Western Bulldogs V Adelaide Crows R18, Saturday 12/7/25 at Marvel Stadium at 1:20pm

[The Bulldogs Bite]

As for being flat track bullies, I think that's an unnecessarily disparaging term to describe us. We've taken most of the quality teams to task at different times throughout our contests against them but we just don't have the quality to compete. If we did have the cattle then I'd be OK with the term, but we don't.

Yeah, flat track bullies implies we're good enough. We're not. Yesterday was the first game in a long time where it felt like a fight we couldn't win. They were just better in basically every facet of the game and we were powerless to retard them. The scoreline flattered us in the end.

Just hope we don't get caught in no man's land - good enough to beat the bottom 8, not good enough to contend. Is there a worse spot to be?

[jeemak]

Yeah, flat track bullies implies we're good enough. We're not. Yesterday was the first game in a long time where it felt like a fight we couldn't win. They were just better in basically every facet of the game and we were powerless to retard them. The scoreline flattered us in the end.

Just hope we don't get caught in no man's land - good enough to beat the bottom 8, not good enough to contend. Is there a worse spot to be?

I'd much rather be there than where others have been for a long time. We don't have the advantages in fixturing that other clubs get and all in all we just haven't ever had the personnel others have been blessed with - even when we've gone on our finals runs.

As frustrating as we can be I reckon we've gotten a lot of value out of structurally cobbled together lists. To me at the moment, providing Bont signs (and he's ****ing pissing me off given he hasn't yet - something for my Monday soapbox tomorrow because I'm getting uneasy) we're one quality pacey midfielder coming back, a key and a small defender, and a bit of quality forward away from having a package of quality ready to go and good players coming through. But importantly with structural integrity across the ground, which again is something we've never enjoyed.

We just need to be patient and ignore the outside noise and expectations. You just need to believe what you see with your eyes when assessing us.

[Mantis]

I'd much rather be there than where others have been for a long time. We don't have the advantages in fixturing that other clubs get and all in all we just haven't ever had the personnel others have been blessed with - even when we've gone on our finals runs.

As frustrating as we can be I reckon we've gotten a lot of value out of structurally cobbled together lists. To me at the moment, providing Bont signs (and he's ****ing pissing me off given he hasn't yet - something for my Monday soapbox tomorrow because I'm getting uneasy) we're one quality pacey midfielder coming back, a key and a small defender, and a bit of quality forward away from having a package of quality ready to go and good players coming through. But importantly with structural integrity across the ground, which again is something we've never enjoyed.

We just need to be patient and ignore the outside noise and expectations. You just need to believe what you see with your eyes when assessing us.

In the 1st half both Libba & Kennedy were completely shown up by Adelaide's foot speed around the contest... Libba battled his ass off as is his want, but he couldn't run with the Adelaide mids and it hurt us in transition and around the contest. Kennedy was a massive disappointment; it was a truly awful performance from a senior player.

I know I'm a fan, but I thought Garcia when he was introduced into the centre square gave us some much-needed energy around the ball... he is by no means a polished performer, but he has some speed & aggression around the ball... and we need more of that against teams with quick/young midfields. I hope we persist with him in that role.

[Countrydog5]

I wasn't able to watch the game as I was travelling, but I was listening to the radio call. Just a disappointing result really, but unfortunately one that I was very much expecting from this team. I pencilled us in for an honourable 3-4 goal loss before the game and wasn't far off the mark. Same story for the last 4-5 years. The ease in which they moved the ball from defence was was the deciding factor and the way we structure up left the keys in a winning position all afternoon. God I hate our key backs playing 5-10m forward of their opponent instead of back shoulder, cooks us for 5-6 goals a game minimum.

[Bornadog]

Coaches Votes

Western Bulldogs v Adelaide
9 Marcus Bontempelli WB
9 Riley Thilthorpe ADEL
6 Jordan Dawson ADEL
2 Ed Richards WB
2 Daniel Curtin ADEL
2 Reilly O'Brien ADEL