I know some would be surprised but I went along with a couple of Doggy mates and I must say something has changed down at Tigerland. This VFL side was nothing like the rabble I saw implode at Williamstown Oval a couple of years ago under Tim Clarke. They went in hard, tackled and harassed all night and combined that with brilliance from Bolton and Lennon. Short and Ellis were like backline and midfield generals with their positioning and strategic kicking whilst McIntosh was a class above wherever he roamed. Another who surprised was lambert who played the role of the in-and-under midfielder and dominated. I don't know who 80 (ruck) and 81 (small forward) were but they stood out as well. Ivvy also had a great game. Back to Bolton and Lennon: Ben needs to relax at the Afl level and play on instinct as he did tonight - he destroyed Williams who is no slouch. Bolton did a couple of things tonight that made the small crowd gasp, including Dog supporters. The muffled question in the crowd was: Who is that guy???. At one point he flew from an impossible position to spoil a tall backman, landed on his feet crumbed his own spoil and 'dished off' for a goal. He will bring bums to the seats. A side note: I watched Daniel Rioli on the sidelines and his bi-play with Stengle, Chol and Graham tells me that he is the glue that will keep this young group together. They also laughed and carried on when Bolton did something mercurial like take the Mark of the game in a forward pocket. Oh, did I mention Bolton's tackling? 4 in the first quarter! He had the doggies backmen rushing everytime he was in their vicinity ala Cyril Rioli....gee it was impressive.
One more thing, the playing group looked much bigger and stronger than the Dogs. Did we change our conditioning coach pre-season?
