1. Rhythm or blues?
What’s more important, momentum or rest? Ask 100 different people and you’ll probably get 100 different answers.
The Giants will have played just the one game in 28 days when the ball is bounced tomorrow at Spotless Stadium, so does that mean they’ll be fresh and firing, or rusty?
Similarly for the Dogs. Will they continue to ride the wave of the past two weeks or does fatigue start to set in?
Interestingly, since the bye was installed in 2011, the team coming off of a weeks' rest has won just 33 of 92 games.
2. Pinball Wizards
Aside from the eye-catching combination of orange and charcoal, what stands out about these Giants is how quick they are.
At their best the ball darts around the park at speed by hand and by foot, and before opposition sides can catch their breath, Jeremy Cameron or Jon Patton, or any number of players really, are lining up for goal.
So what do you do? You do what the Dogs did last week against the Hawks.
The Bulldogs’ manic pressure choked Hawthorn’s high possession game and they eventually overran the reigning premiers.
While the Hawks aren’t as quick as the Giants, Leon Cameron’s men had 129 uncontested marks the last time these two sides met in round nine.
That can’t happen again.
3. Land of the Giants
Hopefully no one has spent too much time celebrating Stevie Johnson’s absence this weekend, because there’s no shortage of firepower, or size, in the Giants forward 50.
Jeremy Cameron was an All-Australian in his second season, big Jon Patton has bags of five and six to his name in the latter stages of the season, and Rory Lobbe is 206cm and was influential when the two sides met in the NAB Cup in February.
The Dogs preach team defence and have been wildly successfully in shutting sides down in 2016, holding them to 73.1 points per contest.
But in the past two weeks, this has been shaved down again, to just 68 points per game.
4. Old Dogs, new tricks
A lot has changed since the Bulldogs last visited Spotless Stadium.
The most obvious difference to Sydney fans will that almost a third of the side will be different. Jason Johannisen, Joel Hamling, Zaine Cordy, Clay Smith, Josh Dunkley and neither Boyd played back in round nine.
But that’s not all. The Dogs have found a new gear in some key areas since their finals campaign started in Perth 16 days ago.
We mentioned above that the defence has gotten stingier, but things are looking up at the other end of the ground, too, the Dogs averaging over 100 points a game this September. 103 to be exact.
But it doesn’t stop there. Score percentage per inside 50? Up. Goal per inside 50? Up. Inside 50 differential? Up.
Is it game time yet?
