Western Bulldogs accused of wasting golden era

[azabob]

Poulter looks OK though right?

He does but they clearly didn't see a defined role for him at the club and chose to cut him. Time obviously will tell.

[bornadog]

What is not true? It is my opinion.

I never said we didn't bring in 15 players.

No, you said: " Coupled with the fact we hardly had a pick in the 2020 and 2021 drafts."

15 picks is a lot.

Our recruiters have failed to pick decent players in the 3rd and 4th rounds - maybe some may still come good, but at this stage we don't have any.

[azabob]

No, you said: " Coupled with the fact we hardly had a pick in the 2020 and 2021 drafts."

15 picks is a lot.

Our recruiters have failed to pick decent players in the 3rd and 4th rounds

Lets stick to the time period I mentioned 2020 and 2021.

2020 we took two picks in the national draft JUH and Bedendo (4th round)
2021 we took three players in the national draft Darcy, Jones (3rd round) and Cleary (4th round)

Five picks in two drafts isn't a lot.

Due to circumstances we haven't given Dom Milesi much of an opportunity to unearth talent in rounds 1,2,3.

[hujsh]

Simply not true..



We have had 15 players in those years delisted/traded/retired.

We drafted 5... that's right only FIVE players in 2020 and 2021 COMBINED.

Obviously there is a reason for that in those years being Darcy and JUH but still that's a huge deficit of an intake of young players and the pendulum will need to swing back at some point.

Hell combine it with last year too and it's 8 over three years. Bringing in the likes of Liam Jones and Lobb doesn't really counter that lack of draftees coming in and we've also lost players we wanted to keep like Lipinski and more importantly Dunkley who were on the younger side of things. We have an old ass list.

[Grantysghost]

Poulter looks OK though right?

He does, you can also kind of see why he didn't fit their model.

He's a nice player, not super intense. That doesn't cut it in the Pie's current team.

It was an interesting exercise going through their drafting. A few top end misses. (Aish, Sharenberg, Stephenson). They don't get a lot of high picks due to consistent form.

[hujsh]

We drafted 5... that's right only FIVE players in 2020 and 2021 COMBINED.

Obviously there is a reason for that in those years being Darcy and JUH but still that's a huge deficit of an intake of young players and the pendulum will need to swing back at some point.

Hell combine it with last year too and it's 8 over three years. Bringing in the likes of Liam Jones and Lobb doesn't really counter that lack of draftees coming in and we've also lost players we wanted to keep like Lipinski and more importantly Dunkley who were on the younger side of things. We have an old ass list.

Out of curiosity I decided to go a bit further back to see when we actually last drafted a decent haul of kids.

2019 was also 3 (Weightman Buttler and Garcia, 1 good 1 bad and 1 TBD)

2018 was 5 but 2 of them 5 were Ben Cavarra and Will Hayes to go with Smith, West and Vanders.

2017 was 3 (Naughton, Richards and Porter)

2016 was 4 (English Lipinski L.Young and Greene at pick 70)

2015 was 4 but notably all 5 picks were inside the top 50 (Dunkley Collins Adams and B.Williams)

2014 was 6 with McLean, Webb, Hamilton, Dale, Daniel and Cordy all getting drafted.


I'd argue that the last time we properly invested in the draft and brought in young talent was 2015. It's usually been 3 kids with 1-2 of them being very late speculative picks

I'd also argue our hit rate is not bad with the 2nd and 3rd round picks when we actually get a chance to use them.

[bornadog]

Out of curiosity I decided to go a bit further back to see when we actually last drafted a decent haul of kids.

2019 was also 3 (Weightman Buttler and Garcia, 1 good 1 bad and 1 TBD)

2018 was 5 but 2 of them 5 were Ben Cavarra and Will Hayes to go with Smith, West and Vanders.

2017 was 3 (Naughton, Richards and Porter)

2016 was 4 (English Lipinski L.Young and Greene at pick 70)

2015 was 4 but notably all 5 picks were inside the top 50 (Dunkley Collins Adams and B.Williams)

2014 was 6 with McLean, Webb, Hamilton, Dale, Daniel and Cordy all getting drafted.


I'd argue that the last time we properly invested in the draft and brought in young talent was 2015. It's usually been 3 kids with 1-2 of them being very late speculative picks

At the same time we have brought in alot of players from other clubs - mainly taller players like -Keath, Bruce, Hannan, Lobb, Jones.

[GVGjr]

Back to the theme of the opening post but it would be interesting to know the reasons why we haven't quite been living up to our ability.

Is it the challenges of the move to Skinner reserve over Summer and the early part of the season?
Remembering that the players were finding the harder surface more than challenging from November through to the New Year.
After the Xmas break I think the ground was receiving a higher rating from the players. It couldn't have been ideal to have players shuffling between two places and and having to head back to the club to have a shower. The upshot was that we did have a lot of players rotating through the rehab group throughout the preseason.
On top of all that it must be a genuine challenge for our VFL side to have not had a home ground for so long.

Is it that our fitness level isn't as good as some other clubs?
I think some other clubs got a bit of a jump on us in terms of fitness.
There is no question that we work the players very hard in the sessions and I witnessed a lot of drills over summer that were designed that way but is it cutting edge? Do we do enough hard running drills when compared to our more traditional match sim type focus?

Are we not tackling the issue of our set shot goal kicking the right way?
Typically the goal kicking drills are performed at the end of the training sessions and I believe this is to simulate how the players routine stands up during levels of fatigue. It's questionable to me that given the way forwards are rested if fatigue is that prevalent. In match day though we are also missing as many shots early in games and quarters where you would assume fatigue hasn't set in.
Do we need to be prepared to bring in a specialist from outside the club? I know clubs typically don't want to do that but if we get it right we will become a better side.

Has our footy department been set-up the right way after the departure of Chris Maple?
It seems strange to me that we have split the role of the GM of the footy department over 3 people and I wonder if that has been effective? I guess the soft cap on the footy department spend has clubs looking for ways to cut costs and redirect the available funds elsewhere but it's a critical role and while I believe Maple was highly regarded by most in the footy department but did we even lose some ground there when Graham Lowe left us back in 2017?

Are our assistant coaches performing to the required level and who assesses their performance?
With now no GM of Football at the club who monitors Bevo and the assistant coaches on the moves they make, the match day selections and the game plan effectiveness? Our match day selections have clearly been hard to decipher.

Has the club been distracted by a focus on the Whitten Oval redevelopment?
It's a massive investment the club, council and governments have made and there would be a fair bit of pressure to get it right but has it come at the expense of a focus with our on field performance? This would also be impacting our AFLW side.

Has our recruiting and list management been able to identify the required talent?
Like all departments at club the recruiting team would be asked to stretch the resources far and wide but you have to wonder if we have enough talent scouts out there?

Why there is a perception that the club might be wasting what should be a golden era for itself probably has some of the above points factoring into it but the real challenge for the club is how they might be progressing on restructuring the club after the 2022 review.
Clubs are huge and complex businesses but are intrinsically linked when the footy department is winning games.
Attracting sponsors and growing membership numbers is just much better if the club is performing well on the field. That's also one of the reasons why we try and foster a great relationship the media so that a positive message about where the club is heading reaches far and wide audience.

My genuine belief is that we are under-performing to the talent we have but it's very fixable. Time will tell if we have the will to take on the challenge but having the media speculating on why we haven't been measuring up isn't a bad thing and shouldn't be so readily dismissed as rubbish or someone trying to make a name for themselves at the expense.
We should take the positive and negative stories as just media commentary and we certainly shouldn't take it so personally during the more challenging times.

[hujsh]

At the same time we have brought in alot of players from other clubs - mainly taller players like -Keath, Bruce, Hannan, Lobb, Jones.

Sure. It's part of why we don't have those mid range picks. But it's also aged up our list profile significantly and we probably need some adjustment this or next year as there just doesn't seem to be many kids pushing for selection at VFL level

[GVGjr]

Sure. It's part of why we don't have those mid range picks. But it's also aged up our list profile significantly and we probably need some adjustment this or next year as there just doesn't seem to be many kids pushing for selection at VFL level

When you have such and experienced playing list it's harder to hide behind when you have a significantly younger list and it also builds a higher level of expectation both in the media and the fan base. It does look bad when that move doesn't quite result in improved performances.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

At the same time we have brought in alot of players from other clubs - mainly taller players like -Keath, Bruce, Hannan, Lobb, Jones.

Gardner and O’Brien are two others as well and with the exception of Liam Jones, you would have to question the wisdom of the selections. Treloar was a bit of a bonus coming from such a strong Club as Collingwood.
It will be good to see Busslinger as our number one draft pick from last year tried as without
Jones we lack another key defender.

[bulldogtragic]

Gardner and O?Brien are two others as well and with the exception of Liam Jones, you would have to question the wisdom of the selections. Treloar was a bit of a bonus coming from such a strong Club as Collingwood.
It will be good to see Busslinger as our number one draft pick from last year tried as without
Jones we lack another key defender.

Add in Schache and a cooked Stef Martin to the recent list. To TOB, Gards, Keath, Bruce, Hannan, Lobb & Jones. (Cloke if we go back to 2016 - but cheap)

A lot of second and third rounders used here. Luckily two FAs, one for La Young who already walked and a MSD.

[Hotdog60]

Is our list the result of not recovering for Covid. In saying a lot of staff were let go is this including talent scouts and staff under Sam Power. Are talent scouts employed or is it a volunteer arrangement?
Are we recruiting on what's easily known because the resources aren't there to give us better insight.
Makes me wonder.

[Bullies]

Interesting listening to Mitch Wallis saying we can't rely on our bottom 10 players in games when the game turns.

In the past our bottom 6 were part of the clubs strong attributes towards winning the flag.

[hujsh]

Interesting listening to Mitch Wallis saying we can't rely on our bottom 10 players in games when the game turns.

In the past our bottom 6 were part of the clubs strong attributes towards winning the flag.

Chas and Tom Boyd said the same on Danny/Boyd