50 delivery was appalling. Same thing happened in the Rich and Ess games a few weeks back.
It's like we 'pitch' our game to the level of the opposition - and if you give an opponent a second chance, they will probably exploit the offer. We are simply not ruthless enough yet to squash teams consistently.
Bevo out-coached Fraser with centre clearances - we started so well, but let them take control. And yet their plan was so simple - hit it straight down, Libba in and under as usual feeding it out to Richards, Sanders and others for a simple take away.
Hoping this isn't the 'real' Blues, as opposed to the side that smashed Brisbane with precision kicking and perfect F50 craft.
I thought that we dominated the game but some wayward kicking from quarter time onwards kept the Bulldogs in the contest. The only stat that we "lost" was inside 50s and I guess that shows how well our defence held up.
I was surprised to see that our disposal efficiency was much better. Where, when and how you turn the ball over can be more important than how many times you turn it over.
How good was it to have Weiters back where he belongs?
He wasn't at his absolute best but his marking, both in defence and as a target when were transitioning from defence, was a key factor, as was his spoiling, accurate disposal and steadying influence. And no! I don't buy the baseless speculation that Weiters is a negative influence.
I was a little concerned that Lewis Young going out of the team would reduce our flexibility but Weiters' return gave Fraser the opportunity to move our talls around and try Derksen as a KPF.
The post-match interview with Weiters is good value. Apart from the cuteness overload from Florence, it was interesting to learn that it was the "Fossil", Nick Haynes, who instigated the save the game tactics, Haynes and Georgie Hewett are the most reliable teammates, and Weiters doesn't need to teach Harry Dean anything. One other interesting snippet was the conservative approach to Weiters' rehab and return to play.
It's bad luck that the boys couldn't sing the club song for Weiters and Crippa's 200th game together but the game was still notable for us making the knockout round after such a dismal start to the season.
Derksen's "goal" has been awarded to Frankie. The replay shows quite clearly that the ball was behind the goal line when Derksen “marked” it. The goal umpire obviously thought that Derksen had marked and goaled so the ARC must have overruled him.
The dogdy AF Free kick to Freijah (high contact by Dean I think) in the first (goal resulted) The non free kick to George for Weightmans Toby Green studs to his groin (goal resulted) Thats 3 goals which in a draw is diabolical.
Not paying a free against Weightman for Tobying George was a shocker!
Paying a free against Dean when Haynes marked going back with the flight was another diabolical decision. What’s Dean supposed to do, step aside?
As bad as those decisions were, repeatedly delivering the ball lace out to an opponent or a teammate at a disadvantage didn’t help. Kicking down the line to an Evans vs Lobb contest probably isn’t the best option 🙄
I’m concerned that Wilbur may have suffered a syndesmosis injury or an equally serious lower leg fracture from his heavy landing. If so, it will create an opportunity for Ison, Moir or Hollands but we’ll miss Wilbur.
