Opinion Expectations 2023

[dogwatch]

Assuming we win 12 this season it more than reasonable to think we can win another 4 games and make top 4. The top reasons for this are

Darcy's development
JUH development
Bont playing injury free
Liam Jones/Lobb recruitment
New game plan

You lost me at "New game plan".

We've been baying for that for years. Expecting it to happen each new season. Then lamenting the "same old" as each season unfolds.

I do like your positives.
But what about the negatives? The departing players, the player unrest, the injuries we weren't expecting, the ghost of Ian Collins, etc.

How does it all balance up? Net improvement or net deterioration?

 

[Optimistic Dog]

You lost me at "New game plan".

We've been baying for that for years. Expecting it to happen each new season. Then lamenting the "same old" as each season unfolds.

I do like your positives.
But what about the negatives? The departing players, the player unrest, the injuries we weren't expecting, the ghost of Ian Collins, etc.

How does it all balance up? Net improvement or net deterioration?

Dogwatch do not disappoint you got to be positive before a new season starts. Better to have dreams rather than nightmares.

 

[doggies ftw]

You lost me at "New game plan".

We've been baying for that for years. Expecting it to happen each new season. Then lamenting the "same old" as each season unfolds.

I do like your positives.
But what about the negatives? The departing players, the player unrest, the injuries we weren't expecting, the ghost of Ian Collins, etc.

How does it all balance up? Net improvement or net deterioration?

Yep any talk of a new gameplan is wishful thinking at this stage - if the current coaching regime stays put. Even if there’s just some changes to assistants I’d say any changes would be minor, I’m of the opinion we need an overhaul in all parts of the ground.

How we setup defensively both around the ground and inside def 50 needs fundamental changes, + mainly our stoppage work too - we need to kill this handball first mentality and take a more direct approach, we have the targets down forward to play this way, flicking the ball around the stoppage by hand is counterproductive to how our tall marking forwards want the ball delivered.

Would also like to see us take on the corridor more often - again we’ve got English, Naughty & now Jamarra & possibly Lobb/Bruce as genuine marking targets in the forward half of the ground. Let’s let them present to dangerous positions in the corridor rather than constantly forcing them wide to the boundary leaving us chipping the ball around the outside until we inevitably go long down the line.

This of course brings with it plenty of risks, but if our backlines being directed to hold their ground and be ready for the turnover then we can cover a few turnovers in the corridor. Currently we have a very low reward style of play hugging the boundary line, but because of our defensive set up we still get killed on the rebound anyway.

We have to take on a bit more risk if we want to score more freely - but the thing is we have two of the best marking targets in the league in Naughty/Timmy & 2 of the best ball users in the league at HB in Daniel & Dale so let’s back them in to take these risks

 

[BEaston]

You lost me at "New game plan".

We've been baying for that for years. Expecting it to happen each new season. Then lamenting the "same old" as each season unfolds.

I do like your positives.
But what about the negatives? The departing players, the player unrest, the injuries we weren't expecting, the ghost of Ian Collins, etc.

How does it all balance up? Net improvement or net deterioration?

Our game plan did change this year though.

Our zone defence is completely different. Outside 5 tactic. We've often played with 3 tall backs which we rarely did last year. The forward structure did change through out the season too.

The no plan B thing is a bit of a furphy. Our game plan changed significantly from 2015 (offensive) to 2016 (defensive) and has been changed over the last few years as well.

There's probably just as many seasons where we've changed it than not (stuck with 2016 strategy for a while).

 

[dogwatch]

Our game plan did change this year though.

Our zone defence is completely different. Outside 5 tactic. We've often played with 3 tall backs which we rarely did last year. The forward structure did change through out the season too.

The no plan B thing is a bit of a furphy. Our game plan changed significantly from 2015 (offensive) to 2016 (defensive) and has been changed over the last few years as well.

There's probably just as many seasons where we've changed it than not (stuck with 2016 strategy for a while).

Yeah mostly fair enough. Although outside 5 was not spontaneous, it was in response to a rule change.
It just feels like we lurch from one bad plan to another, while ignoring some of the things we need to fix, like our vulnerability to the 6-6-6. We've suffered from the third man up rule change too but that's harder to fix if you don't have emerging rucks on your list.

I suspect the way we have been playing is to cover up the clearly evident list deficiencies, mainly in defence. I've been pondering this for a while.

We haven't been taking the game on as confidently and aggressively now that we no longer have the likes of Wood, Murphy, Moz and Moyd to mop up the turnovers. (Richards and to a lesser extent Dale have begun to fill this void.) So our midfield holds possession at the clearances waiting for a clean delivery opportunity even if it means going backwards at times and doing handball circle work. We depend heavily (too much?) on our zone defence because we know we won't win a lot of one-on-ones.

A couple of strong intercepting marks in 2023 (Barrass, Darcy? Khamis?) and a good lockdown defender (Jones for a season or two?) could transform the way we play right across the field.

 

[_Mike_]

Top 4, prelim/GF, or bust.

 

[Next Waiting]

Yeah mostly fair enough. Although outside 5 was not spontaneous, it was in response to a rule change.
It just feels like we lurch from one bad plan to another, while ignoring some of the things we need to fix, like our vulnerability to the 6-6-6. We've suffered from the third man up rule change too but that's harder to fix if you don't have emerging rucks on your list.

I suspect the way we have been playing is to cover up the clearly evident list deficiencies, mainly in defence. I've been pondering this for a while.

We haven't been taking the game on as confidently and aggressively now that we no longer have the likes of Wood, Murphy, Moz and Moyd to mop up the turnovers. (Richards and to a lesser extent Dale have begun to fill this void.) So our midfield holds possession at the clearances waiting for a clean delivery opportunity even if it means going backwards at times and doing handball circle work. We depend heavily (too much?) on our zone defence because we know we won't win a lot of one-on-ones.

A couple of strong intercepting marks in 2023 (Barrass, Darcy? Khamis?) and a good lockdown defender (Jones for a season or two?) could transform the way we play right across the field.

Which is why I find the reluctance to put Naughton back over the last 6 or 7 games a little frustrating. I think the team benefits more from this move in the shorter term (this season). The confidence levels in the back 6 instantly rises with flow on effects.

I couldn't a fcuk about where he finishes in the Coleman Medal. That's another over-inflated individual accolade in a team game. Sending him back makes us a stronger team imo. I still wouldn't discount it if we make finals. Part of me thinks/wants to believe that not moving back thus far is a massive gamble that we will if we make it and we'll get a lift from that that we need and perhaps the opposition won't adequately have prepared for.

 

[BEaston]

Yeah mostly fair enough. Although outside 5 was not spontaneous, it was in response to a rule change.
It just feels like we lurch from one bad plan to another, while ignoring some of the things we need to fix, like our vulnerability to the 6-6-6. We've suffered from the third man up rule change too but that's harder to fix if you don't have emerging rucks on your list.

I suspect the way we have been playing is to cover up the clearly evident list deficiencies, mainly in defence. I've been pondering this for a while.

We haven't been taking the game on as confidently and aggressively now that we no longer have the likes of Wood, Murphy, Moz and Moyd to mop up the turnovers. (Richards and to a lesser extent Dale have begun to fill this void.) So our midfield holds possession at the clearances waiting for a clean delivery opportunity even if it means going backwards at times and doing handball circle work. We depend heavily (too much?) on our zone defence because we know we won't win a lot of one-on-ones.

A couple of strong intercepting marks in 2023 (Barrass, Darcy? Khamis?) and a good lockdown defender (Jones for a season or two?) could transform the way we play right across the field.

Stand came in last year, in which we didn't employ outside 5. To me that means we implemented that strategy from a season's worth of data. It was not in direct response to the rule change, as unless I'm mistaken nothing changed with that rule this past off season.

Agree with the rest of your post!

 

[Foxman98]

Go undefeated and win the flag so everyone here to get along and we can all become friends. In reality though Top 4 and not start the season as shite as we did

 

[TiAn_]

Our game plan did change this year though.

Our zone defence is completely different. Outside 5 tactic. We've often played with 3 tall backs which we rarely did last year. The forward structure did change through out the season too.

The no plan B thing is a bit of a furphy. Our game plan changed significantly from 2015 (offensive) to 2016 (defensive) and has been changed over the last few years as well.

There's probably just as many seasons where we've changed it than not (stuck with 2016 strategy for a while).

I think there’s a difference between game plan and structure. Bev has always treated structure (number of rucks, number of KPs at each end) as unfixed, often changing from week to week. Whereas our game plan (dominate the clearances and take forward territory, batter teams with weight of inside 50s, use team defence to minimise 1v1s, in very simple terms) has remained largely static, except for 2017, where we seemed to consciously focus less on getting first hands, from memory.

I’ll give you the zone though, I couldn’t tell you specifically how it’s changed from last year to this year, I’d have to go back and watch some games, but it can’t possibly have remained the same given how steeply our defending has fallen off a cliff.

 

[doggies ftw]

I think there’s a difference between game plan and structure. Bev has always treated structure (number of rucks, number of KPs at each end) as unfixed, often changing from week to week. Whereas our game plan (dominate the clearances and take forward territory, batter teams with weight of inside 50s, use team defence to minimise 1v1s, in very simple terms) has remained largely static, except for 2017, where we seemed to consciously focus less on getting first hands, from memory.

I’ll give you the zone though, I couldn’t tell you specifically how it’s changed from last year to this year, I’d have to go back and watch some games, but it can’t possibly have remained the same given how steeply our defending has fallen off a cliff.

I honestly can’t see any difference in how we set up, I think the ball is just coming in much easier for the most part. A zone defence is completely and utterly worthless if teams have time and space to deliver the ball inside 50, our defenders may as well not even be there.

 

[BEaston]

I think there’s a difference between game plan and structure. Bev has always treated structure (number of rucks, number of KPs at each end) as unfixed, often changing from week to week. Whereas our game plan (dominate the clearances and take forward territory, batter teams with weight of inside 50s, use team defence to minimise 1v1s, in very simple terms) has remained largely static, except for 2017, where we seemed to consciously focus less on getting first hands, from memory.

I’ll give you the zone though, I couldn’t tell you specifically how it’s changed from last year to this year, I’d have to go back and watch some games, but it can’t possibly have remained the same given how steeply our defending has fallen off a cliff.

I think we started to move away from the clearance/forward territory game that we used in 2016 in around 2018-2019. At that point we looked to stack our team with good ball users and use more precise delivery moving the ball rather than hack forward -> stoppage - > hack forward. The last few years though I believe the team look a bit confused about what our overarching game plan is. We kind of use of a mix of territory and slingshot which means we suck at both.

Also 2015 to 2016 was a complete change in gameplan, which does show bev is capable of it.

 

[BEaston]

I think we started to move away from the clearance/forward territory game that we used in 2016 in around 2018-2019. At that point we looked to stack our team with good ball users and use more precise delivery moving the ball rather than hack forward -> stoppage - > hack forward. The last few years though I believe the team look a bit confused about what our overarching game plan is. We kind of use of a mix of territory and slingshot which means we suck at both.

Also 2015 to 2016 was a complete change in gameplan, which does show bev is capable of it.

Also team selection hasn't helped with a precise ball movement strategy with ball butchers getting picked.

 

[stmookeyj]

I'm not a massive Cameron fan, but if I'm playing devil's advocate I'd say there have been some coaches recently who were pretty ordinary in their first head coaching role who have then been assistants with some success at least - Voss, Richardson, Leppitsch, Bolton, Pyke (probably a few others).

Biggest difference is that those mentioned lasted about 2 years or so in their initial roles, Cameron was a long term appointment at GWS.

 

[Planet Dogs]

I trying to send the following email to our CEO, President and Footy Dept. Director. Does anyone know their email addresses?


Dear Ameet,

I’ve been a passionate Doggies member since 1994. This is the first time I’ve felt the need to contact the club to express significant concerns.

Arguably our best player in season 2022 is leaving. This is disappointing. However, what has truly shocked me is credible reports in the media that Dunkley is leaving due to concerns with the Club’s culture (in particular a divided playing group between those that a ‘fair dinkum’ and those that aren’t).

If true this is a damning indictment of our off-field leaders.

Before this ‘bombshell’ I was already having significant concerns with our footy department: losing two experienced assistants in quick succession; mystifying team selections; a dysfunctional game plan; embarrassing exits to our last two final campaigns; moving on young players with real upside (e.g. Young and Lipinski: both thriving in new environments); an apparent lack of any serious footy department reviews. I could go on.

All this needs to be addressed with a real sense of purpose and urgency.

I’m sure that many members who share these concerns are desperate to see you, Chris Grant, and Kylie Watson-Wheeler to show real leadership on this.

Yours sincerely,

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Aside from list management as there are too many unknowns to comment. My Wishlist is:

1. I want a game plan change, that we use speed in the midfield to beat the cavalry into our attacking fifty. No more stop and prop look around while the attacking fifty gets flooded, and we turn it over.
2. I want Bailey Smith
   6

   Bailey Smith

   Age

   23

   Ht

   185cm

   Wt

   86kg

   Pos.

   M/F

   Career

   Season

   Last 5

   D

   18.3

   5star

   K

   8.5

   3star

   HB

   9.8

   5star

   M

   2.3

   2star

   T

   3.8

   5star

   CL

   2.7

   4star

   D

   19.8

   5star

   K

   9.6

   4star

   HB

   10.2

   5star

   M

   1.8

   2star

   T

   3.2

   4star

   CL

   3.2

   4star

   D

   14.8

   4star

   K

   7.6

   3star

   HB

   7.2

   5star

   M

   2.0

   3star

   T

   3.4

   5star

   CL

   1.6

   4star

   to practice his kicking, and his decision making.
3. I want our physical conditioning staff to be reviewed and desperate changes to be made.
4. I want a goal kicking coach for Naughton.
5. I want players to play in one position, but when called for, changes to be made in the game I.e. Naughts to stem bleeding in defence.
6. I want Bukhu, and our other young players to get games, but pick out some easier games, not throw them in against the premiers, so they lose confidence like what happened to Schache against Richmond.
7. I want to look up at the coaches box and see Bevo listening to experienced assistants.
8. I want to hear that we had a good preseason.
9. Tba

 

[who_let_the_dogs_out]

If we can bring some decent key defenders into the side this off-season and our forward line can rediscover their mojo (Naughton, Bruce, working with Lobb) there's no reason we can't contend for the flag.

Obviously Bevo needs some help in the coaches box which sounds like it will be addressed.

Not bothered about Dunkley leaving, personally think he's overrated. Poor disposal really hurts us going forward, his smothers and tackling can be covered.

Quietly confident about 2023.

 

[dogwatch]

I want to enjoy watching us play four quarters of exciting contested footy again.
I want to enjoy telling people I support the Bulldogs. Not get their sympathetic looks.

 

[ScragCity]

I want to enjoy watching us play four quarters of exciting contested footy again.

That's my main one. I don't really care that much about where we finish on the ladder or how deep we go in finals. I just want to be entertained for a few hours every weekend. The Dogs were just putrid to watch all year. The Melbourne victory was the only game I actually enjoyed.

 

[Here we go dogs]

We contend if we address the following:

- More coaching support for Bevo, we need more experience and ideas in the box.

- New Gameplan and structure - we haven’t changed since 2016. We need to restructure all lines. None of them worked in 2022.

- Add some excitement to the 22 by playing youth. Bendendo, Cleary, Khamis and Garcia should play a lot.

- Address the following list holes in the off season:

1. At least 1 true wingman. I’d like McLean to play wing and to see bendendo developed. I think we need 1 over and above these options.
2. Small forward that is fast and applies manic pressure. Teams run it out of our backline way to easy. Weightman also need to change the way he plays. He needs to stay down and stop competing with our talls.

I think we can find a ready to go small in the draft or via the state leagues.

If we were to have a crack at trading for 1 I’d like to have a go at Brent Daniel’s from GWS.
3. Second Ruck. I expect lobb to come in, so this should solve the problem. I’d be happy with the acquisition of lobb at the right price.
4. Centre Half Back. We have Jones coming who I am bullish about. I’d only bring in another ready made if there was a Gun available.

I don’t think this is as big a hole as others. If we get one of Keath or Jones playing good footy next year I am more than comfortable going into games with Gardner, Keith/Jones and Darcy/khamis as the 3rd.

I’d like to draft an athletic tall defender to develop to come in when Jones/Keath are finished.
5 - Midfield Depth. We need another developing mid that can hopefully cover libba and co. When they retire

-Selection. If we are serious, I don’t think players like Mccomb, Cordy should play much next season.

-Defensive mindset of the playing group. We have a forward line that doesn’t apply pressure and mids that don’t run two ways. This probably ties into coaching and structure but this must change if we want to compete. Bailey Smith

6

Bailey Smith

Age

23

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

8.5

3star

HB

9.8

5star

M

2.3

2star

T

3.8

5star

CL

2.7

4star

D

19.8

5star

K

9.6

4star

HB

10.2

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

3.2

4star

CL

3.2

4star

D

14.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

7.2

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

3.4

5star

CL

1.6

4star

is a big culprit in terms of defensive running.

 

[who_let_the_dogs_out]

That's my main one. I don't really care that much about where we finish on the ladder or how deep we go in finals. I just want to be entertained for a few hours every weekend. The Dogs were just putrid to watch all year. The Melbourne victory was the only game I actually enjoyed.

Tough crowd lol, you didn't enjoy reaming a putrid West Coast by well over 100pts?

 

[ScragCity]

Tough crowd lol, you didn't enjoy reaming a putrid West Coast by well over 100pts?

No

 

[Mr. Walker]

For next season I want
1. To know what the planned team structure is by round 1
2. Have some comprehension of the intent behind team selections ( I accept the problem may lie with me rather than MC)
3. After a victory to see more than 30 seconds discussion about it on all the footy tv shows
4. To have less in-season injuries than the AFL average
5. Hear the football commentators say small sized forward so-and-so is “ front and centre” rather than “ flys high”.
6. Some acknowledgment from the MC that they understand that each footy field has a finite length and just giving up territory cannot just continue endlessly

 

[dogwatch]

For next season I want
1. To know what the planned team structure is by round 1
2. Have some comprehension of the intent behind team selections ( I accept the problem may lie with me rather than MC)
3. After a victory to see more than 30 seconds discussion about it on all the footy tv shows
4. To have less in-season injuries than the AFL average
5. Hear the football commentators say small sized forward so-and-so is “ front and centre” rather than “ flys high”.
6. Some acknowledgment from the MC that they understand that each footy field has a finite length and just giving up territory cannot just continue endlessly

Can you add world peace, an end to the carbon crisis and a cure for cancer to that list?

Sorry to say this, but I think there's a chance you're going to be disappointed.

Good list though.

 

[DognBones]

I understand that we are having an interal review of all football operations. I would like the findings made public to all our members who are then given the opportunity to provide feedback. Wishful thinking I suppose, but there are so many astute observers external to the club, including here on Bigfooty, that need to be heard. Otherwise, we might end up with 'End of Season Review Light'.