Western Bulldogs Game Day V St. Kilda - Week 1 2020 Elimination Final Two

[bornadog]

We brought in Keath and Bruce last trade period. Schache the year prior. We use a mix of trade and development.

In Bevo's time we have brought in Suckling, Lloyd, Trengove, Schache, Bruce, Keath, Duryea, Crozier.

You have to ask if this strategy is working? In 2016, 22 players, only 3 were from other clubs, and they came off rookie lists.

[Sedat]

Goldy is far from a hindrance BAD.

No fan of Norf but he was and still is a very, very good player.

Goldy a lumbering ruckman??? Wow. He is an aerobic beast who is also extremely competitive one-on-one, is a brilliant tap ruck exponent, and can also clunk a mark up forward. To lump him in with Preuss and the other dinosaurs does him a great disservice. Preuss has a dreadful tank, doesn't have great ruckwork nous (hell, even Dunks was able to deal with him at stoppages) and gets by on being a physical and aggressive ruckman in short bursts (because that's all he can do). He is a million miles from Goldy in almost every way. If Goldy was a couple of years younger I'd throw a contract offer at him in a heartbeat and it would only benefit English's game not detract from it.

I don't think anybody is advocating we get a dinosaur type like a Preuss, who I don't rate for the reasons mentioned. Marshall and Ryder are a great example of complimentary strengths, as is Ladhams and Lycett. Alternatively, we can continue to play Tim as virtual sole no 1 ruck and see him continue to get monstered by the really good stoppage ruckmen in the better teams (whilst also robbing Tim of his great assets around the ground). And we can also continue to play around with other funky moves like using Dunks in ruck with Tim standing next to him in D50 and call this 'supporting' English.

[bornadog]

And we can also continue to play around with other funky moves like using Dunks in ruck with Tim standing next to him in D50 and call this 'supporting' English.

I don't believe one person is advocating that.

[Danjul]

Exactly how I see it as well. You can forget a Pruess, Goldy, type. In today's game lumbering rucks are a hindrance.

All the evidence is that we cannot be successful without one.

[SquirrelGrip]

We will draft an athletic kid - English clone - mark my words.

Who is out there who meets those criteria?

[Danjul]

I don't believe one person is advocating that.

We saw it yesterday. At a boundary throw in early in the game. Dunkley took the ruck and English ran away to the interchange.

Happening too often.

All the other teams have supporters who worry about what opposition coaches are planning. Can’t we go back to that?

[Sedat]

We brought in Keath and Bruce last trade period. Schache the year prior. We use a mix of trade and development.

Keath was a clear structural acquisition and a very good one at that. Bruce was an acquisition with an eye to replacing the previous key forward acquisition, Schache, that we don't seem to have faith in (otherwise the much mooted 3-pronged key forward set up of Naughts, Bruce and Schache would have been in play from R1). Preceding both of these was the specifically targeted KPP free agent acquisition of Trengove, who has barely played in 2 of the 3 years we signed him up for. So we have effectively done 3 trades/FA, all on decent coin and decent length of tenure, and have not materially improved our list at all with any of them so far. This replacement trading is counter-productive - if we identified a player we need in an area, that player should immediately make us much better and for many years.

Then you have the Duryea, Crozier, Lloyd, etc.. fringe type trades where you can get some gold (Crozier) but aren't really addressing an urgent area of deficiency and are more about adding depth to the list. These are fine but they aren't going to make a massive difference to sharp overall improvement, and we haven't improved sharply in the last couple of years even with these trades.

[DOG GOD]

What’s the bet we choose a hbf’er in the draft lol

[mjp]

Who is out there who meets those criteria?

There are a couple. One is from the same club Tim was recruited from.

[Sedat]

I don't believe one person is advocating that.

The MC have effectively advocated this as the support offered to Tim by using this tactic so often and also using Bruce as ruck relief, presumably because he has been so abject as a key forward target all season.

We haven't helped Tim's development at all in the last 2 years IMO. In fact, I think we are really hurting him in other areas. I don't think we understand what we have with him, as we are seemingly hellbent on trying to turn him into something he is not, hiding under the cover of 'development'.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

The MC have effectively advocated this as the support offered to Tim by using this tactic so often and also using Bruce as ruck relief, presumably because he has been so abject as a key forward target all season.

We haven't helped Tim's development at all in the last 2 years IMO. In fact, I think we are really hurting him in other areas. I don't think we understand what we have with him, as we are seemingly hellbent on trying to turn him into something he is not, hiding under the cover of 'development'.

Needless to say we are also going about ruining Dunkley by asking him to play ruck, inside mid and 'rest' as a marking forward. I'm not sure who has had it worse in terms of a lack of support - English or Dunkley.

[DOG GOD]

Needless to say we are also going about ruining Dunkley by asking him to play ruck, inside mid and 'rest' as a marking forward. I'm not sure who has had it worse in terms of a lack of support - English or Dunkley.

Totally agree. I just don’t understand what the MC see in what they are doing.

[bornadog]

Totally agree. I just don’t understand what the MC see in what they are doing.

I think the MC felt they had no choice.

In the end Dunkley only played a couple of games in relief ruck when they were giving Tim a break.

[G-Mo77]

I think the MC felt they had no choice.

In the end Dunkley only played a couple of games in relief ruck when they were giving Tim a break.

It's happened most games BAD if not all. Ok not in the centre bounce but on boundary throw ins or ball ups. It happened yesterday. Are the MC and List Managers separate entities that don't communicate? This needed addressing much earlier and our failures will continue if we keep following the same broken path.

[bornadog]

Ryder out for rest of season - bad luck for him