Don't forget Magic Maclean. Madge's form and output has improved since 2016. He's in a small club though.
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Sounds to me like you've never been more Bulldog. The feeling you have, the fact you can't watch the game means you're still as invested as ever. Your emotions running so high just confirm it if you ask me. I don't think you're the sort of supporter who has a choice to just dip out. You might leave the forum, you might be nonchalant about us on the telly for a while but it's what being a Bulldogs supporter is about. We'll come good again and soon, we have too much talent across our list to flounder. Look at 2014 - 2015 things turn around quick. Glass half empty is we're playing ordinary footy at the moment because we're a young team and prone to lapses in concentration. Glass half full is we won a freaking premiership 3 years ago and pretty soon we'll have a 100-150 experienced nucleus overlying the best young players between 50-100 games in the AFL. Chin up mate.
quite a lot of long term supporters are experiencing similar symptoms of frustration.
we have been told to be grateful for the successful year. But we were expecting a successful era, because that’s what others have had.
we can’t do much more than patiently wait for the next good year.
The emotion of footy is such that it always seems this game, this season, this quarter is THE worst we’ve ever experienced. I wrote in my blog that when I thought Carlton would win, it felt like it would be the most terrible loss I’d ever been witness to. It felt absolutely true at the time though I reckon if it had happened, by now I’d be able to realise it wasn’t even in the prestigious top 30 of embarrassing losses. Such is the passion of footy.
I wrote too about being out of love with my club at present. I think we can all relate. There is only one cure and we know it only too well. Keep going and grinding through til the wheel turns.
Same here.
Back in 1980 to 82, there were massive losses with no hope for winning ever. Then we employed Shane O'Sullivan and he changed the club by bringing in 10 players from WA, some local boys and a new coach in Malthouse, and suddenly there was hope. In 1989 it was the clubs finances even though on field we had a pretty good team and only just missed finals in 1990, and made a prelim in 1992. Then we had the Rhode years and didn't know what hit us. Along came Rocket and bang three prelims in a row.
The current status of the club, well I couldn't be prouder with great facilities, record profits over the past 3 to 4 years, and a team chocker block full of some very good talent that will only get better through age and experience. I am genuinely excited about young players in Naughton, English, Dunks, Daniel, Richards, Lippa, Smith to add to A graders in Bont, Macrae, JJ, Libba, Hunter etc
If we can develop some of the talls in Schache, Young, to take KPP roles, we are going to be a very good team to watch. Forget the last couple of years, it has happened, it's finished and let's move on.
It wasn't that long ago, there was a team based out of the inner suburbs, a foundation member of the VFL, won over 8 flags in it's 100 plus year history, it wasn't supported and has now disappeared - that is what you face if you don't follow this club.
That experience helps you but does nothing for 35 year old members trying to get their kids interested.
They are spending a considerable amount of money and the club is not delivering what they are paying for - success.
If the current situation continues the club loses long term. They are only as successful as their last few games.
Time to stop reliving 2016 and find out why Sydney played finals for 8? Consecutive years. That’s the KPI that’s needed.
Well then, this is the now - enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZfgvV2MQOw
Telling supporters to enjoy what has been served up in the last 50 games shows no understanding of the feelings out there.
And it doesn’t help the club going forward.
If that’s a reflection of the leadership belief the club will remain at the bottom of the membership table.
Malthouse took a team that was middle of the ladder into the finals for 1 year. Then the team steadily fell to second last.
In 1989 the club was a few heartbeats away from becoming the Fitzroy Bulldogs because they couldn’t get corporate support and a large membership.
That is the constant danger for less successful clubs.
Not sure I can articulate this but here goes...Being 60 something I always said ( before2016 ) being a Bulldog member was good for the soul and I honestly thought I would never ever see a premiership so when that dream came true ..well we all know the feeling
I cannot fathom some of the posts on here...sorry just don’t get it but that’s just me
And here is the crux of the issue. This certainly feels like the clubs pov on the matter: Nothing to see here, it's finished, let's move on, aren't we exciting?
There is a lot to get excited about with the club, but very little has been delivered since early 2017. For all the excuses we have used (issues with certain players, losing experience, rule changes etc) we still should have seen something that resembled improvement or growth somewhere. Instead there is no obvious gameplan that will take us forward, very few players making significant strides in their development, continual disappointing results and multiple players regressing despite being in age brackets that indicate they should be going the other way.
The fact that the club has been in worse positions before is irrelevant, we are still allowed to become frustrated and disappointed with the clubs performance and seeming inability to address it.
And contrary to those past situations the club is in a great position off field. Profits, ambitious stadium redevelopment proposals, good sponsorship arrangements, booming membership etc, which only serves to make it more frustrating. When we were poor off field it meant our expectations were somewhat tempered because the club was fighting against the odds just to stay alive let alone perform to a high level. But when the club is in the position it is today it is far more difficult to find a reason or excuse for such a consistently underwhelming performance on field.
Sure the Premiership did achieve a lot of goodwill, but it also made the fall afterwards so much harder and frustrating. We have all seen what this club and this playing group are capable of, and to be so consistently and completely far off that level since about round 8 2017 is exasperating. We finally had a chance to be a genuinely good side, and we blew it, and are now back to being a side seemingly stuck in a rut waiting for a circuit breaker again.
I read somewhere once that "shit clubs find a way to stay shit" and I think that kind of sums us up these last 3 years. Certainly the words are harsher than my true feelings, i do love and enjoy the club and always will, but we have consistently been a mediocre performing club and after our premiership i think we have quickly returned to the spot the football world believes we belong in, and really where we have consistently performed to. Just look at BT's membership score thread, 5-8 places off bottom seems exactly where we typically belong, and that's where we are now and have been for 3 years post flag. And that's after feeling like we had the world at our feet at the end of 2016.
So I guess my point comes back to the line quoted above, and particularly the bolded bit: "Forget the last couple of years, it has happened, it's finished and let's move on". That is a somewhat optimistic way of looking at it, because is it finished? It certainly doesn't feel like it. Not to me. Right now we feel just as mediocre as we did this time last year, and I don't know when this continual non improvement will end, despite the immense talent you can see at the club and our off field situation being plenty strong enough to facilitate the rise we all want to see, but aren't. No wonder half of us are frustrated.
Those that have given up have walked away, and to the club’s loss.
Those who have stayed and are pointing out the problems are doing the club a favour.
All football clubs have to fight for the attention of non-supporters if they are to thrive these days. Success brings sponsors and the high exposure games. It is not simply about kicking a footy for 100 minutes any more. It is about survival.
Fortunately I don’t see a repeat of 1989 on the horizon, but that wasn’t long ago.
I don't agree. The Group that won the flag, with the benefit of hindsight, peaked at the right time of year for a superb 4 week run of football. From that Group (both those that played and those that were part of the squad), senior players have retired (Murphy, M Boyd, Picken, Smith, Redders, Biggs), young stars have left the club for various reasons some within our control and some outside (T Boyd, Dahlhaus, Stringer, Hamling), some have been traded (Roughhead, Campbell). Putting it simply the 2015/6/7 version of the side is vastly different from the 2019 version. Whilst we could have predicted some going, losing guys like T Boyd, Picko, Smith really hurt the team - we lost a lot of goals that we haven't replaced and a lot of hard at the footy players. In Boyd we lost a maturing, versatile ruck forward.
To say there has been no improvement is wrong. Dunks is a much better player; Daniel is a better player; Bont is better; McLean is better; English is an upgrade on Roughie and T Boyd and will be better (injuries and mental health aside); Trengove is an upgrade on Roberts; Cordy, despite the criticism he cops on this board is a better player than in 2016; Hunter has gone forward; Wallis is an upgrade on the 2016/17 model; Naughton and Bailey Smith are guns and will be amazing upgrades on the guys they replaced. I could go on. We need to remember that guys like, McLean Daniel and Dunks are only just entering football maturity. Their best, injury permitting is still to come.
Yes some guys have disappointed and not progressed. Lin Jong is at the crossroads; Webb looks nothing like the kid who was taking intercept marks as a half back; Bailey Dale has had a tough 18 months of injury; Bailey Williams who knows (attitude has been mentioned), but when in tune and playing he is a gun; Ed Richards is having a tough 2019 as is Billy Gowers. Lewis Young....who knows!
We are in transition, but in all honesty, that 1st 40 minutes of football on the weekend was as good as I have seen the dogs play. All that was missing was scoreboard pressure. This year, the 1st Carlton game and WCE, we have been in the hunt in the latter stages of every game. Compared to 2018 and 2017 we are in the game for longer and we have beaten teams challenging for he top 8. It remains a work in progress, but progress there is.