Last chance for these four teams to make an impact on the year and to have one last chance to be a premiership chance to challenge Geelong.
Western Bulldogs vs Sydney Swans
Sydney have no change from the side that easily defeated the Roos after a slow start. Against Sydney you need to kick a goal every chance you get. Stuff the flood, these guys are famous for the drought, which is even more devastating than what we Aussies are experiencing at the moment…
The Dogs have endured a dog of a week (pun intended) and surely a loss hear would cause 2008 to be as a big of a flop of year as 2007 when they lost their last 10 odd games in a row. Faren Ray is the only omission and its not the first time he has been the scape goat and I wonder if the Bulldogs would offer him up as trade bait for a key forward.
For the Bulldogs to win this game, they need to run hard. They failed to run hard to break the Hawks cluster last week and I am tipping they will again struggle to break the drought.
Sydney by 17 points
St Kilda vs Collingwood
Is Ross Lyon trying to become like Malthouse and Sheedy? I would focus on actually coaching and leave the cloak and dagger mind games to them. Ball wont play and I would not be surprised to see Burns the latest Captain causality under Malthouse.
Shaw and X Clarke are the main omissions for both teams and surely they will be looking for new clubs next season.
If St Kilda are to win they need big games from their inconsistent and big game dud big men in Kozi and Riewoldt who need to pull their fingers out and start performing. Collingwood is much more even around the ground but their forward line worries me with Medhurst and Cloke the main targets.
St Kilda was extremely lucky to get into fourth spot and save someone turning a game on, they will start their holidays on Sunday.
Collingwood by 20 points
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September 12th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Sydney by 24pts
-Experience for finals and too many options.
-Bulldogs lack grit and are not playing good enough with what talent they have.
-The team with the least handling errors should win this one.
Collingwood by 12 points
-Could be a real close one by the Magpies play to a really good game plan
-Micky couldn’t get any greyer but his flexibility in the game plan allows for Collingwood to be a lot more attacking than most people give them credit for.
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September 12th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I only think Mike Malthouse’s flexibility has come when they dropped their drunkards (Shaw x2 and Didak), it has forced him to play and experiment with other players which could in turn see Micky get a contract extension.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
the bulldogs have got one thing going for them atm, theyve beaten sydney twice this year already, they might just do it again, and i think that we will. the thing that has frustrated me with the bulldogs, is their decision to not drop players before the finals who weren’t preforming. and now theyre paying the price for it. have we done a post on this subject? (of not dropping the bigger name players just because of who they are, even if they’re underpreforming)
i think that the dogs need to go after a young ruckman in the off season, to go with Minson and hudson (who won’t be around for too much longer), further develop minson as a forward target, and possibly try get boyle from the hawks to add some height up there. tiller, wight, everitt and williams need more game time and development to make them key defenders.
jermayn thinks i dont rate tall forwards, i do, but i also think that when you have a team who was the highest scoring in the competition for 15 weeks with an average of about 110 points a game, theyre obviously doing something right, our biggest problem is probably depth, we need some younger players who can step up and take over if key players are injured…whether tall, mid, or small forwards or whatever, depth is more important than height
so my tips are
Bulldogs
Collingwood (only if Reiwoldt continues to drop the ball)
September 13th, 2008 at 11:55 am
@SunCity_Royal – Your stats prove my point. When the pressure was on, they crumbled and I would say that yes depth would help but to be successful you need a back up game plan and the doggies do not have one when they go forward.
Yes Minson is better than nothing but he is a ruckman 1st and then a forward 2nd, not every ruckman can play forward. N Thompson, Ottens and M Gardiner who showed promise as a forward but had their careers cut short or under danger by just playing forward instead of ruck which they were recruited for.
In regards to dropping players when out of form, please write an article on it
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