More of an In Bruges guy?
I hear Bartel would love to close to Melbourne and has a very keen eye for talent. Listening to his thoughts and the way he speaks. Totally impressed. Also he come from that core of success from the cats.
BB.
Looking forward - Naughton, Darcy and JUH. It will be the envy of everyone.
Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023
Yeah but that's going to be the answer we get from anyone we don't actually ask isn't it? It's not like they will come knocking on the front door of Whitten oval and say "I heard that you might have some coaching vacancies? Can I have one please?" We have to get out of the 'poor bugger me' complex and understand that we are an AFL club and can offer the same opportunities as the other 17 AFL clubs can offer.
Aim for the sky and we might just reach the clouds.
They say Burt Lancaster has one, but I don't believe them.
It's hard because from the outside we know so little about assistant coaches and what they could offer.
The only person we can really know a little about is Matty Boyd as he was uncompromising as a player and captain so has leadership ability, and had the ability to adapt during his career given he went from inside mid to HB rebounder.
I would assume those qualities make him an effective assistant coach. Begin exposed to another team's system means he's probably the only person I can really put forward as someone I'd want as an assistant next year.
Western Bulldogs: 2016 Premiers
It's been a tough season so far in 2019 but........
Next season will be worse
The curse is dead.
A fair assessment of our team from theroar, by jay-croucher
The nowhere Bulldogs are letting another season slip away
The Bulldogs’ best is electric, their worst catastrophic. When they’re on, their passages slot seamlessly into the 2016 catalogue.
Too often though, they look the team that threw away their season early with inexplicable losses to Gold Coast and Carlton.
Their best and worst is always seen in the same game. They can never string four quarters together but they have too much class not to put in one, two or three.
They crushed the Tigers, handled Brisbane and could have beaten Collingwood. They largely outplayed the Dockers in Perth but kissed the game away with comical errors. They matched the Cats early into the fourth quarter in Geelong and kicked eight goals in a row to demolish Hawthorn from nowhere. Gold Coast beat them in Melbourne and they lost to Carlton by 44 points.
Nothing makes sense with the Dogs, the strangest team in the competition. Their best is exquisite – and betting on or against them is a fruitless exercise in speculating how long that best will sustain in a given week.
They still come in the waves that carried them in 2016. Waves generated by sleek toughness – the hardness to dominate the contest and win the ball, and then the quick-twitch, short-passing genius to get it into space and drive forward.
No team in recent memory has had the in-close, rapid-fire handballing game of the ’16 Dogs. It was telepathic, impossible in its speed and timing.
Players were handballing before they had the ball, to teammates who weren’t there yet. It was like watching a series of quarterbacks throwing timing patterns to receivers anticipating their movement based on the playbook – except the Dogs had no script, just eyes in the backs of their heads.
In space, the short-passing maestros would take over – Jack Macrae, Lachie Hunter and Caleb Daniel, who caress the ball more than kick it.
You still get all this in their games. Macrae, Hunter and Daniel are a joy to watch. Marcus Bontempelli is the best player in the league to watch and – when he’s on – Jason Johannisen isn’t far behind him.
But so much of the premiership team has been lost and the pieces of the chain between the stars are rickety. The perfect synchrony of movement is only touched in spurts and it never feels sustainable – more as though strangers are being briefly elevated by someone else’s memory.
Post-premiership, the Bulldogs have been a mess, dragged down by an odd mix of hangovers and strange coaching and team-building decisions. The club is bereft of key position players, a problem that has plagued them for decades – how long did we spend talking ourselves into Mitch Hahn and all the Mitch Hahns who went by other names?
Aaron Naughton’s future is bright but he’s not a consistent focal point yet. Billy Gowers might be the worst player in the AFL – his continued selection is so bizarre it’s almost suspicious.
The team longs for game-changing key defenders beyond the mere workmanlike competence of Zaine Cordy and Jackson Trengove. Failing to replace Joel Hamling and find a successor for Dale Morris is inexplicable. As a result, the Dogs leak goals.
They’re leaking seasons too now. The core of Bontempelli, Macrae, Hunter, Johannisen, Daniel, Josh Dunkley, Toby McLean, Tom Liberatore and Mitch Wallis is still entirely 27 or younger – there is time for this team to rise again, but this is three precious years they’ve wasted already.
2016 was supposed to give the Bulldogs fan a grace period that might last an eternity – eternity, though, is already beginning to wear thin.
It always seems impossible until it's done. Nelson Mandela
I love Gowers' energy, it is something we lack. Yes he makes mistakes, but I'll cop that over someone who lacks intensity.
With all due respect to anybody on an AFL list, while Cam Polson is at Carlton there isn't anyone else who can realistically claim the title of worst.
Western Bulldogs: 2016 Premiers
A mostly good article apart from the Gowers line and this:
Ever heard of Aaron Naughton? He would be back there if not for the absence of Boyd and Schache for different reasons.The team longs for game-changing key defenders beyond the mere workmanlike competence of Zaine Cordy and Jackson Trengove. Failing to replace Joel Hamling and find a successor for Dale Morris is inexplicable. As a result, the Dogs leak goals.
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
What I want to know about Gowers is why is he getting half as many possessions as last year!
And why is McLean? And others.
Strange coaching and team building decisions are the only part of the article that can lead to some quick improvement.
. Billy Gowers might be the worst player in the AFL – his continued selection is so bizarre it’s almost suspicious.
This line makes ME suspicious that this has been written by one of Gowers’ (many) detractors on this forum!
www.bulldogtragician.com A blog about being a lifelong fan of the Dogs and our quixotic attempt to replicate 1954. AND WE DID
Author of "The Mighty West: the Bulldogs journey from daydream believers to premiership heroes"
Twitter @bulldogstragic