Is expectation our most feared opponent?

[The bulldog tragician]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Me too I applauded it.
What happened to the rising Sir Bont taking on North that day (Firrito?) when they tried to provoke him a couple of seasons ago. i remember thinking at the time wow, not only is this guy good he rises higher when targeted. Maybe losing some of the aforementioned guys has meant he doesn't feel like he has the backing any more. Not sure.

Just an small anecdote re Michael Firrito. A group of friends and I after a long day at the cricket spotted him at a bar, not only did he chat to us and spend time in our group he bought us drinks. Loved him ever since!

No, I don’t believe it. Must have been a lookalike.

Bont in that match was a kid with the world before him. I remember his smirk when he smothered a kick by Ferret-oh (that’s how you spell it isn’t it��). He was young, carefree. Now Bont is the guy the footy world has turned against, aware that so much is riding on his shoulders, perhaps even doubting his own immense ability, trying that hit too hard as he did last week. It’s a pattern we’ve all seen before. I desperately hope tonight is the night he turns it around.

[WBFC4FFC]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

I was happy for Wallis to give away that 50 last Sunday - you had a St Kilda player driving his elbow into our players head (can't remember who it was now) and Mitch dragged him off - nothing silly but not standing for that crap. Stupid umpire should have called it even and let the Saints player take his kick but instead paid 50.

Why have we not been using Wallis in the middle for the clearances? He use to do this as a teenager.

[FrediKanoute]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Why have we not been using Wallis in the middle for the clearances? He use to do this as a teenager.

His disposal. Good hands, but his kicking is poor and the problem with him starting in the middle is that if you don't win the ball you have to get it back and he will end up in that chain. For sheer hardness at the footy though I would have him in a heartbeat.

[Grantysghost]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

His disposal. Good hands, but his kicking is poor and the problem with him starting in the middle is that if you don't win the ball you have to get it back and he will end up in that chain. For sheer hardness at the footy though I would have him in a heartbeat.

Is it just me or is he a little slow ball to foot. I have visions of him being tackled mid ball drop, I think that midfield intensity may cause him issues in this regard.

[Axe Man]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Is it just me or is he a little slow ball to foot. I have visions of him being tackled mid ball drop, I think that midfield intensity may cause him issues in this regard.

That's how he broke his leg from memory (as much as I try to forget that vision).

[GVGjr]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Going back through history it appears that our footy club has seemed to have performed best when seen as the underdog with a backs to the wall, us against the world type of mentality. Who can forget the magic of season 1997 after the abomination that was 1996 or the revival in 2015 after the mass off season departures at the end of 2014. Even 1990 under Terry Wheeler after we all thought the club had died in 1989. Our sweet premiership in 2016 was achieved when no one gave us any hope. However defending premierships and meeting expectations after them have been disappointing to say the least. Do we rely on flying under the radar to be successful and is the fear of expectation real?

Thanks Mitcha for the great thread

Wouldn't the drought between grand final performances suggest that the underdog status even the us vs them mentality we had was actually a negative for the club? Don't get me wrong I've loved a lot of what that that status stood for over the years.
We created upsets along the way and pushed back against the more successful clubs but after 3 preliminary finals under Eade and then 2 great years under Bevo culminating with our GF win the underdog status to me now is nothing more of a mindset that says I can accept getting close more than I'm hungry for more success. I want the latter

We played some great footy in 2015 and some exhilarating wins along the way and we had to endure a Finals game away from our beloved Docklands and a leaked game plan. With an ounce of luck who knows what 2015 could have been
To be honest I was very hopeful of a strong performance in 2016 but I guess because over the years I had conditioned myself to accept the idea that we would fall short of the mark when it really counted I rated us more of a top 4 side in 2016 than the GF winner.
All that changed after our comprehensive win against West Coast in the elimination final of 2016 and I haven't returned to wanting to accept the underdogs status ever again. I'm still dirty on the way we handled 2017 and 2018 seasons and we should have done a lot more to address the complacency that looks like it ran right through the club

Flying under the radar is just too easy. I'd really prefer our club to be regarded as ruthless in our ambition and not being prepared to accept close enough

[1eyedog]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Killer instinct check.

[Mitcha]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Bumping this one after a disgraceful and inept performance today following on from what should have been a wake up call last week. Beat either Essendon or Hawthorn and we sew up a top two spot but now most likely to lose the double chance, you can’t tell me it’s not in their heads. Gutted.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

This is how we Bulldog. We don't do things the archetypal way
Never have, seemingly never will.

I still believe we can course correct.

I'm more than willing to accept I am wrong. But I just don't see the point in believing otherwise right now.

[Mitcha]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Didn't really want to bump this again but after last night pitiful effort words fail me.

[The bulldog tragician]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

It is worth reflecting on. Other clubs who have finally broken through seem to have been liberated. I always thought this would happen to us too, in fact I thought that if in one of our tilts at it e.g. 97-98, 08-10, had been successful they would have paved the way for us to build a new era without the poor old Bulldogs story in a loop over our heads.

You look at Geelong who keep presenting and presenting. They’ve been written off and ridiculed, had straight set finals defeats in consecutive years and were smashed badly in last years final. But they never go into their shells or seem to lose their self belief.

We seem more fragile. I don’t know how some of these things persist with new groups of players, new leaders, but it seems to be the case.

[GVGjr]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Didn't really want to bump this again but after last night pitiful effort words fail me.

Thanks for bumping it.

The questions about our ability to manage expectations remains valid and why we can't back up a good season with another is perplexing.

It is worth reflecting on. Other clubs who have finally broken through seem to have been liberated. I always thought this would happen to us too, in fact I thought that if in one of our tilts at it e.g. 97-98, 08-10, had been successful they would have paved the way for us to build a new era without the poor old Bulldogs story in a loop over our heads.

You look at Geelong who keep presenting and presenting. They’ve been written off and ridiculed, had straight set finals defeats in consecutive years and were smashed badly in last years final. But they never go into their shells or seem to lose their self belief.

We seem more fragile. I don’t know how some of these things persist with new groups of players, new leaders, but it seems to be the case.

I'm not sure that we are really fragile but perhaps we lack the hunger we had in 2016. How we can get it back is the one of the biggest challenges we face.

[Boots]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

While I was coaching (again, a different sport, and only ever at amateur level so grain of salt) one thing I noticed is in all the sports psych development stuff I did was that athlete self-perception is a really delicate balance.

On the one hand, athletes need to believe they can do what they need to do to win. This is always based on faith, not evidence, because "the other guy" is such a wild unknown from match to match.

On the other, the athlete needs to hold on to a really humble sense of their own shortcomings as a motivation to improve.

I can't stress enough how hard this balance is to strike. If you pump them up too much they become delusional, and if you focus too much on shortcomings they lose confidence. Both hubris and low confidence spell doom on match day.

The best athletes I ever encountered used to use this interesting phrase: "I just want to do the best I can". Note it's not "I want to be the best" or "I want to win all the time". They saw "their best" as if it were the horizon - something that was always just out of reach but that was still worth pursuing. I think maybe the best of them know when to retire because they realise their best is no longer within reach.

I don't fully know how this relates to the underdog status, or killer instinct, or "being a C***", or Bevo's acknowledge soft-psychology coaching method. But I do feel like most of the time our blokes struggle to strike the balance between honest self-assessment and drive to improve.

The team that embodies this the best is Geelong (I hate them). Every time Tom Hawkins gets a goal he has this enormous childlike grin, like it's the first goal he's ever kicked. In the heat of the moment I always interpret it as smug arrogance, a grin that says 'that was easy, you're all witches hats'. What if I'm wrong though? What if he's genuinely surprised that he's reached the horizon again?

I hate those pricks, but they do seem to have drive and impetus to improve, on a minute-to-minute basis, in spades.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Nice post Boots

[hujsh]

Re: Is expectation our most feared opponent?

Actually similar to a conversation Rocket had on the Danny Boyd podcast just recently. Talking about players like Dale who stick to their limits vs players like sucking who push their limitations (for mixed results) as well as how you communicate to players how they need to improve and how different players react to that.

Worth a listen.