Since the Rhode era…

[BulldogBelle]

How things have changed since the departure of Peter Rhode. He led us to the bottom of the ladder BUT this ensured us with a few very early draft picks which netted us some very impressive youngsters. Week after week, loss after loss how down and out did we feel? At one stage, for the first time in my Bulldog supporting life I was wondering how much we would lose by every week, such a sad and negative approach I took which I might add is very un-characteristic of my persona as I usually always have a very positive spin on things. Nathan Brown left us, Gilbee wanted out, injuries galore, nothing was good.

A few years pass, we have a great coach, Membership keeps improving each year, players from opposition teams want to actually play for the Bulldogs. We made the 8 for the first time in 6 years last year and this year we are aiming for the Top 4. Life has picked up as a Bulldog Supporter.

What are your thoughts on the Rhode era?

[Go_Dogs]

It was the terrible time that we had to have. Each team goes through a down patch, sadly for us, we tried to trade draft picks for dud players for too long, and ended up falling way down the way side.

The great thing was the quality of player that we have managed to get since then. Cooney, Griffen, Ray, Williams - some of these names are going ot be very exciting for a long time to come, and no doubt those early draft picks have hugely helped our future.

Being a Norwood supporter, I was initially very happy with his selection as senior coach. How wrong I was.

[BulldogBelle]

I was initially very happy with his selection as senior coach. How wrong I was.

I think a lot of people thought like that especially as Rhode's first game coaching us netted us a win against Collingwood. It went downhill after that game. I always wanted a coach that didn't have any afiliation with the Bulldogs in any capacity that could come in and do what he had to do without 'fear' of the mate factor. Enter Eade and the transformations.

[Dry Rot]

Not all is rosy post-Rohde - somewhere along the way we lost the great Trent Bartlett.

BTW, IMO it should be called the Rohde/dills running the club then era - it's easy to forget the off-field rubbish going on.

[bornadog]

I don't believe it was all Rhode's fault during that period. I don't really rate Rhode as a coach, but I think he didn't really have a lot to work with. Firstly, if you look at the post by Dry Rot headed Profile of the Team, you will notice the big gap in players that existed under Rhode with experience between 100 to 150 games. This was mainly due to the Wallet years where he failed to recruit players from the time he began coaching. Wallet inherited a good batch of players at their peak such as Grant, West, Johhno, Smith Darcy, all around the 25 year old mark, plus he had some discards from other teams and the only young player coming through was Brownie. Image inhereting these players, no wonder they went to two prelmins plus two more years in finals, but he should have been recruiting players from 1997 to 1999. In 1999, Scott Clayton recruited a batch of players that have only just started to mature, but during Rhodes era they weren't ready, and the older players were now up around 200 plus games, so there left a gap. Teams that play in finals, need at least half the players with about 100 games experience. Today the older players are up around the 300 games and the younger guys are now notching up 100, plus there is a another good batch coming through, so we have a better balance. (except the talls)

Having said all that, we all suffered during this period, but we gained some great draft picks. So Post Rhode we can now look forward to some more finals.

[bulldogtragic]

Rohde may well have left behind Cooney and Ray and allowed Eade Griff.

But he also cost us a top pick (Rawlings) which was used on a CHB, although we would've picked up another gun midifelder (Tenace, Dunn maybe a tall in Watts), and gave up pick 19 (David Mundy) for Koops. With both traded players playing a combined 35 games at most.

Imagine another two more young guns in the team not. You wouldnt be able to do a best 22.

Rohde's legacy is missed opportunities.

[Go_Dogs]

Scott Bassett was a great pick up though, haha.

[Dry Rot]

Rohde destroyed our short term chances by getting rid of the great Trent Bartlett.

Utter disgrace.

[bornadog]

Rohde may well have left behind Cooney and Ray and allowed Eade Griff.

But he also cost us a top pick (Rawlings) which was used on a CHB, although we would've picked up another gun midifelder (Tenace, Dunn maybe a tall in Watts), and gave up pick 19 (David Mundy) for Koops. With both traded players playing a combined 35 games at most.

Imagine another two more young guns in the team not. You wouldnt be able to do a best 22.

Rohde's legacy is missed opportunities.

Don't get me wrong, the decison to appoint Rhode was the worst decision Smorgan ever made.

[alwaysadog]

Don't get me wrong, the decison to appoint Rhode was the worst decision Smorgan ever made.

Let's not forget that the senior players were unanimous that Rohde was the man for the job.

[LostDoggy]

Let's not forget that the senior players were unanimous that Rohde was the man for the job.

That's true they all wanted him.

[alwaysadog]

That's true they all wanted him.

I'm sure it was in good faith. I think it means that the players opinions are obviously useful and valuable on many issues but they may not be able to judge how someone will perform when they have ultimate responsibility and may not know all that is needed to improve; especially when they have not had the ultimate success. Also I think they weren't clear about the situation we were in and thought success was just around the corner.

[Dry Rot]

Let's not forget that the senior players were unanimous that Rohde was the man for the job.

Some tall bloke doing his knee in Rd 1 2003 didn't help either.

[bornadog]

Let's not forget that the senior players were unanimous that Rohde was the man for the job.

and unanimous he go