New Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney plays it tough from the start

[boydogs]

Again, all of the words are awesome and I am happy to hear them, but no-one is going to know if the players are buying for a while yet.

He's already implementing changes at training - the way you train is the way you play

[Ghost Dog]

All of this is great stuff, but does anyone really think that the messages last pre-season - when we were amongst the favorites for the flag (a very TEAM oriented goal) - were all about doing your own thing and let your opponents run riot?

It is all good that the noises are what we want to hear - but I would suggest the words inside every single club right now are all 'win the contest' and 'reacting as a team to opposition cues/transition'. It actually really doesn't matter what players GD was speaking about...if we are truly about team then they all need to be on board and we wont find that out till we are 4-goals down half-way through the second quarter in round 1 2012.

Again, all of the words are awesome and I am happy to hear them, but no-one is going to know if the players are buying for a while yet.

Will be interesting for all the regular fans who attend training to watch, if there is a discernible difference in the Bulldog strut.
Hope to see an end to the sloppy kicking drills at least, eh GVGjr?

[Desipura]

All of this is great stuff, but does anyone really think that the messages last pre-season - when we were amongst the favorites for the flag (a very TEAM oriented goal) - were all about doing your own thing and let your opponents run riot?

It is all good that the noises are what we want to hear - but I would suggest the words inside every single club right now are all 'win the contest' and 'reacting as a team to opposition cues/transition'. It actually really doesn't matter what players GD was speaking about...if we are truly about team then they all need to be on board and we wont find that out till we are 4-goals down half-way through the second quarter in round 1 2012.

Again, all of the words are awesome and I am happy to hear them, but no-one is going to know if the players are buying for a while yet.

I cant recall the players being told to bring their mouthguards in November.

[Nuggety Back Pocket]

All of this is great stuff, but does anyone really think that the messages last pre-season - when we were amongst the favorites for the flag (a very TEAM oriented goal) - were all about doing your own thing and let your opponents run riot?

It is all good that the noises are what we want to hear - but I would suggest the words inside every single club right now are all 'win the contest' and 'reacting as a team to opposition cues/transition'. It actually really doesn't matter what players GD was speaking about...if we are truly about team then they all need to be on board and we wont find that out till we are 4-goals down half-way through the second quarter in round 1 2012.

Again, all of the words are awesome and I am happy to hear them, but no-one is going to know if the players are buying for a while yet.

A tough ask by McCartney, but I believe he is the real deal and is looking to change the character and culture of the club borne out of his experiences at Geelong. This will require a huge mind set change by some of our current crop, but I firmly believe that the coach is on the right track.

[LostDoggy]

All of this is great stuff, but does anyone really think that the messages last pre-season - when we were amongst the favorites for the flag (a very TEAM oriented goal) - were all about doing your own thing and let your opponents run riot?

It is all good that the noises are what we want to hear - but I would suggest the words inside every single club right now are all 'win the contest' and 'reacting as a team to opposition cues/transition'. It actually really doesn't matter what players GD was speaking about...if we are truly about team then they all need to be on board and we wont find that out till we are 4-goals down half-way through the second quarter in round 1 2012.

Again, all of the words are awesome and I am happy to hear them, but no-one is going to know if the players are buying for a while yet.

This.

I am very pleased with Macca's direction too, but it IS a disservice to Rocket and our previous fitness regime to assume that we were somehow focussed on something other than playing hard footy last pre-season. If we took the ball off anything it was our actual skill level which had eroded with injury and age, which came down to a recruitment/list management/list turnover issue that has been covered elsewhere.

[Dazza]

Our spread from the stoppages was pretty poor last season. We'd often win the ball and then have the other midfielders literally a step or two away from the player the won the ball. A lot of our clearances ended up just being bombed forward in hope because there were no other options available. We struggled with stopping the opposition spreading as well. If Macca is working on this I'm more than happy.