Have the umpires deserted the Bulldogs ?

[Pessimistic]

Are the bulldogs over the hill or are they getting lass 'favourable' decisions from the umpires ? I always thought that their 'running' game relied on favourable 'holding the ball' decisions from the umpires.

Have a look at this stat extracted from the AFL site

"The Bulldogs are having trouble with their judgement in tackling situations this season. Bulldog players have been caught with the ball 33 times in 2000 (league average 18), and they have been penalised for tackling a player who didn’t have the ball 36 times (league average 23)"

Perhaps they were never quite that good and are not stretching the rules this year quite as well as in previous years. Looks like Plough will have to reinvent the Doggies to contunue in the AFL. Still, he;s simultanously cultivated a media career if the Westerners revert to the coach-sacking days

Any Opinions ?

 

[Grendel]

Blighty is just keeping the seat on the couch warm for plough to take over agian next year pess.

 

[gocatsgo]

The Bulldogs have been cheating the system for the last five years.

Maybe the umpires have finally caught on to what they have been doing and perhaps it's telling on their results.

 

[Shinboners]

The Bulldogs normally play a running game, and for that to work, they need to be playing confidently. But their confidence seems to have deserted them in the past few weeks. When their confidence is down and their game plan breaks down, suddenly their tackles are mistimed and when they do have the ball, their decision making is a second too slow and they get caught with the ball. I don't think the Doggies have the players that can truly grind out a result when things aren't going their way.

Anyway Pess, good luck to the Hawks tonight when they take on my beloved Kangaroos. I look forward to chatting to you about the game sometime in the next few days.

 

[Dave]

Pess,
they did ok two weeks ago (particularly from Mr McLaren). One suspects that during this year they've been under more pressure when both disposing and tackling due to the longer kicking games plans being used (which IMO render their possesion game somewhat useless) which has resulted in a higher number of clangers.

 

[elt]

Interesting stats Pess but I think too much is being left to to few in their side this year.

A couple of key injuries has found them wanting and teams have found that if quality players are being tagged by the likes of Libba and Romero they can run forward and be damaging.

I agree that they have had a good run with umpiring in the past but I don't think it is a turnaround in umpiring that is costing them this year.

 

[stringertheking]

Things haven't changed Dogs have been robbed by the umpires for years. Just ask Adelaide when we played them at eithad this season. Or Sydney in granny.

 

[Malifice]

Cut the thread bumping out. Its getting tiresome.