Top Five - Bulldogs vs. West Coast Eagles - Round 17
Recap
Hey, I got my team back. After a murky mid season malaise where we lost more than we won we’ve now put two impressive game together on end.
Western Bulldogs 2.5 4.7 6.12 9.17 71
West Coast Eagles 4.4 11.9 15.11 24.14 158
Top Five
1. Booing Cousins
Booing is part of the theatre of sporting contests I know, but traditionally has been reserved for the villian; the disrespectful arch-enemy, the dirty behind play hitman, the white maggot umpire. Add to that the recovering substance abuser.
Performance enhancing drug (ab)use puts you in the disrespectful arch-enemy class. Not sure about “ice” though. Not saying Cousins suspension wasn’t warranted or the correct decision, but obviously the Dog’s supporters don’t mind taking the high moral ground.
Didn’t seem to affect him though and he finished with 29 possessions in another very good game.
2. Forward line Potency
Hadn’t kicked over 100 point away from Subi this season. Hadn’t kicked 20 goals in a game this season. Our previous highest score was 137 points versus Melbourne back in Round 6.
The other bonus was that most of our goals came not from the midfield but from forward line players.
The Lynch, Staker, Hansen trio is beginning to gel well. Quinten kicked 5 as the focal point and looks much better with support from Staker and Hansen rotating through half and full forward lines. A three-pronged tall forward line looks much more potent, particularly when paired with other complimentary forwards in LeCras and other rotating forwards in Embley / Cousins / Judd etc.
Compare Lynch versus Brad Johnson. Respective leading goal kickers. Johnson can move up the ground if he is over match in the forward 50. He collected 26 disposals but was goalless (first time all season in fact). Lynch on the other hand took his man up the ground too and collected 22 possessions but also managed to prove damaging on the scoreboard with 5 goals.
In this form it shows how damaging Lynch can be.
3. Daniel Kerr
Another stellar performance by Kerr. In recent times he seems like a player who enjoys road games, which provide him with the opportunity to prove a point to the public. The point being he is a damn good footballer. His game tonight - and in particular the first half - was outstanding and set the tone for the game.
His speed and work in close is remarkable at times. When you think he is no show, he proves you wrong. When you combine that with his power running it is amazing that he ever has a down game (which we know he does).
Great goal in the third quarter as well. Three brownlow votes in the bag.
4. Hard Run
I’m convinced that the key ingredient in our winning form is hard run across the field. We saw that tonight in waves. It was relentless and overwhelmed the undermanned Dogs.
That is why our form was so poor when our midfield guns - Judd, Kerr and Cousins - were missing / injured / suspended. We need that hard, mentally tough run through the middle. When we get that the ball comes into the forwards quickly and we’re looking good.
Will Schofield looks like a decent type with a bit of toe (and height) off the backline. Matty Rosa better get busy!
5. Percentage
Good to see us finish a side at the Dome, where our previous greatest winning margin was 39 points against the Saints last season.
An eighty-seven point margin gave us almost 6% and that is good news as we move towards September. Fremantle next week will be big as usual.
Jul 28th 2007
Geez Bruce, you’re on the ball - the writeup done the night of the match! Can you have a quiet word in carneagles’ ear?
It was really nice to see us put a side away for once. Top stuff from Kerr again, he’s really benefiting from having the rest of the topliners back. We’ve still got some improvement left too so probably like you, I’m a happy camper right now. Can’t wait for the derby.
On the booing, I doubt that most of the fans doing it have really thought about why - classic media-fuelled mob mentality. In the end I think it was counterproductive, and probably was a spur for the Eagles to really put the Bulldogs away.
Jul 28th 2007
mate after a game like that I was pumped
you’re right about the booing - it sounded like towards the latter stages of the game there were more cheers than boos. I guess by that time most of the Dogs fans had vacated the ground…
Jul 28th 2007
Well, that was a fun visit to Docklands for a change!
The cheers were from the Eagles fans who started to drown out the Dogs’ fans and gave Cousins plenty of support every time he came to the bench for a rest.
Cousins himself was pumped - see the celebrations after his goal.
Agree with all of the above - the best thing for me was simply watching the 2006 Eagles turn out for all four quarters for the first time this year.
Jul 29th 2007
Yes you have got your team back, hopefully I do too after putting Richmond away. Time will tell.
I’m in agreeance with you and Fordy about the booing. It ends up being a motivating tool for the booee and probably the other players around him.
From what I saw I was impressed with Staker. He took some fine contested marks.