OFFICIAL | PRE-GAME Round 9 | Pre game | Bulldogs vs Tigers

Status
Not open for further replies.
G

GA45

Kennel Addict
Joined
Apr 28, 2017
Messages
6,909
Reaction score
8,494
CrittaMagic69 said:
We shouldn't be reshuffling our spine to cover a back. We lose far too much moving Tracey from fullback.
Click to expand...
You do realise when you replace someone due to injury it’s not perfect. It’s shit someone gets injured and for us it’s generally first half we get fucked in the arse every game. Having someone like Taffe on the bench who can allow us to cover 1-7 is probably the best we can do for a bad situation. I don’t believe there is a better option in the club to cover that many positions in the backline Prove me wrong !
 
wendog33

wendog33

Kennel Immortal
Premium Member
Ladder Champion
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Messages
25,898
Reaction score
29,639
ShepardDog said:
4th best PA only behind sharks storm and panthers. We should win but we can make it tricky for ourselves if we underestimate them. They’ll be looking for a win after losing the last 4 games.
Click to expand...
Hope the guys aren't as cocky as some on here lol....luckily they have CC to keep them settled lol
 
CQDog

CQDog

Kennel Legend
Premium Member
Ladder Champion
Joined
Nov 29, 2020
Messages
10,365
Reaction score
13,463
Scared about Uto, Papali’i, and Twal. Bateman in the middle for them is better for us. Completely stifles their attack and is good for a missed tackle or 5
 
Cujo

Cujo

Kennel Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 14, 2020
Messages
2,144
Reaction score
3,062
wendog33 said:
Hope the guys aren't as cocky as some on here lol....luckily they have CC to keep them settled lol
Click to expand...
I don't think CC will allow them to take any opposition lightly(fingers crossed :tearsofjoy:). Our biggest learning as a club after so many years of mediocracy will be to put teams to the sword when the opportunity arises & not lift the foot if we have it on an opponents neck. Unfortunately this is often dependent on team leaders (currently developing) & a 6 & 7 pushing the game forward... also a significant weakness at this point..
 
wendog33

wendog33

Kennel Immortal
Premium Member
Ladder Champion
Joined
Aug 6, 2016
Messages
25,898
Reaction score
29,639
Cujo said:
I don't think CC will allow them to take any opposition lightly(fingers crossed :tearsofjoy:). Our biggest learning as a club after so many years of mediocracy will be to put teams to the sword when the opportunity arises & not lift the foot if we have it on an opponents neck. Unfortunately this is often dependent on team leaders (currently developing) & a 6 & 7 pushing the game forward... also a significant weakness at this point..
Click to expand...
Agree but we are def on the up and the jigsaw puzzle pieces being put into place and the mental toughness progressing to allow us to get there.
 
1967

1967

Kennel Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 4, 2020
Messages
3,340
Reaction score
7,329
Tigers will be desperate for a win and won’t be easy beats, they’ll fancy themselves against us, if our blokes approach it with the same defence first mindset they had against the Storm, put some points on them early, frustrate them into mistakes and losing their game plan, Tiges will fall apart and our blokes should run away with it .. really impressed with our line speed lately, let’s hope ref puts the whistle away and let’s them play some open footy ..
 
Psycho Doggie

Psycho Doggie

Kennel Immortal
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
18,819
Reaction score
27,213
NPC83 said:
It’s a small forward pack but I reckon there is a good chance of the team changing a fair bit come game day.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't be the first time this season, in fact it is practically normal at the moment. One of the advantages of a team of utilities...
 
1967

1967

Kennel Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 4, 2020
Messages
3,340
Reaction score
7,329
Lot of supporters here worried about the ref screwing us over …. I really believe CC has instilled into the team to not even think about the ref, they can’t control refereeing decisions so why bother worrying about it, if there’s a stack of penalties, 6 agains, trust in your defence and team mates, play good footy, pile on the points and get the better of the ref by winning the game anyway .. keep doing that and the refereeing tables will eventually turn and start going our way ..

That’s the only way to take them on, win in despite of them ..

Even against Suttons best efforts to screw us over on Good Friday, we had plenty of chances to still win that game, if our attack had been better we still would have won .. they’ve improved in attack since that game … stuff the ref let their decisions lift them to play even better ..
 
Psycho Doggie

Psycho Doggie

Kennel Immortal
Joined
Mar 25, 2014
Messages
18,819
Reaction score
27,213
Harry Oz said:
Maybe Hughes and Preston start, if Preston is fit?
Curran and Salmon to the bench.
Although given it's Wests, Ciraldo might be tempted to keep Hayward and Taaffe on the bench and drop Salmon to 19?
It's interesting to see the Ciraldo 'style' and game plan starting to take shape.
Maybe less big boppers on the bench is a way forward?
Click to expand...
I've had a similar observation. Seems like all of the "teams I'd like to see" that are named on TK have at least 3 (many have 4) large forwards on the bench. CC has sometimes had 1! Another common critique of CC has been his use of the bench, which seems to be minimal. I'm starting to think that part of the CC style is that by default 11 out of the 14 players are expected to play 80 minutes. Of the 3 players that don't, one of them is going to start and get subbed and that is them done. That player plus two middle forwards coming off in the first and back in the second makes 5 of the subs for the game. The other 3 are being reserved for injuries or tactics.

So far as why we don't have many big boppers, we have a range of small forwards that are excellent at defense, they hit well above their body weight, and have less issues with lateral movement and keeping up with the play. But most important of all is our line speed, as has been shown by the data, in the first 7 rounds we have the best line speed in the comp. We make our metres with our defense, first and foremost. When it comes to making metres with ball in hand we are relying a bit more on our backs, and forwards with a bit of footwork like Presto and Curran. Hughes and King are getting some decent hitups and fast PTBs each game, and the team is getting better at responding to that, though Mahoney needs to cut back on his attempts to win penalties in the ruck and do more work to get the ball into the right players hands quickly when the opportunity comes up. Burton's boot is also winning us some handy metres.

This does show up in the stats, as a team we are:

1st for average running metres conceded with 1307. Next best is Panthers with 1367, 3rd is Storm with 1375, then Cows with 1387. By far the worst is Titans with 1596.

But:

17th for PCM averaging 500 (16th is 543, Phins, and 1st are the Raiders with 664).
14th for Run metres averaging 1591 (1st is Warriors with 1906).
6th for Kick metres averaging 620 (1st is Raiders with 671, but that could fall off a cliff with Fogarty out now).

Thing is that despite our low running metres stat, we are right up there for line breaks. Cows are 1st averaging 6.3, then us at 5.7, then Phins and Manly at 5.2. So we haven't needed big PCM in order to make line breaks. JAC is easily our leader for line breaks, with 8 from 4 games, but the rest of them are quite spread out among the team, meaning we have 8 players with 3 or more line breaks for the season. For comparison, Bronks have 5, Sharks have 4, Storm have 6, Eels have 4, Panthers have 4. Threats across the park baby!

One other stat that really stands out is chargedowns. We have 8 for the season, more than 1 a game. Tigers have 6, Raiders 5, Knights 3, there are 3 teams with 2, and the other 10 teams in the comp have 1.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top