dogs attacking style

[Kells]

dogs attacking style is to attack from deep in its defensive half and get its big boys to use short passes between each other then get the halves to throw or run it wide and set up tries through long range line breaks.

melb typically dont like playing against teams like this, can this be stopped for 80 mins? my worry is with will chambers apparently re-doing his hamstring that means melb will have to shift o'neill into the centres (whose not big or good enough at reading the play to play centre yet) and have fonua/quinn on a wing (woeful readers of the play - one is too young the other is too old).

so im not sure how o'neill, waqa and fonua/quinn would handle all of those attacks. if melb have chambers it has its own attacking weapon at centre (been amazing this yr) and neilsen defending strong next to him, plus then it can use o'neill's main asset of pace out wide. chambers makes the world of difference.

the dogs attack is hard enough to handle, but if melb lose chambers im even less confident as most of those backs arent good enough readers in defence. especially as it doesnt mattter even if the dogs are defending on their own tryline they score from long distance line breaks.

thoughts?

 

[southwalesrabbitoh]

The way that the Dogs play does lends itself to those that think we should reduce the teams to 12-a-side. We could get rid of the loose-forward as the No.9 plays a lot in the middle of the park and a receiver and passer of the ball, as they have various players passing from acting-half.

Anyway, Josh Morris is awsome and so quick, I fear for our right side defence. I think that Chambers and Waqa will have to on occasions take a risk and blitz, hoping for an intercept or a man and ball tackle. I can't see us winning, the Dogs are just too good all-round.

 

[Bman26]

Who said Chambers re-did his hammy?

 

[Noa]

Left training paddock early holding it.

Key to beat the Dogs is

1. Turn there big men around early and often with kicks. Try to keep it in play as much as possible
2. Work them over in defence
3. Get up quick and in there face to disrupt ball movement.

If we can do these things we'll win. IF we cant we'll lose, its that simple really.

 

[Packy]

Hi guys, Dogs can't be stopped. If it looks like you are getting on top of us, we'll unleash the Kris Keating faceball attack. That is a match turner every time.

 

[kia ora storm]

Left training paddock early holding it.

Key to beat the Dogs is

1. Turn there big men around early and often with kicks. Try to keep it in play as much as possible
2. Work them over in defence
3. Get up quick and in there face to disrupt ball movement.

If we can do these things we'll win. IF we cant we'll lose, its that simple really.

Spot on...limit their attacking space.

Souths gave Inu and Morris too much room to move IMO.

I have also noticed that Pritchard and Kasiano drift in and out of games and this is an aspect that Bellamy will exploit as Norrie, Proctor and Bromwich can play longer minutes on a consistent level.

The big key however is Cronk - if he gets his kicking game on the money he will aim to push his kicks deep into the corners which will nullify Barba and ensure that their wingers have to push in field to get territory which means less metres.

Smith will dart from dummy half to catch Tolman, Kasiano and Reynolds out of position.

I would also target Inu...great player but can get lazy at times in his read of the game.

 

[Grapple]

If you take out Keating, then we're gone.... You guys target him and we'll target Cam Smith.

 

[Kells]

another issue is the lack of defending melb have had to do recently, in the last 2 games melb have had all the ball and rarely had to defend their own try line repeatedly - in fact i only recall 1 attacking set from manly and that resulted in a try to lyon before half time. even in the souths game in the 2nd half they made several easy line breaks and got up the park easily, however they didnt make the right option on tackle 5 (like they didnt do vs the dogs last week)

so the concern is not having to grind and scramble in defense for a few weeks will cause issues against the dogs who will TEST melb by running the ball side to side in order to avoid those forward battles in the middle of the park. as melb havent had to press up their line and scramble from edge to edge so much recently the dogs cant catch them by surprise and run all around melb LITERALLY.

very concerned that 2 dominant wins may not have the players ready to scramble as hard as they will need to in defense.

 

[afinalsin666]

Agreed on the worry of the try line defense, but i don't think they will get there that often. The Dogs aren't really the team to grind out consecutive drop outs, they are more of a blitz team, creating linebreaks from anywhere. Their greatest strength, thankfully, is where our best defensive work happens, in the mid field, shutting down the ruck, and sliding defense, shutting down the edgemen.

We shut down Luke and Inglis like it was nothing, so I'm not too worried about our defensive preparation. The boys just need to keep their heads up and I'm sure they will do fine.

The game plan should be to dominate the ruck, wrestle the Dogs players onto their backs so we get dominant calls, keep them in their end of the field, and force them to kick long. The Bulldogs halves are weak in that area, and with Slater on his game, cutting apart the line on the kick returns, we shouldn't have to worry too much field position wise.

And the way the Dogs have been serving up errors the last two games, makes me worry even less.

 

[BourbonRat]

Dogs GF attacking style ?
Push - Choke - Bite

 

[LESStar58]

That defense, from both sides, was gargantuan!

Bulldogs had points put on them through errors and ill-discipline. Take those out of the equation and the score is possibly only 8-4 at fulltime. The Dogs should not have their defense go unheralded.

Top effort. Didn't even mind the scoreless second half!