Toast Bulldogs Team of the 21st Century

[curnow inferno]

Changes at end of 2023:
Leadership change: Bontempelli to captain. Johnson to vice.

Changes at end of 2022:
IN: Naughton
OUT: Akermanis

Changes at end of 2021:
Positional change: Macrae on to wing. Cooney to bench.

Changes at end of 2020:
IN: Daniel
OUT: Gilbee

FB	ROH.SMITH	B.LAKE	E.WOOD
HB	R.MURPHY	D.MORRIS	C.DANIEL*
C	J.MACRAE*	S.WEST	R.GRIFFEN
HF	N.BROWN	C.GRANT	D.GIANSIRACUSA
FF	B.JOHNSON (vc)	A.NAUGHTON*	J.STRINGER
RR	L.DARCY	M.BONTEMPELLI* (c)	M.BOYD
INT	A.COONEY	TOM LIBERATORE*	D.CROSS - L.DAHLHAUS
COACH:	LUKE BEVERIDGE*

Minimum 50 games this century.

Thoughts?

 

[House_of_Dahl]

FB: E.WOOD* - B.LAKE - L.GILBEE
HB: R.MURPHY (vc) - D.MORRIS - R.SMITH
C: R.GRIFFEN - S.WEST - A.COONEY
HF: N.BROWN - C.GRANT - D.GIANSIRACUSA
FF: B.JOHNSON (c) - J.STRINGER - J.AKERMANIS
RR: L.DARCY - M.BONTEMPELLI* - M.BOYD
INT: D.CROSS - J.MACRAE* - TOM LIBERATORE* - L.DAHLHAUS
COACH: LUKE BEVERIDGE*

Minimum 50 games this century.

Thoughts?

No way Stringer should be on there

 

[100action]

out Stringer in hall
out libba in picken
out akermanis in C smith
out dahlhaus in JJ

out c grant in T Boyd

 

[SirBont]

* Griffen his a w***er in my opinion

 

[curnow inferno]

out Stringer in hall
out libba in picken
out akermanis in C smith
out dahlhaus in JJ

out c grant in T Boyd

hall didnt get to 50 games

the rest were tight calls..

 

[Yojimbo]

B: M. Boyd, B. Lake, D. Morris
HB: L. Gilbee, C. Grant, R. Smith
C: N. Eagleton, J. Macrae, A. Cooney
HF: N. Brown, R. Murphy, D. Giansiracusa
F: J. Akermanis, B. Johnson, L. Darcy

Foll: W. Minson, M. Bontempelli, S. West

I/C: R. Griffen, L. Picken, R. Hargrave, M. Hahn

Coach: Yojimbo (Only I can smell the flexibility and I will keep the medal, shiny)

Swing C. Grant forward while using R. Hargrave back and swing Morris into the pivot, genius.

 

[SirBont]

Did Hall need to though he played 35 games for 139 goals more than most of forwards combined overall

 

[jacob17]

I think you need to remove this 50 game minimum rule, if your good enough to make the team of the 21st century then it should not matter now many games you played.
Barry Hall shouldn't miss out because of a rule you made up imo.

 

[Scary_Foot_9]

FB: E.WOOD* - B.LAKE - L.GILBEE
HB: R.MURPHY (vc) - D.MORRIS - R.SMITH
C: R.GRIFFEN - S.WEST - A.COONEY
HF: N.BROWN - C.GRANT - D.GIANSIRACUSA
FF: B.JOHNSON (c) - J.STRINGER - J.AKERMANIS
RR: L.DARCY - M.BONTEMPELLI* - M.BOYD
INT: D.CROSS - J.MACRAE* - TOM LIBERATORE* - L.DAHLHAUS
COACH: LUKE BEVERIDGE*

Minimum 50 games this century.

Thoughts?

Akermanis over Picken and Dickson is sacrilege.

I would have Hunter over Cooney as well due to actual output.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Think that's a good effort.

Dickson needs to be in the forward line. Lachie Hunter should also be in the side. Ryan Hargrave would be a good shout. Barry Hall despite not making the qualification has been our best KPF since 2001. I'd find a spot for Picken too.

Akermanis and Dahlhaus definitely wouldn't be in my team.

 

[Libba39]

Its a bit early....

 

[SirBont]

Cooney had one good season lets be honest

 

[Libba39]

FB: E.WOOD* - B.LAKE - L.GILBEE
HB: R.MURPHY (vc) - D.MORRIS - R.SMITH
C: R.GRIFFEN - S.WEST - A.COONEY
HF: N.BROWN - C.GRANT - D.GIANSIRACUSA
FF: B.JOHNSON (c) - J.STRINGER - J.AKERMANIS
RR: L.DARCY - M.BONTEMPELLI* - M.BOYD
INT: D.CROSS - J.MACRAE* - TOM LIBERATORE* - L.DAHLHAUS
COACH: LUKE BEVERIDGE*

Minimum 50 games this century.

Thoughts?

Hi buddy how about I go over the the Carlton board and start a new thread?:

"Blues worst team of the 21st century"

2 games minimum to qualify. Could call it "The Inaugural John Elliot Tragic Twenty-Two" or something similar?

So many candidates to choose from. A real tough one...

 

[Braybrook Son]

Why is a Carlton fan starting this thread? Haven’t they got enough ideas for their board?

 

[LondonBulldog]

Gee some short memories in here.

Akermanis walks into that side. He was the key reason we rose back up the ladder in 2007 and contested 3 premlins in a row (Hall helped in 2009). He was one step ahead of our players at the time, brilliant with ball in hand great decision maker and great skills either side.

It may have only been a short stint but Hall and Aker were fantastic for us.

 

[hoianbulldog]

FB: E.WOOD* - B.LAKE - L.GILBEE
HB: R.MURPHY (vc) - D.MORRIS - R.SMITH
C: R.GRIFFEN - S.WEST - A.COONEY
HF: N.BROWN - C.GRANT - D.GIANSIRACUSA
FF: B.JOHNSON (c) - J.STRINGER - J.AKERMANIS
RR: L.DARCY - M.BONTEMPELLI* - M.BOYD
INT: D.CROSS - J.MACRAE* - TOM LIBERATORE* - L.DAHLHAUS
COACH: LUKE BEVERIDGE*

Minimum 50 games this century.

Thoughts?

Stringer and Aka playing next to each other. I would loved to have seen that.

 

[dogwatch]

Hi buddy how about I go over the the Carlton board and start a new thread?:

"Blues worst team of the 21st century"

2 games minimum to qualify. Could call it "The Inaugural John Elliot Tragic Twenty-Two" or something similar?

So many candidates to choose from. A real tough one...

Why is a Carlton fan starting this thread? Haven’t they got enough ideas for their board?

Naah. All good.
He’s not trolling and it’s a decent assessment of our best players over the last 2 decades.

Why would we not welcome someone who wants to discuss with us our club and our players ... and without malice?

 

[Libba39]

Naah. All good.
He’s not trolling and it’s a decent assessment of our best players over the last 2 decades.

Why would we not welcome someone who wants to discuss with us our club and our players ... and without malice?

I'm not convinced he's not.
But at a minimum it clutters up the board IMO.
Each to their own I guess...

 

[Guido]

B: M. Boyd, B. Lake, D. Morris
HB: L. Gilbee, C. Grant, R. Smith
C: N. Eagleton, J. Macrae, A. Cooney
HF: N. Brown, R. Murphy, D. Giansiracusa
F: J. Akermanis, B. Johnson, L. Darcy

Foll: W. Minson, M. Bontempelli, S. West

I/C: R. Griffen, L. Picken, R. Hargrave, M. Hahn

Coach: Yojimbo (Only I can smell the flexibility and I will keep the medal, shiny)

Swing C. Grant forward while using R. Hargrave back and swing Morris into the pivot, genius.

Great effort.

Am I the only one that finds it quite astonishing that despite a premiership in 2016, 75%-80% of the best team of the last 20 years you've listed above was on the list together at the same time in 2005?

Such a missed opportunity. If there was another team in the modern era that could have won a premiership from 7th or 8th, I reckon that would have been it (especially had we managed to retain N Brown at the end of 2003 rather than lowballing him).

And I've mentioned it before, but the constant "it's a development year for a young list" attitude of Eade going into the season compared to the "no ceilings" mantra of Beveridge (with an even younger and more inexperienced list) probably defines why one is a premiership coach and the other isn't.

 

[Yojimbo]

Great effort.

Am I the only one that finds it quite astonishing that despite a premiership in 2016, 75%-80% of the best team of the last 20 years you've listed above was on the list together at the same time in 2005?

Such a missed opportunity. If there was another team in the modern era that could have won a premiership from 7th or 8th, I reckon that would have been it (especially had we managed to retain N Brown at the end of 2003 rather than lowballing him).

And I've mentioned it before, but the constant "it's a development year for a young list" attitude of Eade going into the season compared to the "no ceilings" mantra of Beveridge (with an even younger and more inexperienced list) probably defines why one is a premiership coach and the other isn't.

Thank you Guido

You are not alone, most great teams have an x-men origin moment and develop a system of play that best
highlights their strengths and masks their weaknesses. The Western Bulldogs x-men moment came in the
draft of 1999 it then takes a generation to build the continuity and talent around that base. We narrowly
failed to do so, but came painfully close. A football club is like a chain a couple of weak links and the chain
is no good and I think it's fair to say that we had some weak links both on and off field that affected the
integrity of our chain. I think of the Geelong super drafts of the early 2000's that led to three flags, I
reflect on the Hawthorn super drafts up to 2004 that although were not backed up initially led to their
fabled trade to win policy that eventually unlocked the door to the promised land. We and perhaps the
Saints shared x-men origins for a while there in that we were gifted greatness, but without the Ikea
instructions we were always left a widget short of completing the project. This has been a metaphorical
journey of chains and widgets and x-men origin moments that leaves me sad and in need of breakfast.

 

[Leon]

Good thread.

Difficult task for mine.


______________


B - Dale Morris, Brian Lake, Easton Wood (VC)

HB - Lindsay Gilbee, Chris Grant, Bob Murphy (C)

C - Ryan Griffen, Scott West, Nathan Eagleton

HF - Daniel Giansiracusa, Tom Boyd, Nathan Brown

F - Brad Johnson, Barry Hall, Tory Dickson

R - Luke Darcy, Marcus Bontempelli, Adam Cooney

INT - Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae, Rohan Smith, Matthew Boyd, Liam Picken


Coach - Luke Beveridge


A few notes:


- Anyone who says Griffen doesn’t get in a team of the 2000’s for us is kidding themselves. Regardless of his departure he makes it easily.

- Ditto Lake, Cooney etc. We’re talking about how good they were for us as players, not how they left or what they’ve been like after leaving.

- Putting Dickson in my team might spark some debate, but for mine he is one of the best and most underrated forwards we’ve had in a while, plus a proven finals performer.

- In our forward line I also struggled with putting in Nathan Brown or Akermanis. Brown in his last couple of years with us just edges Akermanis. He kicked 50 something goals in 2003 with a busted shoulder in a team that finished last. Sensational effort.

- Tom Boyd at CHF, Chris Grant at CHB, Barry Hallf at FF.

If you are going purely on 2000 onward, Chris Grant easily played his best football at CHB, so cant have him at CHF.

That leaves a hole at CHF. You could play Barry there, but he has to play at Full Forward.

Murphy? Too small for CHF, and played his best across half back anyway.

So I go with Tomaboyd, despite his short career with us, for his 2016 finals series and Grand Final, and because it’s my team and I choose it, so there.

- Eagleton and Giansiracusa make it, two players I really came to appreciate after their retirement who didn’t really get a lot of credit during their careers.

- Unlucky to miss - Minson, Stringer, Dahlhaus, probably others. Players like McLean, Johannisen could probably make it in after their careers.

 

[King Harold]

Eagleton was not a great footballer.
Macrae would start on the ground before him.

 

[Draft Pick]

Gee some short memories in here.

Akermanis walks into that side. He was the key reason we rose back up the ladder in 2007 and contested 3 premlins in a row (Hall helped in 2009). He was one step ahead of our players at the time, brilliant with ball in hand great decision maker and great skills either side.

It may have only been a short stint but Hall and Aker were fantastic for us.

Being pedantic here.

Hall came at the end of 2009.

We dropped back in 2007 after making finals in 2006.

But yes Aker was a very good player in 08 and 09.

 

[Scary_Foot_9]

Good thread.

Difficult task for mine.


______________


B - Dale Morris, Brian Lake, Easton Wood (VC)

HB - Lindsay Gilbee, Chris Grant, Bob Murphy (C)

C - Ryan Griffen, Scott West, Nathan Eagleton

HF - Daniel Giansiracusa, Tom Boyd, Nathan Brown

F - Brad Johnson, Barry Hall, Tory Dickson

R - Luke Darcy, Marcus Bontempelli, Adam Cooney

INT - Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae, Rohan Smith, Matthew Boyd, Liam Picken


Coach - Luke Beveridge


A few notes:


- Anyone who says Griffen doesn’t get in a team of the 2000’s for us is kidding themselves. Regardless of his departure he makes it easily.

- Ditto Lake, Cooney etc. We’re talking about how good they were for us as players, not how they left or what they’ve been like after leaving.

- Putting Dickson in my team might spark some debate, but for mine he is one of the best and most underrated forwards we’ve had in a while, plus a proven finals performer.

- In our forward line I also struggled with putting in Nathan Brown or Akermanis. Brown in his last couple of years with us just edges Akermanis. He kicked 50 something goals in 2003 with a busted shoulder in a team that finished last. Sensational effort.

- Tom Boyd at CHF, Chris Grant at CHB, Barry Hallf at FF.

If you are going purely on 2000 onward, Chris Grant easily played his best football at CHB, so cant have him at CHF.

That leaves a hole at CHF. You could play Barry there, but he has to play at Full Forward.

Murphy? Too small for CHF, and played his best across half back anyway.

So I go with Tomaboyd, despite his short career with us, for his 2016 finals series and Grand Final, and because it’s my team and I choose it, so there.

- Eagleton and Giansiracusa make it, two players I really came to appreciate after their retirement who didn’t really get a lot of credit during their careers.

- Unlucky to miss - Minson, Stringer, Dahlhaus, probably others. Players like McLean, Johannisen could probably make it in after their careers.

A good balanced side, but Cooney and Eagleton were productive yet flawed players who played footy on their own terms more often than not - for them to start on the ground over Boyd (3 bnf's), Picken (best finals player in 16), Macrae (bnf top 3, 4 times) and Hunter (1 bnf) is something that needs a bit more consideration.

 

[_Mike_]

Putting Dickson in my team might spark some debate, but for mine he is one of the best and most underrated forwards we’ve had in a while, plus a proven finals performer.

He’s racked up an average of 3 goals in every final played. I’d like to see how many small forwards are around that have achieved that so far.