Scape Goat The "T" Word

[chiwigi]

I used to like the Bulldogs but their tanking this year is giving me the shits. Melbourne and Port are truly bad teams, the new teams are just that, but the Bulldogs seem to be very happy to finish as low as possible after activating their extra pick. Of course this annoys me more because we drop two places in the draft but, grrrrrr it's peeing me off.

 

[Jonts]

Is a blight on a Football clubs culture, but really hoping we don't finish above WB and Melbourne

 

[Macca19]

The Dogs are very ordinary.

 

[Oliver King]

Yeah, they tanked hard against us, didn't they.

 

[Wargreymon90]

Is a blight on a Football clubs culture, but really hoping we don't finish above WB and Melbourne

It will take a super effort to finish below Melbourne

 

[Jumbo]

Dogs have saints, north, richmond, sydney, geelong & brissie (gabba) for the rest of the season so I can't see them winning even one of these games.

 

[TheFVK]

The Dogs are definitely not tanking (yet) but I am perplexed why they are so low.. the profile of their squad is quite mature and they have a lot of quality senior players still playing on their list (Boyd, Higgins, Griffin, Lake, Cross, Cooney, Gilbee, Giansiracusa, Hargrave, Bob Murphy, dare I say Minson)... they have ZERO excuse for being where they are with that list still up and about for them.

 

[Jonts]

It will take a super effort to finish below Melbourne

I know Another pick 8ish after a shite year here we come

 

[Jonts]

The Dogs are definitely not tanking (yet) but I am perplexed why they are so low.. the profile of their squad is quite mature and they have a lot of quality senior players still playing on their list (Boyd, Higgins, Griffin, Lake, Cross, Cooney, Gilbee, Giansiracusa, Hargrave, Bob Murphy, dare I say Minson)... they have ZERO excuse for being where they are with that list still up and about for them.

Injured all the time, can't get to 100% fitness

Knee is shot, may not be playing AFL next year as its that bad

Don't get fooled by his DT scores, he is really struggling this year

But other than that i agree completely

 

[The Smaller Warrior]

This word does not belong at our club.

This is not the attitude or the environment I want my club to create.

It has not worked for Melbourne. It has not worked for Carlton.

 

[Natman]

Any more wins this season will do 'more harm than good'

 

[chiwigi]

This word does not belong at our club.

This is not the attitude or the environment I want my club to create.

It has not worked for Melbourne. It has not worked for Carlton.

I am in no way suggesting we do it HELL NO. I ma just pissed that the Bulldogs seem to be getting away with it. Too many co-incidences (them activating their pick etc.) for my liking. We WILL beat GWS and give Richmond a run for their money.

 

[philthy05]

i dont want to kick a team while they are down but i look at the dogs and the team they have had over the last 8 years and the results they have had are appalling.

definitely vast problems off-field for the dogs to get the results like they have had on-field.

yes we are set for a pick 7.

yes we can add a very good midfielder with that pick.

 

[chiwigi]

i dont want to kick a team while they are down but i look at the dogs and the team they have had over the last 8 years and the results they have had are appalling.

Appalling or suspicious?

If we still get Toumpas I wont worry too much.

 

[philthy05]

just appalling. ild think they are a team that needs to win to guarantee their future, they just cant.

i had toumpas out of reach at pick 5. no chance for 7. will not matter. no way do melb pass on toumpas.

 

[Waspy79]

Yet another promising SA youngster set to head to the Demon and Bulldog wastelands?

Griffen.. Cooney.. Tapscott.. Trengove.. Toumpas

 

[Macca19]

The Dogs are definitely not tanking (yet) but I am perplexed why they are so low.. the profile of their squad is quite mature and they have a lot of quality senior players still playing on their list (Boyd, Higgins, Griffin, Lake, Cross, Cooney, Gilbee, Giansiracusa, Hargrave, Bob Murphy, dare I say Minson)... they have ZERO excuse for being where they are with that list still up and about for them.

They have the worst forward line in the competition sans GC & GWS. Thats why they struggle. Most of those blokes youve listed are 30+ and well into their downward spiral (Lake, Cross, Gilbee, Gian, Hargrave, Murphy). THeir defence is just ok. Their midfield quite good, but if you have noone to kick it to (none of their talls at all average over a goal a game - Cordy, Grant, Roughead, Jones) youre gonna seriously struggle to win games.

 

[Enviable Tradition]

The last couple of years we have worried about our draft position not being as high as we would have liked yet have netted the bloke we want anyway (Butcher and Wingard).

Lets win some games and create some momentum into next year. I can feel something building with this group (Pearce would be a big loss in terms of team structure though).

 

[S.Patrol.G]

We can never create a culture where we rely on or encourage losing games to change our draft pick a few places. I want our club to win every game. I expect them to want to win every game. Clubs like Melbourne and Carlton have had great pick after great pick and where are they?

Win at all costs. Develop your playing list at all costs.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

It was just bad luck that we played them just after Charlie Sutton died. They were going to win that one. The fact we brought our E grade skills rather than our D grade skills made it easier for them.

The one thing I will give the dogs, they finally have some height in their forward line.

 

[philthy05]

i reckon there is a good chance mayes could end up at the dogs as well.

i reckon i dont see the harm in winning some games to round out as its not going to harm us on the draft board as much as getting a few wins will help the club/team.

gws - grundy. full stop.

gc- whitfield.

melb- toumpas/ viney

melb- wines/ mayes/ plowman

dogs- wines/mayes/ plowman

dogs wines/ mayes/ plowman/ orourke/ gartlett

port wines/ mayes/ orourke/ gartlett/ kennedy.

there is no way those teams can pull all of grundy, whitfield,toumpas, wines,mayes,orourke ( worst case scenario for us) without leaving us a good mid to choose from. still leave us with gartlett / kennedy.

for what its worth i reckon we will end up with one of mayes/ orourke.

 

[Canoogs]

Can't see Bulldogs getting a priority pick at the start of the first round. No idea what the AFL will choose to do, but historically their priority pick would be at the end of round 1 due to their performance last season. Probably the same deal with Melbourne.

 

[TheFVK]

They have the worst forward line in the competition sans GC & GWS. Thats why they struggle. Most of those blokes youve listed are 30+ and well into their downward spiral (Lake, Cross, Gilbee, Gian, Hargrave, Murphy). THeir defence is just ok. Their midfield quite good, but if you have noone to kick it to (none of their talls at all average over a goal a game - Cordy, Grant, Roughead, Jones) youre gonna seriously struggle to win games.

They're no Geelong 2011 but it's still an experienced bunch of quality players with more than a few AAs between them. Guys like Hargrave and Gilbee, sure they're over the hill but their best midfielders (Boyd, Griffin, Cross, not including Cooney anymore) are all in their prime and a great midfield goes a long way to compensating for an poor/average forward line (West Coast 05-07, Bulldogs the last 5 years, arguably Geelong). And that's not including some of the guys like Wallis, Dahlaus and Liberatore that have popped up.

Either way my point is that for such an experienced side it is strange that the Dogs are below us. They will fall hard in a couple of years.

 

[PAUR]

The last couple of years we have worried about our draft position not being as high as we would have liked yet have netted the bloke we want anyway (Butcher and Wingard).

Lets win some games and create some momentum into next year. I can feel something building with this group (Pearce would be a big loss in terms of team structure though).

Came here to make the same point. Well more so the first paragraph than the second.

We got very good (potential) players with our first round picks in the last couple of years. The question marks are on the picks afterwards IMO.

 

[Macca19]

They're no Geelong 2011 but it's still an experienced bunch of quality players with more than a few AAs between them. Guys like Hargrave and Gilbee, sure they're over the hill but their best midfielders (Boyd, Griffin, Cross, not including Cooney anymore) are all in their prime and a great midfield goes a long way to compensating for an poor/average forward line (West Coast 05-07, Bulldogs the last 5 years, arguably Geelong).

They are in a similar position to us in in 06-09 with a number of experienced premiership players & AA in the side (Lade, Brogan, Burgoynes, Corneses, Tredrea) but with very little substance in the mid tier and then a bunch of young players.

West Coast in those years still had Lynch kicking 60 goals a year, the Dogs had Johnson and Hall kicking 60 goals a year, Geelong have had Mooney, Pods, S Johnson who kicked 50+. Its looking likely that the Dogs leading goalkicker this year will have < 30 goals with no key forwards kicking over 20.