A brief history of our finals matches

[Bulldog4life]

I was there with my dad too. Stunned silence. We were behind the goals a few rows back and we knew Libba's behind was a goal, we could see the looks on Grant and Hudson's faces as Hudson wouldn't get out of the way, could easily count the number of players on their own in and better positions both times Mark West had a ping from way out. The only thing we couldn't see was who was supposed to be on Jarman.

Curley wasn't it?

[Mantis]

I was there with my dad too. Stunned silence. We were behind the goals a few rows back and we knew Libba's behind was a goal, we could see the looks on Grant and Hudson's faces as Hudson wouldn't get out of the way, could easily count the number of players on their own in and better positions both times Mark West had a ping from way out. The only thing we couldn't see was who was supposed to be on Jarman.

That was Todd Curley... Pretty sure our best defensive stopper was on the pine in the last qtr... whilst we were out on our feet our lack of composure and inability of the coaching staff to change things up really hurt.

It was a bloody car wreck and besides my best efforts to get completely shit faced soon after and forget the proceeding 24 hours the memory of those 2 & half hours lives on.. If only Modra didn't get hurt.

[Torpedo]

Same here. At half time family members were deciding who would go home and get some supplies and who would walk over to the Arts Centre after the game and get in the queue for tix. By 3/4 time we were still working out the logistics if somewhat hesitantly. The walk home past those smarmy Crows theatre goers, was the worst after match feeling I have experienced in 50 plus years of supporting the dogs.

[boydogs]

How many weeks have we competed do you know?

1868

http://afltables.com/afl/teams/bulll...verall_wl.html

[Twodogs]

1868

http://afltables.com/afl/teams/bulll...verall_wl.html

Thanks for the link.

[Greystache]

Was it during the halftime break or 3/4 time that Shaun Rehn took his knee brace off? I think it was then I thought to myself that just has to lift the team. Seemed to coincide with them getting back into the game.

Halftime. It was a statement that he didn't care if he did it again again and most likely finished his career, he was going to give everything to try to win the game. The Crows lifted in the 3rd quarter but didn't really convert it on the scoreboard, then they dominated the last quarter and got up and won. It was a big statement and we didn't have anyone who stood up and rested back the momentum. It was a telling statement.

[LostDoggy]

VFL/AFL FINAL #30 (10-19)

So we've had our best ever home and away season in terms of ladder position through the year, dominated our first final and, in our 5th final series in 7 seasons, looked to have a perfectly matured team to have a serious tilt at winning a flag.

We came up against Adelaide, who had finished 5th, been beaten by 8 goals in it's first final (only survived because other results fell their way) and got over a tired Sydney in the 2nd week of the finals. We had beaten Adelaide by 10 goals midseason and the mood was palpably that we would exact our revenge for the previous year.

This was the first Bulldog final I didn't see live in my lifetime. I remember the Channel 7 intro talking only about Bulldog revenge and not offering any thought of an Adelaide victory.

Of all our finals, this is the one where we clearly lost it mentally. Our defensive game just disintegrated inexplicably as our sense of destiny unfolded in the face of Adelaide attacks.

Adelaide got off to a good start and led 5-6-36 to 2-5-17, however we were doing okay in the middle and I remember still feeling confident that we would click into gear and take control.

We were the better team in the second and created many chances, but we missed too many and allowed Adelaide to score way too freely with their chances. Despite drawing close a couple of times, Adelaide got a couple of easy ones late and by half time the scoreline read 13-8-86 to 7-10-52.

We were clearly shellshocked and seemingly threw all defence out the window, worrying about getting our attacking style in full force in order to bridge the gap, but hopelessly bleeding goals the other way.

Our gaping hole was KPD's, with Craig Ellis injured and Matthew Croft our only defender really suitable for a key post. Adelaide exploited this by isolating Matthew Robran at CHF, who had a career best 10 mark, 6 goal day out, playing significant portions of the game on a severely ill equipped Rohan Smith.

Looking back this game was a coaching masterclass from Malcolm Blight with Plough really failing to respond. Blight's 1998 efforts to take a team with glaring weaknesses (their only quality big man was a proppy Rehn, their key position players were uniformly modest or undersized) from a struggling 5th to a flag despite playing interstate finals against higher ranked teams 4 weeks in a row probably doesn't get it's due recognition. A brilliant coaching performance.

The last half was horribly painful, as bad as 1997 in a whole different range of emotions. By 3QT the scoreline blew out to 18-11-119 to 9-13-67 and finally 24-17-161 to 13-15-93.

Looking back to the stats, we won the clearances 44 to 33 and the overall possession count 310 to 292. This confirms the impression that we were going okay from the midfield, but were utterly hopeless defensively.

Multiple goalkickers were Paul Hudson, 5, and Brad Johnson and Rohan Smith, 2.

Better players were Scott West, 36 touches and 9 clearances, both game highs (amazingly, no Adelaide player had more than 20 touches), Jose Romero (32 touches, 6 clearances), Brad Johnson (20 touches, 8 marks, 8 inside 50s, 2 goals 1) and Michael Martin (21 touches, 8 inside 50s).

[bornadog]

I gave up at half time, we were clearly undermanned, with no Key Backs to stop that dud Robran. Andrew McCleod was also brilliant for them and unstoppable with his pace.

[Twodogs]

The thing i mostly remember from that game was that I had just become a dad for the first time and was so unbelievably tired that I fell asleep in my seat and missed most of the match. I vaguely remember Bubba struggling with Robran.

[merantau]

Didn't Libber start the game on McLeod? My memories of this game still persist no matter what I do to erase them. I've tried hypnosis, psychotherapy, cognitive - readjustment therapy, celation therapy, channeling my inner viking and those pills the priests take to forget all the horrible sins they hear in the confessional - all to no avail.

[LostDoggy]

The most vivid memories I have of this disaster was Mcleod running riot and my old man wanting to go home at 3 qtr time.
Told him no way was going home until the final siren.
Didn't want to walk past those feral crows on the way out as there would've been a bit of trouble and I'm not sure the old man would have survived a night in the lock up.

[Sedat]

Plough was a very innovative coach but his penchant for innovation blew up in this match. Libba, only a couple of weeks back from an ACL, playing small defender on a jet like McLeod was sheer madness. But Rohan Smith at CHB on Robran was worse. The theory is sound enough - get rebounding run off a dud tall - but you still need to have some defensive ability one-on-one, which is certainly not Bubba's strong-suit. Crap day at the office, and proof that the scars of 1997 had not healed for that group and most likely never will be (1999 capitulation in the final v West Coke just reinforced to me that this group was spooked come September).

That is why last year's finals loss annoyed the crap out of me at the time and still does now - this new generation of players failed to get the job done, against an inferior opponent, when 8 points up approaching time-on. You don't get gift-wrapped opportunities to win finals and we should have taken it.

[Twodogs]

Plough was a very innovative coach but his penchant for innovation blew up in this match. Libba, only a couple of weeks back from an ACL, playing small defender on a jet like McLeod was sheer madness. But Rohan Smith at CHB on Robran was worse. The theory is sound enough - get rebounding run off a dud tall - but you still need to have some defensive ability one-on-one, which is certainly not Bubba's strong-suit. Crap day at the office, and proof that the scars of 1997 had not healed for that group and most likely never will be (1999 capitulation in the final v West Coke just reinforced to me that this group was spooked come September).

That is why last year's finals loss annoyed the crap out of me at the time and still does now - this new generation of players failed to get the job done, against an inferior opponent, when 8 points up approaching time-on. You don't get gift-wrapped opportunities to win finals and we should have taken it.

Yep. All that talk about letting that failure drive the playing group is just that-talk-until these players actually achieve something.

[LostDoggy]

VFL/AFL FINAL #31 (10-20)

I remember 1999 as an anxious year for Dogs fans. We knew we had a group capable of contending for a flag, but after the heartbreaks of the 2 previous years, the mood was very much that our team was aging and we needed to make this year count.

The year started gloriously. Never missing an opportunity for drama, the AFL sent us to Adelaide to meet the Crows in R1 and we managed to get a win against our new arch nemesis.

After this, though, we hit a real funk, dropping 4 of 5 games and conceding some big totals.

Our form from R7 was quite excellent. We only dropped 2 more games for the rest of the season, both by less than a kick.

By seasons end we had worked our way back into the top 4, and seemingly right back into contention. The top 4 looked an even bunch, with a big 14 point gap from 4th to 5th.

Overall our season was very comparable to '98. Although our finishing position was lower, we did win 15 games (1 draw 6 losses), compared to '98s 15-7 and our percentage was slightly higher, 118.6, up on 116.5.

So we were down to play West Coast Eagles at the MCG in front of 41,227 on a wild, windy Friday night.

It quickly became apparent on this night that the stiff, swirling wind was going to make fluid passages and high marking rare. Malthouse coached cannily, getting his quality ball carrier and user, the experienced Peter Matera behind the ball for key passages and generally stacking the backline.

The first quarter was a fairly typical finals intense feeling out period, with the teams breaking even. We led 2-5-17 to 2-3-15.

By the 2nd quarter, the Eagles had developed a game plan that absorbed our pressure and tried to score on the counter punch into an open forward line.

The game plan worked a treat with the Eagles taking their chances and us frittering plenty (same old story). By half time, they opened up a handy 16 point lead, 7-5-47 to 4-7-31.

In the 3rd, our attacks became more frenetic, even panicked, but we worked our way back to within a kick before a poor turnover allowed WCE a cheap goal against the run of play on 3QT to take in a 12 point lead; 8-9-57 to 6-9-45.

WCE got another early in the last to take a 3 goal lead. We were winning every clearance, but couldn't co-ordinate attacks through the swirly breeze or the stacked backline.

We threw Matthew Croft forward in the last half and he did clunk a few contested marks but kicked 3 out on the full at crucial times, roosting the ball high and failing to read the swirly breeze.

It was a heartbreaking quarter, with so many shots sailing the wrong side of the post.

Ultimately, we came up 5 points short; 9-11-65 to 8-12-60.

In many ways, an archetypal Dogs finals performance. Our intent couldn't be questioned, but sloppy finishing, poor attention to detail and some bad luck saw us fall short of the mark.

The stats are hard to read. Especially the clearances where we were dominant (57-28!!), but we also had 57 more possessions (345-288), 35 more contested (155-120), 10 more marks (66-56) and 17 more inside 50s (66-49).

On those numbers, a team just shouldn't lose, but a lot of credit must go to a canny Malthouse who came up with an appropriate game plan to absorb our pressure and pinch hit enough goals to sneak the game. For such a generally shrewd tactical coach, it must be said that Plough had his 2nd finals shocker in a row - just not adapting to the scenario as required.

Our forward star for the night and sole multiple goalscorer was Steve Kolyniuk, 4, who made the most of a night of difficult opportunities. Whenever we looked almost gone, he conjured something. It was an outstanding display of small forward footy smarts and skill.

Our best players on the night were Luke Darcy (24 possessions - 16 contested, 8 marks, 18 hit outs and 10 clearances), Kolynuik, Brad Johnson (27 touches - 16 contested, 7 inside 50s), Chris Grant (20 touches - 13 contested, and 7 marks in a difficult night for key forwards) and Tony Liberatore (24 touches, 6 tackles).

[bornadog]

What I remember about this final was the wind and heat and all the out on the fulls.

But, I will never forget the blatant cheating by WCE and the umpires not picking it up, ie creeping over the mark by at least 5 to 10m when the umpire turned around for a second and forcing our shots at goal from outside 50m. With minutes to go and 5 points down Koly marked the ball inside 50, the WCE player stood outside the 50 and the umpire didn't pull him back. Koly couldn't make the distance. We really should have insisted with the umpire to check the marks.

Another final we threw away, similar to last year.