Face it we are sh1t

[RedWhite&Blue]

I think we all need to face the fact that we are a s**t team - mid table at best.
We've all been riding high since 2016 thinking that we will definitely come again. Not a matter of if we will but when we will.
I'm starting to think it's not going to happen... and in fact I haven't just started. It's been a niggling feeling for a year or so.
Good teams don't play like the Bulldogs. We are just too inconsistent.
We never have every line covered. There is always, and I mean always a glaring deficiency in our team.
I'm thinking of taking away all expectations (like in the Rohde era)... I reckon it will be more enjoyable when we jag the odd game rather than being depressed about our form every week...





Having said that if we win our next game I reckon we'll win the flag!

 

[Glaeken Oracle]

I am interested in this thread, is it still available?

 

[RedWhite&Blue]

I am interested in this thread, is it still available?

Oh yes it is!
Welcome

 

[ScragCity]

When I saw that we were playing Richmond, Port and Brisbane I was excited because I figured we will really get to see where we are at. Well now we've seen where we're at and I don't like it. A third consecutive loss looks likely this weekend and at that point we can write off the season. The saddest part is that I don't see us challenging next year either unless we bring in new assistant coaches and rethink our game plan. My biggest concern is that we will win just enough games to remain complacent and not change anything. Given that we will be bringing in Jamarra and that list sizes will be shrinking it's not the year for a big recruiting haul.

 

[Libba39]

Yes sometimes we are sh1t
Other times we are gr8
Many here think that some weeks the match committee is taking the p155
One thing we can all agree on however -Toby Greene is an @r$€#0/€...

 

[TommyD13]

I know Russell and Corey were our midfield coaches, but they both got let go. Who is our midfield assistant now? King by default?

 

[Yojimbo]

Face it we are sh1t

We are currently the only club to salute from seventh place on the ladder after the advent of the top eight in 1994, is this a sh1t
achievement i think not. The reality is there are currently eighteen teams in the AFL and some of them may never get to see a
premiership again if ever. The harsh reality of the world at the moment could usher in the time forecast in the movie Mad Max 2
as long as we don't get to the Thunder Dome because that was really sh1t. Sometimes when things work the natural reaction
is to sit in a big circle and enjoy the smell of your own farts, we certainly enjoyed the smell of our own farts, but made the fatal
mistake of sitting too close to the fire and flamed out.

Everything happens for a reason and sometimes like the roses at Flemington Race Track you have to prune them back to ensure
they will grow again so they may distract us from the mountains of cash we lose on the punt. We can take the Monty Python
approach and "Always look on the bright side of life", but then we never get the pitchforks out or get to burn something to the
ground and where is the fun in that. When i get sad i think of Shannon Noll and his epic performance of "What about me" and
i become that kid at the corner store waiting for a dream, but dreams walk in and out they never stop. I have seen our colors
adorn the streets in the Grand Final Parade, i have seen my heroes lift the cup not everyone can say that so they must be
sh1tter than us.

 

[Philthy1]

Face it we are sh1t

We are currently the only club to salute from seventh place on the ladder after the advent of the top eight in 1994, is this a sh1t
achievement i think not. The reality is there are currently eighteen teams in the AFL and some of them may never get to see a
premiership again if ever. The harsh reality of the world at the moment could usher in the time forecast in the movie Mad Max 2
as long as we don't get to the Thunder Dome because that was really sh1t. Sometimes when things work the natural reaction
is to sit in a big circle and enjoy the smell of your own farts, we certainly enjoyed the smell of our own farts, but made the fatal
mistake of sitting too close to the fire and flamed out.

Everything happens for a reason and sometimes like the roses at Flemington Race Track you have to prune them back to ensure
they will grow again so they may distract us from the mountains of cash we lose on the punt. We can take the Monty Python
approach and "Always look on the bright side of life", but then we never get the pitchforks out or get to burn something to the
ground and where is the fun in that. When i get sad i think of Shannon Noll and his epic performance of "What about me" and
i become that kid at the corner store waiting for a dream, but dreams walk in and out they never stop. I have seen our colors
adorn the streets in the Grand Final Parade, i have seen my heroes lift the cup not everyone can say that so they must be
sh1tter than us.

Patience grasshopper.

I can see many parallels with Richmond. They were stumbling, played finals three years in a row without any return, had a bad year, then bang it all came together.

We have the talent. Bevo is the man. A couple of things need to come together and away we go.

 

[Yojimbo]

Patience grasshopper.

I can see many parallels with Richmond. They were stumbling, played finals three years in a row without any return, had a bad year, then bang it all came together.

We have the talent. Bevo is the man. A couple of things need to come together and away we go.

Maybe we snatched the pebble from their hands in 2016, but that pebble was meant for GWS and not us, who knows ? Richmond
refined what they had and embraced an almost spiritual belief of purpose, if anything we have done the exact opposite.

 

[Philthy1]

Maybe we snatched the pebble from their hands in 2016, but that pebble was meant for GWS and not us, who knows ? Richmond
refined what they had and embraced an almost spiritual belief of purpose, if anything we have done the exact opposite.

We've done 2016 and the aftermath on here ad nauseam. No need to revisit all that. We are not far away from being at the point end again. It could be 2007 or 2015 right now. There is a lot right and only a few things wrong right now.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

When I saw that we were playing Richmond, Port and Brisbane I was excited because I figured we will really get to see where we are at. Well now we've seen where we're at and I don't like it. A third consecutive loss looks likely this weekend and at that point we can write off the season. The saddest part is that I don't see us challenging next year either unless we bring in new assistant coaches and rethink our game plan. My biggest concern is that we will win just enough games to remain complacent and not change anything. Given that we will be bringing in Jamarra and that list sizes will be shrinking it's not the year for a big recruiting haul.

With clubs looking to offload more players at the end of this season than they usually would, I think it’s an ideal time for a team that’s willing to go hard, to have a decent trade period.
You would need to cut quiet a few to balance it out but clubs may be willing to part with players they normally wouldn’t due to the cutting of list sizes.
Unlikely that the dogs do this, but I can see it being beneficial for a club willing to have a crack.


I’m not a big fan of big list cuts but if it’s being forced this off season, it seems like an ideal time to go further and cut other players to make room for trade targets.
Not sure what the list numbers stand at currently but as an example, if we’re going from 44 to say 40, cut another 4 so 8 in total brings it to 36. Draft 2, trade in 2, gives us our 40.

Dickson
R Smith
Porter
Suckling
Gowers
Khamis
Lynch
Gardiner
Duryea maybe?

Draft JUH and Raak???

Have a crack during the trade period at two of a Winger, Outside Silky Mid/HF, Good Genuine Medium Sized Fwd. Maybe even a KPD in Tom McDonald.


Agree on the assistants call, don’t think the current ones are doing a bad job but we need to replace ones we’ve let go so good time to turnover some of the ones still there.

 

[Libba39]

Get Naughton and Hunter back
West will be good
Bailey Smith = 200 game player
Bont and Macrae are still young
English still developing
The middle tier such as Lipinski, Richards, Dale and Williams are getting better
We are getting a draft pick who is the equivalent of a top 5

A lot to be positive about.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Patience grasshopper.

I can see many parallels with Richmond. They were stumbling, played finals three years in a row without any return, had a bad year, then bang it all came together.

We have the talent. Bevo is the man. A couple of things need to come together and away we go.

It all came together for them AFTER they copied our strategies and just about everything else we did in 2016, including player and coach speeches. Maybe we should copy them for a change instead of trying to go it alone and rejecting proven plans.

 

[ScragCity]

Get Naughton and Hunter back
West will be good
Bailey Smith = 200 game player
Bont and Macrae are still young
English still developing
The middle tier such as Lipinski, Richards, Dale and Williams are getting better
We are getting a draft pick who is the equivalent of a top 5

A lot to be positive about.

Every club has young, talented players who are improving. We can't just rely on organic improvement in personnel if we want to climb from the mid table to top eight or preferably top four status.

 

[Philthy1]

It all came together for them AFTER they copied our strategies and just about everything else we did in 2016, including player and coach speeches. Maybe we should copy them for a change instead of trying to go it alone and rejecting proven plans.

Like anything successful, there is a bit of copy from here, copy from there, adapt some things, blend in a bit of something of your own.

 

[Philthy1]

With clubs looking to offload more players at the end of this season than they usually would, I think it’s an ideal time for a team that’s willing to go hard, to have a decent trade period.
You would need to cut quiet a few to balance it out but clubs may be willing to part with players they normally wouldn’t due to the cutting of list sizes.
Unlikely that the dogs do this, but I can see it being beneficial for a club willing to have a crack.


I’m not a big fan of big list cuts but if it’s being forced this off season, it seems like an ideal time to go further and cut other players to make room for trade targets.
Not sure what the list numbers stand at currently but as an example, if we’re going from 44 to say 40, cut another 4 so 8 in total brings it to 36. Draft 2, trade in 2, gives us our 40.

Dickson
R Smith
Porter
Suckling
Gowers
Khamis
Lynch
Gardiner
Duryea maybe?

Draft JUH and Raak???

Have a crack during the trade period at two of a Winger, Outside Silky Mid/HF, Good Genuine Medium Sized Fwd. Maybe even a KPD in Tom McDonald.


Agree on the assistants call, don’t think the current ones are doing a bad job but we need to replace ones we’ve let go so good time to turnover some of the ones still there.

Arguably none of those players you have mentioned are in our best 22 (maybe Suckling but who knows for how much longer) so changing those are not going to move the dial. Either we need to improve the way we do things (i.e. game plan) or upgrade players in the best 22.

 

[lachy]

Dickson
R Smith
Porter
Suckling
Gowers
Khamis
Lynch
Gardiner
Duryea maybe?

The players you have named minus Duryea plus:
Le Young
La Young
Trengove
Schache
Greene
Hayes
Sweet
Jong
Cavarra

Are all average AFL footballers at best now.

Throw in young players who have not developed as yet in West, Weightman, Butler, and Garcia that is 21 players or half the list that whether they are in or out the team does not improve. Now 5 or 6 of these players can still be handy or may develop however this is too much ordinary to carry fr a sustained period.

On top of this when JJ, Wood and Bruce have shockers of course we are in big trouble.

Richards, Dale, and Lipinski still go missing under pressure and LLoyd could also be bracketed in there.

Our list is unbalanced but not sure it is s**t.

I do laugh with team selection given the quick drop off on our list, 27 suspect players named here, but Sam Power does have work to do.

 

[murphy's twin]

Relax guys

Obviously just our forward line is the concern.

2021 looks like this:

JUH steps into the side.
Bailey dale will be back to his best mark my words
Naughton will be ready to take the next step
Bruce will have had a whole pre season working with Naughton (he didn't' get this at all this year) and will benefit.
Weightman will show us all why we drafted him.

AND

Its so crystal clear what we need moving forward from a trade perspective.
We will still have substantial room in the sallery cap, and so i fully expect us to land a player who will help this forward line take the next step.

As you can see there is so much upside... like they say rome wasn't built in an day just be patient - look at Richmond they took several years before they were able to find the consistency in performance...

 

[Charlie Bucket]

Arguably none of those players you have mentioned are in our best 22 (maybe Suckling but who knows for how much longer) so changing those are not going to move the dial. Either we need to improve the way we do things (i.e. game plan) or upgrade players in the best 22.

I was just going through how we make room for trade ins with the list reductions that will be brought in.
I agree, those in-listed either are at the end of their career or aren’t in best 22 calculations currently or moving fwds. So they’ll be delisted or passed off as steak knives if need be.

We’d be silly to move anyone else on so it’s a matter of having cap space and next years draft picks to accomodate bringing in best 22’s the fit the needs we have.

All hypothetical obviously but just throwing ideas around as to how you could make this trade period work for you in the current climate of list reductions.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

The players you have named minus Duryea plus:
Le Young
La Young
Trengove
Schache
Greene
Hayes
Sweet
Jong
Cavarra

Are all average AFL footballers at best now.

Throw in young players who have not developed as yet in West, Weightman, Butler, and Garcia that is 21 players or half the list that whether they are in or out the team does not improve. Now 5 or 6 of these players can still be handy or may develop however this is too much ordinary to carry fr a sustained period.

On top of this when JJ, Wood and Bruce have shockers of course we are in big trouble.

Richards, Dale, and Lipinski still go missing under pressure and LLoyd could also be bracketed in there.

Our list is unbalanced but not sure it is sh*t.

I do laugh with team selection given the quick drop off on our list, 27 suspect players named here, but Sam Power does have work to do.

Hayes is one I missed. Add him to the group we could do without.

The 8-9 I mentioned would be first out the door if we needed to lose a few. The rest, including those you listed or touched on deserve another go or have plenty of upside imo. We just need to cut some dead wood, do our best to bring in 1-2 or established players who improve our 22 and bring in JUH and co and draft time.

I rate the majority of our list for age and experience so don’t think we’re in a bad position at all.

 

[House_of_Dahl]

By "we" I'm assuming you mean BF doggies supporters...

 

[fronkalicious]

Every club has young, talented players who are improving. We can't just rely on organic improvement in personnel if we want to climb from the mid table to top eight or preferably top four status.

So so true. Even the crows who are in list hell right now think they’ve got blue chip foundations in mcAsey, doedee, Fogarty, chayce Jones, McHenry and Milera

 

[Generation West]

I disagree that we are sh1t, but we are too inconsistent to be a top side. Our best can match it with any team, but our performance fluctuates week to week and good sides are always competitive.

We often criticise team selection when the bottom 5 or 6 players go in and out of the team and I’m as guilty as anyone for this, but the only players who turn up every week are McRae, Libba, Daniel, Crozier and maybe Smith.

Our best players - Bont, English, Naughton, JJ, Wood have enormous discrepancies between their best and worst games. If these guys can find the consistency week in and week out of the previous mentioned players, we immediately become a more stable side.

My selection criticism is usually around the usual scapegoats getting dropped or not getting a look in (see McLean, West, Trengrove, Schache) and the fact that we continually play with only 1 key forward or no ruck support to allow English to play forward.

 

[LondonBulldog]

I don't think we are that far off the ball. A little luck, confidence and momentum and we can beat any side this year, I truly believe that.

A fit and firing Naugthon, a cool head, good user in Duryea, improved transition and anything can happen.

The talent on your list helps yet so does game plan, commitment and pressure (2016). Season is not over yet, anyone can snatch it this year.

 

[Dogsman16]

This thread is a massive overaction.

A fit Naughton and JJ not hitting port players lace out and we win that game.

If we had
A) A stable 2 tall forward setup
B) a smart selection policy

we would win 2-3 more games per season.

Been without our VC (Former VC) for 6/10 games also.