Do you believe we can win the flag this year ?

[hujsh]

Concur with Sockeye.

Regarding form following on from the previous year, that's not always the case. Geelong of course is the biggest example of this, as much as The Dogs, Freo & Melbourne are the opposite way. Every year there's a couple sides that perform badly, but turn it around quite impressively the following year.

No reason why we can't and won't do that. Whether we can play well enough for long enough to succeed in September, who knows. The competition is pretty close, and IMO we're certainly in with a chance as are another 6-10 sides.

They finished rather well once the pressure was off.

This, end of year reflects next year thing, is of course not set in stone. Just a noticeable pattern that i hope we don't follow.

[westdog54]

Do I believe we can win the flag? Absolutely. We've made the changes necessary to take the club forward both on and off the field and we have a list chock full of talent, and we seem to be striking the right balance in terms of size for once.

Do I think we'll win it? In a word, no. Geelong may have had a phenomenal year to leapfrog the pack, but for any team to match that sort of turnaround anytime soon is highly unlikely IMO.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Underdog = loser mentality, something we need to rid ourselves of. We need belief that we will win, a presumption of favouratism whenever we take the field.

Terry Wallace (everyone's favourtie columnist, I know) was talking about the cultural difference between Footscray & Hawthorn during his playing days. He described Hawthorn as, being 3 goals down with 5 minutes to gom still thinking they'd win; everyone knuckled done, assuming they'd find a way. Often they did, because they had the belief.

At the Bulldogs it was different; 3 goals up with 5 minutes to go, everyone would be hoping to just "hang on". There was a presumption that they could still lose, and often they did.

"Whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you are probably right". I want a team of winners, not "battlers".

Point 1: underdogs and self belief
North have shown that it doesn't matter what other people think of you and that its completely up to the players to be consistently switched on and ready to play. I dont care whether we are considered underdogs or not. I do care that the players believe that they can win. Without belief they will never achieve the club successes we all crave.

Point 2: wallace
A lot of that Wallace stuff is very much cliched rubbish IMO. And it was in a day where Wallace had far more media savvy than many of the other coaches going around, but Terry is an entertainer and salesman who always has an eye on promoting Terry.

Point 3:
Whats to say that Winners and Battlers are mutually exclusive? I think the list needs more battlers, and it needs more absolute star quality. The guys who have the ability to be stars wont get there if they aren't prepared to battle for it, and the team wont get anywhere unless we can find some junk yard dogs or streetfighters.

[Mofra]

Point 1: underdogs and self belief
North have shown that it doesn't matter what other people think of you and that its completely up to the players to be consistently switched on and ready to play. I dont care whether we are considered underdogs or not. I do care that the players believe that they can win. Without belief they will never achieve the club successes we all crave.

You seem to be arguing my point in a way. How often did North try to claim the underdog mantle last year? I can't think of a single interview in which they did.
Why would we deliberately start to do this ourselves?

Point 2: wallace
A lot of that Wallace stuff is very much cliched rubbish IMO. And it was in a day where Wallace had far more media savvy than many of the other coaches going around, but Terry is an entertainer and salesman who always has an eye on promoting Terry

You are being a little unfair on someone who, regardless of media savvy, knows football. You wouldn't seriously suggest that Hawthorn & Footscray had similar confidence levels during the 80s & early 90s?
He was, incidently, talking about his playing (not coaching) career.

Point 3:
Whats to say that Winners and Battlers are mutually exclusive? I think the list needs more battlers, and it needs more absolute star quality. The guys who have the ability to be stars wont get there if they aren't prepared to battle for it, and the team wont get anywhere unless we can find some junk yard dogs or streetfighters.

I'm not sure you've understood my position. I am saying we shouldn't label oursleves with derogatory terms, as I was responding to a Bulldogs fan.
Bluecoller & battler are two different terms. Boyd is bluecoller. Morris is bluecoller.
Neither are battlers because they are at the level required of an AFL footballer. Battler implies they are fringe at best.

[BulldogBelle]

With the way we finished off 2007 - I remember thinking at the end of last season, how do we turn this around.

Fast forward 4 months - The whole review thing shows me that the club is trying to turn around what happened in those last 7 weeks. Issues are being addressed and new appointments to the club.

My optimism has returned - if we get off to a great start, this inturn will boost the confidence of our players and hopefully we will get a winning streak of games. Hmmm, I am the eternal optimist.

[Pedro Sanchez]

I think it’s a super exciting year ahead… Yeah we were rubbish last year but 08 is a fresh start and a new chance.

In my book we have a premiership coach, we have tremendous talent that is on the verge of fulfilment, and we have a club that is pointing in all the right directions. It’s almost surreal to think that our facilities will be world class and the bench mark of the comp.

With these factors combined with the recruitment of a genuine ruck, talented forward and the added development of our rookies we’ll be okay. To grab the choccies and take out the flag we will need our fair share of luck though, with regards to injuries and reports etc, so we’ll just wait and see.

In a nutshell I’m expecting us to become a consistent and hardened side in 08 that will finish anywhere in the top 6. And with that bit of added luck who knows.

Game on in 08!

[Go_Dogs]

I think any team can win the flag at the moment. The competition is so even that if things such as injuries go your way a bit, and you have a bit of luck you can really make it work for you.

So I guess I certainly think we're a chance this year, although I don't think it'll be the best opportunity we'll have over the next 5 years.