The last 7 games of 2007

[Dry Rot]

Given the time of the year, I've been catching up with a few old mates. A lot of them ask "What happening to the Doggies this year?"

I don't have a really good answer. Yes, we had key injuries but IMO that isn't a really good or complete answer when so many players on the park seemed to drop their bundles in the last third of the season.

Now with some time passing since the end of home and away season and my footy mates asking a fair question, I've been thinking about it myself lately.

I don't have any answers, and IMO it's obviously relevant to next season. We will have more injuries next season (a fact of footy life) and be under the pump in particular games. I just hope the club has some good ideas about what happened in the last third of the season and are addressing them now.

[hujsh]

They lost so much confidence that they weren't confident enough to take risks

[Dry Rot]

They lost so much confidence that they weren't confident enough to take risks

That may explain say games 5-7 of that bad run, but does it really explain games 1-4?

And what if we get a couple of beltings in a row in 2008?

[hujsh]

That may explain say games 5-7 of that bad run, but does it really explain games 1-4?

And what if we get a couple of beltings in a row in 2008?

1-2 were Geelong and West Coast and 6-7 were Hawthorn and the Kangas. Chuck in Adelaide at AAMI a charging St.Kilda and Melbournes best team for the entire year and it's a tough draw. I don't understand why we didn't play Richmond as we played them in round 4

[bornadog]

That may explain say games 5-7 of that bad run, but does it really explain games 1-4?

And what if we get a couple of beltings in a row in 2008?

That is what I am worried about. In 2005 we finished the season belting the other sides and took that form into 2006. I just hope we don't continue the 2007 form into 2008.

DR, I still can't see why we lost by those margins in the last 7 rounds, it was like we gave up.

[LostDoggy]

DR, I still can't see why we lost by those margins in the last 7 rounds, it was like we gave up.

I know this is not a popular theme here but we really already know what the problem was.
Not sure if we gave up but a lack of trust would mean that the players didn't perform anywhere near their best.If we get off to a bad start again in 2008 then the microscope will be right on us.
Yes we did run into a couple of good teams in great form but there wasn't even many positives we could take out of it.

[BulldogBelle]

Not sure if we gave up but a lack of trust would mean that the players didn't perform anywhere near their best.If we get off to a bad start again in 2008 then the microscope will be right on us.

Yes, the microscope will definitely be out if we start badly - hopefully with all that is in place now and those changes that have taken place we can regroup and get on with the job.

[Go_Dogs]

I think once we were in such a bad way, it snowballed and we couldn't gain control again. The losses were of a big magnitude, and after such disappointing losses especially when we were on show, and supposed to be at the very least competitive, we seemed to crack a bit. I won't say that we completely gave up, but I think we had a few passengers on board who didn't want to resurrect it, and weren't prepared to work as hard as they needed to, to put it back together.

Hopefully the guys are pushing themselves beyond their limits every training session and making every one count. A fitter squad, harder working team based attitude and a few new recruits and coaching staff will go a long way to making sure we don't have the same problems next year.

It is such an elite sport now that if your body and fitness is not where the oppositions is, all the talent in the world won't save you. Talent we have plenty of though, so once the rest (hopefully) falls in place, we'll be heading in the right direction.

[Sedat]

Geelong in hindsight were clearly on a mission. They were determined to exact revenge on us for their woeful performance in Round 1 - you only need to see what they did to North in the finals for a similar act of revenge.

The team we had in for West Coast was probably the poorest and least experienced team on paper we've had in since 1996. You could actually see that we were trying very hard that night but it was real boy's v men's stuff.

St Kilda was an excellent effort and a nice change of tactics by us. Stll we threw 2 points away by not being able to hold onto possession in the last minute - win this and we would have had a massive injection of self-belief which would have positively impaced on the rest of the season.

Melbourne was a disaster for both clubs - Melbourne lost a late first round priority pick as a result and we humiliated the jumper to the general public.

Adelaide was a passable effort considering they have ritually been bashing us in most games between us during Eade's tenure.

The less said about the Hawthorn and North matches the better. I actually think the Hawthorn match was our worst performance as a club since the early 80's. Hawthorn put 15 goals between us in a quarter and a half - we were still level pegging halfway through the 3rd.

[hujsh]

One thing that the club needs to control is the margin of our losses. We rarely lose my margins less than 20pts but have struggled to maintain huge leads late in the game. This means that we are getting smashed when we lose and winning by about 20 pts or more.

[FrediKanoute]

The less said about the Hawthorn and North matches the better. I actually think the Hawthorn match was our worst performance as a club since the early 80's. Hawthorn put 15 goals between us in a quarter and a half - we were still level pegging halfway through the 3rd.

I think the belief at this point was that the season was over. We signalled as much by:

1) Bringing back Robbins for a farewell game - something we wouldn't have done had we still been contesting a place int he finals; and
2) Sending guys like Higgins off for end of season surgery rather than waiting until seasons end.

I reckon the Geelong and WCE games hurt us, but the Saints game was a killer for me. It was poor play in the last 30 seconds whihc cost 2 points and a chance to re-invigourate the team. in 2007 we never seemed to get going. All we did was lurch from game to game. we had a good patch against Colligwood, brisbane and Essendon and then undid all of good work against teams like North and Carlton. It can just be describeed as FRUSTRATING!!!