Autopsy Post 2021 Grand Final Western Bulldogs game review, the good the bad and the ugly, come talk about it here!

[Bazzas Lovechild]

I don't want to trade him out. He's not a first ruck, and not a 1st KPF, but forward/rucks are bloody hard to find.
Our midfield set up was poor in the 3rd and it killed us.
They have genuine intercepting KPDs so we had to change our gameplan for that. Our defenders are battlers so their forwards could play their natural game.

We knew going in ruck was a concern and the second KPD position too. Tonight just reinforced what basically everyone on here has been saying for months anyway.

We got the no 1 draft pick last year (KPF) and a top 3 draft pick this year (KPD). Tonight was horrible but let's not lose sight of how close we are to fixing our issues.

Thought Darcy was a ruck/ forward? Has he played any time in defense?

 

[wayniac]

One good thing was to come out of this game was that it's a timely lesson that turning up and playing 1.5 quarters of good footy wont win you a GF

Was like that game against Geelong we went to where we blew a big lead and got smashed. Remember Mike?

 

[ScragCity]

My 7 year old daughter is crying just told her the boys will be back poor thing

I remember crying over the '97 prelim when I was 7. It stings even at such a young age.

 

[LukasTheGreat]

At the ground, the scenes from the Melbourne supporters reminded me of 2016. I'm stoked for them. What a special moment for them.

 

[footscray1973]

I don't want to trade him out. He's not a first ruck, and not a 1st KPF, but forward/rucks are bloody hard to find.
Our midfield set up was poor in the 3rd and it killed us.
They have genuine intercepting KPDs so we had to change our gameplan for that. Our defenders are battlers so their forwards could play their natural game.

We knew going in ruck was a concern and the second KPD position too. Tonight just reinforced what basically everyone on here has been saying for months anyway.

We got the no 1 draft pick last year (KPF) and a top 3 draft pick this year (KPD). Tonight was horrible but let's not lose sight of how close we are to fixing our issues.

Agree forward/rucks are hard to find. But he never seems to generate intensity. His best games were early this season in a 3-pronged forward line with minimal ruck time. But is he a better forward than Bruce, Naughton or JUH. Or even Schache, other than his height? I'm not entirely sold on Tim English, happy if he proves me wrong though.

 

[bullish23]

Goodwin has not one but two ex senior coaches as his assistants, Williams and Richardson . Just sayin

True but who’s paying for it all? Been thinking this for some time.

 

[Oliver G]

I made this point in the Retire Wood thread and I'll make it again here.

Name a defender in the competition who could've done anything about the avalanche of inside 50 that they had coming their way when the game turned on its head in the 3rd? Richards wouldn't have made a lick of difference tonight.

Defensive certainly wasn't the issue tonight, but I do think it's time for Wood to hang up the boots. If we won tonight I reckon he would've.

Buku is his long-term replacement and if wasn't for COVID and he had two full VFL seasons under his belt he'd be in the team already. Maybe another pre-season might be enough but we'll see.

Knowing Bevo he'll take someone from the forward line and they'll end up being an AA next year.

 

[Igloo]

My dad died earlier this year. Terrible man. He was a Melbourne supporter. I'm convinced this is his final * you from beyond the grave.

 

[Thunderoad]

I thought Cordy was one of our better players tonight.

He has obvious deficiencies and got exposed a couple of times but far from our worst.

I still would have picked Gardner and I don't see a great future for Cordy in the best 22 but yeah, not terrible.

 

[fred cook]

Goodwin has not one but two ex senior coaches as his assistants, Williams and Richardson . Just sayin

We have Ashley Hansen and R Smith. F me


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[The City Boyz]

Many players struggled tonight, even Keath looked fumbly and uncertain. Bailey Fritz (couldn't remember the spelling) didn't have an opponent all night. Schache, Hannan and Weightman never got near it. Don't get me started on English - just about the poorest game by a 'ruckman' I've seen in a final. Libba battled hard but faded, Bont our best, Macrae and Daniel never gave up. Most of the others well beaten.
A great effort to reach this far but we can't carry this many passengers going forward next year.
The deficiencies we've identified for a long time: ruck and key back stood out like beacons tonight.
Onwards and upwards.

Thought Schache did his role on Lever then helped out in defence, wasn't our worst

 

[Thunderoad]

My dad died earlier this year. Terrible man. He was a Melbourne supporter. I'm convinced this is his final fu** you from beyond the grave.

The real pricks in life have a habit of doing that.

 

[adogsfan5]

I thought Cordy was one of our better players tonight.

He has obvious deficiencies and got exposed a couple of times but far from our worst.

I still would have picked Gardner and I don't see a great future for Cordy in the best 22 but yeah, not terrible.

The starting point for our defenders is whats shi**ing me. We start 10m in front, don’t look where they are and end up as step ladders. It’s MIND BOGGLING

 

[Libba39]

Any team ever been 3 goals up half way through the third then go on to lose by 12 goals in the GF before?

I’m truely jealous of people who can remain positive at times like this.

Great effort to make the GF, but that last 1.5 quarters was down to much more than losing the ruck battle.

In reality the second quarter seems like an aberration now. We had a crack but were nowhere near it.

We were outplayed in pretty much every position. Wouldn't pin it just on the ruck thats for sure.

 

[footscray1973]

They all lost players which contributed to that though.
I don't think we're losing anyone who played tonight, save for Stef Martin perhaps and almost any experienced ruck will be an upgrade.

Unless you give any credence to rumours in the trade thread that conveniently omit names.

 

[Struggle]

I thought Cordy was one of our better players tonight.

He has obvious deficiencies and got exposed a couple of times but far from our worst.

I still would have picked Gardner and I don't see a great future for Cordy in the best 22 but yeah, not terrible.

Nah he was responsible for their midfield waltzing out of the square and banging them from 50

 

[TheBont]

My dad died earlier this year. Terrible man. He was a Melbourne supporter. I'm convinced this is his final fu** you from beyond the grave.

My old man died last year. Was hoping they’d pull a win for him this season. Hurts.

 

[philmb]

Still so very proud of this team, to make it to the Grand Final for only the 4th time in our history - our 2nd in the space of 6 years!

I’m not fazed by the margin. Once we knew there was no coming back, you leak goals (we were on the right side of that in the Prelim). Why did we stop though in the third? I don’t have the answer but I’m sure it’ll be analysed to death over the off-season.

I don’t care much for the ‘teams that lose big in the GF fade away in subsequent years’ theorists here…They were the same pointing out minor premiers don’t usually win the big dance.

We’ll be back. A list that’s entering their peak years, plenty of x-factor, one of the best players & leader in the Bont, gems in Marra & young Darcy still to shine, & a coach that brings out our best (most of the time).

Bring on ‘22! Hope it’s back at the ‘G & that Dogs sons & daughters everywhere can go!

 

[adogsfan5]

We have Ashley Hansen and R Smith. F me


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Well, we’ve lost King to the Suns. Will we recruit a big name? Or now go with the same plan in another retired bulldog? Maybe Picken?

 

[Kretiukwasking]

I remember crying over the '97 prelim when I was 7. It stings even at such a young age.

I remember crying at the '97 preliminary when I was 27. It stings at any age! Let's stick fat and back the boys in. Stand our ground....we'll be fine

 

[Triple Baileys]

The framework is there. An experienced ruck and an intercepting defender (or a FB to release Keith) and we're a different side.

TBH I think losing a prelim hurts more.

Sorry, Mofra but we need a little more than that. We have a fair clutch of players who are consistently selected or in the mix for selection who just don't play well consistently, they are passengers more often than not but we have been able to ignore this while our elite group play above the two standard deviations mark for excellence.

 

[revo333]

Im still trying to figure out if we made any changes in the centre of the ground when Petracca and Oliver took over the game with that blistering final 10 minutes of the 3rd.

Not sure if there was, but maybe someone on the defensive side for atleast one of bounces might of helped.

 

[dergert]

Let's just pray that this doesn't break our playing group.

 

[Peter Wallis]

I made this point in the Retire Wood thread and I'll make it again here.

Name a defender in the competition who could've done anything about the avalanche of inside 50 that they had coming their way when the game turned on its head in the 3rd? Richards wouldn't have made a lick of difference tonight.

Not saying he would but he would add pace to our side which we need. We lost because when they got their run on in the 3rd quarter we lost our belief and mentally gave up. Also didn't see too many tactical changes from the coach to try and stem the tide when things turned their way.
We just accepted our fate and handed it to them.
Melbourne deserve to be premiers but they shouldn't be kicking 12 straight goals in 30 minutes.

 

[100action]

Overall not too surprised, i had pegged us at a 10 to 20% chance going in.

Bevo will need to rethink a couple of things, the ruck and forward structure amongst a couple of things.

With the relinquishing of a significant amount of draft picks over 2 consecutive years for Ugle-Harran and Darcy, this will also create a bit of a gap in the list in the future. Very interested to see what Sam Power

Sam Power

Age

41

Ht

190cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.7

4star

K

7.8

3star

HB

6.9

4star

M

4.2

4star

T

2.0

4star

No current season stats available

D

7.8

2star

K

3.8

2star

HB

4.0

3star

M

1.8

2star

T

1.6

4star

cooks up.