Seriously....We can beat the dogs!

[saint patrick]

Make no mistake Murphys suspension has given us a genuine chance to cause what the football world would call an upset but I would call Karma..

Flashback to round 3 and at quarter time we had complete control of the game and were spanking the dogs bigtime...what went wrong after that is the where our season lost its mojo and if I was Ross Lyon I would be replaying our first quarter dominance while reinforcing the fact that this our chance to right the wrong on that Friday night...

And kick start our season once a for all...

Murphy is a huge part of the structure of the bulldogs and his absence allows our backline to exploit the lack of height in their forward line...

Lets face it if we can't beat the dogs without their gun CHF...What hope have we got any time soon

This is our elimination final to decide not just if we can make the eight but whether we have the ability to seriously challenge for the freaking flag...

Credibility and self belief for the taking...

Just grab it with both hands FCS!!!

With recent talk of our list being good enough and not in a rebuilding phase yada yada yada ...

ITS TIME TO WALK THE WALK SAINTERS

[St. Luke]

22 players, fingers out, we're a deadset chance! As stupid as it sounds I'm almost willing to back us on this one! For godsakes, this could be the turning point in our season! We're running out of excuses, and Harveys time is also drawing to a close! What is another 3 months of just trying to dig in as hard as we can!?? The pain won't last, but the glory will!!

[saintsRrising]

Compared to last time there are a few more factors in our favour.

However last time Hudson was out....but equally Gardi did not play for the saints.

All in all I think our team is better this time....

We have lost Gilbert..and X (though X's game was poor with only 8 disposals)

But Fiora, GTrain, Raph and L Fisher (who apart from two early tagging games has been poor) are all not playing. Gilbert is the only real loss..though his form was patchy.

Gardi, Armo, Jones, Ferg...and to a lesser extent Dempster are better ins.

Also importantly to me the team is lookinga lot better balanced.

With 2 rucks this and a midfield now with more games played with Gardi and King we can hopefully not let the Dogs get the major advantage they had in the midfield last time.

kosi is now also free to play asa permanent forward and he will trouble the Dogs more than GTrain did.



Ball is looking a lot fitter and is winning more ball.
Birrs has been performing some excellent shut down roles while also causing damage.
Roo should pull up better than last week with one further week of recovery.....and will be fitter to play than he was agaisnt the Dees.
Last week should have given schneider more confidence...and this will now be his 4th game back from injury.
Ferg we hope will be more settled in his second game back aftea reasonable first game...and his marks last week will have the dogs defenders mindful when they seek to put numbers against roo and Kosi.


Last time however we only really played one quarter. can we play most of the game this time??? if so we are a chance.

dogs defeinately desrve to be strong favourites though.

We will just have to wait and see if the "good" or 'bad" saints turn up to play.

[SaintWodonga]

Compared to last time there are a few more factors in our favour.

However last time Hudson was out....but equally Gardi did not play for the saints.

All in all I think our team is better this time....

We have lost Gilbert..and X (though X's game was poor with only 8 disposals)

But Fiora, GTrain, Raph and L Fisher (who apart from two early tagging games has been poor) are all not playing. Gilbert is the only real loss..though his form was patchy.

Gardi, Armo, Jones, Ferg...and to a lesser extent Dempster are better ins.

Also importantly to me the team is lookinga lot better balanced.

With 2 rucks this and a midfield now with more games played with Gardi and King we can hopefully not let the Dogs get the major advantage they had in the midfield last time.

kosi is now also free to play asa permanent forward and he will trouble the Dogs more than GTrain did.



Ball is looking a lot fitter and is winning more ball.
Birrs has been performing some excellent shut down roles while also causing damage.
Roo should pull up better than last week with one further week of recovery.....and will be fitter to play than he was agaisnt the Dees.
Last week should have given schneider more confidence...and this will now be his 4th game back from injury.
Ferg we hope will be more settled in his second game back aftea reasonable first game...and his marks last week will have the dogs defenders mindful when they seek to put numbers against roo and Kosi.


Last time however we only really played one quarter. can we play most of the game this time??? if so we are a chance.

dogs defeinately desrve to be strong favourites though.

We will just have to wait and see if the "good" or 'bad" saints turn up to play.

Mate you are 100% spot on.. Couldn't agree more.. Also BJ is playing alot better.... I can only see upside.

[mischa]

Yes. if we can beat a very high quality side that will be cause for celebration!

[spiral2]

funny, I've just watched the tape of the first half of the round 3 game. jeez we killed em in the first qtr!......then......

just a couple of things to clarify
- hudson did play for the dogs
- BJ played a very good game (well, good half from what I've seen)
- Raph also played well in the first half, believe it or not, with some good hands in close and good defensive work. beaten hands down by Hahn in one contest - though Hahn is a very strong and clever player.

as you say Saintsrising, hopefully with a bit of confidence, more desire for the tough stuff and a slight improvement in the list and form of some players we can make a real contest of it.
only question is, how much have the dogs improved since?

murphy out is a big plus, he and Hill really turned the tide in the second qtr. I hope we're more conscious of Hill this week, he just roamed around on his own and cut us to shreds in round 3

[fingers]

22 players, fingers out, .....!

So I'm not in the 22?

[bigcarl]

we can beat them, but we need a few things to go our way.

1) a dominant display by our midfield and defence like last week.
2) space for our forwards and quick delivery to them.
3) kosi to present and lead at every opportunity.
3) riewoldt and ferguson to improve on their kicking.

that's my wishlist. can't think of anything else but if all that goes our way we should win well.

[yipper]

we can beat them, but we need a few things to go our way.

1) a dominant display by our midfield and defence like last week.
2) space for our forwards and quick delivery to them.
3) kosi to present and lead at every opportunity.
3) riewoldt and ferguson to improve on their kicking.

that's my wishlist. can't think of anything else but if all that goes our way we should win well.

Fact is we can beat anyone when we are up and about. Agree on the above points - must be an even contribution - every player needs to do their job. We must convert better and lay strong, effective tackles all day. Big game - can sense some momentum strating to build, put this one in the bag and look out.

[St DAC]

So I'm not in the 22?

Dropped for team balance.

[markp]

So I'm not in the 22?

Dropped for team balance.

I heard it was really a disciplinary thing... why else would you drop him? He's a very handy player....

[The Fireman]

Make no mistake Murphys suspension has given us a genuine chance to cause what the football world would call an upset but I would call Karma..

Flashback to round 3 and at quarter time we had complete control of the game and were spanking the dogs bigtime...what went wrong after that is the where our season lost its mojo and if I was Ross Lyon I would be replaying our first quarter dominance while reinforcing the fact that this our chance to right the wrong on that Friday night...

we ran out legs pure and simple, the Dogs are faster than us and made space at ease.
If our run has improved we have a chance or will have to muscle them big time at the stoppages.
Hopefully Ross has had the boys doing goal kicking prac this week.

[spert]

We should have beaten them first up this season -all we needed were a couple of onballers and forwards to apply some tackles and defensive pressure in the second half -some took the foot off the accelerator. I think we can beat the Dogs this week if we approach the game as we did last weekend.

[bigcarl]

we ran out legs pure and simple, the Dogs are faster than us and made space at ease.

probably, but they didn't look too quick in that first quarter.

it's about how quick you use it, anyway, not how fast you run and, as they say, you always look slow when you don't have the ball.

[brown-coat]

The first game was one of the most disgraceful stkilda capitulations ever. If we actually play 4 quarters of ruthless football we might be in with a chance.

[saintsRrising]

just a couple of things to clarify
- hudson did play for the dogs
- :

Yes you are correct.

I misread the stats sheet

[The Craw]

22 players, fingers out, .....!

So I'm not in the 22?

was told that you were both mentally and physically soft.

[St. Luke]

22 players, fingers out, .....!

So I'm not in the 22?

yep dropped!

[matrix]

if we dont MARK and KICK goals then they will just run the ball out of defense like last time and kill us.
yeah we can beat them....of course we can.
i didnt get too excited about the win over the demons, but if we pull a rabbit out the hat this week and get a win then ill believe we are back!!

[The Fireman]

we ran out legs pure and simple, the Dogs are faster than us and made space at ease.

probably, but they didn't look too quick in that first quarter.

it's about how quick you use it, anyway, not how fast you run and, as they say, you always look slow when you don't have the ball.

If you have speed you can man up and run off, pretty simple really, manning up will force the turnovers. We were getting caught because of our lack of comparative speed, when they had it we couldn't touch them.

[midas_touch]

Even without Murphy, they still have a lot of scoring firepower with a forward line of Johnson, Welsh, Hahn and Minson, along with players such as Aker, Cooney, Griffen and Giansiracusa who can also kick bags of goals. We need to win the contested possesions in the midfield in order to counteract this multi pronged forward structure to ensure we starve them of opportunities.

[dsreg1]

So I'm not in the 22?

Dropped for team balance.

I heard it was really a disciplinary thing... why else would you drop him? He's a very handy player....

He just needs to knuckle down in the reserves.

[Otiman]

22 players, fingers out, we're a deadset chance! As stupid as it sounds I'm almost willing to back us on this one!

Another sucker born every minute

[St.Walker]

Lets see some heavy body work on aker when he goes up the ground.

If hill plays show the kids what a hip and shoulder is!!!.

To soft last time round

[SENsei]

So I'm not in the 22?

Dropped for team balance.

I heard it was really a disciplinary thing... why else would you drop him? He's a very handy player....

He just needs to knuckle down in the reserves.

Geez, look who's pointing the finger.