Western Bulldogs current list, its future and everything in between

[bulldogtragic]

Classic one, two punch set up.

One. This team should win every game, and every final.
Two. Smash them relentlessly at every loss when they happen.

I’m not fan of mis/disinformation laws. But after this I’m coming around to it.

[TysonC]

One thing that really gets me about the media's perception of our team is that they are happy to say we are a "stacked" and "complete" list so they can discredit everything the club does well by saying it is expected, however they can use it to put us down when we aren't doing well and say it is misuse of the list. There are plenty of holes in the bulldogs' list, every fan knows it, for a team that went down the wing as much as we did last season you would think our best winger wasn't playing HB and HF the past 5 seasons before it. Also really lacked a really strong midfield rotation, when the Hawks game went out of hand we needed to have some grunt in the middle that I am hoping Kennedy brings. Dogs can be top 4 because they are good enough, however I am pretty sure 12 teams have a case this year.

[azabob]

One thing that really gets me about the media's perception of our team is that they are happy to say we are a "stacked" and "complete" list so they can discredit everything the club does well by saying it is expected, however they can use it to put us down when we aren't doing well and say it is misuse of the list. There are plenty of holes in the bulldogs' list, every fan knows it, for a team that went down the wing as much as we did last season you would think our best winger wasn't playing HB and HF the past 5 seasons before it. Also really lacked a really strong midfield rotation, when the Hawks game went out of hand we needed to have some grunt in the middle that I am hoping Kennedy brings. Dogs can be top 4 because they are good enough, however I am pretty sure 12 teams have a case this year.

Nice opening post TC.

It would be interesting to see your thoughts on our opening team come round one in this thread

https://www.woof.net.au/forum/showth...704#post937704

[Bulldog Joe]

One thing that really gets me about the media's perception of our team is that they are happy to say we are a "stacked" and "complete" list so they can discredit everything the club does well by saying it is expected, however they can use it to put us down when we aren't doing well and say it is misuse of the list. There are plenty of holes in the bulldogs' list, every fan knows it, for a team that went down the wing as much as we did last season you would think our best winger wasn't playing HB and HF the past 5 seasons before it. Also really lacked a really strong midfield rotation, when the Hawks game went out of hand we needed to have some grunt in the middle that I am hoping Kennedy brings. Dogs can be top 4 because they are good enough, however I am pretty sure 12 teams have a case this year.

Would agree that there are plenty of teams that think they can be there when it matters and everyone is evolving toward that.

When you look at what Hawthorn achieved last year it shows that anything is plausibly possible.

However, while you say we have holes in the list, I believe every team does. For us we simply need to control games to our strengths and we are a match for anyone.

If we can eliminate the inconsistencies we will be very hard to stop.

[azabob]

Would agree that there are plenty of teams that think they can be there when it matters and everyone is evolving toward that.

When you look at what Hawthorn achieved last year it shows that anything is plausibly possible.

However, while you say we have holes in the list, I believe every team does. For us we simply need to control games to our strengths and we are a match for anyone.

If we can eliminate the inconsistencies we will be very hard to stop.

Taylor Duryea spoke to the media the other day and he basically said the same thing.

The really good teams have lessor and shorter periods of inconsistency and inferred that we need to close that gap.

[GVGjr]

One thing that really gets me about the media's perception of our team is that they are happy to say we are a "stacked" and "complete" list so they can discredit everything the club does well by saying it is expected, however they can use it to put us down when we aren't doing well and say it is misuse of the list. There are plenty of holes in the bulldogs' list, every fan knows it, for a team that went down the wing as much as we did last season you would think our best winger wasn't playing HB and HF the past 5 seasons before it. Also really lacked a really strong midfield rotation, when the Hawks game went out of hand we needed to have some grunt in the middle that I am hoping Kennedy brings. Dogs can be top 4 because they are good enough, however I am pretty sure 12 teams have a case this year.

There is very rarely a perfect list. Even the Brisbane list, which was regarded as the best before the season started, had it's share of positional struggles with the back line the most obvious. What they did was manage it very well and especially after a really unexpectedly slow and erratic start to the season.
I do believe we have a strong list given our talent level and age profile with experience but we might need some luck as well.
You're 100% right though that there would be 12 teams with genuine finals aspirations and a couple of others that might believe 'if everything goes right'. It's a competitive and professional league and each competing teams needs to keep improving each season.
The old saying of "If you're standing still, you're going backwards" really does apply.

[TysonC]

I agree, I think we have a more balanced side with Kennedy in the midfield compared to Macrae, it felt at times we really lacked someone who could be thrown in the middle and just show some toughness in the contest (something I was hoping Harmes would provide but his hamstrings couldn't keep up). Given another year of development from our young players and praying none of the old boys regress, we should be better and hopefully a lot of the inconsistencies came from the players needing more time with the new system we implemented (which would be reinforced by our late season form compared to early