Regular Season Reflections

[The Bulldogs Bite]

What was your pass mark before the bounce of the ball in R1? Top 5 was my expectation. Top 4 the real aim though.
What is your pass mark from here? Win 2 finals. We've been first/second almost all year, so anything less is an absolute failure.
Strongest performance in the regular season? v Melbourne at the MCG (v Norf GF was fun though).
Weakest Performance in the regular season? v Hawks. That was absolutely pathetic.

[comrade]

There is some morbid cosmic hilarity at play here at the moment. Some real character building stuff.

If you had asked anyone on the Saturday night before the Essendon game what the absolute worst case, nightmare situation for the remainder of the year would be for Dogs fans it would be lose 3 in a row, fall out of top 4 and potentially gift Essendon their first finals win in 17 years. To even be in a position for it to unfold like this has required so many things to fall into place, it’s quite impressive in a way.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

There is some morbid cosmic hilarity at play here at the moment. Some real character building stuff.

If you had asked anyone on the Saturday night before the Essendon game what the absolute worst case, nightmare situation for the remainder of the year would be for Dogs fans it would be lose 3 in a row, fall out of top 4 and potentially gift Essendon their first finals win in 17 years. To even be in a position for it to unfold like this has required so many things to fall into place, it’s quite impressive in a way.

2016 in reverse you could say.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

There is some morbid cosmic hilarity at play here at the moment. Some real character building stuff.

If you had asked anyone on the Saturday night before the Essendon game what the absolute worst case, nightmare situation for the remainder of the year would be for Dogs fans it would be lose 3 in a row, fall out of top 4 and potentially gift Essendon their first finals win in 17 years. To even be in a position for it to unfold like this has required so many things to fall into place, it’s quite impressive in a way.

I remember thinking after the Adelaide win, and also Brisbane’s and ports slumps, that we had pretty much locked in a top 4 spot. I got into the mindset of thinking can we finish 1st. Only the bulldogs could possibly screw that position up. 97 vibes.

[Boots]

What was your pass mark before the bounce of the ball in R1?

Reflecting on it now, I didn't have one! I found it really hard to focus on Footy in 2020 with the Pandemic in full swing. With so much family in Sydney I felt very keenly separated from them due to the lockdown here, and most other things really got swept into the background. I rolled my eyes when we went out in an elim loss again and didn't have many expectations for 2021 until the draft and trade period dropped JUH and Treloar in our laps. Treloar in particular is a footballer I've always liked and respected and I was beyond excited to see him play for us. So my pass mark was really just to see Treloar find chemistry in our midfield and after that anything else was a bonus. I get so much out of seeing our team play well that the results just didn't occur to me to think about! I got to see that in spades over rounds 2 and 3 so I was pretty happy.

What is your pass mark from here?

Oh man, what a rollercoaster end to the season. As soon as we started winning I started experiencing loss aversion pretty hard. The stakes rocketed up and every game felt like a must-win. To be frank, it was kind of awful. As a result, three weeks ago my pass mark was to make a Grand Final. Now it's just win an elim, and not because our form suggests we might, but because if we don't we haven't moved in three years. But more than that, anything less than winning an elim and the brilliance of the first 20 rounds will feel like a tragic waste, not to mention the last three years.

But more than this, I just want to remark on the fact that for a short while it looked like we might clean up the Flag, the Brownlow and the Coleman - and now we're very likely to miss all three. I know Bruce was at best a smokey (and, like Treloar, a bit of a gift horse), but if Bont misses the Brownlow this year to that upstart Oliver (which looks very likely) I think that will be harder to stomach even than going out in straight sets. I adore Bont's quiet mastery - there's not a trace of arrogance in him (unlike, say, Dangerfield or Petracca), and that sort of humility should be rewarded. If he misses this year, especially as a result of our form tumble, it's a bona fide tragedy.

Strongest performance in the regular season?

For me, it was the second Melbourne game. At that point it looked like a top-of-the-ladder game of chicken, and we demonstrated that we could set terms in a game. We looked like the superior team on that day.

Weakest Performance in the regular season?

The Hawthorn game. We'd shown really bad wobbles before - the first Melbourne game, the odd loss to Richmond (on the train home from that game I felt a sadness I hadn't felt about footy before) - but the Hawthorn loss convinced me we were totally spent and would not win another game all year.

[Bulldog4life]

I think we have to look at our rd 1 selections otherwise it is a bit like changing the goal posts during the game. I went from 4th to 6th and win one final. That was a pass mark to me. Bevo playing/coaching in his 300th game this week. Let's do it for our coach.

[Bulldog4life]

There is some morbid cosmic hilarity at play here at the moment. Some real character building stuff.

If you had asked anyone on the Saturday night before the Essendon game what the absolute worst case, nightmare situation for the remainder of the year would be for Dogs fans it would be lose 3 in a row, fall out of top 4 and potentially gift Essendon their first finals win in 17 years. To even be in a position for it to unfold like this has required so many things to fall into place, it’s quite impressive in a way.

Agree. Bruce's injury in the last minute was a shocking blow for us.