Game Day Round 1, 2018 - GWS Giants V Western Bulldogs at UNSW Canberra Oval

[always right]

Mark my words......the worst thing to come out of today is the injury to Libba......it just completely saps the spirit of the club. What do we now build from?

We still have a lot of youth/quality to come back from injury I’m optimistic about. Unfortunately this was the round where things combined to produce the result it did. I actually expected it.

Unlike others......and certainly the commentators......GWS are apparently the new elite. I’m not convinced. I think they’re front runners and over rated and they beat a team well down on firepower.

What I am mostly concerned about is our general lack of pace, the falloff in form from Wood since 2016, the continued injury run from Adams.

[bornadog]

You do realise Beveridge is part of the MC which picked a side not including a whole host of experience? Regardless of that I don’t mind losing if I see our players at least working hard offensively and defensively for each other. We were spiritless. Bevo and the MC couldn’t get us going last year and they couldn’t get us up for round one of a new season.

Sorry but the buck stops with him.



Reads like absolute blind faith.

A simple eye test will tell you we were pitiful in 2017 and carried that on today.

As I said you can only work with the cattle you have on the park. Last year we started off well, 5 wins 2 losses by round 7 and dropped off towards the end of season with a spate of injuries to key position players that we couldn't cover. WE lost the last 3 winnable games. We didn't look pretty but we had our chances and couldn't do it.

Today's team was picked from the players that are match ready but were not good enough for a more experienced talented team. Yes I agree we should have worked harder and that is the challenge now to get these players up.

[Eastdog]

Bevo so far:

2015: good home and away season going out in the first week of the finals but great year considering the turmoil at the end of 2014 with Griffen, Macca etc

2016: Still a good home and away season but 2015 home and away season very slightly better. 2016 final series unbelievable ending up in a premiership.

2017: very poor premiership defence no were near the levels in the HA seasons of 15 and 16

2018: Shocking start but hoping to play finals again.

[GVGjr]

Why?

He’s had all of 2017, a preseason, two JLT games and round one.

The ‘don’t question Bevo’ stuff is rubbish IMO.

12 months ago sluggish performances in the early part of the year were often blamed on the 'late start' we had with the season.
We don't have that as a realistic excuse now.
We denied a hangover, we denied the players weren't focused so it now has to come back to if the coaches have the right tactics and if they are making the right decisions.

[Eastdog]

On the game today:

One of our worst performances under Bevo.

No forward line where we have guys taking contested marks and kicking goals

Our defence totally walked over

Our mids did not work hard enough

I agree English and Gowers did show something

No Bulldog spirit

Need to come out much better next week in our first home game of the year at Etihad Stadium.

[bornadog]

12 months ago sluggish performances in the early part of the year were often blamed on the 'late start' we had with the season.
We don't have that as a realistic excuse now.
We denied a hangover, we denied the players weren't focused so it now has to come back to if the coaches have the right tactics and if they are making the right decisions.

Last year we started the season with 5 wins and 2 losses. We really had a bad run from round 8 to 16 losing 6 and only winning 2.

[Mofra]

You can only work with the cattle you have.

Today's team was inexperienced, (average 68 games compared to 93) and we tried things that didn't work. What will be telling is how we respond and change up again.

Caleb Daniel is arguably our best ball user and our ball use today was putrid.
We got smashed on the spread and Jong, for his faults, is a big bodied mid who is quick and is a threat forward.

Gowers had a terrible JLT game and gets rewarded with a game - fine he's a mature ager and we need to find out if he can play but surely he needs to bang the door down to get that chance?

Wood is a very good backman but is clueless as a forward. The experiment is over, get him back now.
Williams looks great when rebounding but his ability to defend is non-existent.

[GVGjr]

As I said you can only work with the cattle you have on the park. Last year we started off well, 5 wins 2 losses by round 7 and dropped off towards the end of season with a spate of injuries to key position players that we couldn't cover. WE lost the last 3 winnable games. We didn't look pretty but we had our chances and couldn't do it.

We won winnable games but we were far from convincing in fact I'd say the 5 / 2 result flattered us. Our form was poor early in the season.

Today's team was picked from the players that are match ready but were not good enough for a more experienced talented team. Yes I agree we should have worked harder and that is the challenge now to get these players up.

Don't we forfeit the right to play the young card when we went in with what we thought was our best side?
At what point do we start to sensibly ask the reasons why we have slipped back?

Our skills level was supposed to be a focus under Bevo and it doesn't look like it's improved, we played hard at it football in 2016 and we have lacked 100% effort all too frequently since.

It's not all doom and gloom but we can't accept performances like today and not start to ask some hard questions of the coach.

[Bullies]

One positive is we are not going to play a better side throughout this year. they are super quick and so skilful. they were ready to play. We had players who were not up to it and are not AFL standard.

[bornadog]

Caleb Daniel is arguably our best ball user and our ball use today was putrid.
We got smashed on the spread and Jong, for his faults, is a big bodied mid who is quick and is a threat forward.

Gowers had a terrible JLT game and gets rewarded with a game - fine he's a mature ager and we need to find out if he can play but surely he needs to bang the door down to get that chance?

Wood is a very good backman but is clueless as a forward. The experiment is over, get him back now.
Williams looks great when rebounding but his ability to defend is non-existent.

Gowers is 21 and played his first AFL game. For the chances he had, I thought he at least tried hard, and created some chances, so not too worried about him.

One of the things that killed us were the turnovers in the backline line.

Agree Wood must go back, same with JJ, we need the run off the backline. Forget this business of trying to make Wood either a forward or to play on the big guys in the backline. His best value use to be his run off the backline and kicking long, like 2015.

Trengove must go to Fullback, that is where he made his name.

[AndrewP6]

Some tweets from Bevo's presser...

LB: It’s about trying to find a way to evolve quickly, we’re quite new in our ranks. We picked a 22 today that we thought would hold us in good stead, but that wasn’t to be.

LB: Some of our key forwards have had either an interrupted preseason, or aren’t quite ready for AFL level to compete for four quarters. Jack (Redpath) missed this week with suspension.

LB: We’re better than that, we believe we are. With all the uncertainty (coming into this season), you like to make an early statement. We didn’t do that today. We have certainty with what we want to fix up.

LB: Crozier has strained his medial ligament, so he might miss a couple of weeks, but we’ll know more about that in the next couple of days.

LB: At the end of the day, this is one out of 21 games, and we’ll pick ourselves up to go again next Sunday.

Wouldn't have minded a bit of mention of the complete lack of heart, the fact that half a dozen senior players didn't lay a tackle...At least he did say that it was hard to find too many "shining lights". Ain't that the truth.

From listening to the presser, doesn't sound like we will see Boyd or Schache for a while.

[bornadog]

One positive is we are not going to play a better side throughout this year. they are super quick and so skilful. they were ready to play. We had players who were not up to it and are not AFL standard.

Careful Bullies I got hounded down for saying something similar.

[GVGjr]

Last year we started the season with 5 wins and 2 losses. We really had a bad run from round 8 to 16 losing 6 and only winning 2.

You're looking at the win loss ratio without acknowledging how we were performing in those games.

We were sluggish against Collingwood, performed well against the Swans (who lost their first 6), we were beaten by Fremantle in a shocking display, we struggled against a poor North but got a win, we got on a roll against Brisbane after being made to look 2nd rate throughout the game, GWS nabbed us by a kick and we beat Richmond in up and down performance.
5 / 2 really makes things sound like we started off well when a closer look challenges that but I thought we struggled.

[Go_Dogs]

Interesting Bevo commented he doesn’t like to publicly talk about effort because it’s a non-negotiable, however he did comment that it was ‘un-even’. I bet behind closed doors and (hopefully) at the selection table next week there’ll be some action.

[bornadog]

You're looking at the win loss ratio without acknowledging how we were performing in those games.

We were sluggish against Collingwood, performed well against the Swans (who lost their first 6), we were beaten by Fremantle in a shocking display, we struggled against a poor North but got a win, we got on a roll against Brisbane after being made to look 2nd rate throughout the game, GWS nabbed us by a kick and we beat Richmond in up and down performance.
5 / 2 really makes things sound like we started off well when a closer look challenges that but I thought we struggled.

A win is a win, at least were winning.