Coach Luke Beveridge and his on-field coaching.

[MaxiBont]

I think a lot of the optimism in the first part of the season was due to how well some were playing.

VDM was playing great, West (still playing well but has dropped off from early season) was playing amazing. Harmes was the highest rated wingman, McNeil was playing well + we had and still have good games out of Sanders, Freijah, Davidson and others.

There was hope that getting Bont, Treloar (the first time) and then Darcy back with the continued form of those above would have us fighting for top 4

A few players haven't been able to keep the early season form and that's hurt us, alongside our inability to beat top teams.

 

[grassman75]

And it's a big reason we don't crash too the bottom of the ladder as we are consistently bringing through youth. Trouble is we never reach the critical mass of experienced talent together at the one time to challenge the top rung of teams

I think there is merit in that. The club has come from a long way back and needed consistent finals appearances, win or lose to build memberships to fund other requirements. Put simply, we can’t afford to be shit.

I’ll take current Dogs teams over Stk, Norf, Carl, Ess etc….we've been there and it sucked. Hopefully we can climb the mountain again. Bugger 3 flags in 4 years and then rubbish…I’d prefer consistent appearances and Grand Finals every 5-6 years

 

[Doggies_13]

I’ve been saying this for a while. We need two types of defensive press. High press when we are monstering weak teams, and a softer version when we are playing teams that can match or beat our midfield, and can transition to an open forward line swiftly. Possibly in conjunction with a defensive sweeper.

So far I haven’t seen any sign of such nuance. One size fits all.

That’s one of the biggest issue I see. We are very much focused on ourselves and that if we get our game going we will win.

I’d like to see us look to take an opposition strength away.

Obviously can’t get too opposition focused but we need to identify strengths and parts of the game the opposition need to win.

And like you say we need to adjust our defensive press based on opposition. We need to learn to adjust game on game and even within games. When we are on top press up and look to put games away but the moment 2 goals are conceded tighten up and be more anchored and locking down with a less aggressive press

 

[Maverick Dog]

I think there is merit in that. The club has come from a long way back and needed consistent finals appearances, win or lose to build memberships to fund other requirements. Put simply, we can’t afford to be shit.

I’ll take current Dogs teams over Stk, Norf, Carl, Ess etc….we've been there and it sucked. Hopefully we can climb the mountain again. Bugger 3 flags in 4 years and then rubbish…I’d prefer consistent appearances and Grand Finals every 5-6 years

Would prefer 3 flags and a prelim in 4 years than 1 flag and 1 gf and multiple first round exits. Looks like Tigers are on the right track for another dynasty in 5 years. The pain of 5 years is definitely worth it. Yes we are better than half the teams but we have been blessed of late with elite talent and we cannot make the top 4 under Bevo.

 

[Munnez]

I think there is merit in that. The club has come from a long way back and needed consistent finals appearances, win or lose to build memberships to fund other requirements. Put simply, we can’t afford to be shit.

I’ll take current Dogs teams over Stk, Norf, Carl, Ess etc….we've been there and it sucked. Hopefully we can climb the mountain again. Bugger 3 flags in 4 years and then rubbish…I’d prefer consistent appearances and Grand Finals every 5-6 years

I agree with the sentiment we cannot afford to bottom out. It also makes it difficult to compete against the hardened sides that can trade in FA to prop them up Pies Lions etc

 

[Zeno The Great]

Why would Jones/Khamis/Buss have fared better than Lobb and O’Donnell?

I wasn't suggesting one of them be replaced, but what options did we have to move the magnets if one of them was getting beaten badly, and let's be honest could they have done any worse if we did.

I think O'Donnell is developing really well for his age and experience and we have to keep playing him, but he had a howler on Saturday, got completely lost multiple times, and we didn't have a single option to move him because we went in with 2 talls only. I completely agree the majority of our issues are structural, but it would be nice to try something different rather than seeing forwards all have their beat game against us in the same manner.

 

[blagodellago]

I’ve heard pretty much all our defenders say at various points how instructional Liam Jones

19

Liam Jones

Age

35

Ht

199cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.4

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

134.5

2star

D

7.6

2star

K

6.1

3star

HB

1.4

1star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.4

2star

MG

116.3

2star

D

9.4

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.0

2star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

is on field re their positioning and how beneficial it is. Reckon we’ve been missing this.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

I wasn't suggesting one of them be replaced, but what options did we have to move the magnets if one of them was getting beaten badly, and let's be honest could they have done any worse if we did.

I think O'Donnell is developing really well for his age and experience and we have to keep playing him, but he had a howler on Saturday, got completely lost multiple times, and we didn't have a single option to move him because we went in with 2 talls only. I completely agree the majority of our issues are structural, but it would be nice to try something different rather than seeing forwards all have their beat game against us in the same manner.

It was the suggestion having an extra tall that I was questioning. How the game was playing out, it would have meant we had 3 talls getting beaten opposed to only two. Selection for that game wasn’t as big an issue as some are suggesting. IMO.

I don’t think our defenders have done too badly this year. O’Donnell and Lobb have shared the chocolates throughout most of the season. Both this year have outperformed most, if not all our tall defenders over the last 3-5 years. Jones last year probably on par.

Pitty Lobb is at the end of his career. Hopefully Buss comes on or the club has plans to bring in a partners for O’Donnell over the next 5-8 years.

I still think we’re balls deep in this years flag. Our biggest losing margins have been 22 and 21 points. The rest within 15. Only two teams have gotten on large unmatched runs of goals. That being Freo and the cats. We played poorly across the park for most of Saturdays game against the crows, and only lost by 10 points. We haven’t been beaten comfortably by any team all year.

I don’t think things are as bad as some believe.

 

[mattwa]

9 players under 50 games at the moment playing for us. Our backline is a worry but I think it is personel and not system which is easier to fix

 

[The 4th Horseman]

I think there is merit in that. The club has come from a long way back and needed consistent finals appearances, win or lose to build memberships to fund other requirements. Put simply, we can’t afford to be shit.

I’ll take current Dogs teams over Stk, Norf, Carl, Ess etc….we've been there and it sucked. Hopefully we can climb the mountain again. Bugger 3 flags in 4 years and then rubbish…I’d prefer consistent appearances and Grand Finals every 5-6 years

Bugger 3 flags in 4 years ? We've won 2 in our history. Rubbish is consistent appearances without ever threatening.

 

[TiAn_]

For balance, I think the coaches have done a good job this year of finding multiple consistent avenues to goal with Jamarra and Weightman out. We’ve already hit 13 double digit goal scorers for the season with 6 games to go. The last time we had that many double digit goals scorers was 2016, which included 4 weeks of finals.

 

[grassman75]

Bugger 3 flags in 4 years ? We've won 2 in our history. Rubbish is consistent appearances without ever threatening.

Are you just salty that you didn’t see us win the Perth GF?

 

[The 4th Horseman]

Are you just salty that you didn’t see us win the Perth GF?

Of course I was. Weren't you?

 

[grassman75]

Of course I was. Weren't you?

I meant live….

 

[The 4th Horseman]

I meant live….

Yeah I'm not oblivious. Not sure how that is relevant to the first post ? Would you rather our club win 3 flags in 4 years or just stay in the top 8 without winning any ?

 

[grassman75]

Yeah I'm not oblivious. Not sure how that is relevant to the first post ? Would you rather our club win 3 flags in 4 years or just stay in the top 8 without winning any ?

Of course I’d love to win multiple flags in quick succession….but the reality is, the comp is as difficult as it ever has been and to win a flag in the current climate it’s something like an average of 1 in every 18 years. Our team needs to stay thereabouts and can’t afford to have a big fall and rot down the bottom like North. That would undo all the good work that the club has done to remain competitive every year. If we won one or made a GF every 5 years, I’d take that.

 

[grassman75]

Also, we were balls deep last year until whatever it was that happened with JUH. NO.1 for defence and No. 2 for attack….yetbthat night v the hawks was one out of the box. It was the missed opportunity. I truly believe we’d go deep last year until whatever happened behind closed doors

 

[The 4th Horseman]

Of course I’d love to win multiple flags in quick succession….but the reality is, the comp is as difficult as it ever has been and to win a flag in the current climate it’s something like an average of 1 in every 18 years. Our team needs to stay thereabouts and can’t afford to have a big fall and rot down the bottom like North. That would undo all the good work that the club has done to remain competitive every year. If we won one or made a GF every 5 years, I’d take that.

I hear you and I feel it. However, I want premierships. Every Bulldogs supporter does.

 

[grassman75]

I hear you and I feel it. However, I want premierships. Every Bulldogs supporter does.

Absolutely….its all we want….but I also want to see my team in finals and not wallowing at the bottom at risk of being wiped out….ive seen that movie befoe

 

[MrChristo]

For balance, I think the coaches have done a good job this year of finding multiple consistent avenues to goal with Jamarra and Weightman out. We’ve already hit 13 double digit goal scorers for the season with 6 games to go. The last time we had that many double digit goals scorers was 2016, which included 4 weeks of finals.

Again, we're not in total disagreement about our zoning 'issues'...

...but this glosses over our scoring performances in losses just as much.

Average score in losses; 87.7 (*)
Average score in wins; 120.0

Now, obviously, most of our wins come with a complete midfield/I50 dominance, but...

...Average amount of I50/scoring shot in losses; 4.20. In all 7 losses individually, we've gone at 3.50 I50/score or worse. [Av. I50/goal = 2.19]
Average in wins is 3.39, with only 3 out of the 10 wins worse than 3.50. (And only 2 worse than 3.53) [Av. I50/goal 1.80]

(*) I'd love to find a Time of Possession stat for each game, as I think that would tell us a lot. It's a sporting truism that the opposition can't score while you have the ball.

Something else I'd like to dive into (if I can randomly keep bumping this thread every week or so) is score sources. The opposition sources more specifically.
There doesn't seem to be a great correlation between opposition teams originating their scores from our forward half (ie. their back half) to wins/losses.
Adelaide just smacked us (47 points), Geelong smacked us (63, from 13 shots)...2nd worst for the year was v. North in round 1! They kicked 8.3.
Not sure how any of that compares to other teams (with is the nub of the matter of course), but yeah, 'only' giving up 41 to Brisbane, 36 to Collingwood and 33 to GC does somewhat suggest to me that we actually set up pretty well...

And our defensive numbers against Hawthorn are all pretty good! (* This would be a particularly interesting TOP game)...
...yet we kicked 8.11.
Did we try something different that game?

It's all very interesting, but no, I still don't think it's as simple as playing a deeper zone

 

[Frewy]

For balance, I think the coaches have done a good job this year of finding multiple consistent avenues to goal with Jamarra and Weightman out. We’ve already hit 13 double digit goal scorers for the season with 6 games to go. The last time we had that many double digit goals scorers was 2016, which included 4 weeks of finals.

The mini rebuild has gone well I think with a lot of positives. Defence has struggled a bit for which they tried and missed on Barrass, but if you said we would be in this shape now at the start of 2024 I would have been sceptical.

 

[MrChristo]

This game really should put to bed the thought that "our zone is our problem".

I can't remember one Brisbane goal that we can blame on the zone set up so far...
...and the first 10 minutes of the 3rd has been a perfect microcosm of our season.
We give up a relatively easy goal straight up after losing a centre clearance, despite having bulk numbers at the contest in the goal square.

We have 3 huge opportunities to score, with the exact fast break, zone breaking plays that would have us tearing out collective hair out, and badly muff them all. Awful entries/forward play/decisions/execution.

Brisbane then pull the trigger and hit a kick to a player surrounded by 5 Dogs, who then kicks to a 2-2 which we lose and they kick a goal.

We've currently had 12 shots from 34 entries, and our kicking skills have fallen off a cliff.

 

[go you pups]

This game really should put to bed the thought that "our zone is our problem".

I can't remember one Brisbane goal that we can blame on the zone set up so far...
...and the first 10 minutes of the 3rd has been a perfect microcosm of our season.
We give up a relatively easy goal straight up after losing a centre clearance, despite having bulk numbers at the contest in the goal square.

We have 3 huge opportunities to score, with the exact fast break, zone breaking plays that would have us tearing out collective hair out, and badly muff them all. Awful entries/forward play/decisions/execution.

Brisbane then pull the trigger and hit a kick to a player surrounded by 5 Dogs, who then kicks to a 2-2 which we lose and they kick a goal.

We've currently had 12 shots from 34 entries, and our kicking skills have fallen off a cliff.

Can't fault this

Dale, Bramble, Williams, Richards all turning it over and Brisbane punish us time and time again

That being said, Bevo just loses the same way every week against teams equal or above us on the ladder, said the trend in the gameday thread

 

[hutchy31]

You cannot sit with a 1-8 record against the better teams in the comp, with seven of those losses almost identical, and claim it’s random.

The team does not tackle properly, the players make poorer decisions than the opposition, the team selection is poor, and the defensive approach does not stand up against half decent AFL players.

It’s ****ing pathetic. Despite the list issues and age profile, this team should be 2-4 wins better and right in the hunt. But poor coaching and leadership has us on the verge of missing finals.

Some people in this administration might think we’re digging out of the hole of being a small club. Until we actually prioritise on field performance we’ll be an afterthought. It’s embarrassing how this team is losing against any decent team - every time.

 

[TMoney22]

The way all teams play at the end of qtrs is exactly how to beat our defensive set up. Obviously in red time, you try to move the ball quickly forward and get a score. Its no suprise we are giving up goals at that time, or when teams have momentum or have players with penetrating kicks. We've seen it so many times.

Offensively our mids are making up for half our forwards who aren't likely to kick a goal and they have a hard time defending their opponents and helping out our back line as a result