Three things I've learned. Round one v GWS.

[Twodogs]

What are three things that you know now that you didn't know before the game against the plastics?

[GVGjr]

Lets try and focus on at least a couple of positives :)

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

1. English is going to be a player
2. If that is reflective of the skill and effort we're going to bring each week we'll be lucky to avoid the spoon.
3. We look as bereft of a game plan as we have since McCartney's time in charge.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

1. We will finish bottom 4
2. Last year was not a hangover. Something is seriously wrong down at Whitten Oval
3. Bevo has been our hero. But he has a lot to answer for right now. Playing players out of position and no one looked ready for today’s game

[AndrewP6]

1. We have regressed since last year.
2. The MC aren't the Messiahs, just very naughty boys.
3. Gowers and English can offer something.

[lemmon]

1. English looks the goods. Thought he was an odd selection but he's done enough to keep his spot.

2. We've taken versatility too far and it's hurting our best players.

3. Our decision making and execution is ridiculous sometimes. 'Skillful' players just doing crazy things with the footy.

[GVGjr]

1) We have no excuse for such a lethargic effort. We had plenty of motivation going into the game.
2) I held hopes that our skill level would improve this year but on today's effort that was optimistic.
3) I thought the selection of Tim English for today's game was a mistake, I was wrong and he performed well

[The Bulldogs Bite]

1. We are a divided side on and off the field
2. English is a gem
3. I have no confidence in Beveridge or the coaching group anymore. We turn AA defenders into ordinary forwards, ruckmen into forwards, trade/draft in talls but don’t play them or play them out of position and still bomb to out numbered contests aimlessly.

[Twodogs]

1. Tim English will be a good player
2. That the first time we kicked it into our forward 50 nobody was there. We had the wind. I learned that I didn't think would happen.
3. Bont might be human

[westbulldog]

1. English showed a lot of promise.
2. Players out of their natural positions didn't work.
3. It is only round 1, a bad beating but lets not get too pessimistic yet.

[Bullies]

1. We are a divided side on and off the field
2. English is a gem
3. I have no confidence in Beveridge or the coaching group anymore. We turn AA defenders into ordinary forwards, ruckmen into forwards, trade/draft in talls but don’t play them or play them out of position and still bomb to out numbered contests aimlessly. Agree especially with point number 1. they are not playing for each other. Something not right and a lot of the rumblings that have been going on for some time could have a bit of substance.

[Mofra]

1. English is the most promising tall on our list
2. Naughton learned a lot today
3. Macrae is the most hardworking, underrated player in the competition who cops multiple hits but never reacts.

[bornadog]

Agree especially with point number 1. they are not playing for each other. Something not right and a lot of the rumblings that have been going on for some time could have a bit of substance.

What are these rumblings?

[bornadog]

3. Macrae is the most hardworking, underrated player in the competition who cops multiple hits but never reacts.

Copped one from their number 35 today and If I was the MRP would look at that.

[Mantis]

Copped one from their number 35 today and If I was the MRP would look at that.

If it’s the incident I’m thinking of it was 31 (Finalyson).. it was a cheap shot, but not reportable.

[Go_Dogs]

1. We have no midfield depth and Libba missing the year makes it that much harder.

2. English, HC and Gowers (at least in the first half) vindicated their selections. English looks to have a bright future and the other 2 can become solid role players if they continue to improve their games.

3. Defensive spread is more important than offensive spread. GWS shut down the ground/space and outnumbered us everywhere.

[Ozza]

1. We look poorly coached right now. Both on the ball movement front, and the defensive system front - we failed miserably. The signs were there in the first 2 minutes where we turned the ball over, and then quick kicks went straight to GWS forwards because we weren’t set up for it.
2. Woody is going so badly on account of this ridiculous forward move - that he even looked a shell of himself in defence.
3. I hope GWS are the best team in it.....because if they are not, then we might be amongst a handful of the worst!

[Greystache]

1. We look like a club a club in disarray. A multitude of people in a variety of roles are performing extremely poorly and have been for a while.

2. It's round 1 and we look like we need to restart our season already. Selection is a mess, players are playing out of position and it's killing the team, and our game plan and execution look a long way off the rest of the competition.

3. We picked a team to get slaughtered in defense, not score in attack, and slaughter the ball in the middle. If that was the plan it worked perfectly.

[chef]

1. Im starting to lose the 'faith' in Beverage. Has the premiership gone to his head?

2. I was looking forward to going the footy next sunday. But if they are going to put efforts in like that i really cant be stuffed spending 6 hours in the car for it.

3. English is going to play a lot of games for us.

[bornadog]

1, 2 and 3. Memo to self, don't go on WOOF when we lose

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

1. English was the one shining light in a very poor performance.
2. The decision to play Wood as a forward was never going to work.
3. Missing 8 players from our Premiership team plus the loss of Libba left us threadbare.

[Templeton31]

1. Tim English can play and is gonna be a player. SO tall and relatively mobile. Was great target, got on lead and first hand on it in ruck.

2. Match committee got it wrong today. Too many new players - either new to club or young. Naughton Gowers English Trengrove Crozier. Needed some senior direction- dickson wallis even caleb. When then add playing wood forward, jj on the wing etc even the experienced heads were in wrong area.

3. Billy Gowers might be ok. I wondered why picked ahead of others but he was a real spark in first quarter. Got a bit lost after that but trying to be positive....

[ratsmac]

I learned....
1. The team selections looked a bit dodgy on Friday and as it turned out, it was.
2. We looked to have no heart. The never give up mantra that we had is gone.
3. Our ball handling skills are worse than our defensive skills and our defensive skills are horrible at the minute.

[hujsh]

1, 2 and 3. Memo to self, don't go on WOOF when we lose

Sometimes that's a good approach but honestly I don't think it's really been that overblown today. That's largely because the performance was so awful it'd be hard to overstate it. There's nothing that say's we can't recover and have a decent season but signs at this stage are not looking good.

If anything it might be a 2005 type year where we start poorly and hopefully pick up steam at the end to set ourselves up for a big next year. A disappointing hope for the 2016 premiers to be sure but given the way we finished last year we seem to be in a real rut that might take some time to get out of. Maybe a shuffle of assistants like what Hardwick had may be called for?

[merantau]

1.We got mauled for sure and it was our worst performance for over three years. I never expected we could sink that low again.
2. The injury curse does not want to move on.
3. English will be very good, hopefully very quickly.

[merantau]

1.We got mauled for sure and it was our worst performance for over three years. I never expected we could sink that low again.
2. The injury curse does not want to move on.
3. English will be very good, hopefully very quickly.

[chef]

1.We got mauled for sure and it was our worst performance for over three years. I never expected we could sink that low again.


Biggest loss since 2012.

[Flamethrower]

1. Thank you to the Aussie cricket team for taking some of the heat off us.

2. There are some very lazy and borderline incompetent journos out there claiming we are still suffering a "premiership hangover". Looking at you Fox Sports.

3. Next week's game is a cross-roads for our season, relevance and credibility.

[Templeton31]

OK heres my second go at this being deliberately more positive:

1. As someone who now resides in Canberra its great to go to the footy. Walked into the ground and breathed the footy air. Way better than tv. I envy you woofers who live in Melbourne. Also howling wind to Manuka end gave it the real footy feel.

2. Favourite moment was Dogs fan sitting along from me. Hadn't said anything all game but looking crankier and crankier as game went on. At some point during third quarter he slapped his record on his knee and yelled "This is $hit". Pretty sure he didn't say anything else whole game. Gold.

3. Round 6, 2017 - Adelaide 21.14 - 140 defeated Richmond 10.4-64. #justsayin

[LostDoggy]

1. Im starting to lose the 'faith' in Beverage. Has the premiership gone to his head?

2. I was looking forward to going the footy next sunday. But if they are going to put efforts in like that i really cant be stuffed spending 6 hours in the car for it.

3. English is going to play a lot of games for us.

On your 1... I’m thinking along the same lines after this week, Luke is the messiah and saved us but he may be getting ahead of himself and trying to be way too clever, understand that injury and form has influenced this rounds formula. So..

1. I’m looking forward to good, honest bulldog football next week. No frills, best players selected in their best positions. Key forwards, key backs and a ruckman, intensity and pressure.
2. Growers and English have taken my interest
3. Next week is a lot more important than I had anticipated

[The Adelaide Connection]

1. Gowers is a better player than he has been given credit here (as in on previous threads). Has a bit of mongrel, showed great determination, and was one of only a handful of positives.
2. We are a long way from sorting out our forwardline and forward entry woes. It is shambolic.
3. Training at Whitten Oval has (surprisingly) not turned us into wind specialists.

[bornadog]

1. Gowers is a better player than he has been given credit here (as in on previous threads). Has a bit of mongrel, showed great determination, and was one of only a handful of positives.

I agree Gowers did ok for his first game in AFL football. Not sure why some want him dropped after one game

[SonofScray]

1. My optimism didn't run deep enough to counter today's disappointment. I've spun 180 on my feelings about how the Club as a whole is going. Very real concerns that things have gone amiss.

2. We have the stench of a team all at sea, bobbing up and down like this. No cohesion across phases of the game, or roles getting played. This is a serious issue for the coaching team to sort out. I've lost a bit of faith in the coaching group.

3. Our aerial components of the game are very, very poor. It's disheartening getting out armed easily all day at either end.

[Scraggers]

1. I thought we showed glimpses in the first quarter until Libba went down. Easton looked lost but English looked good. The first quarter scoreline did not represent the ball possession but we were in it.
2. We missed class today; we lacked polish.
3. We will win next week, comfortably ... at home vs Eagles. Reassess Reset Refocus and be Ready

[Scraggers]

1. I thought we showed glimpses in the first quarter until Libba went down. Easton looked lost but English looked good. The first quarter scoreline did not represent the ball possession but we were in it.
2. We missed class today; we lacked polish.
3. We will win next week, comfortably ... at home vs Eagles. Reassess Reset Refocus and be Ready

That's as positive as I get

[The Adelaide Connection]

1. I thought we showed glimpses in the first quarter until Libba went down. Easton looked lost but English looked good. The first quarter scoreline did not represent the ball possession but we were in it.
2. We missed class today; we lacked polish.
3. We will win next week, comfortably ... at home vs Eagles. Reassess Reset Refocus and be Ready

I wonder how much the Liberatore injury impacted the group?

When Clay did his knee for the six hundredth time we were about 40 odd points up and when we came out after halftime we had stopped and they ran right over the top of us. It clearly impacted the playing group that day, I wonder if this was the same?

[LostDoggy]

I wonder how much the Liberatore injury impacted the group?

When Clay did his knee for the six hundredth time we were about 40 odd points up and when we came out after halftime we had stopped and they ran right over teh top of us. It clearly impacted the playing group that day, I wonder if this was the same?

I’d like to say you could have a point but na your reaching. We were crap and sent out an unbalanced team to start with then it was like lambs to the slaughter after Libba went down. Losing Crozier only made the hole a canyon.

Forget about it. Come home and reload.

[Mantis]

1/ That was awful.. but not unexpected, which is a shame.
2/ Picking a side with little midfield depth, against a team with a deep one is never going to end well.. especially when we lose one of our best.
3/ The Bont looked a shadow of the player he was in the pre-season.. perhaps there was something in him missing most of our pre-game warm-up.

[Ozza]

1/ That was awful.. but not unexpected, which is a shame.
2/ Picking a side with little midfield depth, against a team with a deep one is never going to end well.. especially when we lose one of our best.
3/ The Bont looked a shadow of the player he was in the pre-season.. perhaps there was something in him missing most of our pre-game warm-up.

I didn't hear about him missing the warm up. Hopefully that is some explanation to what went on with him.
Bont didn't seem to have any intensity or leadership about his performance - compared to what we've become accustomed to.

[Sedat]

I wonder how much the Liberatore injury impacted the group?

When Clay did his knee for the six hundredth time we were about 40 odd points up and when we came out after halftime we had stopped and they ran right over the top of us. It clearly impacted the playing group that day, I wonder if this was the same?
We had our best 15 minute patch of the game straight after Libba's injury. I reckon that is clutching at straws.

[bornadog]

2/ Picking a side with little midfield depth, against a team with a deep one is never going to end well.. especially when we lose one of our best.
.

Do we have any more mids that could have come in? Wallis?

[Mantis]

Do we have any more mids that could have come in? Wallis?

Jong & Daniel to start with.

Our defensive pressure around the ball was horrific and is an area where Jong is quite good. Daniel is one of our best users by foot and in tricky conditons his ability to hit up a target would have been beneficial.

[bornadog]

Jong & Daniel to start with.

Our defensive pressure around the ball was horrific and is an area where Jong is quite good. Daniel is one of our best users by foot and in tricky conditions his ability to hit up a target would have been beneficial.

I think they may have been under done, and hopefully they come in this week.

Although reports from the VFL game, Jong is still disposing the ball and putting teammates under pressure.

[Bulldog4life]

1.Tim English showed he will be a gun ruckman for us for many years. His kicking is first class for a guy 207cm tall.
2.Billy Gowers showed spunk in the forward line before he tired and I would like him to retain his place.
3.Worse result since round 21, 2012 season....enough said.

[Mantis]

1.Tim English showed he will be a gun ruckman for us for many years. His kicking is first class for a guy 207cm tall.

He's performance in the 1st half in the ruck was quite good, but the decision to play him primarily as a key forward in the 2nd half was a strange call.


2.Billy Gowers showed spunk in the forward line before he tired and I would like him to retain his place.

I wasn't as enthused and saw lots of Jake Stringer in his efforts.. hanging out the back rather than presenting up.

He probably gets another chance given teh poor perfoamnce of the entire team, but he needs to be better both offensively & defensively.

[Ozza]

He's performance in the 1st half in the ruck was quite good, but the decision to play him primarily as a key forward in the 2nd half was a strange call.



I wasn't as enthused and saw lots of Jake Stringer in his efforts.. hanging out the back rather than presenting up.

He probably gets another chance given teh poor perfoamnce of the entire team, but he needs to be better both offensively & defensively.

On Gowers, thanks for the 'at the ground' perspective. Always hard to get the whole picture on TV.
He had a couple of good moments, but I wouldn't pick him this week, personally, given who we need to get back into the side urgently. It would appear from Bevo's comments (and perhaps reading into yours also) that he ran out of gas after a good start early.

[1eyedog]

1. GWS bleed and can be killed. When we did apply a high level of defensive pressure on them they repeatedly turned the ball over, pity it only lasted 10 minutes.

2. Bevo is coaching in a reactive space at the moment, an approach that is poles apart from his measured approach throughout 15-16.

3.The team on and off the ground is badly out of form, Macrae gets the chocolates due to his idling consistency, but we needed more from key players early. Morris, Adams, Picken, Daniel and Libba are big, big outs.

One thing I didn't learn is whether a 80 point ass smashing, media derision, and social media meltdowns will have any impact at the selection table this week. Or will we stick to the plan and purely work on the forced changes.

[Chicago1]

1. I don't have Foxtel so I planned on watching the match online. My wifi was on and off so I gave up and just listened. That's a +
2. I should have had us lose for more than the 23 points I had tipped. That's a -
3. The game reminded me of the early 80s Footscray teams, so I felt I was in my late 20s/early 30s again. That's a +

I want to thank the Australian Cricket Team for their endeavour to keep our loss quieter in the media than expected.

[HOSE B ROMERO]

1. Going bushwalking and having no mobile reception can be a positive,

2. After completing aforementioned bushwalk and jumping back in car, only turn on car radio when you are mentally prepared for the worst.

3. Winter is coming...

[Twodogs]

1. GWS bleed and can be killed. When we did apply a high level of defensive pressure on them they repeatedly turned the ball over, pity it only lasted 10 minutes.

2. Bevo is coaching in a reactive space at the moment, an approach that is poles apart from his measured approach throughout 15-16.

3.The team on and off the ground is badly out of form, Macrae gets the chocolates due to his idling consistency, but we needed more from key players early. Morris, Adams, Picken, Daniel and Libba are big, big outs.

One thing I didn't learn is whether a 80 point ass smashing, media derision, and social media meltdowns will have any impact at the selection table this week. Or will we stick to the plan and purely work on the forced changes.

1/ why is he coaching like that? He's letting the opposition coaches run the show when he was playing them on a break 23 games ago.
2/ why do we announce every strategic move we make? We decide on something, Easton Wood to attack for instance, and then spend three quarters of every conversation we have for the next three months talking about it. To the media, to each other, to others and I don't understand why because wouldn't part of the value of Wood to attack is its not something the opposition are going to put a lot of planning into so if it comes off they won't have a plan to hand. Unless we drone on about it for the summer.



1. I don't have Foxtel so I planned on watching the match online. My wifi was on and off so I gave up and just listened. That's a +
2. I should have had us lose for more than the 23 points I had tipped. That's a -
3. The game reminded me of the early 80s Footscray teams, so I felt I was in my late 20s/early 30s again. That's a +

I want to thank the Australian Cricket Team for their endeavour to keep our loss quieter in the media than expected.

I thought you said your wife when I first read your post.

[Ghost Dog]

1. We have the parts, but the whole is scarily missing. It worries me.
2. The fact we ( very likely ) knew we were going to get smashed well before the bounce is even more troubling.
3. The honeymoon is well over for Bevo.

[Chicago1]

I thought you said your wife when I first read your post.

:D Yes, I can see why you misread that, especially when I mentioned giving up and just listening.

[Twodogs]

:D Yes, I can see why you misread that, especially when I mentioned giving up and just listening.

Yep, it was the "gave up and listened" bit that sounded wife like. ;)

[Sedat]

I learnt that the things that made us so resolute in 2015/2016, our care for each other and complete buy in to the team ethos, has completely left this group of players. Exhibit A - Billy Gowers takes a terrific contested mark in his first AFL game, kicks his first goal in league footy and he barely get a few high fives from his teammates. In sharp contrast Zac Langdon for GWS kicks his first AFL goal later in the game and he is absolutely swamped by every single teammate.

Small issue in isolation but it told everything about what is missing from our group at the moment. I hope we get it back ASAP, starting on Sunday.

[Ghost Dog]

Good point! WTF is going on with that!!! So annoying. Something is wrong.

Oh the other thing I learned: People don't appreciate how big an out Liam Picken is from our side. I recall when we were getting smashed during the dark days of McCarthy and Liam was one of the few who was giving it all for four quarters on a continued basis. We've all played sport with a guy like that, who never gives in. How much must it lift the boys to have Liam on the park?
Arguably the best player of our 16' finals series. Hope to see him back soon. I guess I am a bit biased, regarding the favorite son of the western district.

[Mantis]

I learnt that the things that made us so resolute in 2015/2016, our care for each other and complete buy in to the team ethos, has completely left this group of players. Exhibit A - Billy Gowers takes a terrific contested mark in his first AFL game, kicks his first goal in league footy and he barely get a few high fives from his teammates. In sharp contrast Zac Langdon for GWS kicks his first AFL goal later in the game and he is absolutely swamped by every single teammate.

Small issue in isolation but it told everything about what is missing from our group at the moment. I hope we get it back ASAP, starting on Sunday.

Or when Jack Macrae was hit with a cheap shot tackle by Finlayson when stuck under a high ball. When Jack was on the ground sucking in some deep ones Finlayson stood over him and mouthed off and not one Bulldog player remonstrated..was an ordinary look. We sorely miss Libba and to a lesser extent Clay Smith who stick up for their team-mates and get in their opposition players faces... the rest are just 'nice' boys.

[Twodogs]

Or when Jack Macrae was hit with a cheap shot tackle by Finlayson when stuck under a high ball. When Jack was on the ground sucking in some deep ones Finlayson stood over him and mouthed off and not one Bulldog player remonstrated..was an ordinary look. We sorely miss Libba and to a lesser extent Clay Smith who stick up for their team-mates and get in their opposition players faces... the rest are just 'nice' boys.

Out of everything in footy that's the thing I hate most. You have to stand up for your mates. Somebody had to sit Finlayson on his arse.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Out of everything in footy that's the thing I hate most. You have to stand up for your mates. Somebody had to sit Finlayson on his arse.

And what? Cop a 4 game ban from it ala Redpath? I get what everyone is saying but the AFL has reduced this sport to a bore fest. His teammates should at least get in his face about it but the players have very little wiggle room for emotion when you can be suspended for 4 weeks for simply pushing someone in the chest

[Rocket Science]

Out of everything in footy that's the thing I hate most. You have to stand up for your mates. Somebody had to sit Finlayson on his arse.

With Libba, Picken, Redpath & Clay Smith out of the side there's really nobody else inclined to fly the flag. Cordy?

Agreed, if one of our blokes floored Kelly then stood over him to let him know all about it there'd have been a queue of Giants getting in to remonstrate. Granted that mob also love the faux rough stuff but, still.

[Twodogs]

And what? Cop a 4 game ban from it ala Redpath? I get what everyone is saying but the AFL has reduced this sport to a bore fest. His teammates should at least get in his face about it but the players have very little wiggle room for emotion when you can be suspended for 4 weeks for simply pushing someone in the chest

You can as least jump in and make sure Jack is OK, help him up, accidently knock Finlayson over. That sort of thing.


With Libba, Picken, Redpath & Clay Smith out of the side there's really nobody else inclined to fly the flag. Cordy?

Agreed, if one of our blokes floored Kelly then stood over him to let him know all about it there'd have been a queue of Giants getting in to remonstrate. Granted that mob also love the faux rough stuff but, still.

Bont usually doesn't mind handing it out but he was miles away from where the ball was most of the game but most of our best remonststers were missing on Sunday. Would have thought Cordy would stick in his bib if he was in the vicinity.

[S Coast Simon]

I got concerned when Macrae hit high with a shoulder mind you and have not heard anything about that. Not one remonstration from our players. Even the smallest bloke has to chest up and let him know it’s not forgotten or forgiven. Noticed it with Gowers first goal not many players made the effort to congratulate him like GWS did their man. Granted they were killing it at the time. We are not playing as a team we have to sort that out pretty quick.

[dadsgirl16]

Can’t agree with the Gowers goal I was there and pretty sure they ran from everywhere to get around him

[Bulldog4life]

Good point! WTF is going on with that!!! So annoying. Something is wrong.

Oh the other thing I learned: People don't appreciate how big an out Liam Picken is from our side. I recall when we were getting smashed during the dark days of McCarthy and Liam was one of the few who was giving it all for four quarters on a continued basis. We've all played sport with a guy like that, who never gives in. How much must it lift the boys to have Liam on the park?
Arguably the best player of our 16' finals series. Hope to see him back soon. I guess I am a bit biased, regarding the favorite son of the western district.

Don't agree GD. I think most people do appreciate what a big loss Picko is to our team.

[Ghost Dog]

Don't agree GD. I think most people do appreciate what a big loss Picko is to our team.

Where is my 'I love Liam' article from Mr Smurphy then? :( eh? eh? :D