R7 - Dogs v Adelaide & Port v Brisbane

Both Clubs head into Round 7 with some fresh injury concerns, Port facing the news of life without Lobbe in the ruck for a good 12 weeks, and Adelaide facing a refurb of their half back line with the inform Laird missing with a fractured toe for the next 3 weeks.

Discuss away.

Some real feeling in the Adelaide v Dogs game, outside of Port, perhaps Adelaide's only "rival" of note. Gut feel says Adelaide if the Dogs play as they did last week, just trying to stop the Roos scoring.

Port should ( I wrote this last year from Thailand ) beat the Bears, really should beat them. Brisbane aren't hopeless but two good games i na row is rare for them and they don't travel well and Sunday might be a bit wet and blustery. Port should account for them. Should. Again.

The fact that a couple of Dogs players have already mentioned the significance of their next opponent definitely suggests that there will be some heat in the contest.

While that may well see the Dogs up and about early in the game and perhaps even until half time, I think Adelaide's forward line will ultimately expose the injury hit defence of the Bulldogs and get the job done.

Disappointed that Laird is out as he's been in cracking form - but excited about Henderson coming back in to work of half back with Smith and Seedsman. 3 players who are very quick and have very penetrating kicks, could really slice and dice the Bulldogs on the rebound.

On the Port game, I'm backing them to get up on the home deck in front of their fan base.

While there wasn't anything to get too excited about in the win over Richmond last week, they did stand up and grind out the win which would have pleased the coaching staff. A lot of blokes are out of form but if they can improve each week there's a chance that something can be salvaged from season 2016 yet.

Bulldogs v Adelaide –

Not sure if it was the Dogs closing things up last week or the Roos, either way the Dogs were kept to just 6 goals under the roof in a loss to the Kangas, while Adelaide spent some time getting past the Dockers who put in a typically stubborn Ross Lyon led performance. Understand Adelaide have a slightly “down” week, they’ve been up for a while now.

The loss of the running men across half back was felt by the Dogs last week, they struggled to go forward with any real meaning and while the Kangas have a functioning midfield and back line the Dogs still managed to create 56 I50’s to the Kangas 46. The difference? Going the other way. The Dogs were unable to curb the influence of the Roos tall forwards.....I think Adelaide have a few of them, don’t they? So the challenge this week is for the Dogs to go forward with purpose and curtail Jenkins, Lynch and Walker. They need to turn a couple of things around.

Adelaide were well served by Betts with 4 majors, they were also well served by the Dockers kicking 2.11 to half time. Not all of that was Adelaides pressure and again Adelaide gave up as many I50’s as they created, 52. While Adelaide run out from the back half and score, you can get them open at times and score by going deep into their defence. Kind of suits the Dogs. What doesn’t suit the Dogs is the Lynch/Jenkins/Walker combo and the defenders at Whitten Oval won’t stop this, the mids have to stop this supply. Can they? If they don’t, Adelaide’s forwards will have the (Easton) wood on the Dogs defence.

Bookies have Adelaide fav’s, I think they should be too. Bit of feeling in this one after last year’s elimination final, the Dogs will remember that one. Match of the round. I think Adelaide by around 10 points with the big men the difference.

Port v Brisbane –

I see Ports won, that’s a good thing. No much opposition, beating Richmond is like creating an “I hate Kanye” website and being surprised by the number of hits it gets. Pretty easy work, as Richmond were. The surprise of the round was the Lions taking it up to the Swans. I guess a real Lion and a real Swan wouldn’t be quite as surprising, but the footy was.

Port finally showed some grunt off the ball and it helped when they had the ball. I’ll preface this by saying Richmond are rank, rotten, but at least Port showed up with the mindset to take the game on and defend when they weren’t. A 6 goal win and 99 tackles with 62 I50’s. So the midfield began to work, the back line held up and the forwards took some marks. Westhoff with 8 grabs the pick of the tall forwards on the night in a scrappy affair. Ports prime movers, Wines, Boak and Harlett got some form and look like they have taken a step in the right direction. Dixon with 2 more and a couple of ins for Port this week.

Where did that Brisvegas performance come from? With the one win for the year over the Suns and the Swans looking at a top 4 berth ( again ) the Lions would not have had many, if any, admirers last week. With good reason. They just looked outgunned, in the big man department anyway. But they do have a deeper midfield in 2016. Zorko, Rockliff, Robinson, Hanley, Bell, Rich, Bastinac all working at the feet of Stef Martin. Things are actually looking brighter and it isn’t just the warmer Qld weather doing it.

Thing is, they don’t travel very well. Stef Martin will be looking forward to this one and if can give the mids some supply it could be a close one. Mothers Day. 4pm. Could it be a worse draw card for a crowd? No. The home side should salute here, I think the Port backline will be important. Port by 25 points.

Port could have a big win here. Much better against a very poor Richmond and should carve up the Lions.

Adelaide game is a toss of the coin. I think the Crows may win by a goal but that is hope not conviction.

A few concerns for Adelaide after Saturday nights game, the main one being that the midfield got pretty well smashed for the first time this season. They are very lucky that they were bookended by a fantastic attack and defence otherwise the game could well have got ugly.

Brad Crouch looked like he struggled with the pace of the game. That said, I do think he needs to be in there and getting exposed to it. He's clearly a cut above SANFL, and realistically if Adelaide are to be any kind of threat they need B Crouch in the middle and firing. He will be better for the run, as was Charlie Cameron. He struggled last week in his first game back, but was fantastic this week.

The other main concern I have is that the supremely tough early draw is starting to take it's toll. It has been relentless. Top 4 / finals intensity almost every week without any clear air. It's got to be taking it out of them I reckon. Thankfully after this week game things open up a little bit for them.

Another thing - a lot of people were hanging **** on Walker after the game but I was encouraged by what I saw from him personally.

Pyke called it an 'almost game' and I would agree, he seemed to be getting himself in the right places but is still lacking touch from not training which showed in several dropped marks, and also a kick into the man on the mark late in the game.

He's too good a player to be down for much longer, I don't think he's far away from tearing a game open personally.

Ginge, B.Crouch listed in Adelaide's best, what game was that reporter watching?

Agree with Walker, he got two hands to several attempts and just didn't hold them, why isn't he training?

Be a typo I reckon - AFL website had M Crouch in not B Crouch.

Walker wasn't training much in the first few weeks because he was carrying an ankle complaint. Pyke said a week ago or so (before the Freo game I think?) that he was over that now and training fully again, so expected to see his touch improve.

He could've been a massive influence on the game Saturday night had he held his grabs. Would dropped at least 4 or 5 relatively straight forward marks in good areas of the ground.

Gingernuts wrote:Another thing - a lot of people were hanging **** on Walker after the game but I was encouraged by what I saw from him personally.

Pyke called it an 'almost game' and I would agree, he seemed to be getting himself in the right places but is still lacking touch from not training which showed in several dropped marks, and also a kick into the man on the mark late in the game.

He's too good a player to be down for much longer, I don't think he's far away from tearing a game open personally.

I'd agree with that. He spilled a heap of marks, quite a few at clutch moments - if he had taken those marks then things could've been very different.