Bitter Western Bulldogs hobbled by culture of blame

[BulldogBelle]

Mark Robinson
From: Herald Sun
June 15, 2011 11:22PM


WESTERN Bulldogs assistant coach Brett Montgomery effectively labelled Brian Lake mentally weak in dealing with injuries and playing with injuries.

Montgomery may be right, and good on him for speaking honestly.

But it is rare to hear a coach publicly put blame on a player. Rare outside the Bulldogs, that is. Blame is part of their culture.

Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas has been strongly critical of the "individual" mindset at the Bulldogs, going as far back as 15 years, arguing individuals such as Luke Darcy, Chris Grant, Brad Johnson, Rohan Smith and Scott West were put on a pedestal.

While they were exalted, it was then easy to blame others for the club's lack of success.

There has always been someone to blame at the kennel. Most recent is Lake, and the excuses continue with Barry Hall's body and Adam Cooney's knee.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/af...-1226075992658

[GVGjr]

Robbo's talking rot but I don't think Monty has done the right thing by Brian or the club.

[chef]

Robbo's talking rot but I don't think Monty has done the right thing by Brian or the club.

Yep what a weird article, you could through any clubs last twenty years and say similar things.

[LostDoggy]

Yep what a weird article, you could through any clubs last twenty years and say similar things.

It's not even that, he's gone back 25-30 years to the times of Dempsey, Temps, etc leaving.

All filler, no killer Robbo.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Robbo's talking rot but I don't think Monty has done the right thing by Brian or the club.

Robbo is perpetuating the rubbish

Like you, I was shocked at Monty's radio work

[Grantysghost]

Robbo is perpetuating the rubbish

Like you, I was shocked at Monty's radio work

Maybe the Brodie Holland hit stuffed his head.

[Remi Moses]

I love getting a culture lesson from Grant Thomas. Like getting a women's Lib lesson from the Taliban, me thinks!
Awful article full of factual errors, I mean going back to the 70's when the club was running on fumes.( couldn't afford an oily rag)We all know the Wallace story, The Hardie story( blimey should we have rid the coach and not the player)Josh Hill has had numerous chances and failed. Chris Grant thinks Rocket (results will dictate) whether he falls on his sword or not , exactly what happened at Sydney! Anything wrong with Sydney's culture??Great article Mark Akermanis

[Ghost Dog]

Bit like the elephant dance thing they dragged out just to kick us in the guts.
However, words of ignorance with a grain of truth. Negativity can cripple.
Don't want to see Monty come out and single out any players.
Bulldogs United!

[Evel]

This is a stupid article. What was the club to do in those previous times? Just keep going along and hope everyting got better on it's lonesome?? Josh Hill deserved to be dropped, no one at the club has publicly called for Rocket's head, Joyce had clearly lost the players, Scott West could only hobble and was finished and publicly said months later his knee was still shot, Wallace on his own accord sought a different job and didn't want to be there, going back to the 70's and 80's, completely different era. Every time the club acted a period of success and strong results ensued.

If he wants to talk blame, what about Matthew Knights being the fall guy at the Bombers or Grant Thomas at the Saints. Stupid article that in itself tries to look for someone to blame.

[comrade]

Epic lulz from Robbo.

This was clearly written to stir up the in-bred mutants who lurk on the HS website, waiting to negatively comment on any Bulldogs article.

[Mofra]

Maybe I'm on my lonesome, but I think he's right.
It may also happen at other teams, but he makes a compelling argument.

[Bulldog4life]

I'm glad Robbo is quoting THE ORACLE Grant Thomas. Anything Grant says must be right. Grant certainly put together a fine leadership group at The Saints. Fine bunch of lads.Isn't it lucky that St.kilda didn't put Robert Harvey on a pedestal like we did with our champs.

[LostDoggy]

Yep what a weird article, you could through any clubs last twenty years and say similar things.

Maybe I'm on my lonesome, but I think he's right.
It may also happen at other teams, but he makes a compelling argument.

You are both probably right?
All these things could be the Dogs downfall? And as you say Chef if you look through any club's history at some point you'd see the same things, Do they perhaps show up in the said club's history when they too were having a rough trot???

I'm glad Robbo is quoting THE ORACLE Grant Thomas. Anything Grant says must be right. Grant certainly put together a fine leadership group at The Saints. Fine bunch of lads.Isn't it lucky that St.kilda didn't put Robert Harvey on a pedestal like we did with our champs.

Good one

[Remi Moses]

I'm glad Robbo is quoting THE ORACLE Grant Thomas. Anything Grant says must be right. Grant certainly put together a fine leadership group at The Saints. Fine bunch of lads.Isn't it lucky that St.kilda didn't put Robert Harvey on a pedestal like we did with our champs.

They still are! How many calls has there been on Harvey being in the Hall of Fame!!
I reckon I've heard 20 calls, which is weird considering he's not eligible

[Evel]

Maybe I'm on my lonesome, but I think he's right.
It may also happen at other teams, but he makes a compelling argument.

I'm just not sure what he's trying to argue. He throws an accusation that we have a culture of blame, then tries to justify it loosely with past events. I could pick apart the whole article, but just to note three points he makes;

- "Josh Hill lethargic so he had to go" (paraphrase). Josh Hill has been given numerous chances this year to show his worth to the team which ended in the Geelong game. He's not the only player to be dropped this year through poor performance so according to Robbo we should have kept playing him and left out say a Dahlhaus who showed so much in his first 5 minutes of game time??

- "Westy ended his decorated career on a sour note". If I recall correctly, it was 2008, a successful year and the club made a team decision on whether West was fit enough to play for the finals. He wasn't and clearly he was done. West had a hard time coping that his career was over and I'm sure the club assisted him in every way possible. What does Robbo imply, we should have played him?? He accuses we put players on a pedestal so we should have just cleared out Westy's locker and changed the locks, but then he would leave on a sour note, hang on our fault for the sourness, get out the pedestal again. He contradicts himself.

- "Wallace left, stuff you coach". Is Robbo serious here?? We should have let him coach the last game?? From memory he had just signed or had a new deal offerred to him and he walked. Not really a sign of a club blaming the coach. Wallace basically said, "stuff you Dogs". Club did the right thing in cutting him loose early.

I could go on, but will spare you all my ramblings. Pointless article that offers nothing constructive or informative.