AFL Round 3 Review - Happy 50th Rocket
The Saints started like a house on fire aided by a few handy umpiring decisions and left the 
Doggies shell shocked. The big forwards in Justin Koschitzke and Nick Rieowldt were dominant and to good for the Western Bulldog defenders. The tides turned in the second and the Doggies started to get the ball in the middle of the ground and ran the ball much better than the Saints, and the move of Robert Murphy into the forward half was a key move. Harbrow was lively when he came on and gave the Doggie forwards some enthusiasm. Brad Johnson found himself to far up the ground kick chasing and couldn’t get into the game at all. Which is actually a good sign for the Western Bulldogs.
After quarter time the Saints midfield were being well an truly beaten and their big forwards went missing, actually all their forwards went missing. They had no flow, no run and looked sluggish. The pressure the bulldogs put on in the middle was the key for the turnaround. Cooney, Cross, Gia, West, Hill, Griffen, Addison and White all got going and dominated. Will Minson, while not getting a lot of the pill just created some great contests up forward and on some occasions just hit the packs hard and caused the crumbs where Akermanis and the like were ready to pounce and capatalize. In what looked to be a huge worry for the Doggies before the game and during the first quarter was the Saints talls inside forward 50, but after quarter time it became an issue for the Saints as they just could not find different avenues to goal and that cost them the game. Coach Ross Lyons desperately needs to find different scoring options down there as opposition sides are going to look at this game and quickly work out how to handle their Power Forwards. They have a lot of work to do the Saints while the Bulldogs are on the up. Much was spoken about the hardness of the Western Bulldogs over the last few years but that was one of their best traits on Friday Night and are showing that they can match the in and under stuff with anyone.
A great win by Doggies and they now find themselves 3 - 0 and now they can sit back and get ready for the Bombers next week.
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