Rumour Future of the club (Bevo, board, assistant coaches, football department)

[LondonBulldog]

You’re right about the spine but one problem - each of our premiership spine (excluding Roughead) played VFL in the same year.

Cordy, Boyd, Roberts and Hamling.

Meanwhile Sydney won a flag with LRT and Reid as KPFs with Goodes on one leg pinch hitting but then didn’t when they brought in Tippett and Buddy.

We have some cracking KPPs now but I’ve always believed games were won and lost in the midfield. Right now we have an exceptional starting midfield (which is aging quickly) then a big drop.

We need to turn our attention there asap. Sanders and Gallagher help but it’s been neglected for a long time.

I totally agree that its a midfielders/running game now. I would take it a step further and say apart from key positions players they all need to run and pressure.
I would argue that we don't have an exceptional starting midfield. Against the best of the best for the last two years our midfield has been soundly beaten.
Bont = A grade. The rest are over-rated by our own supporters. None of them cover the ground or are explosive enough. Libba gives his all and cracks in yet does have limitations. Treloar is an offensive runner first. Macrae can't cover the ground at the speed required.

We need fresh blood in there. Richards is a great start and a step in the right direction. Yet more is needed and we must continue to draft onballers and quick onballers (including wingers and flankers).

Its our only chance to capitalise on having Naughts, Jamarra, Darcy, Jones and some help in the key positions.

 

[Anja_Nees]

I totally agree that its a midfielders/running game now. I would take it a step further and say apart from key positions players they all need to run and pressure.
I would argue that we don't have an exceptional starting midfield. Against the best of the best for the last two years our midfield has been soundly beaten.
Bont = A grade. The rest are over-rated by our own supporters. None of them cover the ground or are explosive enough. Libba gives his all and cracks in yet does have limitations. Treloar is an offensive runner first. Macrae can't cover the ground at the speed required.

We need fresh blood in there. Richards is a great start and a step in the right direction. Yet more is needed and we must continue to draft onballers and quick onballers (including wingers and flankers).

Its our only chance to capitalise on having Naughts, Jamarra, Darcy, Jones and some help in the key positions.

I think Bont, Libba and Treloar are a very strong trio, but they aren’t helped by Tim giving ground in the ruck a fair bit and Bont’s been hampered.

Macrae is depth now and then it falls away badly. In 2021 we had Smith, Lipinski and Dunkley as younger mids coming through but in all likelihood the last one will be gone without playing another game for us. We have had a limited draft hand but we haven’t really done much about restocking (till Sanders).

 

[Planet Dogs]

Bevo must go. Grant must go. Baines is being underutilized (big projects such as the WO redevelopment are done). He can take on Grant's role. Egan can stay in his current role.

The above will free up massive cash to put together the best possible footy department.

 

[Mr. Walker]

Plz post your research!

For all Dalrymple's hits, we had some huge holes left on the list when he left.

Hope this works.
I have just done the Dalrymple years as a start. horrific start except for Picken but he did improve greatly. Father sons helped and the players he could have preferably chosen are only my opinion as bettter options. Will post similar table for Austin and Milesi although i think it is too early to make assumptions on alternative choices for Milesi

Year	Pick	Player	Pick	Player Missed
2009	15​	Christian Howard	20​	Nathan Fyfe
	31​	Jason Tutt	24​	Jake Carlisle
	63​	Lucas Markovic	38​	Sam Reid
	76​	Shane Thorne	69​	Taylor Duryea
	86​	Liam Picken	76​	Stewart Crameri
	92​	James Mulligan	86​	Ashton Hams
			​
2010	22​	Mitch Wallis
	41​	Tom Liberatore
	74​	Jayden Schofield
	88​	Zephaniah Skinner	76​	Paul Seedsman
	89​	Tom Hill
	102​	Brodie Moles
	110​	Andrew Hooper
2011​	17​	Clay Smith
	39​	Michael Talia
	49​	Daniel Pearce	56​	Lachie Neale
	57​	Tory Dickson
	70​	Luke Dahlhaus
	73​	Matthew Panos
​	​
2012​	5​	Jake Stringer
	6​	Jackson Macrae
	21​	Nathan Hrovat
	49​	Lachie Hunter
	50​	Joshua Prudden	81​	Rory Atkins
	98​	Tom Campbell
	105​	Jason Johannisen
​	​
2013​	4​	Marcus Bontempelli
	42​	Matthew Fuller	47​	Ben Brown
	60​	Mitch Honeychurch
	84​	Brett Goodes
​	​
2014​	26​	Toby McLean	29​	Touk Miller
	27​	Lukas Webb	30​	Brayden Maynard
	39​	Declan Hamilton	50​	Marc Pittonet
	45​	Bailey Dale
	46​	Caleb Daniel
	62​	Zaine Cordy
	​
2015​	25​	Josh Dunkley	55​	Sam Collins
	26​	Kieran Collins	66​	Sam Menegola
	35​	Marcus Adams
	48​	Bailey Williams
Year	Pick	Player	Pick	Player Missed
2016​	19​	Tim English	29​	Shai Bolton
	28​	Patrick Lipinski	52​	Willie Rioli
	49​	Lewis Young	73​	Nick Larkey
	70​	Fergus Greene	76​	Mitchell Lewis
2017​	9​	Aaron Naughton	76​	Matt Guelfi
	16​	Ed Richards
	74​	Callum Porter

 

[Mr. Walker]

Austin's draft selections

Year	Pick	Player	Pick	Preferred player
2018​	7​	Bailey Smith	65​	Darcy Fort
	26​	Rhylee West
	37​	Laitham Vandermeer
	45​	Ben Cavarra
	78​	Will Hayes
2019​	15​	Cody Weightman
	53​	Louis Butler
	62​	Riley Garcia

 

[Mr. Walker]

Milesi's drafts

Year	Pick	Player	Pick	Preferred player
2020​	1​	Jamarra Ugle-Hagan
	55​	Dominic Bedendo
2021​	2​	Sam Darcy
	43​	Arthur Jones
	61​	Luke Cleary
2022​	13​	Jed Busslinger
	24​	Charlie Clark
	39​	Harvey Gallagher
2023​	6​	Rhyley Sanders
	15​	Jordan Croft
	45​	Joel Freijah
	47​	Lachlan Smith
	55​	Aiden O'Driscoll

 

[weltschmerz]

Austin's draft selections

Year	Pick	Player	Pick	Preferred player
2018​	7​	Bailey Smith	65​	Darcy Fort
	26​	Rhylee West
	37​	Laitham Vandermeer
	45​	Ben Cavarra
	78​	Will Hayes
2019​	15​	Cody Weightman
	53​	Louis Butler
	62​	Riley Garcia

My thoughts - preferred players to Cavarra and Hayes would be Lachie Schulz (pick 57), Connor Idun (pick 61), Callum Wilkie (rookie pick 2), or Jordon Butts (rookie pick 39). Preferred player to Butler would be Michael Frederick at pick 61.

 

[dogwatch]

On a quick glance there aren't too many "shoulda picked" options in the right hand columns for any of our drafters.

All drafters miss a few. The fact that some of those players who became guns after a few years were late picks just means that every other drafter missed them too.

Darcy Fort

32

Darcy Fort

Age

30

Ht

204cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.6

2star

K

5.8

2star

HB

2.9

3star

M

1.9

2star

T

1.8

4star

G

0.8

4star

D

9.2

2star

K

6.0

2star

HB

3.2

2star

M

1.8

2star

T

1.8

3star

G

0.2

3star

D

7.6

2star

K

5.4

2star

HB

2.2

2star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.2

3star

G

1.2

4star

? Not losing any sleep over that one. And the comments on Shai Bolton

29

Shai Bolton

Age

25

Ht

176cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

M/F

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.3

3star

K

6.9

3star

HB

5.4

4star

M

2.8

3star

T

2.9

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

12.7

3star

K

9.2

4star

HB

3.5

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.7

4star

CL

1.8

4star

D

9.2

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

4.6

4star

M

2.0

3star

T

2.6

4star

CL

0.0

1star

were "will he make it?" for a couple of years before he finally became a star. Hard to blame anyone for missing out there.

Or is that too simplistic? What else do those tables tell us?

 

[stefoid]

Bevo must go. Grant must go. Baines is being underutilized (big projects such as the WO redevelopment are done). He can take on Grant's role. Egan can stay in his current role.

The above will free up massive cash to put together the best possible footy department.

hmm, in all this I hadnt considered the cash aspect, but yeah....

bring in some lean and hungry types with something to prove, and some extra coaches.

 

[TiAn_]

Dalrymple’s shortcoming early was talls. Didn’t bite the billet often enough and Fuller over Brown was egregious, considering how dire our KPPs were at that point. He did well later on with English, Adams, Naughton and Young.

 

[Struggle]

On a quick glance there aren't too many "shoulda picked" options in the right hand columns for any of our drafters.

All drafters miss a few. The fact that some of those players who became guns after a few years were late picks just means that every other drafter missed them too.

Darcy Fort? Not losing any sleep over that one. And the comments on Shai Bolton were "will he make it?" for a couple of years before he finally became a star. Hard to blame anyone for missing out there.

Or is that too simplistic? What else do those tables tell us?

Tables tell that we've massively underutilised the draft since 2016 and held onto players for a year or two too long when it was clear they wouldn't make it. Between 17-22 we never took more than 3 young players in a draft

 

[Norm De Guerre]

on another note, last year I became a 20 year western bulldogs member.

Do you know what the club sent me ? A computer written generic note with my membership saying thanks for being a 20 year member, and a sew-on cotton patch that says “20 year member” that’s about the size of a 20cent piece.

It was actually the lamest thing ever. How many 20 year members do you think they have each year?

Why not a special match day experience, go into club rooms etc. signed footy from the Bont ?

It was quite symbolic for me of just how badly this club is run right now.

Of all the things you can ding the club for right now.

This has to be one of the lamest.

 

[Dazb86]

Dalrymple’s shortcoming early was talls. Didn’t bite the billet often enough and Fuller over Brown was egregious, considering how dire our KPPs were at that point. He did well later on with English, Adams, Naughton and Young.

Jarrad Grant over Jack Riewoldt probably cost us a flag.

 

[TiAn_]

Jarrad Grant over Jack Riewoldt probably cost us a flag.

Haha it was Andrejs Everitt over Riewoldt. That was horrible at the time. I remember being staggered.

Scott Clayton, wowee.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

on another note, last year I became a 20 year western bulldogs member.

Do you know what the club sent me ? A computer written generic note with my membership saying thanks for being a 20 year member, and a sew-on cotton patch that says “20 year member” that’s about the size of a 20cent piece.

It was actually the lamest thing ever. How many 20 year members do you think they have each year?

Why not a special match day experience, go into club rooms etc. signed footy from the Bont ?

It was quite symbolic for me of just how badly this club is run right now.

When I was a kid, kids would say, “Whaddya want, a medal or a chest to pin it on?”

But I’m not a kid

 

[VitalDread]

On a quick glance there aren't too many "shoulda picked" options in the right hand columns for any of our drafters.

All drafters miss a few. The fact that some of those players who became guns after a few years were late picks just means that every other drafter missed them too.

Darcy Fort? Not losing any sleep over that one. And the comments on Shai Bolton were "will he make it?" for a couple of years before he finally became a star. Hard to blame anyone for missing out there.

Or is that too simplistic? What else do those tables tell us?

Tigers development program is pretty elite

Don't think Bolton would have hit his standards under ours

 

[Dog 36]

Tigers development program is pretty elite

Don't think Bolton would have hit his standards under ours

What makes Tigers development pretty elite compared to the program at the Kennel?

Facilities?
Money spent?
Personnel?

If you could comment would be appreciated

 

[maddog37]

Retrospective hand wringing over missed draft picks is self flagellation of the worst kind.

Thread is FUTURE of club.

 

[dogwatch]

Retrospective hand wringing over missed draft picks is self flagellation of the worst kind.

Thread is FUTURE of club.

Yep.

But before we leave the topic, be grateful we're not St Kilda.

 

[Snarls Barkley]

Tigers development program is pretty elite

Don't think Bolton would have hit his standards under ours

Tigers program was definitely elite during that period in particular.

With Bolton, I feel like it was more great drafting than great development (although every with every good player its probably close to a 50/50 mixture of both). I didn't see any of his VFL games in the early years but in the few AFL games it just looked like he had it. He has gone on to be a far greater player than I expected but there was always the look of an A grade small forward.

Obviously during that period Hardwick rated the defensive skills of his small forwards more than offensive skills and it took a while to get past Butler, Rioli and Castagna in the pecking order but once he did he never looked back. I think he would've been a really good player wherever he started.

 

[Anja_Nees]

Tables tell that we've massively underutilised the draft since 2016 and held onto players for a year or two too long when it was clear they wouldn't make it. Between 17-22 we never took more than 3 young players in a draft

Holding on too long has been an issue a long time (ie giving Schache 3 years but recruiting Bruce, who forced him out, at the same damn time).

Now we have Baker and Poulter entrenched in the twos with contracts for next year…

 

[_Mike_]

Jarrad Grant over Jack Riewoldt probably cost us a flag.

Don't you dare say that about Spindleshanks

 

[TiAn_]

Holding on too long has been an issue a long time (ie giving Schache 3 years but recruiting Bruce, who forced him out, at the same damn time).

Now we have Baker and Poulter entrenched in the twos with contracts for next year…

Scott also contracted for next year and looks miles off a spot in the team.

It’s also blokes like Bedendo and Cleary that have been on the list 3-4 years and haven’t made a dent that we should be a bit more cut throat with and delist rather than keep until they’re 24.

At least we’ve got our ruck position locked in for a couple years even if Lobb and English go:

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Tables tell that we've massively underutilised the draft since 2016 and held onto players for a year or two too long when it was clear they wouldn't make it. Between 17-22 we never took more than 3 young players in a draft

Some of those years were the COVID years where kids were not playing.

 

[Anja_Nees]

Scott also contracted for next year and looks miles off a spot in the team.

It’s also blokes like Bedendo and Cleary that have been on the list 3-4 years and haven’t made a dent that we should be a bit more cut throat with and delist rather than keep until they’re 24.

At least we’ve got our ruck position locked in for a couple years even if Lobb and English go:

View attachment 1976857

At Scott’s age, and given his standing (ie handy fringe player) he should really be year to year. No reason he should have a deal for next season.