Game Day Round 18 2016 - Western Bulldogs V St. Kilda

[Scraggers]

Nope, players saw him. They tried to get him out, but couldn't.

https://t.co/7I8YYfqPgJ?ssr=true

Not sure if this link will work, but this is the ABC 774 Soundcloud of the description of Mitch Wallis leaving the room. Had me in tears.

[SonofScray]

Stringer would have been good for a few goals tonight. Missed his ability to capitalise on a few half chances.

[Eastdog]

I wish Mitch well in his recovery as well as all our other injured players.

[merantau]

I refuse to look at or listen to anything about horrific injuries. All I can console myself with is by now a few hours have passed and the worst of the pain is over. Such rotten luck. I wish them all the best.

[LostDoggy]

Saint kilda brought the intensity tonight and deserved to win. The loss is bad but these injuries have wrecked a season where we could have snatched a flag, im totally gutted, unluckiest club in the afl. We've fought through so much adversity but losing wally and red is too much.

[AndrewP6]

https://t.co/7I8YYfqPgJ?ssr=true

Not sure if this link will work, but this is the ABC 774 Soundcloud of the description of Mitch Wallis leaving the room. Had me in tears.

Heard it. Just terrible.

[LostDoggy]

Devastating

[Hotdog60]

That sound clip had me in tears, good luck to the guys on their recoveries.

On the game it may have gave us an insight on to how we could react in a final.

Pressure our ball carries and they can't make the right decisions. Not the whole team but like others I'll single out Jong.
Although to his credit he did lift in the second half, his first half was atrocious and Suckling was just bad all game.

The forwards may cop some of the blame but it was more the delivery into the forwards that made them struggle.

Lets hope that the team can move on from tonight and not hold any mental scars.

The sooner Mitch can hobble back to the club house plaster and all the better.

[Sedat]

The decision to play Webb as an inside mid all season at VFL level might be about to get tested at the highest level.

[Hotdog60]

If there is any thing bright out of a very black day, TBoyd may stay at FF and become a focal point. Hrovat although coming off a long time on the side lines could fill Mitch's role and needs a good game today. There is also HC that could step up.
If Goetz hadn't been a fizzer he may have got game time in the big league.

[EasternWest]

Gee there are some tough taskmasters on this forum. I'm gutted, I'm sad, I'm frustrated, I'm depressed. But two young men in their 20s are in mental and physical agony tonight, facing months of pain, loneliness, fear and doubt. Their team mates and coaches are feeling their pain, so are we as fans. We didn't play very well. But right now I don't really care about that, I just feel for the way these kids put their bodies and souls out there for us and wish that just once, just ONCE, we'd have a smidgin of luck.

I think you're out of line here.

We played appalling football tonight, and people are rightly frustrated and talking about it accordingly. If we're hard taskmasters, then I'd like you to point out what players that have been mentioned are being unfairly maligned? Because I haven't seen a single player that hasn't deserved the commentary they've had.

If you're suggesting that others don't feel as equally distraught for Wally and Redpath (and TBH I don't think you are) then you're wrong. Everyone feels terrible for them.

But we're still discussing a football game also. The narrative of those terrible injuries shouldn't take over the issue that we played very poorly and it should be talked about.

[1eyedog]

The decision to play Webb as an inside mid all season at VFL level might be about to get tested at the highest level.

Do we need another inside mid coming in? The only possible ins would be Stringer and Dahl for Redpath and Wally. If Morris misses perhaps Hamling.

[comrade]

Gee there are some tough taskmasters on this forum. I'm gutted, I'm sad, I'm frustrated, I'm depressed. But two young men in their 20s are in mental and physical agony tonight, facing months of pain, loneliness, fear and doubt. Their team mates and coaches are feeling their pain, so are we as fans. We didn't play very well. But right now I don't really care about that, I just feel for the way these kids put their bodies and souls out there for us and wish that just once, just ONCE, we'd have a smidgin of luck.

Thanks, well written.

After sleeping on it, we're looking at 2 potential career ending injuries so I can't be pissed at anything the players did.

Just devastated and it fills like last night was a significant one for all the wrong reasons.

[azabob]

For majority of the season and last night was no different our midfield run, spread and creativity has been poor.

I would like to see JJ play a wing type role. It will also allow him to shake the tag and stay involved in the game more.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Very flat this morning.

We may never see Wallis or Redpath again and our 2016 is done. A year where, if fully fit, we really could have won the flag. It's hard not to feel like we're doomed sometimes.

Moving forward, some hard decisions need to be made on the following:

Stevens - If we can net something of quality for him, I'd do it. He's a solid player, and perhaps with Wallis going down, we'll simply need to keep him but he can never play out a full season and is an awful decision maker who gets caught with the ball trying to do too much. In pressure games when it's close, he's unreliable. I like him as a player but given our list, he's one I'd move on if we could get something we need in return.

Jong - He's OK back up and we've needed him this year, but there is no way he should be playing in a top 4 side's midfield. His decision making is poor, his execution is average and he's pretty bad below his knees. He's hard at it, tackles well and can take a mark but let's put time into our younger brigade (Webb, Dunkley, Dale, Honeychurch etc).

Boyd as a Ruck - This has gone on far too long. Why are we the only club in the land crying out for a key forward who, when we get one, turn him into a ruck? It is borderline insane. Yes, Boyd having stints in the ruck if he's cold up forward isn't a bad thing but playing him 50/50 is stupidity. He was poor last night, but it's a massive workload on a big young kid. Play him at full forward FFS.

Lack of skill -We have some awful decision makers and awful executioners. We need to draft kids who can kick and who make good decisions with ball in hand. As soon as some of our better players have off nights (ie. Caleb, Suckling - both were bloody terrible) we can't hit the side of a barn and it's a real concern. We need to pump games into Webb and Dale, draft more ball users and perhaps trade another in too. We won't win anything with our current set-up - we win the ball as much as we give it up.

Gameplan - Clearly we have improved defensively, which was the main area of concern last year. They've worked hard to rectify this but it's gone too far the other way. We are obsessed with over handling the ball, kicking sideways and backwards, which ultimately contributes to the inability to score. Our forward line is one of the worst in the league! There's no cohesion whatsoever and much of it is due to the way we bring the ball forward. It's a nightmare being a forward for the Dogs, on the odd occasion in does come in quicker we miss our player by 20m.

Medicos - Should they keep their job? We've had a lot of injuries, some of them contact, many of them soft tissue (ie. Morris). We seem to be overly conservative in giving players time off and take double the amount of time as other clubs to get ours right to play and right now, you have to question their integrity of sending out Clay to the field again last year after he did his knee and now Redpath again. The "it's already gone, might as well go out there" philosophy is disgraceful. You can do more damage and it's a shameful look.

Going forward, I want to see us get the balance right. There is zero point in winning the ball umpteen times and handing it straight back to the opposition. We need skill and though they mightn't be ready, I want to see us giving games to Webb and Dale for starters.