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  1. #31
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    Re: Key Dogs need to steer team to a premiership

    Quote Originally Posted by EJ Smith View Post
    ...Please explain to me the link between the change of name and demanding respect on the football field.

    .....
    Walls questions leadership in a team loaded with talent he labels as equal to if the not the best in the competition. The game breaker, the player who gets the team over the line. Occasional and rare cameos by Johnson, Cooney, (Chris) Grant, Hawkins, none in finals, aside, since the beginning of the current, comparatively successful era commencing in the mid '80s, the club's fallen at the last hurdle consistently because of lack of such players. Why ? Murphy commented that until recently, the players were satisfied that they had the reputation for playing exciting, attacking football. Why be satisfied with that ? All the players come from the same background as the players from Brisbane (Voss/Brown), Hawthorn (Brereton/Hodge), St Kilda (Hayes/Goddard), Geelong (Hocking/Ablett) Adelaide (Jarman), Sydney (Kirk/Goodes), the U 18's, VFL, SANFL and WAFL.

    The answer has to lie in the "culture" of the club. Timidity, over caution and lack of belief. The players aren't ruthless. committed and with self belief because the club doesn't demand it. Why doesn't it ? Because the club itself is soft. It takes the easy option, it lacks character. It allows the AFL to negotiate its ground deal, it hawks its symbol, the jumper, to bidders and at the behest of the marketing department, to increased sales revenue, it "sells" its home games interstate. It lacks a history of success that it can build upon however, unlike Hawthorn and North, both of which similarly lacked histories of success but sacrificed, planned and built premiership teams, it resorted to marketing and gimmicks.

    That's the link.

    Some of the points made in my criticism of the club may be a bit unfair in isolation but taken together a not very pretty picture emerges.

  2. #32
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    Re: Key Dogs need to steer team to a premiership

    Quote Originally Posted by Sockeye Salmon View Post
    I'm sure it was happening at Sydney (but who ever payed attention besides DryRot?) but whenever we have a set shot at goal opposition players run at Hall, trying to get a reaction and a free reversal. It looks so orchastrated it must be on instruction.

    If the umpire would grow some goolies and pay a free against the initiator rather than the bloke being swamped, perhaps this blight on the game would go away.
    Good point!
    [B][COLOR="#0000CD"]Our club was born in blood and boots, not in AFL focus groups.[/COLOR][/B]

  3. #33
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    Re: Key Dogs need to steer team to a premiership

    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewP6 View Post
    Where's the obvious evidence that he's "battling"? Is it the tall poppy syndrome? Why do we (the general public) seem to want someone to fail?
    Round 6, Gilbee is lining up for a shot on goal from 35m out...
    Western Bulldogs: 2016 Premiers

  4. #34
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    Re: Key Dogs need to steer team to a premiership

    Quote Originally Posted by Sockeye Salmon View Post
    If the umpire would grow some goolies and pay a free against the initiator rather than the bloke being swamped, perhaps this blight on the game would go away.
    Last season the AFL said they would crack down on fullbacks constantly whacking the FF in the back with an elbow. This season nothing.
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

  5. #35
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    Re: Key Dogs need to steer team to a premiership

    Quote Originally Posted by Sockeye Salmon View Post
    This is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    As soon as we win the premiership, whoever it is that played well on that day will be said to "have stepped up when it was on the line".

    In reality, all it means was that he had a good day at a good time. Good players have more good days, so there's more chance that a good player will have a good day when it counts.

    Brereton kicked 8 in a losing grand final.
    Brereton got owned by Ryce-Jones in a grand final.

    Was Brereton a star or a muppet?
    I'm inclined to agree

    When a team has a player recognising as a superstar of the competition and the win it is often the superstar who is lauded

    Over the past few years when we've been winning, heaps of guys have stepped up. If we'd beaten the Saints in the prelim then Griffen, Boyd, Morris etc would have been hailed as having produced magnificent finals, and answered the challenge, provided leadership etc.

  6. #36
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    Re: Key Dogs need to steer team to a premiership

    Quote Originally Posted by bornadog View Post
    Last season the AFL said they would crack down on fullbacks constantly whacking the FF in the back with an elbow. This season nothing.
    Riewoldt got one against Hansen
    If you kicked five goals and Tom Boyd kicked five goals, Tom Boyd kicked more goals than you.

    Formerly gogriff

  7. #37
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    Re: Key Dogs need to steer team to a premiership

    Quote Originally Posted by Mofra View Post
    Round 6, Gilbee is lining up for a shot on goal from 35m out...
    He made a dumb move...he's hardly Robinson Crusoe there. That doesn't necessarily indicate a fragile mental state - if it does, there are 700 others like him.
    [B][COLOR="#0000CD"]Our club was born in blood and boots, not in AFL focus groups.[/COLOR][/B]

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