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

[DognBones]

I reckon trade English, retire Martin, delist Sweet, and go into next year with no ruckman at all.

(Sorry, just channelling my inner Bevo!)

Sarcasm will get you nowhere, but wait, you make a lot of sense.

 

[Dogsman16]

I don’t know what to say. That hurt so bad.

obviously wasn’t the difference but Cordy over Gardiner was a laughable selection.

Yep that stings. How do we lose a half of football by over 80 points? Like just how

 

[footscray1973]

Blokes a tall spud
The sooner we accept it the better

Wow, unusually harsh from you. But quite possibly accurate. He just lacks intensity, and as I've posted several times this year, I don't think he will ever be a ruckman, he's just a midfielder who had a growth spurt. Will take a huge call from Power/Bevo to trade him out, but wouldn't be entirely surprised if he is not a Bulldog next year.

 

[The Inbetweener]

I hope this doesn't sound negative but I'm generally interested as to what you think it was if it wasn't primarily the ruck and centre set up?

We just let them walk it out of the centre almost identical to what happened in the R21 Essendon game.

I also reckon our forward entries were generally poor especially in the first quarter.

The centre clearances was a massive part of it, but the fact our mids couldn’t adapt (we haven’t had a number 1 ruck all year so we should be used to it), not tagging Petracca and some absolutely horrible defensive efforts were all factors.

 

[Bazzas Lovechild]

That's just not how the AFL player market works...but whatever...

Freo or Eagles lining up a first rounder for him you think?

 

[Mutt]

Let's be measured in our responses now. No laying into the players, the coach or other supporters.

Disappointing day but we'll be back.

 

[halfback dasher]

Just read some stuff on the Dee’s board from some of you doggies fans ...ALL CLASS
Cry and wonder what if for a day or two then I’m sure you will drag ya selves off the canvas , work some magic during trade period and be ready to go again in 2022 .
Great yr ......
And s**t what I wouldn’t give up for the Bont .....#star

 

[doggy heaven]

We choked, no doubt about it.

We had a hand on the cup and Bont was set for the Norm smith after taking control of the 2nd quarter.

3 goals in 2 minutes was a disaster, how the fu** it got worse from there is inexcusable.

I just don’t know what else to say, we absolutely stopped and then embarrassed ourselves. 12+ goal loss has now set us back a few years from what could have been a dynasty.

Easy... Crap coaching

 

[Igloo]

If you're throwing English out based on tonight, you better be sending about 5 or 6 others with him

I thought he was alright in the first half. Certainly wasn't alone in the second.

 

[Sentinel]

Can we calm down on the whole "this has set us back years" calls? Absolute rubbish.

 

[_Mike_]

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

 

[Bazzas Lovechild]

Freo or Eagles lining up a first rounder for him you think?

I should add English is not the reason we lost. We were poor all over the ground and are lacking in so many places…the ruck is just one of them.

 

[Oliver G]

The centre clearances was a massive part of it, but the fact our mids couldn’t adapt (we haven’t had a number 1 ruck all year so we should be used to it), not tagging Petracca and some absolutely horrible defensive efforts were all factors.

True, I'm shocked we didn't at least try and tag Petracca and even Oliver in the first 20 minutes.

 

[The Inbetweener]

Bont going to get weeks for his knock on Oliver?

 

[Mofra]

Wow, unusually harsh from you. But quite possibly accurate. He just lacks intensity, and as I've posted several times this year, I don't think he will ever be a ruckman, he's just a midfielder who had a growth spurt. Will take a huge call from Power/Bevo to trade him out, but wouldn't be entirely surprised if he is not a Bulldog next year.

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.

 

[Dogs Rule]

Can we calm down on the whole "this has set us back years" calls? Absolute rubbish.

Exactly. It's one friggen game. It was crap, but it was one game. Next year we start again. We get aggressive drafting and trading and rejig the assistant coaches and start again.

 

[_Mike_]

I should add English is not the reason we lost

Martin was underdone English is at best a backup ruck. If there's ever a glaring deficiency about list weaknesses, that's it. They need to sort that out fast

 

[Selim]

Can we calm down on the whole "this has set us back years" calls? Absolute rubbish.

like if you look at the recent track record Crows in 2017, Dees in 2018, Gws in 2019 all didnt make finals the next year its a fair call i hope its wrong and it could just be the dead inside of me talking but im not overally optimistic

 

[TheBont]

Bont going to get weeks for his knock on Oliver?

It didn’t look too bad on the replays.

 

[The Inbetweener]

True, I'm shocked we didn't at least try and tag Petracca and even Oliver in the first 20 minutes.

It’s easy sitting from the couch, but at least go defensive after they kicked those 2 directly from clearances.

It’s a concern when our midfield is meant to be our best weapon but can be so easily beaten like that.

 

[Here we go dogs]

Lost the battle tonight, let’s win the war

 

[Walsh Bay]

The conundrum that is Jack Macrae continues.

Is he underrated midfield record-breaking multiple AA savant? Is he a mere collector that opposition coaches just ignore? Is he both? Where was he in that ten minute horror period?

 

[Bazzas Lovechild]

True, I'm shocked we didn't at least try and tag Petracca and even Oliver in the first 20 minutes.

Bevo don’t tag

 

[_Mike_]

Bont going to get weeks for his knock on Oliver?

Not really, you can see he slowed down and backed off before the impact. Fine at worst IMO

 

[CarnTheScray]

Just don’t want us to piss away perfect opportunities to win flags.

Id like to think that really the travel just caught up to us in the third but the problem is bigger than that tbh.