Rodney Eade

[minters]

sorry, dont agree - that move was negative footy - and bad coaching - and it was like we were waving the White Flag before the game was even started !

What about using Akka to kick goals and inspire the boys, and lift the other guys confidence in themselves ?

Much more pro active if u ask me !

C'mon Wian...You can't attribute the collective groups insipid performance on the Aker tactic? He basically had the same structture throughout all the lines and guess what? We ****ed Up!!! No centre clearances, no run off the backline, (other than a few efforts from Griff), not many contested marks in the forward fifty and a prominent poor level of skill and selection under pressure... That can't be Eade's fault and certainly can't be connected to Aker starting in the backline. If our players need inspiration from a forward to play well in the finals then we were doomed from the start!!!

 

[hoianbulldog]

Hey Guys.... Has it ever occured to you that perhaps maybe, just maybe, he started him there to disrupt the oppositions match ups? I don't think he stayed on him for too long.... He was moved into the middle as soon as he saw our "boys" copping a belting!!!

I'd like to watch the tape again but i think you might find Aker spent quarter and a half down back.

 

[BenMacAn]

I just read Rocket's press conference and he said the players were over awed by the experience well he said 6 weeks ago they were planing for this so I just can't buy this as it is the coaching staff's job to get these guys ready for a big occasion like this and they said they had prepared for 6 weeks for this final. I did not see the Hawks being over awed they just smashed us and were way better prepared and coached than we were.

 

[wian]

I just read Rocket's press conference and he said the players were over awed by the experience well he said 6 weeks ago they were planing for this so I just can't buy this as it is the coaching staff's job to get these guys ready for a big occasion like this and they said they had prepared for 6 weeks for this final. I did not see the Hawks being over awed they just smashed us and were way better prepared and coached than we were.

over awed ? what a joke ! I am sick of excuses !

Were they over awed in the qualifying final in 2006 against the pies?

its just rubbish !

 

[wian]

C'mon Wian...You can't attribute the collective groups insipid performance on the Aker tactic? He basically had the same structture throughout all the lines and guess what? We ****ED Up!!! No centre clearances, no run off the backline, (other than a few efforts from Griff), not many contested marks in the forward fifty and a prominent poor level of skill and selection under pressure... That can't be Eade's fault and certainly can't be connected to Aker starting in the backline. If our players need inspiration from a forward to play well in the finals then we were doomed from the start!!!

yr right - i am just attributing one major stuff up here , amoung everything else i have said if you read all my posts

Im Just over it to be honest - tonight was a bloody disaster !

cheers

 

[minters]

yr right - i am just attributing one major stuff up here , amoung everything else i have said if you read all my posts

Im Just over it to be honest - tonight was a bloody disaster !

cheers

Yeah, ur right. So am I. Enough venting...

Take it easy...

 

[yebiga]

The coach has a responsibility to send out a team each week that gives its all and plays to its ability. this team, for 7 weeks now, has played half heartedly and well below its abilities. The coach has continued to make excuses and hints that all would come good in the finals - it hasn't.

To many players have been allowed to put in poor perfomances weeks at a time. Look at how St Kilda has react after Del Santo and Milne were dropped. Gutsy Eade dropped Wight. Johnston and aker both should have been dropped or rested weeks ago. Welsh needed to be dropped weeks ago and he should be dropped this week.

I can handle losing, but I want an honest best effort. when we don't get it - drop them, blood some new kids and it keeps everyone honest. This club has always been far too soft in this area. Too many players are like eagleton, they play one good game and 3 bad. It is unacceptable. the players will only ever understand that when there are repercussions. Lets run out with the Willie team if need be.

We have had two months to think about this game. during those two months knowing we were going to need to match up on Franklin we chose to blood Harbrow and Reid. At Williamstown their is a fast 200 cm young fellow named Wight who in the last 7 weeks has played one senior game against Melbourne. Blind freddy would think he would have been given every chance. He should have played last night, he should play next week - it is idiotic not to play him.

We can't comfort ourselves with next year. Jonhston and Aker are already showing signs of slowing down. There is no tall forward on our list doing anything at Willie.

The hardness we had at the contest during the first part of the season has been missing entirely. we are the same soft cxxxs we were in 2006. Last night I could not believe how intimidated we were right from the start. Clearly the players and the coaches had bought all the media hype that we were going to lose. I thought Aker's odyssey in the defense in recent weeks was merely a bit of foxing. Starting him back was just the wrong mental atitude.

In the middle we were just weak, weak. Cooney just going through the motions. Only Griffen, Cross, Hill and Minson can look in the mirror and say they really gave it a go. The rest, they shat themselves.

 

[Dry Rot]

They played their cluster and it appeared our only tactic was to try and handball our way through it. But we showed no run or will to do that and only made mistake after mistake and gifted them the ball.

When that tactic did not work .... there appeared to be no plan B.

That plus kicking to a player with 3 opponents on him has been a feature of our play under pressure this season.

Nothing new.

 

[BB1888]

I think the natural reaction after nights like last night is to vent and blame people, which is human.

Eade is a good coach, he has done well with our list but it is fair to say that the buck stops with him and his coaching staff.

A fish rots from the head, so to speak.

I think that too many players have been allowed to play ordinarily for far too long and continue to get a game.

Look at the players who have been dropped: Hill, Harbrow, Ray, Wight, Everitt, and Reid. I may have missed some others here, but my point is they are all young and no one at the club would be up in arms if they went back to Williamstown.

During the course of the season players like Johnson, Aka and Welsh should /could have been dropped or rested.

I feel that there is a core of players that no matter how ordinary they are are never to be dropped and this doesn't place any pressure on them to push themselves past what they are currently offering up.

It may be a bit premature to start talking about trades etc but I think we need to get some mental and physical toughness at our club.

Westy had/has it, Addison has it in spades.
It is questionable that some other players on our list currently have it.

Maybe we need to look at offering some of our gun midfielders to clubs to see what is out there?

I am not saying sell off the farm but look at what we need ( Big bodies, talls, hard at it players) and what is out there for trades.

Just my thoughts, lets look forward to next week guys

 

[radziminski]

The coach has a responsibility to send out a team each week that gives its all and plays to its ability. this team, for 7 weeks now, has played half heartedly and well below its abilities. The coach has continued to make excuses and hints that all would come good in the finals - it hasn't.

To many players have been allowed to put in poor perfomances weeks at a time. Look at how St Kilda has react after Del Santo and Milne were dropped. Gutsy Eade dropped Wight. Johnston and aker both should have been dropped or rested weeks ago. Welsh needed to be dropped weeks ago and he should be dropped this week.

I can handle losing, but I want an honest best effort. when we don't get it - drop them, blood some new kids and it keeps everyone honest. This club has always been far too soft in this area. Too many players are like eagleton, they play one good game and 3 bad. It is unacceptable. the players will only ever understand that when there are repercussions. Lets run out with the Willie team if need be.

We have had two months to think about this game. during those two months knowing we were going to need to match up on Franklin we chose to blood Harbrow and Reid. At Williamstown their is a fast 200 cm young fellow named Wight who in the last 7 weeks has played one senior game against Melbourne. Blind freddy would think he would have been given every chance. He should have played last night, he should play next week - it is idiotic not to play him.

We can't comfort ourselves with next year. Jonhston and Aker are already showing signs of slowing down. There is no tall forward on our list doing anything at Willie.

The hardness we had at the contest during the first part of the season has been missing entirely. we are the same soft cxxxs we were in 2006. Last night I could not believe how intimidated we were right from the start. Clearly the players and the coaches had bought all the media hype that we were going to lose. I thought Aker's odyssey in the defense in recent weeks was merely a bit of foxing. Starting him back was just the wrong mental atitude.

In the middle we were just weak, weak. Cooney just going through the motions. Only Griffen, Cross, Hill and Minson can look in the mirror and say they really gave it a go. The rest, they shat themselves.[/quote]

Totally agree with all of above- we have been looking a very ordinary side for about 8 or 9 weeks now- so this loss was no shock to me- what was a shock was the degree to which coaching staff were prepared to cover up a fundamental loss of confidence, skills and motivation amongst the "playing group". We were beaten as much by self-deception as by any Hawk last night...Also- absolutely absurd that Cam Wight has had only 1 game in that period and was not selected last night. Unbelievable.......

 

[beyondthevalley ofthedogs]

[

Also- absolutely absurd that Cam Wight has had only 1 game in that period and was not selected last night. Unbelievable.......[/quote]


Cam Wight's the answer?? I may as well go and slash my wrists now because if that's true we really are doooomed.

I thought Eade was foxing the other coaches for the last 6 weeks.

Akas in the backline surely a joke - no hang on, it's week one of the finals and there he is.

Ray a "run with" player. Good one, Rodney, you really have a sense of humour. Oh no, there he is on Friday night 100m from his opponent when the Hawks have the ball and 5cm away when we've got it.

Scott Welsh in the backline?? Obviously the master comedian saved his best gag for finals.

I've reserved my judgement on all the spin and "the last 4 weeks are like the NAB Cup" until last night in the vague hope that we'd come out at 100 mph like we did for the first 16 weeks and did in Tassie. It's obvious the only joke Eade was having was at our expense. At the moment I don't even care if we win this week. We are many many miles behind the Hawks and they're miles behind the Cats!

Year over.

 

[acker]

Why not after getting 50+ points behind late in the 3rd quarter throw caution to the wind and throw Brian Lake to CHF to see if he could outmark the likes of Hodge and cause some problems.

I'm worried that Rocket has to many "I will never do that"/"not worth trying" bits of baggage starting to accumulate around his coaching.

I'm also disapointed that our game plan revolved around something as fragile as long chains of pin point kicking. Cripes its a final, how often are the players going to find enough time and space to execute perfect passes.

And how often is one link in the long chain going to get broken down and turn it over.

 

[lifelike_]

Hey Guys.... Has it ever occured to you that perhaps maybe, just maybe, he started him there to disrupt the oppositions match ups? I don't think he stayed on him for too long.... He was moved into the middle as soon as he saw our "boys" copping a belting!!!

Last night's coaching was classic Rohde.

More worried about the opposition than playing to our strengths.

 

[Libba39]

Either Eade figures out that his 'game-plan', whatever that may be, doesn't work, or we sack him.

simple as that.

 

[jeemak]

I just read Rocket's press conference and he said the players were over awed by the experience well he said 6 weeks ago they were planing for this so I just can't buy this as it is the coaching staff's job to get these guys ready for a big occasion like this and they said they had prepared for 6 weeks for this final. I did not see the Hawks being over awed they just smashed us and were way better prepared and coached than we were.

Perhaps a little bit of a misrepresentation of all his said in his press conference, so below is a bit more of what he said.

While he did say we looked like we were over awed and that it was disappointing that we did, he also pointed out that we couldn't deal with the Hawks pressure as well as the inferred pressure we piled on ourselves and that it was a mental issue. Most tellingly he said that we fiddled around with the ball too much and that was something they didn't practice during the week. Pleasingly he said that some players need to be asked some questions and that will be done in the coming days.

Eade did make a couple of minor tactical errors, particularly using Aka who has easily played his best football up forward this year in defense for the first half. Beyond that I am certain that our players were not disciplined enough to execute a more direct game plan, and reverted back to poor habbits. They also failed to commit to the contest with any intent, butchered the ball, fumbled and failed to stick tackles.

Our players need to take the bulk of the responsibility for the tripe that was dished up last night. If they fail to do this and we put the blame on the coaching and support staff then we will never evolve as a football club.

 

[_STREET_]

If we drafted Buddy. Two major problems would be solved.

1. We'd have a dominant tall forward.
2. We'd have a major sponsor - guaranteed.

Massive mistake.

and some grunt in the side, someone to shake up the opponent.


was great to see lake suck him in last night though! haha

 

[Bulldog Joe]

Well, we have had plenty vent but the attack on Eade is I believe unjustified.

The truth of the matter is that we were outplayed by a superior side who played probably their collective best of the year.

We made some dreadful early errors and that destroyed the team confidence whilst boosting that of Hawthorn.

Eade has done a terrific job with a side that prior to 2008 had made one finals series since 2000.

It is still a work in progress. We have really had some injuries catch up with us late in the year losing West, Williams and Addison and Hudson has lost all form.

Perhaps the efforts to be up early in the year have taken their toll.

Any suggestion that we should sack Eade is just ridiculous.

The last 2 seasons have seen development in our list that is better than anything that had occurred in the previous 8.

The players that have been drafted and introduced under Eade that could really contribute going forward are as follows.

Morris
Griffen
Williams
Higgins
Addison
Tiller
Everitt
Hill
Harbrow
Ward
Reid

In addition we have Grant, Wood, Boumann and O'Keefe from last years draft showing some promise.

It also ignores the improvement in players who may have ended up on the scrap heap like

Cross
Boyd
Gilbee

who were really going nowhere with previous coaches.

Yes we are still waiting for the Key Position Player to make the real impact, but sacking the coach and starting again is not a realistic answer.

Faith and Perserverance is required. We could have had a really successful year and finished 9th like Richmond.

How would people feel then?

 

[jeemak]

Pretty good post Bulldog Joe.

 

[yebiga]

Dear Joe,
That is all very well and sensible. It is also typical of the comfortable bulldog culure. You say Eade said some of the players need to have a look at themselves, or words to that effect. But this is not the first bad game. We have been ordinary for 2 months.

During those two months the ordinary performances should have had consequences. Not one senior player has been omitted during this period. It shows a lack of leadership and confidence in his leadership. It is all too easy to drop Tiller, Wight and Ward. Aker and Welsh have been crying to be dropped.

Words are cheap, these poor performances "are is not what we stand for" Eade says, but it is exactly what we have always stood for. Chris Grant was spot on in what he said last year on his retirement: this club has for too long been about the individual over the team. Christ! we have more 300 game players than any other club.

The coach's power is wielded thru the carrot and stick of inclusion and omission. If a senior player has two ordinary games he should automtically be dropped. It does not matter whether he is Chris Grant, Brad Johnston, Aker, Ward or christ almight. When this is ingrained into a team, then you don;t get performances like friday night.

Eade has coached well in his time at the bulldogs. But during the last 7-8 weeks he has been making pathetic excuses - No actions and no consequences just excuses. Perhaps on friday night we will run out and find some mojo. But make no mistake, our pathetic reaction to hawthorn's pressure is a cultural problem. It is not something you fix over night. If we make it to the preliminary, they will again yelp under that kind of scrutiny.

There must be consequences. Welsh should be dropped now for the Sydney game. Of course he was not the only bad player but he was right amongst the worst of them and he has been ordinary for a few weeks.

I am not saying Eade must go, but when he says we stand for something, what the xxxx is it?

 

[Bulldog Joe]

Yebiga

Part of the problem in the last 8 weeks has been a lack of form from the next line of players at Williamstown.

This supports a view that the effort to be up for the early games may have taken a toll on the list.

Plenty of supporters have called for the heads of Tiller, Wight and others. It also needs to be considered who can be brought in.

Street had one game and the consensus was never again.

Skipper had one game after injury stopped him from really showing he deserved a spot. He was sub standard.

Ward has been blooded but despite his promise he was not getting enough of the ball.

Reid worked his way from Willi reserves to push for a spot and again showed promise but probably not ready for a senior game.

If we drop Welsh who comes in?

Stability is also important.

Nobody is in anyway content with the effort that was provided and we must certainly improve. This may require some aggressive trading as well, but for this week it needs to come from substantially the same group of players that let us down against Hawthorn.

 

[The Donners]

My lord we're a fickle bunch aren't we?!?!

Had it not been for Rodney Eade you guys wouldn't have made the finals. You have NO backline and you have NO ruckmen! A fair effort to make top 4, kudos to Rodney Eade!!!

 

[lindsay_bulldogs]

My lord we're a fickle bunch aren't we?!?!

Had it not been for Rodney Eade you guys wouldn't have made the finals. You have NO backline and you have NO ruckmen! A fair effort to make top 4, kudos to Rodney Eade!!!

No point making top four if the team doesn't play Footy that can win finals. With our structure and team plan I can't see it going anywhere in finals. So question for you is Eade good at getting a team able to win Home and Away games to keep his job or is he able to get a team ready to win Flags. Considering he has been coaching a long time I say he may be more inclined to keeping his teams competitive and not focusing on flags. Hope I am wrong but thats they way it looks.

 

[Butane]

Had it not been for Rodney Eade you guys wouldn't have made the finals. You have NO backline and you have NO ruckmen!

You idiot. You named the 2 positions we actually have. We don't have the midfield and forwardline to compete in finals football but we do have the Ruckman and Defence.

 

[The Donners]

No point making top four if the team doesn't play Footy that can win finals. With our structure and team plan I can't see it going anywhere in finals. So question for you is Eade good at getting a team able to win Home and Away games to keep his job or is he able to get a team ready to win Flags. Considering he has been coaching a long time I say he may be more inclined to keeping his teams competitive and not focusing on flags. Hope I am wrong but thats they way it looks.

I think you'll find that it is in the best interests of the Western Bulldogs to make the finals every year possible, regardless of whether you can win the flag or not. You have a mediocre membership base and bottoming out to secure higher draft picks (which is generally what happens- exception being Geelong) will a) reduce membership, and b) possibly lose sponsorships, both of which the Bulldogs can neigh afford.

 

[acker]

You idiot. You named the 2 positions we actually have. We don't have the midfield and forwardline to compete in finals football but we do have the Ruckman and Defence.

I dont think we have an effective backline.