Five things that have contributed to Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

Boring, average and almost irrelevant, how did it get to this for last year’s grand finalists? Scott Gullan on the Western Bulldogs’ woe.



It‘s the biggest question in football right now: What has happened to the Western Bulldogs?

Last year‘s grand finalists have become boring, average and are not far away from being irrelevant.

This was one of the most exciting teams in the game 12 months ago. So where has it all gone wrong?

There doesn‘t seem to be one main obvious place to point the finger at, more a build-up of various things which have conspired to have the blowtorch pointing Luke Beveridge’s way.

When he brought the club its second premiership in 2016, the thought of that man ever feeling any pressure at the Whitten Oval was laughable. The job for life was the call as a dynasty awaited.

A decent premiership hangover was a problem for a couple of years but when the Dogs led by 19 points midway through the third quarter of last year‘s grand final against Melbourne – after another heroic march through September – the Bevo magic was back.

Maybe he‘s lost his wand because all is not well out west with the next month set to answer a lot of questions.

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The Bulldogs are currently a game outside the eight – they face St Kilda on Friday night who are one spot ahead of them in ninth – and then play the top three teams over the next three weeks.

There are different ways to look at what has happened. Are they just purely having one of those years where nothing goes right? Is it just a loss of confidence? Or are they a fractured football club?

Here are five issues haunting the Bulldogs:

1. DEFENCE

The stats over the past five weeks are embarrassing. The Dogs are ranked either 16th, 17th or 18th in categories such as points against, opposition scores per inside 50 and points against from turnovers. Personnel wise Ryan Gardner is limited, Alex Keath is banged up and asked to do too much, Bailey Williams has lost confidence while recruit Tim O‘Brien has been a bust and was dropped last week.

They have no intercept markers anymore – Easton Wood’s retirement has cut deep – but the real issues are further up the field with the highly-rated midfield.

“You can‘t defend when you’re all out offence in the midfielder. Last year they had total control of the ball around the contest so they could protect some issues down back but they don’t have that this year,” one rival club analyst said.

2. JOSH BRUCE

Bruce has become a better player by not playing. There is no doubt his presence helps relieve the pressure on Aaron Naughton and in his absence the Dogs have managed to scrape together enough decent scores, particularly thanks to the work of Cody Weightman, but it‘s not sustainable in big games against the top teams.
Luke Beveridge has lost plenty of experience in his coaching circle.

3. SUPPORT

Losing long-time assistant Steven King was a blow the Dogs knew was coming but they were blindsided with highly rated Ashley Hansen went to Carlton. They were then late into the market for replacements with the inexperienced Matt Spangher and Marc Webb struggling to fill the void. All of this has added further pressure on Beveridge who had previously been accused of micromanaging.

4. ABSENCE

Every club has players missing but the Dogs have had it happen to the wrong people. Bailey Smith getting caught doing drugs and headbutting people hurt big time as did Lachie Hunter taking time away from the game. Ruckman Tim English having a number of concussion breaks, Jason Johannisen missing half the season, and Taylor Duryea‘s recent knee injury have all impacted continuity.

5. LEWIS YOUNG

Lewis Young has turned into Geoff Southby since he left but what can‘t be ignored is why the Dogs let a 201cm defender go who they’d put five years of development into. Selection has been an issue for a number of years with blind faith shown to players who many wouldn’t think deserve it – think the patience given to the likes of Josh Schache, Roarke Smith, Anthony Scott and Robbie McComb.