Prediction 2026 Win at least 1 Final or Bust for Bevo

[Optimistic Dog]

Next season must see us win at least one final or I think Bevo will not see out his contract. Silly to say but I do think we made progress in 2025 even though we missed finals. The talent of Darcy, Freijah, Croft is without question, the improvement of West and Richards has been immense. Naughton improved his kicking and looked better in the latter part of the season. The Bont showed us again yesterday why he is the best player in the competition pity he did not get enough help.

Bramble, Cleary and Baker (late) have improved. Plus, Dolan, Hynes and Davidson and maybe Jacques are promising first season pickups. Add Arty finally coming good as an excitement machine and Cody back. Some good pickups through the trade and draft, and it is over to Bevo sought out our defensive problems.

Win 1 final at least next season or it is a failure

 

[Unorth]

We made a GF. And then:

2022: scrape into finals by relying on other results. Choked a 40 point lead in an elimination final

2023: Conceded an unprecedented upset to one of the worst teams ever which made us miss finals.

2024: Enter an elimination final as squiggles darling and the top form team. Get taken to the cleaners and out again.

2025: Across an entire season, manage to beat 1 out of the top 8 sides. Get an elimination wildcard final in the last round, at Marvel, against an interstate side, in front of 40k Bulldogs supporters. Get our asses kicked. Miss finals again.

Point being if this trend hasn’t resulted in us getting a new coach, I doubt anything except a bottom 4 finish will result in anything different in 2026. And conveniently we have Bont, Ed, Darcy etc that will prevent this from happening.

Maybe after 2027, if Bevo gets even more unhinged and can’t handle losing any more, he may step down of his own volition. But the KWW-Bains combo have tied the wagon to Bevo. And if you extend a coach and sack him shortly after, the questions turn to those who ticked it off…The ride isn’t over until he says it is.

 

[Bazzas Lovechild]

Nah. After we miss finals again next year we’ll give him one more year to fix the problems….

 

[Snarls Barkley]

This was the case for 2024 and 2025 as well but here we are, I can probably do another couple of years of this

 

[FoochPackage]

Let me tell you all the next 24 months so we dont have to talk about it. Have a middling year next year where we miss the 8. Then have a strong start to 2027 with a 7-2 record. At which point we re sign bevo and scrape into an elim final and we get walloped.

Rinse and repeat.

 

[ArNcHiSe]

How about he just gets sacked now? That would be great.

 

[flamethrower]

For all those calling for a change of coach...

Beveridge started coaching us in 2015. In that team we have won our 2nd ever premiership and appeared in a losing Grand Final. All this despite never having a balanced list good enough to finish top 4.

Compare this to the coach lauded as the best in the business, Chris Scott

Chris Scott

Age

49

Ht

182cm

Wt

89kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.6

4star

K

11.2

4star

HB

5.4

4star

M

5.1

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

0.4

3star

No current season stats available

D

13.2

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

3.0

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

0.4

3star

. Since 2015 1 premiership and 1 losing GF despite having the biggest head start in world sports playing at Pork Barrell Stadium, poaching whoever they like by doing dodgy 3rd party deals, and starting most finals series in the top 4.

Be careful what you wish for as many times you don't know how good someone actually is until they leave.

 

[BigFloppa]

The worst part about this era is that Marcus Bontempelli

4

Marcus Bontempelli

Age

30

Ht

194cm

Wt

96kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

22.5

5star

K

12.3

5star

HB

10.3

5star

M

3.6

4star

T

4.8

5star

CL

4.4

5star

D

18.4

4star

K

9.7

4star

HB

8.8

4star

M

2.6

3star

T

4.1

5star

CL

4.0

5star

D

12.0

3star

K

5.8

3star

HB

6.2

4star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.8

5star

CL

1.8

4star

hasn't had the chance to play in enough big finals. Should have a Norm to his name. Such a shame that the majority of his career was played in a middle of the pack side who barely scrape in every year if at all.

 

[grassman75]

We made a GF. And then:

2022: scrape into finals by relying on other results. Choked a 40 point lead in an elimination final

2023: Conceded an unprecedented upset to one of the worst teams ever which made us miss finals.

2024: Enter an elimination final as squiggles darling and the top form team. Get taken to the cleaners and out again.

2025: Across an entire season, manage to beat 1 out of the top 8 sides. Get an elimination wildcard final in the last round, at Marvel, against an interstate side, in front of 40k Bulldogs supporters. Get our asses kicked. Miss finals again.

Point being if this trend hasn’t resulted in us getting a new coach, I doubt anything except a bottom 4 finish will result in anything different in 2026. And conveniently we have Bont, Ed, Darcy etc that will prevent this from happening.

Maybe after 2027, if Bevo gets even more unhinged and can’t handle losing any more, he may step down of his own volition. But the KWW-Bains combo have tied the wagon to Bevo. And if you extend a coach and sack him shortly after, the questions turn to those who ticked it off…The ride isn’t over until he says it is.

I’m putting an asterisk on 24 and 25

24 something* went down with Jamarra and it affected the team badly n the elim
25 we haven’t been beaten by more than 22pts all year, won enough games to normally make the 8 and have the biggest % to ever miss out. Only needed 1 game like the Pies debacle to go our way and we are in

 

[dogwatch]

I’m putting an asterisk on 24 and 25

24 something* went down with Jamarra and it affected the team badly n the elim
25 we haven’t been beaten by more than 22pts all year, won enough games to normally make the 8 and have the biggest % to ever miss out. Only needed 1 game like the Pies debacle to go our way and we are in

Denial.

If you turn yourself inside out you can put an asterisk on every season except 2018 where we dropped to 13th.

The simple fact is: this year we were only able to beat ONE of the sides that made the top 8 (beat them twice as it turned out). Yes we weren’t far off all of the others but we didn’t have the method, the toughness or the versatility to beat any of them. In some cases at two attempts.

If we’d somehow won that Collingwood game (for instance) we would almost certainly have been eliminated in week 1 of the finals. Our game doesn’t stack up against most of the top 8.

I hope the footy department isn’t in denial of this, like a number of supporters seem to be. Accepting it for what it is gives us a chance to andapt and bridge that gap quickly. Denying it pushes us further away from any real progress.

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

We made a GF. And then:

2022: scrape into finals by relying on other results. Choked a 40 point lead in an elimination final

2023: Conceded an unprecedented upset to one of the worst teams ever which made us miss finals.

2024: Enter an elimination final as squiggles darling and the top form team. Get taken to the cleaners and out again.

2025: Across an entire season, manage to beat 1 out of the top 8 sides. Get an elimination wildcard final in the last round, at Marvel, against an interstate side, in front of 40k Bulldogs supporters. Get our asses kicked. Miss finals again.

Point being if this trend hasn’t resulted in us getting a new coach, I doubt anything except a bottom 4 finish will result in anything different in 2026. And conveniently we have Bont, Ed, Darcy etc that will prevent this from happening.

Maybe after 2027, if Bevo gets even more unhinged and can’t handle losing any more, he may step down of his own volition. But the KWW-Bains combo have tied the wagon to Bevo. And if you extend a coach and sack him shortly after, the questions turn to those who ticked it off…The ride isn’t over until he says it is.

Those in the hierarchy are just as guilty as Bevo.

The Christ Grant mess , the JUH saga, smith exit, Dunkley.

Post 2021 has seen not much progress. 2/3 seasons missing finals now

Goodwin got the sack after winning the flag in 21. Longmire made 2/3 grand finals and said times up

 

[grassman75]

Denial.

If you turn yourself inside out you can put an asterisk on every season except 2018 where we dropped to 13th.

The simple fact is: this year we were only able to beat ONE of the sides that made the top 8 (beat them twice as it turned out). Yes we weren’t far off all of the others but we didn’t have the method, the toughness or the versatility to beat any of them. In some cases at two attempts.

If we’d somehow won that Collingwood game (for instance) we would almost certainly have been eliminated in week 1 of the finals. Our game doesn’t stack up against most of the top 8.

I hope the footy department isn’t in denial of this, like a number of supporters seem to be. Accepting it for what it is gives us a chance to andapt and bridge that gap quickly. Denying it pushes us further away from any real progress.

You got me, I’m a Bevo Happy Clapper.

Surely you can see that replacing a McNeill with a Cody improves the defensive structures in the forward line

Surely you can see that a fit Treloar, not missing games from Bont and Darcy gets us one or two more wins in a season that we miss finals with a record number of wins and a percentage so high because we flogged who we had to and didn’t get flogged by those above us

Surely you can see we played a lot of kids and nearly got it done. Those kids will be better for it next season

And yes we need a better defender but we also need to get rid of guys that won’t run two ways

 

[The Inbetweener]

I’m putting an asterisk on 24 and 25

24 something* went down with Jamarra and it affected the team badly n the elim
25 we haven’t been beaten by more than 22pts all year, won enough games to normally make the 8 and have the biggest % to ever miss out. Only needed 1 game like the Pies debacle to go our way and we are in

I think rather than focusing on the Collingwood, Geelong and Brisbane (1st game) losses we need to look at the fact we lost 3 big games to fellow finals contenders on our own deck. We had more than enough chances to make up for those losses and blew it.

 

[dogsuperfan]

I think expectation next season is a prelim. We’ve shown we got what it takes, can hang in against the best but finish off games. The next step is beating them. Looking at the post match interview Bevo clearly knows what wrong and what’s missing, so now go and fix those issues.

 

[doggy_dog]

For all those calling for a change of coach...

Beveridge started coaching us in 2015. In that team we have won our 2nd ever premiership and appeared in a losing Grand Final. All this despite never having a balanced list good enough to finish top 4.

Compare this to the coach lauded as the best in the business, Chris Scott. Since 2015 1 premiership and 1 losing GF despite having the biggest head start in world sports playing at Pork Barrell Stadium, poaching whoever they like by doing dodgy 3rd party deals, and starting most finals series in the top 4.

Be careful what you wish for as many times you don't know how good someone actually is until they leave.

Conveniently leaving out the 5 Prelims they’ve made in that time outside of the 2 GF years. And don’t give me the ‘balanced list’ argument, have a look at some of the midfield groups Geelong have trotted out. As much as I don’t like to admit Chris Scott is an excellent coach and regularly finds ways for the sum of their parts to be greater than their individual talent

 

[grassman75]

I think rather than focusing on the Collingwood, Geelong and Brisbane (1st game) losses we need to look at the fact we lost 3 big games to fellow finals contenders on our own deck. We had more than enough chances to make up for those losses and blew it.

That is very important too…I know why they did it but we should have played Adelaide in Ballarat still.

The dollar is more important than results

 

[go_sports_team]

Conveniently leaving out the 5 Prelims they’ve made in that time outside of the 2 GF years. And don’t give me the ‘balanced list’ argument, have a look at some of the midfield groups Geelong have trotted out. As much as I don’t like to admit Chris Scott is an excellent coach and regularly finds ways for the sum of their parts to be greater than their individual talent

Agree with this. In no world is Bevo a more successful coach than Chris Scott. Their list this year is entirely uninspiring, yet they've finished second.

 

[dogwatch]

You got me, I’m a Bevo Happy Clapper.

Surely you can see that replacing a McNeill with a Cody improves the defensive structures in the forward line

Surely you can see that a fit Treloar, not missing games from Bont and Darcy gets us one or two more wins in a season that we miss finals with a record number of wins and a percentage so high because we flogged who we had to and didn’t get flogged by those above us

Surely you can see we played a lot of kids and nearly got it done. Those kids will be better for it next season

And yes we need a better defender but we also need to get rid of guys that won’t run two ways

McNeil —> Weightman, agree. That’s assuming two things: (1) Weightman recovers and can play most of the season with the form he used to have, no certainty of that given the nature of his injury (2) it’s McNeil that goes out and not somebody like Davidson etc

Treloar Bont Darcy etc. Disagree. It’s the injury fallacy where we only look at a few key ones and ignore the good luck elsewhere. Overall I think we fared pretty well with injuries. Yes Bont being out probably cost us a win but by season’s end we had almost a full list to choose from and still couldn’t beat Freo at Marvel. We only had one season ending injury to a top 10 player (Weightman). Players like West, Naughton, Richards, Kennedy, Dale, Libba, English, Lobb, Williams, Freijah etc played a full season. We won’t normally be so lucky and an average run of injuries might mean we drop games we should win (eg this year the Carlton game we won by 8 points, or the Melbourne game). Yes Treloar was mostly a write off. But do you think he’ll sail through 2026 playing almost every game at his AA best? He’d have to be a high risk of further soft tissue injuries at his age. We’ve been incredibly lucky with Bont too but he’s almost 30 now and may start missing more games in the coming years.

The kids. Yes there will be organic improvement there. But there will also be organic decline elsewhere as players age or succumb to a decade of wear and tear (like Treloar). Lobb can’t be expected to still lead our defence. JJ. Maybe Bont himself. Libba. So the question is more: will organic change be a net credit or a net debit?

I’ve said elsewhere the sort of personnel and attitude changes needed. I’m not convinced we will do it but I know we can if we set our minds on it.

I have little hope that our coaching team is going to fix the tactical deficiencies. And I have little hope there’ll be much improvement in the coaching ranks. Certainly Bevo is a constant. They are all competent men, but we still have coaching weaknesses.

However as a typical lifelong Bulldog I live in eternal hope that somehow we will be touched again by a special chemistry like we were a decade ago.