Sharp Axes

[MrMahatma]

Re: Sharp Axes

I'm not disagreeing with this sentiment. However, my question is. If he has lost the players why are we not getting 100+ point beltings like the Eagles? Why are we just losing by single digit margins every second week? Why can we produce a nine goal opening quarter against the Tigers two weeks ago?

Once a coach loses the players, the wheels completely fall off normally. That means heavy defeats which we are yet to have. Not saying he has not lost the players, but this is a very different version of it which we normally see.

We just lost to the bottom team. Bottom! The ones who HAVE been beaten by 100+. That’s surely as bad as being beaten by 100+?!

No. I’ve been a Bevo fan, but at the end of the day, this is as bad as it gets.

[anfo27]

Re: Sharp Axes

What the hell, just make Bont captain & coach!

[Eastdog]

Re: Sharp Axes

What the hell, just make Bont captain & coach!

Stood up as captain and might step up as coach as well!

[angelopetraglia]

Re: Sharp Axes

Just thinking back and looking at the finish to the last three seasons where we have been playing games with the season on the line against teams we should defeat and are heavy favourites to win but failing to get the job done. Yesterday was not an aberration. History keeps on repeating.

Season 2021

We need a win to secure a top four finish. We are on top with three rounds to play. Last three games.

Lose to the Bombers by 13.
Lose to the Hawks by 27.
Lose to Port by 2.

Miss top four. Shoot ourselves in the foot with unexplainable losses.

Season 2022

Need three wins to secure a finals position.

Lose to Cats by 28 (after being three goals up at 1/4 time)
Lose to Freo at home by 17 (horrific defending that day, basically statues)
Fall across the line against GWS at home by 5
Defeat the Hawks in the final game by 23 but equal on goals at 3/4 time

Only make finals due to two miracle comebacks from Demons and Pies to defeat the Blues by under a goal.

Season 2023

Two wins against 16th and 18th will secure a finals position.

Lose to Hawks by 3 points
Lose to Eagles by 7 points.

Need a miracle to make finals, again.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: Sharp Axes

Don’t forget the 2021 GF!

[angelopetraglia]

Re: Sharp Axes

Don’t forget the 2021 GF!

I'm not. Just commenting on our ability to win games to finish off the home and away season. Games where we start as heavy favourites and lose. It is a trend. It keeps on repeating.

[dukedog]

Re: Sharp Axes

Going through the list.
Reckon it needs a cleanout



Keep..
Treloar
Jamarra
Weightman
Bont
Busslinger
Smith - inside mid
Lobb
Clarke
Darcy
Mcrae
Gallagher
Baker
West - inside midfield
Mclean - forward
Odonnell
Jones
Richards
Libba
Vdm
Khamis
Bedendo
Scott
Mcneil
Dale
Arty
Naughton
Williams
Daniel
Cleary
Garcia
JJ
Raak
Sweet
Gardner
English - i would trade to WCE if they want him.



Cut..
Crozier
Duryea
Bruce
Obrien
Poulter - but he will stay
Mccomb
Hannan
Roarke
Keath

[angelopetraglia]

Re: Sharp Axes

Blame Bevo? Perhaps these Dogs just aren't as good as we thought

Rohan Connolly Aug 21, 2023, 08:30 AM

Assessing the Western Bulldogs has never been that simple right throughout Luke Beveridge's nine seasons as coach. And even after one of, if not the most embarrassing defeats of his 205 games in charge on Sunday, that hasn't necessarily changed.

For all the humiliation of that loss to West Coast, one of the worst-performed teams of the modern era, with finals hopes squarely on the line; for all the white-hot anger of Bulldog fans after the game, and for all their calls for Beveridge's sacking, all is not yet quite lost.

As tough a task as will be beating Geelong on its home turf, for once it will be a Geelong without anything September-related for which to play. Win an admittedly unlikely victory, then see Carlton beat the Giants the following afternoon, and the Bulldogs will still be playing finals.

Would that appease the Bulldog faithful? Probably not. But then the Bulldogs under Beveridge have been a team specializing in the unlikely surge.

Expectations among the fan base weren't high heading into the finals of 2016 and 2021, the Dogs having finished the home-and-away season seventh and sixth respectively. Yet they were campaigns which ended in a premiership and another Grand Final appearance.

And even seven years on, that famous flag, and to a lesser extent that Grand Final two years ago they led by three goals midway through the third term, continue to muddy the waters about both club and coach.

Beveridge's effort in leading those 2016 Bulldogs to the flag is undoubtedly one of the greatest single-season coaching performances in history. But is he still a great coach of the Bulldogs? Is this a team drastically underperformed? Or do Bulldogs fans, and a fair chunk of the football world (me included) perhaps overestimate their potential?

Given I tipped the Dogs to win this year's premiership (my other Grand Finalist was Richmond, by the way, so yes, that is a spectacular fail), I clearly fall into the "drastically underperformed" camp. Yet, like others, I'm also beginning to wonder if I've had the rose-coloured glasses on too often when it comes to this team.

Tipping them for the flag was the stuff of hunches, really, given they'd won only 12 of 23 games last year and finished eighth. And were the arrival of a key defender in Liam Jones and a key forward/ruckman in Rory Lobb really going to lift them that many rungs up the ladder?

Similarly, I think I (and more importantly, the Bulldogs themselves) may have drastically underestimated the impact the loss of Josh Dunkley and Lachie Hunter would have on a midfield group whose depth we've prattled on about for years, but whom have at times this season been found wanting, certainly defensively.

The Bulldogs were ostensibly travelling pretty well at 7-3 after Round 10. But only three of those wins were against current top eight teams. And since then? The Dogs have gone a miserable 4-8, and not a single one of those victories has been against an opponent from the upper echelon.

Pre-season, all the talk was about the potential of the Dogs' tall forward set-up. In reality, it's been a non-event.

While Aaron Naughton and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, plus Cody Weightman at their feet, have all had their moments, as a group they've rarely clicked as one, the Dogs only 10th for points scored after ranking fifth last year and second in 2021. That's despite high rankings for inside 50s and time in forward half. In other words, text book inefficiency.

It's actually been their defence, along with solid enough midfield numbers, which has held things together, but now the walls are beginning to crumble, meaning the Dogs can't score enough and are getting score against too easily, West Coast's 14.8 (92) the Eagles' second-highest score of the season, their average prior to Sunday a miserable 60 points per game.

Their ball movement is slow and stodgy, the Dogs ranking a lowly 16th prior to Sunday for defensive to offensive 50 transition, a statistic in which every single one of the last 10 premiership sides has ranked at least top six. It's not the profile of an aspiring top team.

And the coach? It's a pretty interesting juncture for Beveridge, who was re-signed only late last year for another two seasons. He was asked directly after Sunday's loss about his future despite that tenure. You suspect not for the last time, either.

Many hardcore Bulldog fans certainly seem to have fallen out of love even with the man who gave the club just its second premiership in 2016. And the Beveridge of 2023 certainly seems a more prickly and defensive character than the one of those glorious flag-winning days of seven years ago.

Sunday's loss to West Coast might well have been the lowest point for both the Bulldogs and their coach of the past decade. That could potentially be surpassed by another bad loss at the Cattery on Saturday night, and a season without finals for the first time since 2018.

But then what happens if the Bulldogs ... well, do another Bulldogs, make the eight and launch another unlikely finals run? You can never be quite sure with this mob. Maybe their coach can't, either.

[Boots]

Re: Sharp Axes

I'm not. Just commenting on our ability to win games to finish off the home and away season. Games where we start as heavy favourites and lose. It is a trend. It keeps on repeating.

I've been saying to my flatmate (a Swannies supporter who cannot believe what the dogs are doing at the moment) for weeks that we always chuck the last three, it's just the Bulldogs way.

I remember in 2016 when we somewhat inexplicably lost the final game vs. Freo. We just seem to be hard to motivate outside of finals.

[Vred]

Re: Sharp Axes

Blame Bevo? Perhaps these Dogs just aren't as good as we thought

Rohan Connolly Aug 21, 2023, 08:30 AM

I get what they're saying in this article, I've thought it myself from time to time.
This is the same team (minus one Josh Dunkley and a questionable Lachie Hunter) that was up halfway through the 3rd in a GF less than two years ago.. We've had really **** all player turn over from that team since then and now, yes, some players drop off but others also improve.

The team on paper is basically the same as the one that smashed the Bombers, Brisbane at home and Port at home in a finals run. How on earth can the drop off be THAT bad? I still always conclude it comes back to coaching, structure, and mental fortitude.

[Boots]

Re: Sharp Axes

Pre-season, all the talk was about the potential of the Dogs' tall forward set-up. In reality, it's been a non-event.

While Aaron Naughton and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, plus Cody Weightman at their feet, have all had their moments, as a group they've rarely clicked as one, the Dogs only 10th for points scored after ranking fifth last year and second in 2021. That's despite high rankings for inside 50s and time in forward half. In other words, text book inefficiency.

It's actually been their defence, along with solid enough midfield numbers, which has held things together, but now the walls are beginning to crumble, meaning the Dogs can't score enough and are getting score against too easily, West Coast's 14.8 (92) the Eagles' second-highest score of the season, their average prior to Sunday a miserable 60 points per game.

Great article AP - this excerpt for mine is the key to our woes. We act like our forward line is good and our defence bad, but it's the other way around. One of about three good posters on BF (the stats guy, Oliver Gigacz), has pointed out repeatedly with evidence that the 'run ons' are not really the backline's fault, they're a result of the forward line and midfield failing to defend, and no backline could possibly defend a ball coming in at that speed.

This analysis by Connolly would seem to support that - our back line is cobbled together but works, but our forward line is hot garbage and costing us games.

[GVGjr]

Re: Sharp Axes

Blame Bevo? Perhaps these Dogs just aren't as good as we thought

Rohan Connolly Aug 21, 2023, 08:30 AM

I think it should read perhaps they're not as good as the club thought.

[Sedat]

Re: Sharp Axes

One of about three good posters on BF (the stats guy, Oliver Gigacz), has pointed out repeatedly with evidence that the 'run ons' are not really the backline's fault, they're a result of the forward line and midfield failing to defend, and no backline could possibly defend a ball coming in at that speed.

I don't think this is new news for many posters on here - our lack of two-way defensive running in midfield and our lack of F50 pressure has been repeatedly highlighted on woof as major problem areas for us.

[Boots]

Re: Sharp Axes

I don't think this is new news for many posters on here - our lack of two-way defensive running and our lack of F50 pressure has been repeatedly highlighted on woof as major problem areas for us.

Yeah for sure, didn't mean to suggest it was news - that's just the only place I've seen good stats about it so it sticks in my head.

[angelopetraglia]

Re: Sharp Axes

I think it should read perhaps they're not as good as the club thought.

They will not be the first or last club administration to overrate a list. History is littered with many examples. You often get it wrong.

What you need to do now, is recalibrate quickly and be decisive. If you get it wrong again, things can spiral out of control quickly that can result in an extended time at the bottom of the ladder.