Trust Your Eyes Round 20- Dogs, Hawks on fire, Essendon disaster, Sydney in trouble

Bulldogs maul Swans welcome back to trust your eyes round 20 to find a clear top nine teams while the pressure is mounting on two Victorian Powerhouse clubs there is just one month to go and every spot on the ladder is up for grabs but we're going to start at the scg the Western Bulldogs dominated a beat up Sydney team by 39 points the dogs have beaten second third and first on the lad in consecutive weeks the first team to do so since 19 1993 is it finally time to trust them and should Sydney be sounding the alarm well you can't trust any team not even Sydney as we've seen of late in this crazy 2024 season but for the Bulldogs everything is in working order each of the lines is humming Rory lob and Liam Jones and also Buu karmas worked really well in defense intercepting the ball and repelling at Sydney's attacks especially when they had momentum the Midfield which in time in the start of this year and the end of last year looked really thin and really slow just a simple injection of one player in Ed Richards has changed everything it once again looks powerful strong it's been really consistent and I thought Riley Garcia again who's been unlucky to not be getting a game played his role in that Midfield system and then up forward well it's been Jamar ugle Haagen the last three weeks he's kicked four goals out of nowhere he was terrible against Port Adelaide but I think what the Bulldogs are doing with their Ford line is really helping him they're leaving one of yugul Haagen Norton aasia on the bench at all times so the Ford line is actually a regular for line it's not really that tall and it's giving space to everyone including Cody waitman who's been buzzing around and flying up in the air of late so each of the lines seems to be in good working order but it is only a 5-day break in an important game against Melbourne now I do think Sydney should be sounding the alarm that tall Ford line which has been an issue all year has stopped firing and when Chad Warner Heeney and golden aren't hitting the scoreboard they look vulnerable pair that with some injuries and I think it is time to sound the alarm for the swans but we have to move to the big Essendon let down loser of the week essn have lost six of eight games and a seven goal to one third term was the difference between St Kilda what has gone wrong in the last two months of the hanger and who deserves the most blame well I'm a big fan of Brad Scott I do believe he's a great AFL coach so I'm going to put that performance against s Kilda 80% 90% on the plays and when s Kilda came in that third quarter and Jack steel kicked three goals Cooper Shaman looked like Wayne KY on Ben mcki they just couldn't repel and stop them sure I think there are some tactical issues that Brad Scott and his coaching group need to address the team defense especially in transition is terrible I thought they got Ben mcine to be a lock down Defender and he's locking down nobody he looks lost he's in no man's land he's there's stoppages outside 50 and he's roaming up to the stoppages it's bizarre again I don't know if it's the plays or or some tactical elements but they need leadership in that part of the ground to sort it out there's still four games left sure they can still make finals but at the end of the season I think ID need to stop being a nice club they need to have conversations with Dyson he Archie Perkins Nick Cox even a guy like Mason renman and Darcy Parish who signed big contracts and they need to ask them the question how much does this football club mean to you because we're giving you a lot of money and the performances aren't there and then a guy like Peter right you almost have to color at this point he is terrible at full forward right now he's it's good if he gives a contest let alone kicking bags of three or four or five goals to help them out so there's still hope left believe it or not but at the end of the year I think they need to have a hard look at this list and get rid of the week which has been hurting this club for a long time Port win over Carlton but they aren't alone as Carlton with Harry Macer laid out lost to a tough Port Adelaide team the blues seem to have lost their Mojo and Porter quietly within a big shot of top four were you more disappointed in Calton or impressed by Port Adelaide I was more impressed with Port adelade because they needed to beat a top four quality side in an interstate game and they did that I thought buts and Rosie who both had Cotter at times fought through and Jason Horn Frances in the second half You could argue was the difference in the game so and then led by Bo and wies as veterans who probably had better one of their better games for this season and it was really impressive and a great win for Port Adelaide who really needed it just for themselves now I'm not going to be too tough on Colton because Harry mcky was a laid out and there's no Tom D coning but facets of the game are struggling the Midfield basically besides Crips looks really thin Walsh has dropped away Cher's playing in in defense and K it just isn't getting the same amount of ball as he previously did and then the defense again it's been a big issue for them like essin and it's still falling away and who knows how fit Jacob weering is right now now the 5-day break definitely helped Port Adelaide as we saw in the second half cuz Carlton did have a sizable lead but it's not an excuse it is a reason but I'm on alert for Carlton they have a massive game against Collingwood this week and I think they're a big shot of beating this pretty beat up Carlton side and Port Adelaide host Sydney and Sydney's pretty beat up as well so I think I'd be backing Port Adelaide in that game as well and they're hitting pretty good uh form at a pretty good time Saturday Saturday night takeaways night had two great games between Melbourne and gws and of course the Western Derby the Giants and Dockers each won so what are a few takeaways from each of the matchups well starting with gws I think the the forward line is humming again Hogan's looking really good and Brent Daniels was the highest rated player on the ground Toby green hitting form then Darcy Jones and a couple of those other small fors are starting to buzz around and caused problems they were out of form for a good portion of this year but seem to be coming good and James Ping's been really important in a couple game saving tackles against Melbourne and without Canelo and Kelly he's really stepped up out of nowhere never thought he'd be an inside mid but even with his slight frame he's showing he's pretty tough and the Melbourne's always hard to to play against that's what I got even when they seem out of it you know they keep fighting till the end the defense has always been strong and they're going to cause some issues in the last month even if they don't play finals now in the derby I thought the Dockers showed a lot of resistance to me there was a bit of a big brother and little brother thought West Coast were bullying them but song and brael both said no song is a huge brown low shot should be all Australian and his running mate in brayshaw is getting up to Pace after a bit of a slow start to the year and then for West Coast Harley Reid is a serious star plays with aggression some people don't like it I don't mind it he doesn't back down 29 disposals and 10 clearances we already know he's a star and he's almost at the Superstar level already in his first year jalong got a much needed win Cats or Hawks better win? over in tazy against North Melbourne while the Hawks beat up on the crows in adelade what win was more impressive well I'm a huge fan of these young Hawks and their win was more impressive just on the jalong one I thought they Cruis through the game they let Harry sheel off the chainy almost kill them but then Tom Stewart was the best player on the ground commanded the whole game and North Melbourne couldn't get past him I just thought the contest was relatively even but uh jalong just had way too much class for North melin but on the Hawks it's a tough road game in Adelaide 40,000 crows fans Not That Pleasant to play as a opposition player and team but again the high half forwards like more Watson and ginan went went to work and it was Conor McDonald on the day 28 disposals and a goal or two I believe he was the best player on the ground and was fantastic their Midfield was so e even Nukem day all starred warp was really good again they're playing as a team and their team defense is really strong at the moment as well it was a really impressive mature performance and this young Hawks side played like a veteran team that knew they were better than the opposition and boy did they in the second half after the game was actually pretty close so they're showing Great Signs and I think their win was a bit more impressive than jongs over an informed North Melbourne team Collingwood is still alive Nick Signs of life for Pies Doos had a career day with 42 disposals and his brother Josh had 32 as the pies beat Richmond by 26 points did you see any signs of life from the pies I saw a little bit but not a whole lot obviously Nick D was outstanding 18 disposals in the first quarter caused confusion havoc in the Richmond coaching team and basically uh he was the best player on the ground and they just couldn't get him in control but his brother Josh he had a lot of impact as well swapping with side bottom side bottom went into a wing we know he's been playing in defense and Doos gave him great Drive 32 disposals was just really good and Dary Moore had his best game in a really long time Back to Basics the opposition wasn't great but he was spoiling took a few nice intercepts and provided trademark drive but I'm sorry Richmond was just so bad watching the game they were coughing up the ball dropping marks could barely get any handall chains going and to only win by 26 points I know Richmond got a few goals late it just wasn't that impressive to me however because of pendlebury's 400th coming up I think there a huge chance to beat Carlton if I was tipping I'd definitely be tipping Collingwood right now they're a little bit healthier we know Carlton's banged up and Dan mstay who is really impressive against Richmond might be able to get on top of weering he's struggling a bit at the moment and I think Collingwood with their running power can actually cause some damage against this Carlton team right now to Trust the Lions? finish off Brisbane had too much power for Gold Coast despite missing Harris Andrews Jack pain and darra Joyce in defense on a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you trust the line after a spotty start to the year I think it's pretty clear that since round 12 they're 8 and0 they're the best team in the competition right now but it feels like people are sleeping on them I don't know people are talking about Hawthorne the Western Bulldogs but not a lot of people are putting a whole lot of focus on Brisbane and they really should be because basically every part of their game is in order they got their midfields humming cam Raina has exploded he had 25 disposals and a goal and then d D is playing really well and so is Loy Neil Josh Dunley and the Big O in the Rock so everything's in order they should get top two or top four and a minimum and I think they've got a finger on the Premiership cup not a hand yet but they've got a finger they're pretty healthy after those ACLS at the start of the year and a few injuries but everyone's back they're getting into form getting a lot of games into the same team every week which is important so I'm going to give them an8 out of 10 on the trust scale because we've seen them play a lot of finals recently but they haven't won the grand final yet they did get there last year and you'd think that they're well on their way to getting there again and at this stage if they don't get there I think the season will be a little bit of a failure because of how well they're playing compared to the rest of the competition at the back end of this season thanks for listening to trust your eyes for round 21 good luck to all your teams and I'll be back soon