Anthony_
1 Sep 2007, 03:10
Interesting article...had a dig at a our fitness people as well as a few others.
Scott West: I feel frustrated
01 September 2007 Herald Sun
Mark Robinson
SCOTT West wanted to talk.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,1658,5635372,00.jpg Gone to the Bulldogs: A pre-season filled with promise seems an eternity ago, as Bulldogs veteran Scott West feels the pain of a year from hell. Picture: Michael Dodge
The footy club and coach Rodney Eade would have been hesitant because West, when asked a question, is brutally honest.
That's the way the seven-time best-and-fairest plays his footy: hard, honest, in your face.
The 32-year-old will complete another AFL season tomorrow when the Western Bulldogs take on the Kangaroos at Telstra Dome and, for West, it's been a season like too many before.
The Bulldogs are not playing finals and too many queries hang over the footy team.
They are not fit enough or strong enough.
They are mentally fragile.
They must work on their contested footy.
They must learn to hate.
They must rid the club of an individualistic culture, the "poor me" attitude that's decades old.
From the outset West let his feelings be known about what has been a nightmare year for a team that underachieved in 2007.
They might have overachieved in 2006, when they won a final and then were belted by West Coast but even then, despite Eade's best efforts, there was the suggestion that finals footy was good enough.
After all, this was Footscray, the gallant, hard-working Bulldogs, and for simply making the finals they should be applauded.
"I feel frustrated. Very disappointed. Angry," West said of 2007. "It's hard to really know what to feel, going into the last game knowing that, especially as an older player, adding one more game to your career's total is a just a really crap feeling.
"There's no feeling around the club about this week, it's all about preparing for pre-season.
"We've been in this situation before, but when you've played finals, like we did last year, the expectation is you're going to do it again and not be in this position."
The position is 13th. Wrecked by injury, they were 9-6 after 15 rounds, and have a draw from their past six weeks. It has been an inglorious end to the season. Injuries can kill you, but they must be accepted. What's not accepted is the team's
mental capitulation in the run home.
First things first, their injuries cannot be underplayed. It started in the pre-season.
Up to 10 players either missed most of the season-shaping, three-month pre-season or had it severely disrupted: Lindsay Gilbee, Dale Morris, Adam Cooney, Nathan Eagleton, to name a few.
Through the year, it seemed they were haunted. Daniel Cross and Ryan Griffen fell over in the same game - against Brisbane - with knee injuries. In Round 1 they lost Brett Montgomery, there were ongoing concerns for boom recruit Jason Akermanis, club champion Chris Grant has played only four games, Jordan McMahon was distracted by personal issues, Gilbee did a calf muscle, Mitch Hahn was coming off a knee and then wrecked his shoulder, Robert Murphy, too, had to battle demons of a knee reconstruction and then was dogged by hamstrings, Luke Darcy was coming off back-to-back knees. The list goes on and on.
Unlike 2006, when the injuries hit the big men, this year it's been the Bulldogs' renowned midfield. It meant the Bulldogs' most potent advantage, their devastating run from the back half and through the middle, was taken from them.
In Round 1 they beat Geelong by 20 points at Telstra Dome.
They were never to have that side in again.
"When you start having six, seven, eight blokes out, it's hard to cover all those guys," West said.
"I don't think it's dissimilar to any club. You need your best players playing and playing well. It's not an excuse. It's fact."
Of all the injuries, West highlighted one. "Brett Montgomery. Having him as a swing player going backwards and forth, older player, premiership player, it limited our ability to be more flexible."
There won't be a Geelong-type review of the entire football operations, but several areas will be addressed in this off-season: leadership, mental approach, fitness and performance.
West said there was a leadership void.
"There probably is," he said. "I think about it now, Rohan Smith gone last year, Monty, a senior player, gone, Matty Robbins, 30, gone, Luke Darcy, 32, ex-captain going, and you look at next year. Me and Granty might go, the year after Johnno might go, so where does that leave us?
"Someone has to say: 'I want to be captain'. To be quite honest, three or four years ago, I really wanted to be captain. I made no qualms about that. I love this footy club. It's been my life and I would've thought there was no greater honour than to be captain.
"I wanted to be captain . . . look, it might be Shaun Higgins, he's going to be a leader, he is a leader of this footy club. (Daniel) Giansiracusa might be the next captain. But I think he feels he's got to be more consistent in his performance to be a quality performer.
"But we've always said form shouldn't dictate your leadership skills. Gia's got time, Johnno will play for another two or three years."
For a club built around so-called grit and toughness, the Bulldogs of 2007 are anything but.
Their performances in the run home have been embarrassing and lacking effort. Their loss to Hawthorn last week was, according to Eade, the lowest point of his time at the club. It smacked of a team soft in attitude. Worse, they were accused of giving up, of throwing in the white towel when the Hawks put on the pressure.
"Probably from the outside it looked like that, it's tough to say we gave up, but the effort required to play league footy wasn't there," West said.
Eade, who has remained positive throughout the season, went ballistic at three-quarter time. His understanding and patience, hitherto so applaudable, was lost amid the goal avalanche and pathetic response.
The Bulldogs responded with one of their worst quarters of the season.
"To come out after the serve we got was probably the most disappointing part. Usually when you get a spray like that, you're up and about, and you put a better effort in. But we had lost all confidence."
Confidence is a word that frequents West's assessment. He reckons the club has too many players who are dictated by their mental capacity, that there isn't a grinding mentality that can be called upon when the game demands it.
He says the team lacks physical size and confidence for the contested ball.
Asked if his football club was tough enough, West had his answer before the question was finished. "No," he said. "No, I don't think we are. We were out-toughed on the weekend. Body size, and I have to be careful there because there are people responsible for that in the club, but we haven't got a lot of Hodge, Mitchell, Sewell, Lewis, a bit more thick-set.
"At the moment we don't have enough players who win the contested ball.
"We've got to change.
"As players we don't change our style as much, we've got to read the situation.
"I think our group is too nice. We've got to get harder. Maybe harder on each other.
"There's got to be an expectation, not one quarter, not two quarters, four quarters, not two weeks, all 22 weeks, and if it doesn't happen, either you're not in the team or you're starting on the bench or you're out of the club."
West himself, Cross, Boyd, Hahn when fit, Morris, Brian Harris and sometimes Murphy cannot be accused of not being "hard at it". But that's about it. The better clubs run 10, 12, 14 deep. The best clubs 16-18.
"If you don't win the contested ball, you can't run with it and you can't give it to Gilbee, McMahon, (Farren) Ray, Cooney. I think Cooney certainly has got it in him, but he's got to do it more consistently."
He admitted frustration with several teammates.
"What I do get angry about is their inconsistency in their preparation for games, the contest. It's something I base my football on, the preparation, mentally and physically," he said.
"If you could walk off the track on any given Friday, your last session, you should know you've done absolutely everything to ensure you play well on the weekend.
"Obviously you don't play well every week, but at least you've given yourself the opportunity to do that. I think guys are very inconsistent with their preparation and preparation is just not on the training track. Preparation is everything, what you eat, how you sleep, how you live your life."
The lack of consistency and correct preparation leads, of course, to mental fragility. That's the nice way to say it. The truth is the Doggies can be soft in response when confronted.
Agree? "A little bit, for sure, absolutely. There's no qualm in saying that when we aren't expected to win we're better than when we're expected to win.
"No disrespect to Melbourne, and they probably should have had a better year than they have, but we were probably expected to win that game and we failed, miserably. Then against Adelaide we put in a reasonable performance because we had nothing to lose."
It's a culture thing, West said, and has to change.
"How do you change within individuals? It's a preparation thing. It's a pre-season thing. Get on the weights, get bigger, get stronger, get fitter. It's a preparation thing when the footy comes. It starts as an individual thing but then becomes a collective mindset."
Teammate Robert Murphy addressed the club's culture in a recent column. That it had to change. Eade agreed. To the coach, it's apparent the club has for all time celebrated individual success. Brownlow medallists are feted, so are club best-and-fairest winners and powerful identities such as the legendary Ted Whitten.
The missing, vital ingredient is team success and without it, as the Bulldogs have been, it's always so easy to fete the stars and move on.
West agrees again. A manic Essendon supporter as a boy, West cites the powerful '84 and '85 Bomber premiership teams and throws up names such as Frank Dunnell, Stephen Carey, Shane Heard and Nobby Clarke. "I would love to be Frank Dunnell because he is a premiership player."
West sometimes wonders if he is part of the problem. "To be honest, sometimes I get a little embarrassed when people say I've won seven best-and-fairests, because I think, have I played as an individual? I don't think I have because best-and-fairests are a result of what the coach wants you do to do.
"But, you're right, the club has relied on Brownlow medallists and multiple best-and-fairest winners. And if you look over the last decade of best-and-fairest winners, there's been three at this club. It's not enough. It has to change."
Scott West: I feel frustrated
01 September 2007 Herald Sun
Mark Robinson
SCOTT West wanted to talk.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,1658,5635372,00.jpg Gone to the Bulldogs: A pre-season filled with promise seems an eternity ago, as Bulldogs veteran Scott West feels the pain of a year from hell. Picture: Michael Dodge
The footy club and coach Rodney Eade would have been hesitant because West, when asked a question, is brutally honest.
That's the way the seven-time best-and-fairest plays his footy: hard, honest, in your face.
The 32-year-old will complete another AFL season tomorrow when the Western Bulldogs take on the Kangaroos at Telstra Dome and, for West, it's been a season like too many before.
The Bulldogs are not playing finals and too many queries hang over the footy team.
They are not fit enough or strong enough.
They are mentally fragile.
They must work on their contested footy.
They must learn to hate.
They must rid the club of an individualistic culture, the "poor me" attitude that's decades old.
From the outset West let his feelings be known about what has been a nightmare year for a team that underachieved in 2007.
They might have overachieved in 2006, when they won a final and then were belted by West Coast but even then, despite Eade's best efforts, there was the suggestion that finals footy was good enough.
After all, this was Footscray, the gallant, hard-working Bulldogs, and for simply making the finals they should be applauded.
"I feel frustrated. Very disappointed. Angry," West said of 2007. "It's hard to really know what to feel, going into the last game knowing that, especially as an older player, adding one more game to your career's total is a just a really crap feeling.
"There's no feeling around the club about this week, it's all about preparing for pre-season.
"We've been in this situation before, but when you've played finals, like we did last year, the expectation is you're going to do it again and not be in this position."
The position is 13th. Wrecked by injury, they were 9-6 after 15 rounds, and have a draw from their past six weeks. It has been an inglorious end to the season. Injuries can kill you, but they must be accepted. What's not accepted is the team's
mental capitulation in the run home.
First things first, their injuries cannot be underplayed. It started in the pre-season.
Up to 10 players either missed most of the season-shaping, three-month pre-season or had it severely disrupted: Lindsay Gilbee, Dale Morris, Adam Cooney, Nathan Eagleton, to name a few.
Through the year, it seemed they were haunted. Daniel Cross and Ryan Griffen fell over in the same game - against Brisbane - with knee injuries. In Round 1 they lost Brett Montgomery, there were ongoing concerns for boom recruit Jason Akermanis, club champion Chris Grant has played only four games, Jordan McMahon was distracted by personal issues, Gilbee did a calf muscle, Mitch Hahn was coming off a knee and then wrecked his shoulder, Robert Murphy, too, had to battle demons of a knee reconstruction and then was dogged by hamstrings, Luke Darcy was coming off back-to-back knees. The list goes on and on.
Unlike 2006, when the injuries hit the big men, this year it's been the Bulldogs' renowned midfield. It meant the Bulldogs' most potent advantage, their devastating run from the back half and through the middle, was taken from them.
In Round 1 they beat Geelong by 20 points at Telstra Dome.
They were never to have that side in again.
"When you start having six, seven, eight blokes out, it's hard to cover all those guys," West said.
"I don't think it's dissimilar to any club. You need your best players playing and playing well. It's not an excuse. It's fact."
Of all the injuries, West highlighted one. "Brett Montgomery. Having him as a swing player going backwards and forth, older player, premiership player, it limited our ability to be more flexible."
There won't be a Geelong-type review of the entire football operations, but several areas will be addressed in this off-season: leadership, mental approach, fitness and performance.
West said there was a leadership void.
"There probably is," he said. "I think about it now, Rohan Smith gone last year, Monty, a senior player, gone, Matty Robbins, 30, gone, Luke Darcy, 32, ex-captain going, and you look at next year. Me and Granty might go, the year after Johnno might go, so where does that leave us?
"Someone has to say: 'I want to be captain'. To be quite honest, three or four years ago, I really wanted to be captain. I made no qualms about that. I love this footy club. It's been my life and I would've thought there was no greater honour than to be captain.
"I wanted to be captain . . . look, it might be Shaun Higgins, he's going to be a leader, he is a leader of this footy club. (Daniel) Giansiracusa might be the next captain. But I think he feels he's got to be more consistent in his performance to be a quality performer.
"But we've always said form shouldn't dictate your leadership skills. Gia's got time, Johnno will play for another two or three years."
For a club built around so-called grit and toughness, the Bulldogs of 2007 are anything but.
Their performances in the run home have been embarrassing and lacking effort. Their loss to Hawthorn last week was, according to Eade, the lowest point of his time at the club. It smacked of a team soft in attitude. Worse, they were accused of giving up, of throwing in the white towel when the Hawks put on the pressure.
"Probably from the outside it looked like that, it's tough to say we gave up, but the effort required to play league footy wasn't there," West said.
Eade, who has remained positive throughout the season, went ballistic at three-quarter time. His understanding and patience, hitherto so applaudable, was lost amid the goal avalanche and pathetic response.
The Bulldogs responded with one of their worst quarters of the season.
"To come out after the serve we got was probably the most disappointing part. Usually when you get a spray like that, you're up and about, and you put a better effort in. But we had lost all confidence."
Confidence is a word that frequents West's assessment. He reckons the club has too many players who are dictated by their mental capacity, that there isn't a grinding mentality that can be called upon when the game demands it.
He says the team lacks physical size and confidence for the contested ball.
Asked if his football club was tough enough, West had his answer before the question was finished. "No," he said. "No, I don't think we are. We were out-toughed on the weekend. Body size, and I have to be careful there because there are people responsible for that in the club, but we haven't got a lot of Hodge, Mitchell, Sewell, Lewis, a bit more thick-set.
"At the moment we don't have enough players who win the contested ball.
"We've got to change.
"As players we don't change our style as much, we've got to read the situation.
"I think our group is too nice. We've got to get harder. Maybe harder on each other.
"There's got to be an expectation, not one quarter, not two quarters, four quarters, not two weeks, all 22 weeks, and if it doesn't happen, either you're not in the team or you're starting on the bench or you're out of the club."
West himself, Cross, Boyd, Hahn when fit, Morris, Brian Harris and sometimes Murphy cannot be accused of not being "hard at it". But that's about it. The better clubs run 10, 12, 14 deep. The best clubs 16-18.
"If you don't win the contested ball, you can't run with it and you can't give it to Gilbee, McMahon, (Farren) Ray, Cooney. I think Cooney certainly has got it in him, but he's got to do it more consistently."
He admitted frustration with several teammates.
"What I do get angry about is their inconsistency in their preparation for games, the contest. It's something I base my football on, the preparation, mentally and physically," he said.
"If you could walk off the track on any given Friday, your last session, you should know you've done absolutely everything to ensure you play well on the weekend.
"Obviously you don't play well every week, but at least you've given yourself the opportunity to do that. I think guys are very inconsistent with their preparation and preparation is just not on the training track. Preparation is everything, what you eat, how you sleep, how you live your life."
The lack of consistency and correct preparation leads, of course, to mental fragility. That's the nice way to say it. The truth is the Doggies can be soft in response when confronted.
Agree? "A little bit, for sure, absolutely. There's no qualm in saying that when we aren't expected to win we're better than when we're expected to win.
"No disrespect to Melbourne, and they probably should have had a better year than they have, but we were probably expected to win that game and we failed, miserably. Then against Adelaide we put in a reasonable performance because we had nothing to lose."
It's a culture thing, West said, and has to change.
"How do you change within individuals? It's a preparation thing. It's a pre-season thing. Get on the weights, get bigger, get stronger, get fitter. It's a preparation thing when the footy comes. It starts as an individual thing but then becomes a collective mindset."
Teammate Robert Murphy addressed the club's culture in a recent column. That it had to change. Eade agreed. To the coach, it's apparent the club has for all time celebrated individual success. Brownlow medallists are feted, so are club best-and-fairest winners and powerful identities such as the legendary Ted Whitten.
The missing, vital ingredient is team success and without it, as the Bulldogs have been, it's always so easy to fete the stars and move on.
West agrees again. A manic Essendon supporter as a boy, West cites the powerful '84 and '85 Bomber premiership teams and throws up names such as Frank Dunnell, Stephen Carey, Shane Heard and Nobby Clarke. "I would love to be Frank Dunnell because he is a premiership player."
West sometimes wonders if he is part of the problem. "To be honest, sometimes I get a little embarrassed when people say I've won seven best-and-fairests, because I think, have I played as an individual? I don't think I have because best-and-fairests are a result of what the coach wants you do to do.
"But, you're right, the club has relied on Brownlow medallists and multiple best-and-fairest winners. And if you look over the last decade of best-and-fairest winners, there's been three at this club. It's not enough. It has to change."