Pros:
- Betts, Collins, Garlett, McLean, Yarran
- Invaluable experience for Murph as captain
- Bell and Casboult
- Watson back to defence
- Tbird did okay
- Showed some ticker in 2nd half

Cons:
- Starting Watson forward
- Generally woeful in first half
- Bower will be unfairly crucified
- Having to play Jamo when he could do with a rest

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Pro - Ratten comprehensively out coached McCarthy in the 2nd half.

Pros;
The young players
Betts' goal
Yarran's run
Gutsy win
Accurate goal kicking
Garlett looked good.

Cons;
Very few besides a terrible game and terribly umpired.

Absolutely - not sure if you are talking about the incident that BT and Darcy wouldn't shut up about where he ran back with the flight? Paul didn't have a great game, but he didn't wimp out of that mark at all. It was purely a skill error where the ball just hit him in the head which made it look like he had shirked the issue. It's damn hard taking those marks and he was just unfortunate it led to a goal. Many players wouldn't have had the courage to even get to the position of potentially marking it.

Warnock, Robbo, Tuohy back next week.

Possibly Lucas, Kreuzer, Henderson and Waite also.

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Loved Bells work in the first half. He will cause a few headaches down the track. Really happy for casboult, he started off on the rookie list , coped some injuries but out of necessity we persisted. Back last week for first vfl game he gets a call up and did really well.

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Coaching Cons:

Gibbs on Griffin
Carrots on Boyd
Army playing
AJ playing
Watson forward
Bower playing

Coaching Pros:

Watson in defence
Gibbs freed up
McInnes forward
JR forward
Garlett in the midfield at times

Cons:

- Jordan Russell's performance. Reactive. Bruise free. Costly errors. (Better once he went forward but simply not good enough).
- Denny Armfield. Really poor game. Ball in hand and in contest.
- Aaron Joseph. Dissapointing from the point of view he was one of our better ones last week. Dalhaus is a dangerous player and I am not sure his positioning was always up to scratch.
- Mat Watson. As a forward disappointing. Right thinking by the coaching group for more of a target option, and given they had experimented with Bower in the bast Watson seemed the obvious next step.
- Paul Bower. Disgraceful moment when he ducked his head and braced for contact. Embarrassed himself and the football team. It is hard because he is a timid player and this is going to be expected if you play him at the senior level.
- Nick Duigan. Thought he failed to have any impact as the 3rd off player and not really sure he adds to our defensive group at the moment.

PROS:
- Brock McLean second half. Composure ball in hand was outstanding and deserves praise.
- Andy Collins continues to improve with opportunity. Can @#$%&! it up with some costly errors but his effort and goal sense is really good. Enjoying his footy.
- Marc Murphy as captain. Good decision. Think he is our next leader.
- Jeff Garlett decision not to drop. Would have had to be tempting given his inconsistencies but he responded well for the match committee and thought his first half was vital in keeping us in contention. Also think he has more to offer our team rather than a dangerous forward pocket player.
- Ed Curnow back with flight outstanding.
- Bret Thornton fought doggidly in ruck when asked to sacrifice his body for the team.
- Andy McInnes super second half and composure ball in hand and ability to give us something as a forward was outstanding.
- Tom Bell might have only got it 13 times but was an exciting debut and from a running perspective and no fear approach he looks a real player.
- Eddie Betts just can win you a game with special moment. What a special player.
- Matt Watson when back in defence was pivotal in second half turn around. Went for his marks, composed ball in hand, was really good.
- Levi Casboult to do what he did off limited prep was really pleasing and showed something as a key forward second half. Played like a "man".
- Fraser Dale didn't do much but that was a special moment after the siren for a late call up first game sub. Was one of the highlights of the night.
- Coaching group did a good job with some critical moves to change things around. Gibbs back. McInnes forward. Watson back. Garlett more into the midfield. Russell forward. Thornton to spend more time in ruck allowing Levi to be forward. Bower up forward to hide him a bit from the defensive end.

Pros

We won
Levi, Dinger great debuts in the circumstances.

Cons

I tipped Dogs and lost 2nd spot in the work footy tips

Pros:

Not quite sure exactly how we won that game. But good 2nd half.
Accurate kicking for goal (and that's probably the answer).
Nice to get a win over the Bulldogs after losing to them the last couple of times.
Casboult taking marks and splitting packs. I wish our ruckman could do that.
Garlett getting some midfield time, and regaining some form.
Yarran's slicing runs out of defence.
Terrific effort from Murphy (especially against Picken). Betts again. Carrots again. Great leadership from this trio.
McInness. Has a really nice sidestep.
Collins. Still makes some poor decisions, but certainly shows a fair bit.
Bell. Not a great kick, but enjoyed his aggression.
Gibbs getting forward late in the game.
Russell's 2nd half.
Watson starting to body opposition forwards in marking contests.

Cons:

At least 3 of Dalhaus' goals dribbling through the goalsquare. A better defensive structure would have prevented them all.
Duigan wasn't great.
Gibbs first half.
Bower.

Agree completely. If hewas shirking the contest he wouldn't have put himself in that situation in the first place

The problem with incidents like that and Judd last week is the absolute media saturation we have and that they they need to cover every little topic to death to fill in time. Then it boils down to who you are whether you're a target or someone protected.



He outcoached McCartney too.

Again, I agree. Made changes at half-time and it worked.

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Had to because his first half moves were deplorable.

Love the Bulldogs banners with no banner of Luke Darcy in sight.

Lost my mobile phone, good thing Find My iPhone works, can pick it up Monday from Etihad reception.

You are just looking deep into things that didnt work out and trying to find ways to make it the coaches fault.

Deplorable?? If Gibbs had of shutdown Griffin we would have smashed them in the first half. We have seen Gibbs shutdown many a top line midfield player and win enough ball to be dangerous so it was reasonable to expect him to do it again.
Gibbs failed in the role that we know he can do so should take responsibility. We don't want soft players saying i dont want to do a role so i will play crap until i am changed. FOrtunately the coach gave him a new role which he was good at in the second half and helped us get the 4 points.

Watson worth a shot. We want to see what players are capable of for the remainder of the season. We didnt have a lot of options this week.

Pro's :- All the new kids out there having fun.
Murph captain
Yaz
Betts
Heppell turtle knecking against the cats. Soft as butter.

Cons :- Gibbs' first half.
Skills in first half.

Gibbs on Griffin will never work, Griffin is a gut runner with pace, wins his own ball. Pick the right target, or better yet don't give Gibbs a tagging role at all and use him to his strengths so he can influence the result (2nd half as most have said)

Garlett should pinch hit at the centre bounces more often. After watching the Hawks dismantle the Pies, and seeing Cyril do the same thing, why don't we run Garlett out of the centre 5-10 times per game?

Explosive speed and a fairly crisp disposal. Dogs couldn't put a hand on him.

Pendlebury and Goodes have been his victims. No reason to think he couldnt handle Griffen. If they identified Griffen as the source of their scoring and wanted to stop him.

Gibbs has had plenty of games playing his own game and hasn't really shown much in that role (onball). Good second half last night though.

I don't thing it was a deplorable move. Gibbs played poorly in the first half in a role he was more than capable of handling and that made the move suck. Blame Gibbs or let him off the hook and blame the coach for expecting him to do job he has done in the past?

Nah he shit himself

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PROS
Won with very undermanned side.
Always good to see new players
Casboult battled hard even tho he is not a ruck, but when was the last time we had a player who looked like marking in a pack? Certainly a bit to work with there if he can have a good run with injury. Interesting to see who goes for Warnock, but hope Levi is played up forward ag Tiges
Bell - scrubby skills but big strong tough, good side step and really looked like he was rapt to be playing. Need a few more guys that show some genuine enthusiasm. Apart from Robbo we have a team of introverts.
Betts- Probably the most pivotal player in that he had one of only two genuine stars in the Dogs line up on him. He got crucial goals and Bob Murphy was too busy chasing him to be creative
Yarran - will get a hard tag ag the Tiges, but he is silky smooth, wonderful balance. That 2008ND wd stand up to any in the equal quality of the top 10 and lots of other quality players right through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_AFL_D ... onal_Draft (I won't even mention what a bad year it was to give up a 2nd rdr)
Watson - hard to reconcile Ants watchers views with his performance. Has slotted in nicely. Using body well, good hands and will learn to use his big boot as a weapon.
Good point by another poster (Can't remember who) about the 'value'of knockouts. Minson decisively won almost every knock to no great adavntage. Unless your ruck can palm like Cox or NicNat and do the business around the ground, their value can be negated at ground level.
Things might be different next week but lets enjoy this.


CONS
JR and Bower have gone from really promising developing players to nowhere, hard to fathom their backwards undevelopment
Can't put Army in as a con despite disposal errors. Love his endeavour and can live with a few mistakes
How many midfielders would we need out before we play Gibbs there. Oh for the day when other sides have to tag Gibbs. He has elite talent, running around after Ryan Griffin doesn't allow him to use it.
Jammo must be injured, he looks in terrible form. Again a shadow of the player he was two years ago.
The Dogs are dreadful. I used to thnk Cross was a really good player but he just dives on the ball and flicks it to no-one in particular. They haven't lost that many players since their prelim days. Eade, as I've always suspected, must have been a really good coach
Duigan has wonderful endeavour and leadership but looks slow at half back. With McInnes and 2e developing, and Laidler back next year, he might struggle

Pro: we won

Con: it was only the Bulldogs

Pro: games into the kids

Con: only because injuries forced us to, not because of planned player development

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