Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

[mjp]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

Dunks, Libba and Smith you simply can't question their effort/commitment both ways.

I'm questioning Dunks right now.

[Grantysghost]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

I'm questioning Dunks right now.

[Topdog]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

I'm kind of confused with the commentary around the mids. I get they're held to a very high standard.

Is it more about them as a group more than individuals?

Watch the last 40 minutes of the Grand Final again.

I dont know if its the players, the coaching or both but our mids are often 100% offence minded so anytime the opposition midfield gets on top we are smashed by 40 points in a qtr.

[Grantysghost]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

Watch the last 40 minutes of the Grand Final again.

I dont know if its the players, the coaching or both but our mids are often 100% offence minded so anytime the opposition midfield gets on top we are smashed by 40 points in a qtr.

There was a GF?

I reckon part of it was complete exhaustion from the AFL's travelling circus fake finals series.

[Mantis]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

I'm questioning Dunks right now.

I think he's checked out... it would be a huge shock if he is with us next year.

[G-Mo77]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

If you just look at that decision, Young out O'Brien in then regardless of Young's ability it seems a net loss or break even at this stage.

Not sure what our recruiting team saw in Tim that made him appealing. His track record was less than impressive.

Do they even talk to opposition coaches?

And we signed him for 3 years. Yikes.

[hujsh]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

I'm questioning Dunks right now.

I think Dunks looks like he's putting in the defensive effort because he tackles and smothers when the ball is in the immediate area. Not sure he's better than anyone else when it comes to 2-way running though

[Sedat]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

The Sydney game led directly to this article.

Nothing it mentioned - Young, Bruce, Assistants, Defending or 'Absences' had a single thing to do with last week's performance and is a complete cop-out.

Not having a week-in, week-out commitment to play with effort has been an issue for this group of players going back to 2018. Every year we dish up really poor performances against teams in the lower echelons of the ladder and show that whilst we can be hard to play against, when we get it 'wrong' it goes really wrong.

Last week? Blame the backs all you like but the lack of effort from English, Bont, Macrae and Dunks was the reason for the loss. Warner - a second year player who cannot kick - was the best mid on the ground in the first half because he:
1/. Is determined to be first to the ball.
2/. Gets lower and harder than everyone else.
3/. Treats transition running - back and forward - as an opportunity to impact the game rather than something you do when you have too.

The Swans - led by Warner - smashed us. To me, articles like this - whilst they aren't wrong - paper over the cracks of what the REAL issue is.

Jackson Macrae is an amazing footballer and the single best ball winner I have ever seen. But when the hosts of an AFL Fantasy podcast make ongoing jokes about his 'head tilt' and poor body language anytime he lines up away from his preferred position, well, that's a problem. It happens so often that they joke about it? It's not good enough.

I have said it before but I sincerely wonder sometimes whether we have a group of players to whom playing 'WELL' (individually) is more important than winning games of footy. I get shouted down and criticised every time I say that, but watch the first quarter of last week's game again and tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that aside from Liber, West and Naughton that we are a team with positive body language desperate to win the footy and work for one another.

Our game-day effort remains conditional. I will say this forever and reiterate that what happened in the second half of the GF can be laid squarely at the feet of our best players - Melbourne KILLED us out of the middle and no-one was prepared to:
1/. Make a stand
2/. Sacrifice their game
3/. Lead their team-mates

I started a thread saying it's a hard team to love - it is. We have some brilliant players but our effort is conditional. Should Bevo have moved Treloar and Hannan to the back half? Well, maybe not. But Treloar was OK back there and has a lot of attributes that could see him be really effective in that role...those things didn't cost us the game. English refusing to make body contact in ruck contests vs Ladhams was really poor. Warner setting the standard for winning the ball was really poor (by us).

Blame the club for not holding Hansen to his contract and allowing Young to go to Carlton if you like - those things are convenient after all - but our BEST PLAYERS (Bont, Macrae, Dunks and English) had their butts handed to them and that is why we lost.

Truth bombs everywhere.

Our very best players cost us a premiership last year. It is hard to write but it is undeniable. We basically lost a premiership because of 7 minutes of complete and utter madness from our leaders and best players in the middle - yes I know those same players got us into the position to win one in the first place (it's complicated). That 7 minutes was a distillation of the same problems that we haven't been able to overcome since our premiership. We are conditional. We don't strive for the collective greater good. And we haven't changed this in 2022.

Everything else referenced in the article is small potatoes. We don't have the collective buy-in to a team-first ethos. And we will tread water/regress if we don't look in the mirror and acknowledge this is the single biggest issue holding us back.

[jeemak]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

The Sydney game led directly to this article.

Nothing it mentioned - Young, Bruce, Assistants, Defending or 'Absences' had a single thing to do with last week's performance and is a complete cop-out.

Not having a week-in, week-out commitment to play with effort has been an issue for this group of players going back to 2018. Every year we dish up really poor performances against teams in the lower echelons of the ladder and show that whilst we can be hard to play against, when we get it 'wrong' it goes really wrong.

Last week? Blame the backs all you like but the lack of effort from English, Bont, Macrae and Dunks was the reason for the loss. Warner - a second year player who cannot kick - was the best mid on the ground in the first half because he:
1/. Is determined to be first to the ball.
2/. Gets lower and harder than everyone else.
3/. Treats transition running - back and forward - as an opportunity to impact the game rather than something you do when you have too.

The Swans - led by Warner - smashed us. To me, articles like this - whilst they aren't wrong - paper over the cracks of what the REAL issue is.

Jackson Macrae is an amazing footballer and the single best ball winner I have ever seen. But when the hosts of an AFL Fantasy podcast make ongoing jokes about his 'head tilt' and poor body language anytime he lines up away from his preferred position, well, that's a problem. It happens so often that they joke about it? It's not good enough.

I have said it before but I sincerely wonder sometimes whether we have a group of players to whom playing 'WELL' (individually) is more important than winning games of footy. I get shouted down and criticised every time I say that, but watch the first quarter of last week's game again and tell me I'm wrong. Tell me that aside from Liber, West and Naughton that we are a team with positive body language desperate to win the footy and work for one another.

Our game-day effort remains conditional. I will say this forever and reiterate that what happened in the second half of the GF can be laid squarely at the feet of our best players - Melbourne KILLED us out of the middle and no-one was prepared to:
1/. Make a stand
2/. Sacrifice their game
3/. Lead their team-mates

I started a thread saying it's a hard team to love - it is. We have some brilliant players but our effort is conditional. Should Bevo have moved Treloar and Hannan to the back half? Well, maybe not. But Treloar was OK back there and has a lot of attributes that could see him be really effective in that role...those things didn't cost us the game. English refusing to make body contact in ruck contests vs Ladhams was really poor. Warner setting the standard for winning the ball was really poor (by us).

Blame the club for not holding Hansen to his contract and allowing Young to go to Carlton if you like - those things are convenient after all - but our BEST PLAYERS (Bont, Macrae, Dunks and English) had their butts handed to them and that is why we lost.

Hallelujah! Testify!

Libba doesn't get a free pass from me re the Grand Final - he was just as much to blame as any other person on the ground for what happened in that third.

However, he's usually pretty good and the least prone to lapses of the lot of them.

The midfield mix will naturally change next year, with the likely departure of Dunkley. I really want us to make sure we add some grunt/ mongrel/ grind to the midfield mix once he's gone.

[Grantysghost]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

Hallelujah! Testify!

Libba doesn't get a free pass from me re the Grand Final - he was just as much to blame as any other person on the ground for what happened in that third.

However, he's usually pretty good and the least prone to lapses of the lot of them.

The midfield mix will naturally change next year, with the likely departure of Dunkley. I really want us to make sure we add some grunt/ mongrel/ grind to the midfield mix once he's gone.

I just know you were smiling and singing testify by RATM when you typed this.

[DOG GOD]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

Unfortunately for us O’Brien played the best game of his life against us in Launceston last year where he took like 15 defensive marks. We obviously thought he could do that against any team…nope.

[DOG GOD]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

Regarding our mids, the biggest villain to my eyes is macrae. Completely refuses to put in the hard yards both ways. Even 3 mins into the 3rd quarter last week, whenever the ball was moving away from him he was “treadmill jogging” like he’d just run a marathon. His body language can be deplorable and if it meant keeping him or Dunkley, I’d be keeping dunks.

[Sedat]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

Unfortunately for us O’Brien played the best game of his life against us in Launceston last year where he took like 15 defensive marks. We obviously thought he could do that against any team…nope.

We did the same thing with Daniel Bandy, recruiting him after he played his one blinder against us. I like to think we also did it with Ed Barlow, except we got him mixed up with Luke Vogels.

[jeemak]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

I just know you were smiling and singing testify by RATM when you typed this.

Ha.

Not really.

I don't want to lose any of our midfielders. I just want them to sacrifice their individual games for the team when it's their turn to do so and show up each week with a consistently high level of intensity.

[Axe Man]

Re: Western Bulldogs’ fall from grace

And we signed him for 3 years. Yikes.

As I have said previously, no we didn't.