I know every game counts, BUT...

[Grantysghost]

Based on me being an eternal optimist, on me thinking things aren?t as bad as we somethings think, and based on me thinking that if I put it out there? it?ll happen. Plus Alex Keath hasn?t played in a loss all season and isn?t planning on starting that now.

Bullet proof reasons to get behind I?d say.

Alex means dont lose in Bulgarian.

[Mofra]

This is exactly the game we should win, but.... trust in this team is still low.

Sam Darcy has a big say here. Sure his opponent gets a bit of rebound, but Taylor will stick with Marra/Naughts inside 50 and they have nobody who can stop Darcy when he sticks his arms up. And Darc should beat their second ruck.

[Uninformed]

Every game is 'just another game'

No prissy emotionalism. A coach that needs to play on 'rivalries' to get a lift has lost the plot.

There is no history. There is just now. Today. And it is just another game of cold hearted, dead eye professionalism. Just another game of focussed pressure and performance all game. Just another game of total domination, magnificent skill and superb teamwork. Just another game of fighting it out to the last second. Just another game of Bulldog glory!

[hujsh]

We need a 2015 Sydney moment for this team. I don't know if it comes this year though

[Grantysghost]

Every game is 'just another game'

No prissy emotionalism. A coach that needs to play on 'rivalries' to get a lift has lost the plot.

There is no history. There is just now. Today. And it is just another game of cold hearted, dead eye professionalism. Just another game of focussed pressure and performance all game. Just another game of total domination, magnificent skill and superb teamwork. Just another game of fighting it out to the last second. Just another game of Bulldog glory!

Love it! The future is fantasy and memories are flawed so let's #bemorebulldog (or just dog) and live in the moment. It's really all there is.

[Grantysghost]

We need a 2015 Sydney moment for this team. I don't know if it comes this year though

Would have to be v a big team at the G maybe. Like a Pies or Blues.

Why does that seem so impossible now.

And here's Bevo wearing Birks. This shit is serious.

#bemoreevolved

[bulldogsthru&thru]

When was the last significant win against a contender? Brisbane early last year? I think at that stage we were both out of form.

We absolutely need to win this game, we need something to solidify the foundations of this group. Make them believers.

Yeah good point. It's been a loooong time and probably is a major reason the fan base is hugely down on confidence.

[Go_Dogs]

I agree. I hate GWS pretty much as much as I hate 16 other clubs. But they have Toby Greene and he?s a proven prick, plus Bugg played for them, and he was an idiot too.

Massive test for our group.

Here?s hoping it can be a defining moment like our away win v Swans all those years back.

[bornadog]

That's a very good call

Brisbane was in rd 3.

We beat GWS in rd 8 23, however they weren't really the same team.

That's an insanely long time to have not beaten a good side.

Prior to that was rd 19 22, v Demons at Marvel when Marra kicked that epic goal.

Carlton round 9 2023

[jazzadogs]

We need a 2015 Sydney moment for this team. I don't know if it comes this year though

This is what I've been thinking too. I think Bevo would have used that win to build the winners mentality, the why not us, and it was definitely a stepping stone to our success. What does he have to build off with this group?

[jazzadogs]

Carlton round 9 2023

Going in to that game we were 7th and they were 8th, coming off 3 losses in their last five games. It was a good win after being challenged in the final quarter.
If we'd beaten Carlton in the second half of the year when they were good, I'd agree with you.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

This game seems as good as any for group to find a bloody reason to forge an identify upon. And we really need a new identity.

We need to be ruthless and step up our execution in key moments, in key games, when under duress and always for the team's betterment NOT just for the individual's own output.

In my opinion, that's how they're going to get confidence and forge trust and absolute belief in each other. And it's what happens upstairs in those aspects that really maximizes the physical and technical skills of the players.

That, again in my opinion, is what that 'next level' is you see from Champion teams when it counts. You know, when a great team goes behind by a goal late...and look like they're about to yield....but then they just steel themselves and execute the right moves from the very next contest and win the game, and it was never in doubt.

Hawks used to give me that vibe in the 80's and Geelong too in the last decade or so.

We need to find that to enable this group to reach their absolute maximum potential. Its what will make guys like Bramble, VDM etc step up to be valuable contributors. We need our bottom 6 role players to reduce the number of costly mistakes they produce in trying to perform their role.

Let's see some evolution of that against GWS. Why the hell not! As MJP says I know every game counts, BUT.....

Lets start to bloody stamp a different persona to our 2024 NOW and why not against bloody GWS!!!


Most teams have a team that they just get on a streak against, you know like Geelong against us at their boggy mud patch for so many years.

We don't.. I can't think of any team we really own right now... it was Essendon for a while, but there has been a couple of big let downs there for us... so nope... Richmond... well not when it counted in the last few years. Gold Coast have also regularly broken any streaks (at inconvenient times too!)

I would love nothing more than for us to ALWAYS rise to the challenge against GWS.
It still pains me how limp we were in that final where Greene assaulted Bontempelli without ANY response. Or when Greene karate kicked Dahl.

The spirit of the 2016 Prelim should've been absolutely franked on occasions like those...and thus forever mentally consigning GWS to be our bitches.....but alas

Here we are in 2024, but a shaky semblance of that relentless 2016 group of BullGods, step up boys...
Never a better time nor team for this group to FINALLY make a statement to the competition about their state of self-belief.

[The bulldog tragician]

We need a 2015 Sydney moment for this team. I don't know if it comes this year though

I think we forget we lost the next 3 games after that awesome win. Improvement isn’t always linear. But totally agree the current group has no history of standing up against top opponents or winning the close ones.

[Axe Man]

My 8yo was talking about footy rivalries this morning and we went through all the traditional/ big ones:

Carl v Coll
Adel v Port
Ess v Coll

We got onto the topic to who was our biggest rival and I said GWS...why he asked, because we don't like them, and they don't like us... this is big game.

That's funny - I was talking to my 8 year old about the exact same thing recently.

[bornadog]

That's funny - I was talking to my 8 year old about the exact same thing recently.

what did they say?