Review Bulldogs Lose To GWS (113 - 55)

[grassman75]

Disappointing finish but you give the season a pass. Would much rather make finals and take it up to the home side for 2.5 quarters than watch on.

The real problem was that our midfield didn’t win. Inside fifties against were horrific.

Yes we could have picked Trengove and Dickson but I doubt it would have made much difference.

Dale, Schache, Smith, Hayes, Young and a few others had some less than ideal moments (though Young competed) but they’ll learn. Some were overawed.

Another preseason of muscle and another year playing together and we’ll do better.

Part of me says we should have picked Dickson and Trengove, but they aren't the future.

This was a great opportunity to get finals experience into Young, West etc and see How some of the future key posts stack up.

In all honesty, who thought we were going to go on a 2016 run? We just scraped in with 12 wins and a couple of beat up jobs on undermanned opposition. We weren't a true contender, so let's take the experience and let it fester in our guts. 2020 was always my target for our next serious tilt, making it this year was a bonus

 

[SonOfScray]

It was funny at the ground, those orange flags were giveaways, under every seat . Imagine an AFL club needing to do that.

Scoreboard "Lets make some noise" drowned out by boos every time lol. I think it was the second quarter they put some dudes voice over the speakers on the eastern side trying to get some sort of pro-Giants chant happening....crickets. So plastic, manufacturing a "vibe". Made me laugh.

That’s why this loss stings a little, the sheer embarrassment of conceding to that type of s**t. It’s not a pain like losses to Adelaide and Saints 09, more like an irritant that the Gimmicks and their disregard for the environment have been affirmed.

Good PR though, every family in attendance got to take home 62 flags each.

 

[badkicking]

We had a bad day, they had a good day. The personal we went in with hit the end of the H&A season pretty strong so can’t blame the selection committee. Disappointing end but we got a taste.
Had some passengers today in Lloyd, Hayes, Schache, McLean, but they are easy targets - our midfield was monstered and was the reason we lost.

Thought JJ and Cordy made some poor decisions but both tried hard along with Wood and Young in the backline.

We have some teenagers with some serious swagger and aggression in Naughton, West and Smith and obvious natural improvement from English, Lipinski, Lewis Young and Richards to look forward to.

If we are smart during trade week and can land Keath and Jack Martin and still have a high hand in the draft, we have a bit to look forward too in season 2020.

 

[badkicking]

I thought before the game we had lost the game at the selection table, taking 3 players in with less than 10 games experience was going to be a task. David King on Friday radio, said GWS would be very aggressive, as they had been several years ago against the Swans in a similar situation, which is what happened. Surely playing Dickson and Trengrove would have been better options for what was always going to be a tough game.

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

so disappointed with JJ. a passenger again. im not sure where he fits in the team in the coming years.
has far too little input, and hardly a defensive bone in his body

he should look how saad and houli play.

 

[Libba39]

In the end the better team won on the day. We didn't have the cattle, and the last few weeks of the season were great but skewed our impression of the team and how advanced we are.

Now that the emotions have calmed down I'm proud of some of the efforts, especially when you consider having three key players on the sidelines (boyd, picken, morris) who played half a game between them. Add in the injuries to Daniel, Libba, Wallis, and Jong, the departure of Roughead and Dahl, and it was really a good effort to make the 8.

Hopefully we can do some good things via trade, although I fear we need to make some tough choices with our list and that next year will be another one of development.

 

[Libba39]

so disappointed with JJ. a passenger again. im not sure where he fits in the team in the coming years.
has far too little input, and hardly a defensive bone in his body

he should look how saad and houli play.

I don't think Hunter was great either. They both need to find other ways to impact the game. I reckon JJ is a pure winger. Can't stick a tackle to save himself.

 

[maddog37]

GWS did the same thing to Collingwood up there earlier in the year. They are very good when confidence is up. We were simply too young but we knew Bev was playing the long game when he kept West in the team.

 

[Cadillac]

I just want those Naughton scans back so I can finally sleep.

 

[_Mike_]

People calling for Dickson back in yesterday’s game was shortsighted, he was up for a test this week and still not 100%. We missed him on the forward line, no doubt. This game was lost in the middle, Hunter was awol most of the game, Macrae came in and out of it, and too many gone missing such as Dale, Richards, JJ whilst McLean was ineffective most of the game. Get a big bodied KPF like Bruce, Keath in defence with Astro at CHB and we very well could be pushing a top 4 or 2 spot next season.

Whilst we all hoped for going further, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are still a lot of young blokes out there and the experience for kids like Naughts and Smith will benefit from it

 

[Anja_Nees]

Part of me says we should have picked Dickson and Trengove, but they aren't the future.

This was a great opportunity to get finals experience into Young, West etc and see How some of the future key posts stack up.

In all honesty, who thought we were going to go on a 2016 run? We just scraped in with 12 wins and a couple of beat up jobs on undermanned opposition. We weren't a true contender, so let's take the experience and let it fester in our guts. 2020 was always my target for our next serious tilt, making it this year was a bonus

Realistically I thought we could sneak over GWS but had little hope beyond that.

It’s disappointing we rolled over late but hopefully all of the finals debutants now understand what’s required.

Only hope we can go on with it next year.

 

[Cadillac]

People calling for Dickson back in yesterday’s game was shortsighted, he was up for a test this week and still not 100%. We missed him on the forward line, no doubt. This game was lost in the middle, Hunter was awol most of the game, Macrae came in and out of it, and too many gone missing such as Dale, Richards, JJ whilst McLean was ineffective most of the game. Get a big bodied KPF like Bruce, Keath in defence with Astro at CHB and we very well could be pushing a top 4 or 2 spot next season.

Whilst we all hoped for going further, it’s not all doom and gloom. There are still a lot of young blokes out there and the experience for kids like Naughts and Smith will benefit from it

Astro at CHB?... how many more positive signs as a superstar key forward does the kid have to show before these ridiculous comments about moving him back to defense come to an end? He’s 19 years old and has shown the potential to be the best key forward we’ve drafted since Chris Grant. He led the AFL in contested marks FFS.Was the only forward on the field for us yesterday who was tackling hard and taking grabs, and importantly kicking his set shot goals. The area of his game he gets criticised on here for.

Naughton is a forward. And will be a superstar forward once he has someone like Bruce next to him giving him a chop out.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

Disappointing result but credit to GWS, they came in to the game with a plan and executed it perfectly.
Extra numbers at the contest all day, they closed up our exit handball out the back of the stoppages. Their pressure game was through the roof and a lot of our players couldn’t handle it.
Mumford obviously had instructions to just clear the area at stoppages so our mids had trouble getting hands to it first. People calling for Trenners to have played is a head scratcher. He would’ve had his arse handed to him and Mumford would’ve had the same impact. Plus we would’ve had an extra tall which would’ve thrown the balance of the team way out.
If Trenners plays, one of English, Young or Cordy doesn’t.

Not a lot to dissect in this game, they executed well and we didn’t, pretty straight forward.

A lesson for our young group and hopefully this means we go in to next season a little hungrier.

 

[ringa5]

Anybody that reads the David King article will understand the game was lost because of our failure to protect the Bont.
And the round 21 game was won because of the Bont siezing those crucial moments.
Like only he and to a lesser extent Stringer could.And Naughton will do.
Bev needs to learn from that.And make sure plan A is to protect the Bont
At crucial stages in the future.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Ah yeah, after the result was well and truely over today, there was quite a few of us at the pub that wanted someone to take out Toby Greene. The whole pub cheered loudly when he got kicked in the balls!

Which pub? The same thing happened at the pub I was at.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Biggest one is their Coach. Grub of a person

His job has to be on the line if they don't win the flag

 

[_Mike_]

Naughton is a forward.

I think he’s more than capable of playing both CHB and CHF roles

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

I agree, the loss started at the selection table, but it’s a win for the futures of West, Dale, Young, and Smith.

I expected GWS to come out hard if they had any self respect. They have beaten Geelong at Geelong, Collingwood and played some good Footy throughout the year, but haven’t had a consistent 22. The bye came at the right time for them.

I expect them to win next week, but if they try that dirty sniping against Brisbane, expect Hodge to take them out, which will be very enjoyable. In some ways we are too nice and clean.

 

[Chicago1]

I'm not feeling as bad this morning. I guess as I mentioned yesterday, I felt the game was a bonus for us. The last two months were exciting, something I missed by not living here for 17 years. The disappointment is there, of course, but who could criticise the effort it took to get us to the Finals? I'll always remember our slaughter of the Bombers. That felt sooooooo good. And beating GWS just three weeks ago was heavenly. To beat the Tigers, doesn't get much better than that for me. Compared to the previous two years since I've been back, this season was fun. It was kind of like old times. Yes, once again, we didn't win the ultimate, but by God we gave it a go.

I'm looking forward to 2020, the eighth decade in which I will have lived, my 43rd year of Bulldogs membership and being at the MCG to witness my second Premiership.

 

[charcoalchicken]

Honestly i'm not that upset, it was a good season all things considered, I thought english was great, another one to get excited about for sure

 

[Cadillac]

I think he’s more than capable of playing both CHB and CHF roles

That may be the case. But we’ve been searching for 15 years for a Chris Grant replacement up forward. We have finally found one in the 19 year old Naughton and you want to move him to defense? Even by adding Josh Bruce there is no way I trust Schache to be our 2nd tall forward if Naughton is back to CHB. Yesterday answered a lot of questions. His lack of physicality in finals stands out like dogs balls.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

I'm not feeling as bad this morning. I guess as I mentioned yesterday, I felt the game was a bonus for us. The last two months were exciting, something I missed by not living here for 17 years. The disappointment is there, of course, but who could criticise the effort it took to get us to the Finals? I'll always remember our slaughter of the Bombers. That felt sooooooo good. And beating GWS just three weeks ago was heavenly. To beat the Tigers, doesn't get much better than that for me. Compared to the previous two years since I've been back, this season was fun. It was kind of like old times. Yes, once again, we didn't win the ultimate, but by God we gave it a go.

I'm looking forward to 2020, the eighth decade in which I will have lived, my 43rd year of Bulldogs membership and being at the MCG to witness my second Premiership.

Don't forget beating Geelong

 

[W W Biscuit]

Which pub? The same thing happened at the pub I was at.

To put this in its proper perspective, there are tribes in the dark jungles of Irian Jaya, as yet untouched by white civilisation, that rose in unison and fist pumped the air when Toby Greene was kicked in the nuts.

 

[Freshwater]

I agree, the loss started at the selection table, but it’s a win for the futures of West, Dale, Young, and Smith.

I expected GWS to come out hard if they had any self respect. They have beaten Geelong at Geelong, Collingwood and played some good Footy throughout the year, but haven’t had a consistent 22. The bye came at the right time for them.

I expect them to win next week, but if they try that dirty sniping against Brisbane, expect Hodge to take them out, which will be very enjoyable. In some ways we are too nice and clean.

That’s why we missed Libba. He was born for those games.

 

[flamethrower]

I agree, the loss started at the selection table, but it’s a win for the futures of West, Dale, Young, and Smith.

I expected GWS to come out hard if they had any self respect. They have beaten Geelong at Geelong, Collingwood and played some good Footy throughout the year, but haven’t had a consistent 22. The bye came at the right time for them.

I expect them to win next week, but if they try that dirty sniping against Brisbane, expect Hodge to take them out, which will be very enjoyable. In some ways we are too nice and clean.

Mitch Robinson too....when Port went after Lachie Neale, Robbo almost chased one of the Port players onto their bench. Unfortunately Robbo apparently was injured last night - wouldn't stop him jumping the fence if things get out of hand though.

We need to recruit some more hard nuts so we don't rely on Libba being fit for September each season.