what does the future hold for the western bulldogs?

Beasley

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Finishing 15th and getting a high draft pick is probably the best thing that could happen to them.

There's a lot of promise with a number of young kids - Libba, Wallis, Howard, Dalhaus, Clay Smith etc.

Two poor years in 2012-3 might mean that when they rise up again they'll return to top 4 and a possible Grand Final appearance when Cooney and Griffen are the veterans

A very good point and this year would be the best year to do it because the Dogs have nominated they will use their 1 round compensation pick received for Ward in the this years draft. Therefore they will get two first rounders in a row ... thereby pushing the clubs that finish higher up the ladder further back in the draft. It would be a good year for the Dogs to finish down the ladder .... and better to finish below Melbourne who also have 2 successive picks in the first round.
 

MaddAdam

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It would be a good year for the Dogs to finish down the ladder .... and better to finish below Melbourne who also have 2 successive picks in the first round.

How to manage this without poisoning the culture with tanking?
 
But we're not talking about finishing below teams on purpose. By hell I'm not going to be happy if we are satisfied to finish below Melbourne. We should beat them on work ethic alone.

As for the membership/relocation talk- we survived 1989/90. We are a proud battling club who identifies with the west of melbourne (even if it isn't reciprocated as much as we'd like). It wouldn't make sense with our culture to just take the easy money and run.
 

MaddAdam

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But we're not talking about finishing below teams on purpose. By hell I'm not going to be happy if we are satisfied to finish below Melbourne. We should beat them on work ethic alone.

As for the membership/relocation talk- we survived 1989/90. We are a proud battling club who identifies with the west of melbourne (even if it isn't reciprocated as much as we'd like). It wouldn't make sense with our culture to just take the easy money and run.

Good to hear.
 
For all those comments form inter-staters, and those that don't venture over the Westgate bridge very often, the Western Suburbs has a a high percentage of migrants, particularly migrants who come from countries where soccer is the dominant game. What the bulldogs are doing is pioneering AFL into these cultures, slow work which will take a couple of generations. (think of Carlton with the Italians back in the 50s).

As for the comments about lack of memberships etc, we have been growing steadily every year, and although membership is slower than normal this year, it happens when you are set for a unsuccessful year.

In terms of hanging off the pokies as our only revenue stream, it is just rubbish, we have a community facility developed at Whitten Oval in partnership with local government and the local university. The football funding pokies venues in the Western Suburbs are mainly owned by Hawthorn and Collingwood:rolleyes:

Not worried about this year, because we should have 5 picks in the first 50, which will set us up for the next challenge. As well as that we have some very good talent coming through, such as a first gamer kicking 4 goals against a premiership contender in 3 quarters of football;)
 
Not sure how much you watch us but what do you think of Cordy and Roughead? Also Minson, who at 26 is still a youngish ruckman

Serious question, just wondering if the view outside of our club is that our young ruck options are that poor.

I liked Roughead's attack on the ball yesterday. Definitely something there to work with.
Cordy? Haven't seen enough of him. Nobody has. Not a criticism, just my view.
Minson? Slow, decision making terrible. Skillful enough but doesn't seem to have any footy nous. Not really a ruckman and not really a forward. In between player. I can't see him getting any better. he reminds me of the typical Richmond player. been on the list for an eternity (a la Daniel Jackson and Shane Edwards) and will only ever be an average footballer.
Hope that is OK in saying that.
 

Morris Major

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I liked Roughead's attack on the ball yesterday. Definitely something there to work with.
Cordy? Haven't seen enough of him. Nobody has. Not a criticism, just my view.
Minson? Slow, decision making terrible. Skillful enough but doesn't seem to have any footy nous. Not really a ruckman and not really a forward. In between player. I can't see him getting any better. he reminds me of the typical Richmond player. been on the list for an eternity (a la Daniel Jackson and Shane Edwards) and will only ever be an average footballer.
Hope that is OK in saying that.

Sure, no point sugar coating an honest assessment.

I think those are worth investing time and effort into, especially Rough and Cordy. Minson has shown glimpses of being a good player, hopefully he becomes one of those late blooming ruckman.
 

Dazb86

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Cooney, Griffen and Higgins sure, but Cooney has a degenerative knee that has already put him past his best artificially quickly, and Higgins is shockingly injury prone.

I also don't understand how a team that more or less has cart blanche over the entire west of Melbourne can have so few members. Sure, you don't have to be from Collingwood or Carlton to support Collingwood and Carlton these days, but with such a huge area someone ought to be asking serious questions of the board over their off field strategies.

Success. Ever heard of a team called Essendon?

A lot of the growth in the western suburbs are immigrants new to the game. You can't really expect them to sign up as members. Hopefully their kids will though. That's the plan going forward.
 

Dazb86

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I liked Roughead's attack on the ball yesterday. Definitely something there to work with.
Cordy? Haven't seen enough of him. Nobody has. Not a criticism, just my view.
Minson? Slow, decision making terrible. Skillful enough but doesn't seem to have any footy nous. Not really a ruckman and not really a forward. In between player. I can't see him getting any better. he reminds me of the typical Richmond player. been on the list for an eternity (a la Daniel Jackson and Shane Edwards) and will only ever be an average footballer.
Hope that is OK in saying that.

The ruck is the least of our worries going forward IMO. All things going right both Roughead and cordy should become AFL quality ruckman. We also have campbell who is pretty handy in the ruck and up forward.

Fair call on cordy. He is a quality player who just hasn't had the body to play ruck in the AFL until this season and has been battling injuries so far. We should see him getting games this year and he should do pretty well.

Our defence is our major worry going forward. Most of the back line will retire over the next couple years. People will say our forward line is a worry but I think there is talent there it just needs some experience.
 
The Bulldogs blooded the most young players outside the Gold Coast last year, and already some of those players have settled in as regulars such as Dahlhous and Libba Jnr, we are way ahead of other teams that are going to have to rebuild.

Reasonably expect us to be back in finals contention in 2014 loading up for the next attack at the flag. The final pieces of our next premiership challenge will be drafted this year.
 
That said, I can see a team, probably one that hasn't had success in a long while believing AFL spin - $100m offer! - and agreeing to a merger ot "co-location".

Not saying it will be the Dogs. Just saying I can see it happening.

Fortunately its unlikely to be us, out of the 3 Melbourne teams with the worst finances we are the only one who hasn't agreed to merge in the past
 

juzzo

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Minson is average, Cordy too early to tell but Roughead has alot of potential in my eyes. Will take time but could become a top-liner.
 
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31 - Hargrave
30 - Giansiracusa, Boyd, Murphy, Lake
29 - Cross

27 - Minson, Cooney
26 - Picken, Griffen, Williams

The Dogs aren't going to win anything with the first 6 players in the side, however, if they turf those 6 players right now in an attempt at a fast-track rebuild they'll do more damage than good. They need these guys around and contributing until they finish to help the next crop ease into AFL footy.

25 - Dickson, Barlow, Sherman, Markovic, Addison
24 - Djerrkura, Higgins
23 - Skinner, Veszpremi, Mulligan, Wood, Grant,
22 - Cordy, Roughead
21 - Tutt, Hooper, Howard, Jones
20 - Wallis, Dahlhaus, Liberatore, Smith

+ newbies

The guys in bold look most like the core of a top side, IMO. Question marks over the durability and consistency of a couple of them, but the potential is there. Others have shown promise also, so aren't write offs by any means.

What does the future hold? In the short term a few bottom 8 finishes I'd imagine, but they're realistically only halfway there towards a top 4 list so will be bringing in a few new players over the next 2-3-4 years. If they can build a strong ruck pair with Cordy and Roughead, have Grant and Jones come on in the forward 50 and have a couple of Tutt/Liberatore/Wallis/Smith compliment Griffen and Cooney in midfield as Cross and Boyd go they could be a strong side... Big ifs, though.
 

the dog's kennel

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I feel like this thread is 12-24 months too late. Dogs supporters have known our list was in trouble since 2010. And we're already into the rebuild.

The answer to your question is that our immediate future is poor. I feel like we could safely try our best this year and still expect to come around the 12th-14th mark. I fully expect us to have one of the worst defences in the league, and a dysfunctional forward line.

As far as the medium term goes, the jury's still out. Our biggest problem is undoubtedly our defence. I feel like our forward line and midfield may be bottoming out this season. With a number of solid prospects for the forward line, ruck and midfield I believe we'll be on the up from here on in those parts of the field. And I really don't fear the gradual phasing out of Cross, Boyd and Gia. But I have no idea when our defence will bottom out because i don't believe we have any readymade replacements for our KPDs yet - or even many talented small defenders. Maybe some of our KPF prospects will eventually become KPDs. In the meantime the loss of Hargrave, Morris, Lake & Murphy will hit hard.

I suspect the time it takes to replace our defenders (and probably to get a little more pace in the team) will decide whether we have a West Coast style 3-year rebuild or a Melbourne style 8-year rebuild. So fingers crossed!
 
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