Coach Luke Beveridge and his on-field coaching.

[hutchy31]

The coaching is terrible. Tackling remains poor, backs are making terrible decisions with ball in hand.

 

[Mucat]

The coaching is terrible. Tackling remains poor, backs are making terrible decisions with ball in hand. It’s baffling to me that any bulldogs fan would think they need to groom up now.

Terrible mistake giving bevo another 2 years

 

[Mucat]

Can some body how long Jamarra got till he can start playing again

 

[perro_loco]

Our issues are our backline and our defensive structures.

We play a very high aggressive press which can be opened up quite easily, especially if our pressure dips. We also lack players in defence who are good 1v1 or defensively minded, as in defend first.

Look back at 16 the following were good 1v1 and/or defensively minded:
Morris
Boyd
Wood
Hamling
Roberts

Not saying they were all elite defenders or great afl players but they had defensive abilities.

We now play a quite aggressive backline. All of Dale, JJ and Bramble are not defensively minded. We also don’t have a lock down key defender. With jones falling off the cliff. Who was beat my opponent first then impact player.

We don’t sustain pressure on transition, last few years have been because we have played a tall forward line this year I think it’s due to age profile not being able to sustain it.

Clearly we lack the personnel back there and that’s why we have such terrible numbers when it comes to scores per inside 50 conceded. Against the weaker teams they don’t get the ball in there as much and they don’t transition as well allowing us to flood back. But against good sides they transition quicker than we can flood back and they match us in terms of inside 50s.

We need an adjustment in our game plan which is on the coaches. Our press needs to be less aggressive and we need to hold an anchor to stop the out the back goals.

Then recruiting wise we need to invest in our backline and players who defend first and can compete 1v1.

I agree that emphasis is on having fast players distributing the ball from the backline. The issue, I think, is that a lot of it is left to Dale and Bramble and JJ don’t seem to be very good at defensive coverage when the other team is attacking. Maybe we need a more defensive or pressuring midfield when the opposition attacks. Could these two aspects of our game plan be fixed in 5 weeks?

 

[perro_loco]

I agree with the sentiment we cannot afford to bottom out. It also makes it difficult to compete against the hardened sides that can trade in FA to prop them up Pies Lions etc

I agree, imagine barracking for West Coast atm.

 

[Munnez]

I agree, imagine barracking for West Coast atm.

It's tough going but we have been there too as well. They have the financial reserves to ride it out until they can turn it around. Us not so much

 

[Claudonious]

You cannot sit with a 1-8 record against the better teams in the comp, with seven of those losses almost identical, and claim it’s random.

The team does not tackle properly, the players make poorer decisions than the opposition, the team selection is poor, and the defensive approach does not stand up against half decent AFL players.

It’s ****ing pathetic. Despite the list issues and age profile, this team should be 2-4 wins better and right in the hunt. But poor coaching and leadership has us on the verge of missing finals.

Some people in this administration might think we’re digging out of the hole of being a small club. Until we actually prioritise on field performance we’ll be an afterthought. It’s embarrassing how this team is losing against any decent team - every time.

6 of the games against top sides played away and we lose by a few kicks. We play all of the crap sides on our home deck and most of the good sides on their home ground.And a second Brisbane game on a neutral ground.Meanwhile, GOld coast play the majority of the good teams on their home deck, including Darwin. The completion is massively compromised - I don’t care what anyone says.if we win against Geelong after hitting the post 6 times and getting a shocking umpires run,and jag one more - nothing is being said, Bevo is great and we are a top side.
Home ground advantage is significant - we have been competitive in every game,and have played kids not ready.

We have had the worst home/away draw of the top 9 - by a fair margin.

I am not concerned at all - we are doing nothing this year, but next year looks promising.Hey - we may even get a draw where we don’t have to play Geelong in Geelong.

Go ahead and say the above is nothing more than an excuse and BEvo is crap etc - my opinion won’t change.

 

[Mhiggo]

6 of the games against top sides played away and we lose by a few kicks. We play all of the crap sides on our home deck and most of the good sides on their home ground.And a second Brisbane game on a neutral ground.Meanwhile, GOld coast play the majority of the good teams on their home deck, including Darwin. The completion is massively compromised - I don’t care what anyone says.if we win against Geelong after hitting the post 6 times and getting a shocking umpires run,and jag one more - nothing is being said, Bevo is great and we are a top side.
Home ground advantage is significant - we have been competitive in every game,and have played kids not ready.

We have had the worst home/away draw of the top 9 - by a fair margin.

I am not concerned at all - we are doing nothing this year, but next year looks promising.Hey - we may even get a draw where we don’t have to play Geelong in Geelong.

Go ahead and say the above is nothing more than an excuse and BEvo is crap etc - my opinion won’t change.

We've also addressed some of the things that were driving people crazy last year - kicking much more accurately and consistent four quarter efforts. Pick up a couple of good defenders in the draft/trade period and we're right in it next year.

 

[Chalky White]

This thread is a better fit for my earlier post:

Our whole strategy is geared around winning the clearance battle and then keeping the ball in contests in our forward half until we generate a score (it’s largely how we won the flag in 2016).

It’s a total highwire act against good sides. We get absolutely torched by turnovers because the other team has a paddock for the quality players to kick and lead into when we give them possession back. We can see this reflected in a few stats: We have the lowest average in the league for defensive half pressure acts, we have by far the worst opponent kick retention rating of the top 12 sides, we are second lowest for spoils and have the worst 1v1 defensive loss % of all teams. Meanwhile our opponents have the league highest defensive half pressure acts. We are constantly operating in contests and under pressure in our forward half while our opponents aren’t. Our opponents are only 0.01 xScore per shot behind the Eagles and Dees for highest in the competition. Meaning we give up just about the easiest shots at goal of anyone.

Every time we’ve at least broken even on turnovers we’ve won, while we’ve lost to 7 of the top 8 when having more turnovers and conceding more scores from turnovers (Pies, Cats, Hawks, Lions, Crows, Suns and Dockers). If we turn the ball over anywhere outside our 50 it’s almost a guaranteed I50 the other way and our defence is horribly exposed. Hence the near worst score per shot.

We’ve only scored more from turnovers against one top 8 side and that was the Giants. And that was our only win against a top 8 side. We absolutely monster crap sides, which skews our overall stats, but routinely come up short the same way against the good sides (Hawks excepted, who smashed us with forward half footy).

The issues with our forward line having no space and back line having to defend acres of it are both products of this. If we defended further back we wouldn’t retain as much ball in our forward half, but we also wouldn’t get exposed so badly when we do turn it over. What we do is great if the goal is merely to beat up on everyone below us that doesn’t have the ability to pressure us into turnovers and capitalise on the opportunities we do afford them, while losing to every good team that does.

Source for the above stats: Wheelo

So that is entirely on the coach and system? Damning data and been consistent since 2017. Too many think because we smash junk teams that we are good. We aren’t.

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

i guess from the POV of the club, we are going through a "reset", loss of macrae, daniel, smith, phasing out trelore & jones this year due to injuries, also not having weightman & JUH . the club would be content to see us competing for finals with all that factors

 

[Doggies_13]

I agree that emphasis is on having fast players distributing the ball from the backline. The issue, I think, is that a lot of it is left to Dale and Bramble and JJ don’t seem to be very good at defensive coverage when the other team is attacking. Maybe we need a more defensive or pressuring midfield when the opposition attacks. Could these two aspects of our game plan be fixed in 5 weeks?

I don’t think it can be adjusted this year. We need a change in our defensive structure and zone/press which is an off-season required to do it.

I think we also need personnel changes back there. I don’t think we can run with all three of those guys. We need an interceptor and a medium to small lockdown type, basically we need a wood type and a Duryea type.

I think if we add a lockdown key defender type then the intercepting role could be covered by Lobb and Bus/JOD. Also Sellwood looks like he could fill that role if he can transition form to AFL.

 

[stefoid]

Well nobody has answered it yet and I've only got non-sequiturs back.

Go back to May in the other thread and there are plenty examples of praise - even people admitting they were previously wrong on Bevo wanting him gone, etc.

So what's changed with his coaching since then? As now the feeling is most want him gone again.
It's possible something has. It seemed like something did mid last year. If something has changed again, fair enough - what is it? I don't know.

Dont want him to be gone, just want him to do better.

What has changed since the early part of the year? We got key players back in the side.

Early in the year we had some encouraging wins against poorer sides and gallant losses against better sides which could be excused by missing multiple important players - now we got a fair few very very good players back in together and the expected improvement is nowhere to be seen - wins against poorer sides and gallant losses to good ones.

Bevo himself said last night our defence around contests and through the middle of the ground sucks - OK, well defence is one of the easiest things to fix as it doent rely on talent, it relies on doing the right thing at the right time, which is exactly in the coaches domain.

 

[Mucat]

Dont want him to be gone, just want him to do better.

What has changed since the early part of the year? We got key players back in the side.

Early in the year we had some encouraging wins against poorer sides and gallant losses against better sides which could be excused by missing multiple important players - now we got a fair few very very good players back in together and the expected improvement is nowhere to be seen - wins against poorer sides and gallant losses to good ones.

Bevo himself said last night our defence around contests and through the middle of the ground sucks - OK, well defence is one of the easiest things to fix as it doent rely on talent, it relies on doing the right thing at the right time, which is exactly in the coaches domain.

Ok first i' against bevo one before he got the contract he was doing good as coach when he got the contact he went back to his basicks , don't expect essendon to be a walk over we have the third best list in the comp it's coach does not know how to use it and select the in form players

 

[adogsfan5]

I was definetly one who saw how well we were playing with some key players out early in the year, against the top sides and just assumed with our “key” personnel back, that we’d knock off sides at the top eventually.

Not to be.

 

[cleveland]

Kind of agree with this

 

[adogsfan5]

Kind of agree with this
View attachment 2376566

Agree was a poor call against the Crows.

Poor take regarding tonight though.
Caddy, McNahon and Wright are all very tall.

 

[maddog37]

Kind of agree with this
View attachment 2376566

Thanks for spreading the poison cleveland.

 

[Golden_6]

Agree was a poor call against the Crows.

Poor take regarding tonight though.
Caddy, McNahon and Wright are all very tall.

It's less to do with opposition and more to do with overall structure.

The MC has basically admitted that they also agree that 2KPD has not been achieving the apporiate results and that 3KPD is next in the line of options to try and improve our defence. They could have easily dropped Jones and brought in another smaller type which is what they did earlier in the year.

I find it unfortunate that Buku has just been forgotten about. He was playing okay in defence as the third tall before being moved forward out of necessity and now can't get a look in at either end of the ground.

 

[dogwatch]

It's less to do with opposition and more to do with overall structure.

The MC has basically admitted that they also agree that 2KPD has not been achieving the apporiate results and that 3KPD is next in the line of options to try and improve our defence. They could have easily dropped Jones and brought in another smaller type which is what they did earlier in the year.

I find it unfortunate that Buku has just been forgotten about. He was playing okay in defence as the third tall before being moved forward out of necessity and now can't get a look in at either end of the ground.

How is Buku being "forgotten about"? He played rounds 14 & 15 and was sub in rounds 16 & 17. Missed round 18 (played VFL) and was emergency last week and again this week.

He is the classic fringe player, right on the threshold of selection most weeks and usually performing well when he gets a game in the twos.

The simple reason he's not an automatic selection each week is that he lacks important aspects in his game. I posted about those shortcomings in the team selections thread yesterday. He does not strengthen our already shaky defence when played as a HBF / interceptor. He is good for a goal and a bit per game as a marking forward but doesn't do much to help lock the ball in the forward 50 and doesn't win much ball when it hits the ground. He gets badly exposed against big opponents when sent in to do relief ruckwork.

He's a great bloke who always tries but I feel he'll always be a fringe player. MC seem to have the same view.

 

[Mofra]

Kind of agree with this
View attachment 2376566

Coffield played against Crows with Lobb & JOD?

 

[adogsfan5]

Coffield played against Crows with Lobb & JOD?

Pls never again….

 

[cleveland]

Coffield played against Crows with Lobb & JOD?

Not sure id count him as a tall

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Not sure id count him as a tall

Not a key defender for sure, would have been giving 15kg to Walker and Fogarty. Spent a large chunk of time on Rankine regardless

 

[CarnTheScray]

Kind of agree with this
View attachment 2376566

We probably should’ve played another tall against the crows anyway but it wouldn’t have mattered because we don’t have the players.

 

[TiAn_]

Sitting effectively two games outside the 8 with the third highest percentage this late in the season is embarrassing for our coaches. If your system destroys bad teams but can’t beat anyone good then it’s just a gimmick, it’s not a winning strategy.