All our ducks lined up

[BulldogBelle]

Re: All our ducks lined up

The Wheel Turned

During the first part of the season we lost matches due to good and bad kicking for goal.

The opposition kicked great goals and took flukey marks. They kicked goals from all angles and scarcely missed. We on the other hand missed doozies.

Ordinary kicking for goal, from both us and the opposition, would have seen us win every game up to half way through the season.

We were due for some luck.

During the finals things were different. The opposition missed easy shots at goal and we got the hard ones.

The wheel had turned at the best possible time.

[Twodogs]

Re: All our ducks lined up

The Wheel Turned

During the first part of the season we lost matches due to good and bad kicking for goal.

The opposition kicked great goals and took flukey marks. They kicked goals from all angles and scarcely missed. We on the other hand missed doozies.

Ordinary kicking for goal, from both us and the opposition, would have seen us win every game up to half way through the season.

We were due for some luck.

During the finals things were different. The opposition missed easy shots at goal and we got the hard ones.

The wheel had turned at the best possible time.

I can remember looking at the scoreboard at half time when we were 7.1 and thinking that we'd hit our goalkicking straps on the best day possible. Almost any other day it would have read 2.6 or 1.7 and we'd have looked completely out of it, a few days it would have been 3.5 or 4.4. We would have been having a day out if it was 5.3 and we'd still be a couple of the pace.


But in the GF we converted 7 of 8 scoring shots to half time. Things tightened up after halftime and our graph went the other way but while the sun shone thus group made hay. God love them.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: All our ducks lined up

I can remember looking at the scoreboard at half time when we were 7.1 and thinking that we'd hit our goalkicking straps on the best day possible. Almost any other day it would have read 2.6 or 1.7 and we'd have looked completely out of it, a few days it would have been 3.5 or 4.4. We would have been having a day out if it was 5.3 and we'd still be a couple of the pace.


But in the GF we converted 7 of 8 scoring shots to half time. Things tightened up after halftime and our graph went the other way but while the sun shone thus group made hay. God love them.

That's true.

While we kicked the hard goals Sydney missed the easy ones.

[Twodogs]

Re: All our ducks lined up

That's true.

While we kicked the hard goals Sydney missed the easy ones.

It's the Sydney fans who would have been edgy at halftime thinking "we should have put them away by now"


It's funny when you're at the game and you are five goals down at halftime someone will always point out that the scoring shots are the same and we are missing easy shots. Invariably somebody else then go on to point out that there are "no easy shots in Grand Finals" for some reason. Well they are wrong apparantly.

[Ghost Dog]

Re: All our ducks lined up

There won't be seven teams as even as that for a whole. Somehow the top seven clubs kept winningeach week and we couldn't make up any ground even though we were winning most weeks.



They arrogantly thought they'd sweep us aside and have him back for the GF I reckon. They even put a droppable player in the team.



Welcome back GD. It's hard to take in sometimes yeah.

Thanks TD. How are you? I am still a bit speechless after 2016, As if I don't want last season to move on yet.
Steven Spielberg couldn't have penned a better script.
Perhaps our miserable goal kicking at times during the season shone a light on that aspect of our game and forced us to lift our game for the big dance. Tory Dickson had some shockers in the regular season. We then nailed it in the finals.

[The bulldog tragician]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Isn't it true that history is written by winners? At the time that the Melbourne reject kicked the last minute goal, meaning hawks got double chance and we had to go to Perth, it seemed yet another example of Bulldogs bad luck and timing.

There were moments in each and every final that we could have said were the 'typical us' fateful turning points. Us missing all those shots in the 1st minutes against WCE and then gifting Kennedy a goal. Hodge getting our first goal over ruled. Roughead' eye injury. The JJ goal in the last quarter. The self belief of this group was such that these were all only hiccups that made them more determined. I don't think it's an accident either that our practice in nailing clutch goals in 2016 came to the fore in the finals. I remember considerable angst about the goals Bont missed in the 2015 EF. Like the star he is, he brushed aside any of the idea that this was just part of his ill fortune in being a bulldog. He nailed goals for us v Adelaide, WCE and Port at the right times.

Well to return to the original topic - the main duck that landed for us was not having to play Geelong. They'd given us our only real smashing for 2016 and our record against them especially in finals is just unbelievably horrid. But I'd have said the same about WCE...our guys were just on a quest that no one was ever going to stop.

[Topdog]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Well to return to the original topic - the main duck that landed for us was not having to play Geelong. They'd given us our only real smashing for 2016 and our record against them especially in finals is just unbelievably horrid. But I'd have said the same about WCE...our guys were just on a quest that no one was ever going to stop.

Our record against the Hawks was equally pathetic in finals.

[Twodogs]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Our record against the Hawks was equally pathetic in finals.

Yeah exactly.

I always thought that Geelong was our danger team and we were lucky to avoid them. But every team is a danger team to us in a final. Until last year.

[hujsh]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Yeah exactly.

I always thought that Geelong was our danger team and we were lucky to avoid them. But every team is a danger team to us in a final. Until last year.

Except Sydney. I think we have a good record against them

[Twodogs]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Except Sydney. I think we have a good record against them

We are usually a danger to ourselves in finals. But I think I have seen us beat Sydney 3 times in finals. 1997, 2011 and 2016.

[jeemak]

Re: All our ducks lined up

The monkey was well and truly ejected when we handed the arse to the Eagles. I couldn't think of a better way to do it either.

We have been smashed at Subiaco in H&A games, and in finals (Smith's last game) for as long as I can remember, it was by far on record the worst ground for us to play an elimination final at, but this side had something in it that the fancied team of the competition in week one of the finals didn't see coming.

I'll never forget the amazement that overtook me when we started pummelling the Eagles. It was the best thing I've ever seen on TV.

[Bulldog Joe]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Yeah exactly.

I always thought that Geelong was our danger team and we were lucky to avoid them. But every team is a danger team to us in a final. Until last year.

I was sort of hoping that we got to play Geelong as I was always convinced we would smash them.
It is the one result I want in 2017, but I don't think Geelong will even make finals.

[KT31]

Re: All our ducks lined up

Except Sydney. I think we have a good record against them

From memory we have a 3 to zip record in finals against them since 97.

[Bornadog]

Re: All our ducks lined up

We are usually a danger to ourselves in finals. But I think I have seen us beat Sydney 3 times in finals. 1997, 2011 and 2016.

2010 not 2011. Didn't make the finals from 2011 to 2014.

[LostDoggy]

Re: All our ducks lined up

We also beat Sydney in the 2008 SF. Our record against them is 4-0 since Princess Diana died.