Bon’t just has to raise his arm, and they give him a free, even if he is holding the ball with that arm.
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How did we improve a forward line that was basically a cot case through most of the Worsfold era ( no Joe to rely on) and in the first year of Truck, rose to #4 for points scored ( 1953) given that Tippa and Stringer already played in the forward line.
3 things basically, without the luxury of a Hawkins, Lynch, Cameron etc we needed to lock the ball in with a “blue collar” work ethic. We got the best out of Hooker in his last year. But mostly, we worked on offensive ball movement and the connection between midfield and forwards.
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I forgot what it’s like to going into a finals game with hope and how ■■■■■■■ long the week drags.
normally it’s just dread and fear about what the hell is coming. at least this time the hope gives at least the possibility of something different happening.
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Don’t disagree with any of that. I was just making a joke out of some former player’s names. I definitely should have included a hooker in it now that you mention him.
Game is still a full 3 days and 4 hours away.
I think I’m gonna watch a full replay of the Rd.21 game and write down some notes.
Essentially, how did we hang on in the 1st qtr when they had clear ascendancy and won contested possessions by something like 20 ?
Past meetings they’ve put 5 goals on us !
Also, what role did Clarke play in Libba having one of his lowest clearance totals for the year.
And if Clarke did play a major role, do we believe an underdone McGrath can be as effective in the defensive midfielder role ?
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probably comes down to a fair bit of luck, they kick 2-3 more goals and the game takes on a vastly different landscape.
but then i say the same about when essendon makes the same mistakes. that why stewart is a very big red flag going into this game, the 2-3 goals it feels like he gives away every week which should be avoidable, is the only thing that is worrying me about losing the game.
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Yeah they kicked their way out of a dispiriting lead against us, and weren’t hard gets either, just lucky for us. And watching the 3rd quarter v Port they kicked 3 straight with 6 minutes to go to be 20 points up. Not sure where the “Dogs were rubbish for the 2nd half” narrative’s coming from. We’ll need to be massively switched on.
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He doesn’t, but that’s what the anti Stewart brigade will cling to.
Fact is, we don’t have a Weitering, or Harris Andrews, or Steven May.
We have Stewart or Zerk or Francis.
They all have their deficiencies.
It’s an area of weakness that we hope a young player will upgrade on shortly (within 2 years).
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I didn’t think Clarke played on Libba much at all. But I’ll be interested to see your analysis after watching it again
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Same, think you will find Clarke didn’t have a tagging job, just played a high half forward role, people have imagined that he tagged Libba cause Libba was quiet. I think it was a team effort in the centre square to block Libba out.
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I didn’t think he did either, but I remember Scooter mentioning it in his Podcast, so I will pay particular attention to who is manning Libba up at Centre Bounces & Stoppages.
Tasmanian friends, family and lovers, what pub will be filled with us prior to the game on Sunday?
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See you at the Inveresk 1ish
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Ditto…he’ll be completely under-done. Plus he’s long in the tooth now and hopefully cooked.
Yeah they missed a chance at the end of the first half and a number of chances at the end of third which could have upset our momentum and made the score board feel a bit different. Felt we owned the last quarter and probably would have run away with it if Smith hand balled to merrett. Instead it was a very nervous least 7 minutes as they came at us.
They also jumped us in the first and I’m not quite sure how we managed to hang in there but we did. I haven’t rewatched that quarter
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And now watching the last quarter Dogs v Port. On what planet was anyone watching this and saying the Dogs were a rabble? It’s a hard fought finals type game between two top teams. Dogs lead the majority of the game, are a couple of straighter kicks from winning it and a number of Port’s goals are quite arsey against the play.
I hope it knocked them around but more likely it’s way better prep than our last two weeks. Sorry to be naysaying but there’s some crazy talk on here re Dogs a spent force.
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The way I saw it, Clarkes high half forward role included the inside at forward half stoppages. He is one of our better players when in the proverbial “phone box”. In these cases one or both of Merret and Parish stayed more to the outside. Its possible that this helped us to win more than our usual percentage of stoppage clearances.
Of course Merret, Stringer and Parish are fantastic on the inside at centre bounces especially if the ruckmen avoid dropping the ball at the feet of a player like Libba, who just gobbles up the ball in those situations…
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Hurry up then!
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Definitely not a spent force, but they may be low on confidence. It seems to me they are a team that really thrives when confidence is high, so the media is doing us a massive favour by tightening the screws and forcing the players to second guess their ability. We’ll take it.
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