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After watching the replay, here's my full report,
Attack
Little bit of a mixed night attacking wise. We looked pretty dangerous in good ball attack with some really nice tries and plenty of questions asked. The Dogs defence did struggle a bit too when we spent time on their line.
However, it was getting up there to spend time on their line that was the issue. The boys found it really hard to get out of our end for much of the game, especially in the first half and I actually wasn't too happy with some of the efforts we put in there, especially from the forwards. It just seemed a bit flat-footed, and no one was really charging onto the ball at pace consistently enough. I was getting frustrated with the amount of what I'd call 'soft' runs out there. As a result, we'd often lose the collision, and the play-the-ball would be slow so there was no momentum generated. This was a big struggle throughout the entire game.
This issue was compounded by lots of errors. Way too many, some of them very poor. Just lapses in concentration and not being present for the full 80 minutes. it was so frustrating because for the whole game, apart from the comeback at the end, we'd get a bit of momentum going and start looking okay, only for it to be brought undone by a poor error or wrong option. God, that was frustrating.
Despite all this, I am really proud of the fight the boys showed, particularly some of the young fullas out there. Despite everything going against them, they never gave up and came pretty close to snatching a win with some scintillating play.
So, our attack was decent, just weren't good enough to get field position and maintain it for long periods.
Defence
Certainly the most disappointing part of the night for us. No doubt about that. I know we were missing a lot of player but still conceding 36 points to the Dogs is really hard to except.
I thought the attitude was a bit of defensively once again. Just the little effort areas the boys got so right last week, weren't there in this game. I'm talking line speed, first contact, kick chase, ability to wrap up the ball etc. All these things killed us. It looked bog average at times, and I think we made the Dogs look a lot better than they were.
Goal line defence in particular was a letdown. Some bad reads out there on the edges which I'll get to later. I kind of thought we'd turned a bit of a corner in the second half, there was a period there where we started defending better, had three sets on our line but turned them away again and again. But I was disappointed that the boys couldn't keep that up and go on with it. We cracked again way too easy.
I said coming into the game that the battle in the middle was key and we certainly lost that battle. Defence is a big reason for that.
In saying all this, we can't be too critical. Our side was completely different so of course the defensive structure is going to be mucked around big time. I just thought the boys still could have done better than they did.
Player by Player
Taaffe: Career best game easily!! Feel like I haven't said this much about Taaffey but he was friggin outstanding! Our best player out there. he was the go-to for pretty much everything good we did. The tone was set early in his first touch where we spread the ball just on halfway, he stepped inside and made a half break. if it wasn't for the Burton legs tackle, he would have been away. Didn't get too many opportunities after that for much of the game but that changed with about 20 minutes to go as he really came alive and played some of the best Footy I've ever seen from him. Speed, acceleration, footwork, allusiveness; these are things Blake has been criricised for in the past, but it was all there!! His first try was amazing! Taking the pass from Hawkins, which gets him on the outside of the Dogs' number 22, he identifies that Wilson is back tracking which opens up the space, and Taaffey just puts down the glasses and goes for it with some speed an acceleration I've never seen from him before! He completely burned the Dogs' defence, stepped inside Averillo and crashed over for one of the best tries of his career. Brilliant! He was at it again for our next try minutes later. Great vision to identify the space but underneath, he calls the play off Lachy, again accelerates through a hole, spins through two tackle attempts to not only score a double but get us back in the game too. Amazing play!! On top of the attacking brilliance, his positional play was good, he did everything he could in defence too. Taaffey wasn't 100% perfect though as he dropped one bomb and also threw that ball over the sideline when he once again made a break with his footwork and acceleration. What an opportunity missed that was. Still, take nothing away from him, our best player, did everything he could to keep us in that game. Well done lad.
Johnston: Nothing much to write home about really. Nothing much at all. Hardly saw any ball all night as he was really let down by the guys inside him there. They failed to set him up in any kind of space off the back of shape. That's mainly on Hawkins in my opinion. His carries weren't that great, got monstered in a lot of them and only had 7 runs for 45 meters. That's not really good enough, needed to go looking for the ball more. He did defuse some tough bombs and other kicks though so well done for that. I thought he was personally okay in defence. Kiraz did get one down the left, but AJ did his best, he was caught out by the actions of Kennar for mine. Not a great night for AJ.
Kennar: After a good performance last week, came crashing back down to earth last night. He wasn't that great at all. I'll start with some of the good things though. His carries were okay, tried his best there. Nice pass for Munro's first try. That's about where the good stuff ends though because his defence was awful, all at sea. He was a big reason why we got caught short on the right for the Dogs' second try. You can see him being really passive and retreating like he doesn't know how to read the play; he fails to slide until it's too late. This, in turn means Munro has to stay in and stay tight because he obviously doesn't trust Richie. By the time Burton gets the ball, it's game over. Richie again takes a poor option for the Bulldogs' forth try. He rushes out of the line way too quickly on Sexton and ball goes past him which means AJ also has to rush up and come in, this creates the space on the outside. He then got injured a bit later after that, I think.
Milne: Not a good night for Taane either. Him and Tyrone were caught out defensively for the Dogs' first try as he failed to read the pass from Burton and slide. Pretty hard to do in that situation though to be fair. He then got sin binned off that kick off. While his sin binning really cost us, I'm not going to blame Taane too much. He was pretty hard done by there, a sin binning for that is simply ridiculous. Not much he could do about their 55th minute try, we were horribly outnumbered on that edge, and he was let down by those inside him. He contributed to their last try though by coming up out of the line on Burton which creates a hole for Burns, he then fails to get back and effect the tackle before Burns can get the offload away and they score. It's a shame Taane was poor defensively because I thought he actually had a decent night with the ball. All his carries were strong, he ran for 120 meters, and had a try assist with that awesome kick for Munro's second.
Munro: Very, very impressive with the ball. Extremely impressive in fact. He's an absolute excitement machine!! Firstly, I thought his carries and the grunt work he did was decent, certainly didn't shirk it on the tough stuff. But the best thing about his game was no doubt the work he did on the end of our backline. His first try was pretty damn classy. Got the ball in a one-on-one situation and showed some dazzling footwork to get around Wilson. We haven't had a right winger finish a try like that in a long time!! His second try was also a great finish off that Taane kick. In between his try scoring, his attacking exploits and athletic ability was there for all to see. Any half chance he got off a backline shift, he burned the defenders inside him and made a line break. I'm amazed by his speed. Also, good to see his patience too. A lot of young fullas with his ability on those breaks would look for a miracle pass but he didn't, he reined it in when nothing was on. It's just so exciting to finally have some genuine speed and athletic ability out there! Any half chance he gets, he's gone. Can't wait to see him play with Trell. That take he took off the short kick off in the second half was also amazing! It's a shame he couldn't quite get that Lachy kick in the first half. I admit, his defence wasn't the greatest. However, I think he was only to blame for the first try where he was in too far and far too close to Taane to start with. The rest, he was let down by his inside men and had no choice but to rush in. What's more, we must remember he's only 18. there's going to be mistakes. But man, he's friggin exciting.
Attack
Little bit of a mixed night attacking wise. We looked pretty dangerous in good ball attack with some really nice tries and plenty of questions asked. The Dogs defence did struggle a bit too when we spent time on their line.
However, it was getting up there to spend time on their line that was the issue. The boys found it really hard to get out of our end for much of the game, especially in the first half and I actually wasn't too happy with some of the efforts we put in there, especially from the forwards. It just seemed a bit flat-footed, and no one was really charging onto the ball at pace consistently enough. I was getting frustrated with the amount of what I'd call 'soft' runs out there. As a result, we'd often lose the collision, and the play-the-ball would be slow so there was no momentum generated. This was a big struggle throughout the entire game.
This issue was compounded by lots of errors. Way too many, some of them very poor. Just lapses in concentration and not being present for the full 80 minutes. it was so frustrating because for the whole game, apart from the comeback at the end, we'd get a bit of momentum going and start looking okay, only for it to be brought undone by a poor error or wrong option. God, that was frustrating.
Despite all this, I am really proud of the fight the boys showed, particularly some of the young fullas out there. Despite everything going against them, they never gave up and came pretty close to snatching a win with some scintillating play.
So, our attack was decent, just weren't good enough to get field position and maintain it for long periods.
Defence
Certainly the most disappointing part of the night for us. No doubt about that. I know we were missing a lot of player but still conceding 36 points to the Dogs is really hard to except.
I thought the attitude was a bit of defensively once again. Just the little effort areas the boys got so right last week, weren't there in this game. I'm talking line speed, first contact, kick chase, ability to wrap up the ball etc. All these things killed us. It looked bog average at times, and I think we made the Dogs look a lot better than they were.
Goal line defence in particular was a letdown. Some bad reads out there on the edges which I'll get to later. I kind of thought we'd turned a bit of a corner in the second half, there was a period there where we started defending better, had three sets on our line but turned them away again and again. But I was disappointed that the boys couldn't keep that up and go on with it. We cracked again way too easy.
I said coming into the game that the battle in the middle was key and we certainly lost that battle. Defence is a big reason for that.
In saying all this, we can't be too critical. Our side was completely different so of course the defensive structure is going to be mucked around big time. I just thought the boys still could have done better than they did.
Player by Player
Taaffe: Career best game easily!! Feel like I haven't said this much about Taaffey but he was friggin outstanding! Our best player out there. he was the go-to for pretty much everything good we did. The tone was set early in his first touch where we spread the ball just on halfway, he stepped inside and made a half break. if it wasn't for the Burton legs tackle, he would have been away. Didn't get too many opportunities after that for much of the game but that changed with about 20 minutes to go as he really came alive and played some of the best Footy I've ever seen from him. Speed, acceleration, footwork, allusiveness; these are things Blake has been criricised for in the past, but it was all there!! His first try was amazing! Taking the pass from Hawkins, which gets him on the outside of the Dogs' number 22, he identifies that Wilson is back tracking which opens up the space, and Taaffey just puts down the glasses and goes for it with some speed an acceleration I've never seen from him before! He completely burned the Dogs' defence, stepped inside Averillo and crashed over for one of the best tries of his career. Brilliant! He was at it again for our next try minutes later. Great vision to identify the space but underneath, he calls the play off Lachy, again accelerates through a hole, spins through two tackle attempts to not only score a double but get us back in the game too. Amazing play!! On top of the attacking brilliance, his positional play was good, he did everything he could in defence too. Taaffey wasn't 100% perfect though as he dropped one bomb and also threw that ball over the sideline when he once again made a break with his footwork and acceleration. What an opportunity missed that was. Still, take nothing away from him, our best player, did everything he could to keep us in that game. Well done lad.
Johnston: Nothing much to write home about really. Nothing much at all. Hardly saw any ball all night as he was really let down by the guys inside him there. They failed to set him up in any kind of space off the back of shape. That's mainly on Hawkins in my opinion. His carries weren't that great, got monstered in a lot of them and only had 7 runs for 45 meters. That's not really good enough, needed to go looking for the ball more. He did defuse some tough bombs and other kicks though so well done for that. I thought he was personally okay in defence. Kiraz did get one down the left, but AJ did his best, he was caught out by the actions of Kennar for mine. Not a great night for AJ.
Kennar: After a good performance last week, came crashing back down to earth last night. He wasn't that great at all. I'll start with some of the good things though. His carries were okay, tried his best there. Nice pass for Munro's first try. That's about where the good stuff ends though because his defence was awful, all at sea. He was a big reason why we got caught short on the right for the Dogs' second try. You can see him being really passive and retreating like he doesn't know how to read the play; he fails to slide until it's too late. This, in turn means Munro has to stay in and stay tight because he obviously doesn't trust Richie. By the time Burton gets the ball, it's game over. Richie again takes a poor option for the Bulldogs' forth try. He rushes out of the line way too quickly on Sexton and ball goes past him which means AJ also has to rush up and come in, this creates the space on the outside. He then got injured a bit later after that, I think.
Milne: Not a good night for Taane either. Him and Tyrone were caught out defensively for the Dogs' first try as he failed to read the pass from Burton and slide. Pretty hard to do in that situation though to be fair. He then got sin binned off that kick off. While his sin binning really cost us, I'm not going to blame Taane too much. He was pretty hard done by there, a sin binning for that is simply ridiculous. Not much he could do about their 55th minute try, we were horribly outnumbered on that edge, and he was let down by those inside him. He contributed to their last try though by coming up out of the line on Burton which creates a hole for Burns, he then fails to get back and effect the tackle before Burns can get the offload away and they score. It's a shame Taane was poor defensively because I thought he actually had a decent night with the ball. All his carries were strong, he ran for 120 meters, and had a try assist with that awesome kick for Munro's second.
Munro: Very, very impressive with the ball. Extremely impressive in fact. He's an absolute excitement machine!! Firstly, I thought his carries and the grunt work he did was decent, certainly didn't shirk it on the tough stuff. But the best thing about his game was no doubt the work he did on the end of our backline. His first try was pretty damn classy. Got the ball in a one-on-one situation and showed some dazzling footwork to get around Wilson. We haven't had a right winger finish a try like that in a long time!! His second try was also a great finish off that Taane kick. In between his try scoring, his attacking exploits and athletic ability was there for all to see. Any half chance he got off a backline shift, he burned the defenders inside him and made a line break. I'm amazed by his speed. Also, good to see his patience too. A lot of young fullas with his ability on those breaks would look for a miracle pass but he didn't, he reined it in when nothing was on. It's just so exciting to finally have some genuine speed and athletic ability out there! Any half chance he gets, he's gone. Can't wait to see him play with Trell. That take he took off the short kick off in the second half was also amazing! It's a shame he couldn't quite get that Lachy kick in the first half. I admit, his defence wasn't the greatest. However, I think he was only to blame for the first try where he was in too far and far too close to Taane to start with. The rest, he was let down by his inside men and had no choice but to rush in. What's more, we must remember he's only 18. there's going to be mistakes. But man, he's friggin exciting.
