AFL Final Series 2025 - Week 1

[merantau]

For once Toby Green muffed his lines. Certainly a game that GWS let go. Credit to Hawthorn. They found a way to win. But I don't think they'll go any further. That was an exhausting game.

[Sedat]

The 3 best pressure teams have all won finals so far this weekend. We've got some work to do on our game plan in the off-season.

Also, Hawthorn's defenders were amazing one-on-one tonight. They repelled 72 GWS I50s. They can all defend when needed, even Amon stuck a crucial tackle to save a goal. Our defenders would concede a cricket score if they had to defend 72 entries.

[angelopetraglia]

The finals so far have shown that our game style and approach needs to change.

We don’t have anywhere near the requisite level of defensive pressure and hardness around the contest. We don’t apply enough pressure on the opposition when they have the ball.

Why cant we bring the level of defensive pressure required? Is it the makeup of our squad? Is it coaching? Is it mindset?

[Rocket Science]

The finals so far have shown that our game style and approach needs to change.

Thoughts like these are impossible to resist while watching the best teams apply and stand up to - or succumb to - typical finals heat.

We're wasting our time and the best years of our best, until we adjust, recruit and re-focus accordingly.

Currently, we're poster children for the superficially flashy mob that genuinely steely teams mow down when it matters.

It's beyond time that changed as yet another finals series passes with us as spectators rather than influencers.

But do go on and tell me how there's always next year.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Why cant we bring the level of defensive pressure required? Is it the makeup of our squad? Is it coaching? Is it mindset?

Well, the first two are certainly driven by Bevo. It's the list he's built, and it's the list he coaches.

Mindset, well, I'd argue that is driven by the coaches and leaders. You can say you value the defensive side of the game, but then there's actually doing it... Which we haven't.

In hindsight I wouldn't have re-signed Bevo. We get sucked in by the two good years and forget the other 9 which have been littered with bursts of hope but dragged down by consistent failures.

That we sit out another finals series is an indictment on Bevo and the wider club. It's not like we've had poor lists in this time, and it's not like our downfalls have been hard to predict when relying on the likes of Jones and Duryea to keep on keeping on year after year was always going to end badly.

As much as we like to think this might spur Bevo to change our game plan and the list management team to headhunt defenders who can defend, after 11 years, history suggests not a lot will change.

[Critter]

Can someone explain Mac Andrew to me? I just don’t get it. How did he get to 5 in the draft? Was it just that he was so much bigger than the under 18s he was playing against?

[bulldogsthru&thru]

The intensity to the start of these finals has been pretty electric. We would have been found out pretty easily honestly. We've got a bit of work to do defensively over the summer.

[Sedat]

Bailey Humphrey is made for finals footy

[azabob]

Bailey Humphrey is made for finals footy

For sure. Murphy Reid for the dockers also impressive.

[Rocket Science]

How TF did we forfeit a finals spot to this incarnation of Fremantle that's about to be sent packing?

I mean, I know how. But seriously, how?

[Sedat]

Well, the first two are certainly driven by Bevo. It's the list he's built, and it's the list he coaches.

Mindset, well, I'd argue that is driven by the coaches and leaders. You can say you value the defensive side of the game, but then there's actually doing it... Which we haven't.

In hindsight I wouldn't have re-signed Bevo. We get sucked in by the two good years and forget the other 9 which have been littered with bursts of hope but dragged down by consistent failures.

That we sit out another finals series is an indictment on Bevo and the wider club. It's not like we've had poor lists in this time, and it's not like our downfalls have been hard to predict when relying on the likes of Jones and Duryea to keep on keeping on year after year was always going to end badly.

As much as we like to think this might spur Bevo to change our game plan and the list management team to headhunt defenders who can defend, after 11 years, history suggests not a lot will change.

Bevo is obvously a key factor but it is a shared all-footy dept responsibility for mine. List management has left us badly exposed down back, and our development and line coaches haven't been able to fast-track improvement in the defenders we have drafted.

The senior players can't escape any culpability either. We have a well established and elite midfield group that doesn't have the appetite to work hard enough the other way, and we have been far too easy to score against too often as a result.

I'm OK with Bevo getting this latest 2 year extension, but we really need to get to work on both bringing in quality defensive personnel and on building a September-ready game plan to much better defend the entire ground and D50. I'm actually relieved we missed finals after watching the pressure and intensity of the games this weekend. Missing out gives us nowhere to hide, and we have to make the necessary changes. Realistically we have to jump into top 4 next year otherwise Bevo will be replaced.

[azabob]

How TF did we forfeit a finals spot to this incarnation of Fremantle that's about to be sent packing?

I mean, I know how. But seriously, how?

Honestly, that proposition is much better than losing to the Suns at the MCG….

[Bornadog]

How TF did we forfeit a finals spot to this incarnation of Fremantle that's about to be sent packing?

I mean, I know how. But seriously, how?

You spoke too soon

[angelopetraglia]

Pearce has been incredible.

[Sedat]

Pearce has been incredible.

Ditto Hayden Young