Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

The big questions are;

Why do our players look so unfit?
Why do we still not know how to combat the press?
Why were our players brushed aside so easily in contested situations?
Why is our ball-handling and usage so bad?
Where is the spirit and the desire to play for the jumper?

On the last one, it really hit home today how little some of our players and fans (not supporters) care about our club. There were more Gold Coast fans at our game earlier in the year than it looked llke there was Bulldogs fans on television today. On the players, well Chris Tarrant summed it up perfectly for me today in the Collingwood-Adelaide game when he kicked a goal and pointed to the jumper on his chest. When is the last time you've seen one of our players show such love for the team they represent?...

Have to agree with these questions - it seems we are unable to run out a whole game - look at our last quarter fade outs this year. Is it the coach who doesn't know how to combat the "press" or are the players unable/unwilling to follow instructions? Yep, we seem to overuse the ball all the time, and finally, just where is that bulldog spirit to play for the jumper and each other? I'm far from an expert, but even when we win at times I wonder why the players often seem to not back one another up? I look at other teams and I see players running in 2's and 3's, backing one another up, helping one another but it doesn't happen with us!

[Mantis]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

Having missed most of yesterday's game due to other commitments I have just finished watching the game... It isn't easy sitting to watch a game when you know the result, but when you know your team is going to get beat by 20 goals it is akin to torture.

As I posted in another thread last week you can't defend the indefensable and that was disgusting.

You don't mind losing when it looks like the team is having a crack, but it didn't look that way for the last qtr & a half.

We fumbled, fell over, were un-disciplined and our ball movement was pathetic.... We looked completely out of ideas.

Embarrassing.

[The Coon Dog]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

The last time I felt that numb after a game was the 1997 Preliminary Final. Totally shell shocked!

[always right]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

What I don't get is how they can have so many players running free, yet on the rare occasion they turned the ball over, we can't manage to get players loose. We also almost never seem to have greater numbers around the ball than the opposition.
Either our structures are completely wrong or our players doun't work hard enough for each other. Yeah I know....bit of both.

[The Underdog]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

The last time I felt that numb after a game was the 1997 Preliminary Final. Totally shell shocked!

It had a lot of the Hawthorn '08 final to me. Just beaten in every way.

[comrade]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

It had a lot of the Hawthorn '08 final to me. Just beaten in every way.

And the last 6 weeks of 2007. Non-competitive and seemingly non-caring.

[The Underdog]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

And the last 6 weeks of 2007. Non-competitive and seemingly non-caring.

Funny that we came out and ripped into 2008 to start with after disappointing in 2007. History repeating? We can only hope.

[Sedat]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

And the last 6 weeks of 2007. Non-competitive and seemingly non-caring.

I remember Buddy kicking 2.11 in one of those late season games in 2007, let alone his virtuoso 9 goal performance in the 2008 QF. If Leigh Brown can kick 4 goals in 10 minutes on an injured and unfit Lake, I shudder to think what Buddy in career best form will do to us this week.

[Bornadog]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

I didn't ask for positivity ... I am happy with critisism especially after sitting through that game ... but lets make it constructive instead of destructive.
I understand that supporters are hurting ... I am hurting ... but attacking contributors to this site or calling for blood is not the answer.

What I would like is variety ... how about something different than 'we have to sack Eade'.

Couldn't agree more scraggers, we just have to move on we don't have a choice, we still have to play 13 more games and hope we can get something out of the season.

[Daughter of the West]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

What I don't get is how they can have so many players running free, yet on the rare occasion they turned the ball over, we can't manage to get players loose. We also almost never seem to have greater numbers around the ball than the opposition.
Either our structures are completely wrong or our players doun't work hard enough for each other. Yeah I know....bit of both.

This is the thing that has stuck out for me the most this season. If you didn't know any better, you'd think we were playing a couple of men down in our matches since there never seems to be a loose man outside of the packs ready to scoop it up and run. I don't know what the answer to fixing that is though (especially never having played competitive football myself).

The thing that upset most was how defeated the boys already looked at half time, and they more or less played like that after the break. No fight whatsoever.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Game Day 2011 - R9 Western Bulldogs vs WCE

Basically that was the year I wanted us to cut deeper into the list knowing that compromised drafts were heading our way and allowing for our commitments to Wallis and Libertore a couple of seasons later.

We took Cordy as a 4 or 5 year development player with no real expectations before then. If we had taken Port's Jackson Trengove instead of Cordy for example we would have had that 2nd part time ruckman that's quite fashionable now and had someone to pinch hit as a tall defender or forward.

First of all, wow. Just saw the score and I don't think I'll be downloading this game to watch.

Re: your post: I remember all of us having detailed discussions around the time of these few drafts, and I made a point that we seemed to be making quite a few mistakes (Rose etc.) and that while they seemed like pretty small mistakes in hindsight, cumulatively they do add up. Our rookie listers have held up pretty well (Picken etc.), but getting the main draft wrong means that while we are adding workrate and desire through the rookie list, we will be short on the class that the higher picks provide, and it seems that the turnover and poor disposal stats suggest that the younger part of our list is class deficient at the moment. A team like WC show the value of getting even a few picks right and the difference adding even just one or two game-breakers can make in such an even competition.

Re: the game itself, even having not watched it, you have to say a lot of it is mental -- the fact that they kicked more goals in the final quarter than what the margin was at the end of the 3rd quarter suggests a significant falling away of effort and application. The concern to me is an inability to shut the game down, ie. having a change of gear/style to be able to just get numbers around a contest and shut a game down to avoid a blowout -- even when we've been in form the last few years we've never handled a shootout well against any reasonably good team. However, we do have a large number of plodders/hard inside players, the least we should be able to do is create congestion, protect our lack of pace and one-trick ruckmen, and keep scores low -- I like our team's chances when no one is scoring and actually have no problem with copying the way Sydney structure up. The question is of course if our hard men are willing to reign in their egos and play a boring gameplan that will make the most of their ability rather than play a high-risk style pretending that they are all Gabletts and Buddies.