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IF THE AFL was a western movie the Western Bulldogs would be a motley crew dubbed “The Outriders”.
Their leader would be a quick-drawing coach nicknamed “The Bison”, a moniker bestowed on Luke Beveridge by Alastair Clarkson.
And they would wear as their badge of honour an ability to buck longstanding trends and turn AFL convention on its head.
The Dogs’ premiership on Saturday was achieved with buckets of emotion and spirit.
But this club are also outriders in so many trends and themes that have stood the test of time as measures for success in the modern era.
It doesn’t mean those trends and patterns aren’t just as valid for an aspirational club attempting to build a premiership model.
But it goes to show if you believe in your model and play to your strengths you can still win a premiership any way you want.
Beveridge might be the biggest outrider himself, a public service employee plucked from the ‘Ammos’ who builds incredibly emotional bonds with his players.
The ways the Dogs went their own way includes:
SIXTEEN of the past 17 premiers had averaged 100 points a game before the Dogs averaged only 86.2 points, 12th best in the league.
THEY circumvented Champion Data’s gold standard of 100 points in attack, 86 points in defence despite so many of the recent premiers having high-octane offences. Hawthorn was first in scoring in each of the past three years, the Cats (2011) and Collingwood (2010) were second, the Cats (2009) were second and Hawthorn (2008) was third.
THE Bulldogs’ average age on Grand Final day was 24.41 years, the third youngest premiership side since 1979. Even last year the Hawks’ average age was 27.85, with Geelong in 2011 averaging 27.29 years.
CLUBS just don’t play 39 players and win a flag because if you play your whole list you have had too many injuries to compete. Yet the Dogs played 39 players, the equal-most by a premier since World War II and the most since the Tigers won after playing 39 players in 1969.
TEAMS win premierships with highly efficient forward lines populated by superstar key forwards. In the past 10 years every premier has ranked top six for goals per inside-50 yet the Dogs ranked 15th. They won instead by total dominance in the second half, having the ball inside 50 for 32min 17 sec compared to the Swans’ 17 min 46 sec.
THE Dogs’ key defensive duo in Fletcher Roberts and Joel Hamling had played together just six times this year.
That just doesn’t happen, with defensive duos Mal Michael and Justin Leppitsch, and Matthew Scarlett and Tom Harley enjoying longstanding relationships.
In fact delisted free agent Hamling has just 23 games under his belt and Roberts 37, and yet both were exceptional on the big stage.
CLUBS who have spent up big on a million dollar man were yet to win a premiership — until Tom Boyd came up big. The Dogs didn’t ruin their salary cap because they had banked so much room in their cap that they didn’t have to sacrifice other players in recruiting him.
IN 2014 the Bulldogs had the lowest football department spend of all Victorian clubs, normally seen as a death knell for premiership hopes. They lifted that by $1.8 million that year and $2.5 million last year, but instead of spending big they are smart.
They have used their relationship with Victoria University to foster sports science relationships rather than spend up big on a massive wage bill.
The Dogs have consistently played to their own strengths rather than follow the flock.
Not only do they have a premiership as a result, they have given hope to rivals that there is another way other than parroting Hawthorn’s style and methods.
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