Bark with a vengeance
Dermott Brereton | April 11, 2008 12:00am
The Western Bulldogs have rediscovered their spunk. It was there in 2006, but it vanished last year.
However, close self-examination by the club has given the players a head-start towards finishing in the top four this year.
Fourteen wins has been the pass mark for top-four entry during the past three seasons. This equation seems achievable for the Dogs, requiring 11 more wins from 19 games.
And given the Bombers have not beaten this crop of Dogs since 2005, the equation could become even easier after tonight's game.
But back to the Dogs and their new attitude.
The club put itself under the microscope in the off-season and conducted its own self-assessment review, as Geelong did after its disappointing 2006 season.
There is nothing new about such self-examination. It happens all the time at every club.
But the difference is made and the benefits are felt when a team truly recognises it has flaws, seeks to rectify them and embraces that hard-line change.
It's much the same as an alcoholic who can only set about curing himself when he admits he has a problem.
There were lots of rumours about how coach Rodney Eade felt about the intensive review, which resulted in a new football manager, James Fantasia, who effectively became Eade's boss.
I don't know the truth of those rumours, but it's irrelevant now. Whatever his initial reaction, Eade has embraced the change, and the results are being seen on the field.
The Doggies also recognised they had problems with their list and, let's be honest, they still do. But they have set about changing their faults.
Their strength is still their ability to carry the ball with pace and transfer it quickly into the forward line.
But their weakness was in key positions and the ruck division.
They fixed the ruck problem with the signing of former Crow Ben Hudson. In three games Hudson has 11 hardball gets, No. 4 at the club behind Scott West (14), Mitch Hahn (13), Adam Cooney and Matthew Boyd (12).
Will Minson has also taken steps forward.
The Dogs also had to address the crucial issue of finding the ball.
For Cooney, Ryan Griffen, Jason Akermanis and now Josh Hill to run with pace and carry the ball, someone has to be a regular winner of the footy that is in dispute.
Their key midfielders' hardball numbers were all disappointing last year - West was 10 per cent down on the year before, Daniel Cross (who missed seven games) was 60 per cent down.
Training methods can help, but no matter how long you stay in the game, to win a contested ball you need application, tenacity and desire.
The Doggies have found that feeling again.
This season they have kicked the ball short more often than any other side. If they can get a meaningful first possession and hit an outside moving target with a foot or handpass, it's as good as game over.
It's not as if they were struggling for pace around the middle, but suddenly Hill has bobbed up. He can float across a pack and mark the ball pretty well, perhaps better than his established teammates.
And because Hill is so exciting, Jarrod Harbrow - the other kid who came off the rookie list last year - has gone virtually unnoticed.
I don't know who is quicker on the track, but around general play he looks to have all of them covered.
In 2006 Cooney, Griffen, Boyd, Cross and Farren Ray were all youngsters playing as though they loved the game. Eade put confidence into them as kids and they responded.
In 2007 other teams stood up and took notice, choked their space to run, exploited a lack of quality big men and did everything to break even in the clearances with a Scott West-led midfield.
The Bulldogs' confidence as a team visibly suffered.
Their flow seized up and they seemingly forgot how to win. By August other teams summed them up as fairly easy pickings.
But this year Cooney, Griffen, Boyd, Cross and Co all have between 50 and 100 games under their belts.
Mitch Hahn and Lindsay Gilbee are a season ahead.
They are all at the point in their careers when knowledge collides with a healthy, vibrant and energetic body.
It is the time when youngsters become true matchwinners in their own right.
It was evident last Friday when the tide had gone totally St Kilda's way in the first quarter.
The 2008 models of Griffen and Cooney were mature enough to recognise they could have a direct impact on the result of that game.
However, the problem that has haunted the Doggies since Chris Grant was at his peak is still there, and it is why the Dogs will not win a premiership this year.
If you take away the heroic deeds of Brad Johnson, Brian Lake is the only regular key-position player who can consistently perform near the required level.
Lake won the best-and-fairest last year. His team won just nine games and had just under 2500 points scored against it.
The year before Lake finished ninth in the B & F, a creditable placing in a side that won 13 games and had 50 fewer goals kicked against it.
It could be argued that even though the help and midfield coverage was better, Lake had a better season in 2006 as the main key defender in a 50-goal better defence.
The point is, if your best player's main function is thwarting and negating the opposition, it's a reflection of a generally unsuccessful season.
The return of Robert Murphy to his pre-knee injury form has been a huge plus for the Dogs. Murphy has wonderful skills and is capable of playing a number of positions.
He is excellent at turning his opponent around and gaining a few metres on him to mark on the lead, but finding space as a true centre half-forward is a different story.
The best teams - Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn - will choke up that area of the ground, making life a lot more difficult for a forward who stands 186cm and weighs just 82kg.
Johnson faces a similar challenge. He is a champion, but a premiership team cannot have a No. 1 forward who is 182cm.
We all take our hats off to Johnno, but he just isn't big enough to impose himself in the manner of a Jonathan Brown or Barry Hall.
Another Crow recruit, Scott Welsh, is a handy third-string forward and will be a great asset if he can keep his body together for a few more years.
The Dogs' No. 1 priority at the end of this season has to be to find a player who, as we used to say, can open the batting.
Someone has to face the new ball, and at the moment they don't have anyone capable of facing Michael Holding and Curtly Ambrose at their meanest.
There is one coming out of contract in Brisbane to whom they will pay very close attention.
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