The good, bad and ugly – western bulldogs season preview 2020

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Originally Posted by Twodogs

What I can't understand is why we didn't strike back. If Marcus was my teammate and I saw his opponent do that then (like Elton John) I'd be a little bit happy because that means all the rules are off and I can go whack!

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This was my frustration though 2D.

The rules - such as they are - are determined by the umpires on a given day. Sometimes a mark is paid following a 10m kick. Other games it is a 20m kick. Sometimes you can hold the ball in under tackle pressure and it will be a ball up. Othertimes it will be holding the ball. Players are smart and generally within 10-15min of the first bounce they have figured it out.

Our players didn't figure anything out on EF day. As someone who made the trip - and it was a bloody long trip from Perth featuring a midnight flight and all sorts of shenanigans in order to get there - the lack of effort and (to quote GVGjr) "VIGOUR" was pretty unbelievable. The worst thing about it was the GWS 'reaction' to what happened in the previous meeting was 100% predictable and - whilst the crossed the line at points during the game, ultimately the umpires tell the players where the line is (they blow the whistle when it is crossed!!) and the Giants players figured this out and ours didn't.

To BAD's point, I know he isn't whingeing about it (and nor are others on here) but whenever you complain about the umpires or the actions of the other team after a loss, it just SOUNDS LIKE sooking. If you win, you can draw attention to umpiring issues, opposition player 'actions' and the perception is that it is just about 'the facts'. After a loss though it just sounds like you are moaning and complaining about getting beaten in a 'fair fight' and the 'messaging' from the club (and us as supporters) after the game came across as very 'sooky' to me at least.

I'm not inside the group but I am confident that within the team the feeling will be no matter what happens in the future, we never get beaten like that again.

Yeah fair point Mike. I don't usually have a lot of patience for whingeing but this game just got me.

It kind of worries me a bit that we are still talking about it like this 4 months down the track. I hope the players aren't. I hope they addressed it on day one of the preseason and it's burning a hole through each player and it's the first thing they thin k of when they walk through the doors to attack that days training. I want them all to be on the same page, IE no matter what happens in the future, we never get beaten like that again. in fact I'd like that exact quote on the back of our jumpers all through the preseason.

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Originally Posted by Twodogs

Yeah fair point Mike. I don't usually have a lot of patience for whingeing but this game just got me.

It kind of worries me a bit that we are still talking about it like this 4 months down the track. I hope the players aren't. I hope they addressed it on day one of the preseason and it's burning a hole through each player and it's the first thing they thin k of when they walk through the doors to attack that days training. I want them all to be on the same page, IE no matter what happens in the future, we never get beaten like that again. in fact I'd like that exact quote on the back of our jumpers all through the preseason.

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We are only talking about it due to the article saying we are soft, and maybe we were. I believe it won't happen like that again.

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Originally Posted by bornadog

We are only talking about it due to the article saying we are soft, and maybe we were. I believe it won't happen like that again.

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We do seem to have a lot of 'nice' guys on the list.
Libba has a little bit of bastard about him, Bailey Smith as well. But who is our 'enforcer'? Trengove does it when he's on the paddock but he's no best 22 certainty. Cordy has a nice dose of mongrel in him, but I'm already running out of names.

Teams are going to target us with the tough stuff after the ES. Bevo being Bevo will have prep'd us. Will be interesting to see how we respond. We may see a team defence of a different kind.

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Originally Posted by Mofra

We do seem to have a lot of 'nice' guys on the list.
Libba has a little bit of bastard about him, Bailey Smith as well. But who is our 'enforcer'? Trengove does it when he's on the paddock but he's no best 22 certainty. Cordy has a nice dose of mongrel in him, but I'm already running out of names.

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Umm. There's that bloke, who is number eight this year?

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Originally Posted by BornInDroopSt'54

Teams are going to target us with the tough stuff after the ES. Bevo being Bevo will have prep'd us. Will be interesting to see how we respond. We may see a team defence of a different kind.

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I remember Bob Murphy saying he realised how hard you have to work when your team doesn't have the ball in a game against Brisbane early in his career when Martyn Pike ran 30 metres to knock him over at CHF even though he wasn't his direct opponent and the ball was 120 metres away.

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Originally Posted by Mofra

We do seem to have a lot of 'nice' guys on the list.
Libba has a little bit of bastard about him, Bailey Smith as well. But who is our 'enforcer'? Trengove does it when he's on the paddock but he's no best 22 certainty. Cordy has a nice dose of mongrel in him, but I'm already running out of names.

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Dunks is a hard bastard and Naughts is no shrinking violet either.

That said, who really needs an enforcer if we atone for the GWS effort with ferocious, collective intent and a certain level of non-negotiable solidarity if shitheads try it on like the fluoros did again. And why wouldn't they? They've seen it work.

As MJP suggests, when the next mob asks the question I'm quietly confident we'll have an answer.

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Originally Posted by Twodogs

I remember Bob Murphy saying he realised how hard you have to work when your team doesn't have the ball in a game against Brisbane early in his career when Martyn Pike ran 30 metres to knock him over at CHF even though he wasn't his direct opponent and the ball was 120 metres away.

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Rightio but that is gutless, easy to target off the ball but I guess Pike targetted Bob cos he was a star and it let him know they 'respected' him.

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Originally Posted by BornInDroopSt'54

Rightio but that is gutless, easy to target off the ball but I guess Pike targetted Bob cos he was a star and it let him know they 'respected' him.

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I think that it was the first it had happened to him but it's a fairly common thing. When players talk about "working hard off the ball" that usually means sitting blokes on their arse even though the ball is 60 metres away. It's something recruiters like to see and often that sort of thing will count as much as talent.

If they have two kids with the same amount of talent then the kid with the mongrel will get the list spot. It's the basic mistake that GWS made when they selected their original list. They went for talented kids but forgot that kids who had to fight to get or stay on lists are needed as well to push those kids. If they had got it right in the first place thy would have won the 2016 flag. It was the mongrel and fanaticism that got us over the line against them in the prelim.

I certainly hope it won’t happen again... but we’ve lost multiple games to lowly clubs due to not being switched on. Do we actually learn from our mistakes in matches that aren’t on our terms?

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Originally Posted by MrMahatma

I certainly hope it won’t happen again... but we’ve lost multiple games to lowly clubs due to not being switched on. Do we actually learn from our mistakes in matches that aren’t on our terms?

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We simply cannot be complacent against these teams lower than us and go out their and get the job done - good old professional performance. That GC and Blues loss were bad and nearly cost us playing finals. I would have liked to continue on the momentum after a great first 2 weeks and maybe we would have been in a better position in 2019. The GWS EF game we were outplayed but we were also roughed up as well and I expect a big response when we meet them again. Hopefully in 2020 and future years will have more finals at home if we are able to finish higher on the ladder.

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Originally Posted by mjp

This was my frustration though 2D.

The rules - such as they are - are determined by the umpires on a given day. Sometimes a mark is paid following a 10m kick. Other games it is a 20m kick. Sometimes you can hold the ball in under tackle pressure and it will be a ball up. Othertimes it will be holding the ball. Players are smart and generally within 10-15min of the first bounce they have figured it out.

Our players didn't figure anything out on EF day. As someone who made the trip - and it was a bloody long trip from Perth featuring a midnight flight and all sorts of shenanigans in order to get there - the lack of effort and (to quote GVGjr) "VIGOUR" was pretty unbelievable. The worst thing about it was the GWS 'reaction' to what happened in the previous meeting was 100% predictable and - whilst the crossed the line at points during the game, ultimately the umpires tell the players where the line is (they blow the whistle when it is crossed!!) and the Giants players figured this out and ours didn't.

To BAD's point, I know he isn't whingeing about it (and nor are others on here) but whenever you complain about the umpires or the actions of the other team after a loss, it just SOUNDS LIKE sooking. If you win, you can draw attention to umpiring issues, opposition player 'actions' and the perception is that it is just about 'the facts'. After a loss though it just sounds like you are moaning and complaining about getting beaten in a 'fair fight' and the 'messaging' from the club (and us as supporters) after the game came across as very 'sooky' to me at least.

I'm not inside the group but I am confident that within the team the feeling will be no matter what happens in the future, we never get beaten like that again.

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If it were up to you, would you have made a big deal about this early in pre season?

Depends on how you view the group responding, but I've thought the first meeting of the list this preseason could've shown a bunch of highlights of the game - and the physical nature of most parts - and get pretty confrontational straight away with the 'this NEVER happens again'

Or do you need to start in a more positive bent? Or do you assume they're hurting already, so it's overkill?

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Originally Posted by The Pie Man

If it were up to you, would you have made a big deal about this early in pre season?

Depends on how you view the group responding, but I've thought the first meeting of the list this preseason could've shown a bunch of highlights of the game - and the physical nature of most parts - and get pretty confrontational straight away with the 'this NEVER happens again'

Or do you need to start in a more positive bent? Or do you assume they're hurting already, so it's overkill?

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That's where Bevo makes his money. It's his ability to read the room and say the right thing at the right time that sets him apart from nearly every other coach.

I've never been more confident that we have a coach who knows exactly when to put his arm around a player or when to give him a boot up the arse. He got it a little bit wrong in years 3 and 4 of his coaching career with us but he's gone back and corrected the problem rather than stubbornly refuse to concede there is a problem.

I think that's what they refer to when they say that Bevo rates highly in emotional intelligence. His ability to shrug his shoulders, admit he was wrong and fix the problem. That's the lesson he learned after the premiership win. That he's not always right and that's OK we don't expect him to be right every time.

Timely to the discussion around or game against GWS, here is an article with Josh Dunkleys view

Josh Dunkley says the Bulldogs were embarrassed by their finish to 2019 season

Their first finals appearance since their 2016 flag triumph was not one the Western Bulldogs want to remember. Still smarting from their ‘embarrassing’ exit, they will hit 2020 with a fresh goal.

Western Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley says the team was embarrassed by its exit from last year’s finals series and the group has vowed to show the AFL its bite in 2020.

The Bulldogs were bundled out of the 2019 finals – the team’s first September appearance since their drought-breaking 2016 premiership – in a 58-point thumping from Greater Western Sydney in their elimination final at Giants Stadium.

The Dogs had stormed into the finals, winning seven of their last nine games to secure their place in the September action.

Dunkley, one of the Bulldogs star performers in 2019, said the team was left smarting from the loss and have pledged to strike back this season.

“It was a disappointing way to end the year, I think everyone would have seen that from the outside … we were pretty embarrassed after it, to be honest,” Dunkley said.

“It was not the way that we wanted to exit, certainly the final series. If we played a game like that during the season we would have been just as disappointed.

“The hunger’s there, we spoke as a group the following week before we exited into the off-season and everyone was really disappointed and hungry as ever.

“Bevo (coach Luke Beveridge) stood up the front and mentioned that we are going to learn from it and going to come back.

“It obviously wasn’t our best day, but we are going to come back bigger and better and stronger in 2020 and hopefully show the footy world what we can produce.”

Since their finals loss, the Bulldogs have added former St Kilda forward Josh Bruce and defender Alex Keath from the Adelaide Crows to their list in the trade period.

Dunkley expects the pair to make an impact for the Bulldogs.

“The off-season we were all away siting by our phones waiting for the call to come through to say that we got the boys. It’s perfect for us the way that they have come in,” Dunkley said.

“Keathy has obviously has some surgery done (to repair a stress fracture in his lower leg) and he has been a delayed start, but he is out there now and performing really well in match sim and Brucey has got a great presence around the footy club already.

“(They are) two great players across the competition that we have sourced out from opposition clubs and I can’t wait to see them line-up for us in 2020.”

The Bulldogs open their pre-season campaign in the Marsh Community Series against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on February 21 and the season proper against Collingwood at the same venue on March 20.