bornadog
04-07-2021, 11:21 AM
link (https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/dogs-days-which-side-is-better-2016-or-2021-20210701-p58625.html)
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Marcus Bontempelli had not turned 21 when the Western Bulldogs broke their premiership drought in 2016.
He won their best and fairest that season - his third since being pick No.4 in the 2013 national draft - as the Bulldogs’ list was transformed when now Sydney recruiter Simon Dalrymple picked premiership players in all parts of the draft over six consecutive seasons to add to the six players still on the list who had played in the 2010 preliminary final.
Bontempelli is an even better player at 25, a Bulldogs’ champion who is arguably the best player in the competition right now.
But was the group he won the flag alongside in 2016 better than the 2021 version he is hoping to lead to a second premiership under Luke Beveridge?
No-one denies the 2021 list is a little deeper than it was in 2016 with elite prospects such as Aaron Naughton, Tim English, Bailey Smith and Cody Weightman secured through the draft while Josh Bruce, Alex Keath and Stefan Martin were traded in to fill needs. Adam Treloar was a bonus with the potential to turbo-charged the already strong midfield.
A key figure behind the flag, former skipper Robert Murphy - who missed playing most of 2016 with a knee injury - says it would be a mistake however to assess the 2016 group using some sort of objective measure.
“The style and the spirit of the team looks similar but the 2015-2016 [group], it really wasn’t on paper,” Murphy said.
“It did not have an orthodox line up at all. We had a fair bit of talent but the top end stuff wasn’t in the spine really and we had a style that was different to a lot of teams but we did have a pretty unique spirit that came from some desperate times preceding it.”
Murphy is right with the grand final spine of Joel Hamling, Fletcher Roberts, Tom Liberatore, Tom Boyd (who shared ruck duties with Jordan Roughead) and Liam Picken even more unconventional than last week’s spine, Ryan Gardner (who is now out injured), Alex Keath, Tom Liberatore, Bruce and Aaron Naughton.
At the core of both line-ups is the midfield with the premiership list’s handball club including Bontempelli, Liberatore, Jackson Macrae, Lachie Hunter, Caleb Daniel (now a defender). Toby McLean and Josh Dunkley still at the club while Luke Dahlhaus has joined Geelong.
They are all more experienced players five years on with Bailey Smith and Treloar massive additions.
“If you want to ruin your afternoon try to sit down and rank the midfielders one through to eight,” Murphy said. “I tried doing it once.”
He gave up.
The key to success for both teams was territory with the Bulldogs winning the battle in the 2016 finals series after they finished seventh - a slightly misleading ladder position given they still won 15 games.
In the premiership year only two teams conceded more points than the Bulldogs but 12 teams scored more. At this stage of 2021 they have kicked the most points and conceded the least.
An intangible that Murphy noticed in 2016 was the lift in standards the addition of good draft picks brought to training as Beveridge schooled the group using small sided games that sharpened their reflexes.
“[Depth] is handy if you lose players but the thing I noticed at the time is that it was the best quality of training we had ever had ... it lifted the watermark of quality,” Murphy said.
“The cool thing was to train as hard as you could.”
Beveridge knows that talent is one thing but as he said on 3AW on Wednesday night, the best teams are mature enough to take it up to other teams in man to man combat.
“[You] still need to be brash and challenging the other sides in the physicality of the game,” Beveridge said.
The Bulldogs in 2016 had that asset in spades with their backline full of mature hard nuts in Dale Morris, Matthew Boyd and the skipper Easton Wood who could not only play the game but lent support to Roberts, Cordy, Shane Biggs, and Jason Johannisen.
Liam Picken, Clay Smith and Dahlhaus competed like crazy up forward while Jake Stringer was an X-factor. Liberatore is the only noted hard man in 2021 but his teammates no longer cop any rough stuff after the Giants embarrassed them in the 2019 elimination final.
Murphy sees the 2021 version as a second coming under Beveridge that has been remodelled with a more traditional structure with key forwards and crumbers inside 50, two genuine ruckmen, a deep midfield, running defenders including Bailey Dale and Bailey Williams - who were on the list in 2016 - and recruits Taylor Duryea and Hayden Crozier, and lockdown tall defenders.
“There is a question do we need another key defender but there are not too many teams that are absolutely complete are there?” Murphy said.
“It’s like they are Bevo’s Bulldogs mark two.”
Bulldogs mark two has more talent but until it gets the job done in September, 2016 has the edge.
https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.402%2C$multiply_0.4431%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$ x_47%2C$y_43/t_crop_custom/q_86%2Cf_auto/d8c398624a20b19b38597d5f457b5cc58df32d61
Marcus Bontempelli had not turned 21 when the Western Bulldogs broke their premiership drought in 2016.
He won their best and fairest that season - his third since being pick No.4 in the 2013 national draft - as the Bulldogs’ list was transformed when now Sydney recruiter Simon Dalrymple picked premiership players in all parts of the draft over six consecutive seasons to add to the six players still on the list who had played in the 2010 preliminary final.
Bontempelli is an even better player at 25, a Bulldogs’ champion who is arguably the best player in the competition right now.
But was the group he won the flag alongside in 2016 better than the 2021 version he is hoping to lead to a second premiership under Luke Beveridge?
No-one denies the 2021 list is a little deeper than it was in 2016 with elite prospects such as Aaron Naughton, Tim English, Bailey Smith and Cody Weightman secured through the draft while Josh Bruce, Alex Keath and Stefan Martin were traded in to fill needs. Adam Treloar was a bonus with the potential to turbo-charged the already strong midfield.
A key figure behind the flag, former skipper Robert Murphy - who missed playing most of 2016 with a knee injury - says it would be a mistake however to assess the 2016 group using some sort of objective measure.
“The style and the spirit of the team looks similar but the 2015-2016 [group], it really wasn’t on paper,” Murphy said.
“It did not have an orthodox line up at all. We had a fair bit of talent but the top end stuff wasn’t in the spine really and we had a style that was different to a lot of teams but we did have a pretty unique spirit that came from some desperate times preceding it.”
Murphy is right with the grand final spine of Joel Hamling, Fletcher Roberts, Tom Liberatore, Tom Boyd (who shared ruck duties with Jordan Roughead) and Liam Picken even more unconventional than last week’s spine, Ryan Gardner (who is now out injured), Alex Keath, Tom Liberatore, Bruce and Aaron Naughton.
At the core of both line-ups is the midfield with the premiership list’s handball club including Bontempelli, Liberatore, Jackson Macrae, Lachie Hunter, Caleb Daniel (now a defender). Toby McLean and Josh Dunkley still at the club while Luke Dahlhaus has joined Geelong.
They are all more experienced players five years on with Bailey Smith and Treloar massive additions.
“If you want to ruin your afternoon try to sit down and rank the midfielders one through to eight,” Murphy said. “I tried doing it once.”
He gave up.
The key to success for both teams was territory with the Bulldogs winning the battle in the 2016 finals series after they finished seventh - a slightly misleading ladder position given they still won 15 games.
In the premiership year only two teams conceded more points than the Bulldogs but 12 teams scored more. At this stage of 2021 they have kicked the most points and conceded the least.
An intangible that Murphy noticed in 2016 was the lift in standards the addition of good draft picks brought to training as Beveridge schooled the group using small sided games that sharpened their reflexes.
“[Depth] is handy if you lose players but the thing I noticed at the time is that it was the best quality of training we had ever had ... it lifted the watermark of quality,” Murphy said.
“The cool thing was to train as hard as you could.”
Beveridge knows that talent is one thing but as he said on 3AW on Wednesday night, the best teams are mature enough to take it up to other teams in man to man combat.
“[You] still need to be brash and challenging the other sides in the physicality of the game,” Beveridge said.
The Bulldogs in 2016 had that asset in spades with their backline full of mature hard nuts in Dale Morris, Matthew Boyd and the skipper Easton Wood who could not only play the game but lent support to Roberts, Cordy, Shane Biggs, and Jason Johannisen.
Liam Picken, Clay Smith and Dahlhaus competed like crazy up forward while Jake Stringer was an X-factor. Liberatore is the only noted hard man in 2021 but his teammates no longer cop any rough stuff after the Giants embarrassed them in the 2019 elimination final.
Murphy sees the 2021 version as a second coming under Beveridge that has been remodelled with a more traditional structure with key forwards and crumbers inside 50, two genuine ruckmen, a deep midfield, running defenders including Bailey Dale and Bailey Williams - who were on the list in 2016 - and recruits Taylor Duryea and Hayden Crozier, and lockdown tall defenders.
“There is a question do we need another key defender but there are not too many teams that are absolutely complete are there?” Murphy said.
“It’s like they are Bevo’s Bulldogs mark two.”
Bulldogs mark two has more talent but until it gets the job done in September, 2016 has the edge.