Opinion The Bulldog Rebel In You

[threenewpadlocks]

One question: with the VU partnership, do you know all of those things you listed are what they've done or are you speculating? Not having a go, just genuinely interested in how it works and what areas they've made contributions.

Our chief sports scientist is a professor at VU, Sam Robertson. He was interviewed in an article in The Australian last year after the flag where he described how we used the XY coordiante data from the GPSs players wear for the stoppages.

Apart from that, if you look at what he's published in scientific journals, he's done research into certain areas which we can make the very safe assumption that it doesn't tell the fully story, as a lot more detailed/applicable versions of what he publishes goes into our team.

If you go through the Google Scholar search function, you can see what he's co-researched and co-written in scientific/academic journals, with fantastic titles like "Predicting higher selection in elite junior Australian Rules football: The influence of physical performance and anthropometric attributes", "The application of a multi-dimensional assessment approach to talent identification in Australian football" and they're just the first two that appear on the google search, he's quite literally published several more scientific research into footy, and not just talent identification but things like the benefit of having multi-positional versatile players etc.

We can safely assume that it's in this research that is one part of our assessment in drafting players, given that, he's done all this research and it would be applied to how we draft (and it's probably more complex than what he's put out in the public domain in scientific journals, to ensure we maintain our competitive edge in this area). For example, when we took punts on later picks in the draft in taking Greene, Young and NMM, all three had outstanding athletic attributes - Greene's beep test and running capacity, Young's speed and vertical leap, and NMM is just a well-balanced athletic player. None of the three necessarily dominated junior levels of footy - Young played more games in the SANFL U/18's than he did the SANFL reserves, Greene was only added to the Pioneers TAC team after playing well in local Bendigo footy, and NMM was a TAC Cup over-ager as a U/19 player. They were speculative picks almost certainly on the back of athletic testing data, of which we know we've already conducted research into given the research "Predicting higher selection in elite junior Australian Rules football: The influence of physical performance and anthropometric attributes".

 

[dogwatch]

Thanks. Your assumptions seem pretty sound.

So can we blame him for the versatility obsession and not Bev?

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Our chief sports scientist is a professor at VU, Sam Robertson. He was interviewed in an article in The Australian last year after the flag where he described how we used the XY coordiante data from the GPSs players wear for the stoppages.

Apart from that, if you look at what he's published in scientific journals, he's done research into certain areas which we can make the very safe assumption that it doesn't tell the fully story, as a lot more detailed/applicable versions of what he publishes goes into our team.

If you go through the Google Scholar search function, you can see what he's co-researched and co-written in scientific/academic journals, with fantastic titles like "Predicting higher selection in elite junior Australian Rules football: The influence of physical performance and anthropometric attributes", "The application of a multi-dimensional assessment approach to talent identification in Australian football" and they're just the first two that appear on the google search, he's quite literally published several more scientific research into footy, and not just talent identification but things like the benefit of having multi-positional versatile players etc.

We can safely assume that it's in this research that is one part of our assessment in drafting players, given that, he's done all this research and it would be applied to how we draft (and it's probably more complex than what he's put out in the public domain in scientific journals, to ensure we maintain our competitive edge in this area). For example, when we took punts on later picks in the draft in taking Greene, Young and NMM, all three had outstanding athletic attributes - Greene's beep test and running capacity, Young's speed and vertical leap, and NMM is just a well-balanced athletic player. None of the three necessarily dominated junior levels of footy - Young played more games in the SANFL U/18's than he did the SANFL reserves, Greene was only added to the Pioneers TAC team after playing well in local Bendigo footy, and NMM was a TAC Cup over-ager as a U/19 player. They were speculative picks almost certainly on the back of athletic testing data, of which we know we've already conducted research into given the research "Predicting higher selection in elite junior Australian Rules football: The influence of physical performance and anthropometric attributes".

I should also probably add it was not just the fact that the partnership exists, but how pro-active and ahead of the game it was in relation to other AFL clubs which has given us a competitive advantage since we announced it.

We already had smaller partnerships, and it 2014 (with the sponsorship of the WO and the new VFL team), and as the Western Bulldogs website quotes:

A unique ‘knowledge exchange’ relationship, understood to be an AFL first, is central to the partnership aimed at providing a competitive edge to the Dogs

.

We were the first, and have clearly benefitted from it, leading to other teams creating similar partnerships. Off the top of my head I can think of GWS with Western Sydney University (hence why their reserves team is called UWS Giants), Richmond and Swinburne, Geelong and Deakin, Fremantle and ECU, Sydney with UTS Sydney, Carlton and LaTrobe, and maybe a couple more. And not only are these guys behind us, but they're still ahead of the 10+ clubs that don't have any partnership to speak of, which shows you how far ahead we are against the bottom 5/6/7 etc. clubs in this area.

Not only are many of these partnerships occurring later, with many of these only announced in the last 24 months or so, but they are smaller in nature - in part because the clubs are still a bit hesitant to invest heavily in these areas (when they shouldn't be, really), and also because these universities are simply don't have as high quality sports science departments that VU does, so the quality of researchers they can work with, will simply be lower quality at their jobs. It means we got the competitive advantage from being early adapters, and continue to maintain a stronger competitive advantage than other clubs as they are just dipping their toes in university partnerships whilst ours has been going strong since 2011. They're five years behind us.

For example, there's been a lot of research done in skill acquisition - the scientific consensus is that you should mix up the order that you conduct drills, because if you tell your players to do their drills in the same order, across the training sessions in a season, it makes their mind passive as opposed to active because they're "going through the motions", they don't really concentrate at the task at hand, and they gain less benefit out of doing the drill than they otherwise would have. However, if they're uncertain about what the next task is an a coach has to explain it to them because the drills are conducted in a different order, or you do a slight modification on the previous drill, they're more likely to have an active mind, and the skill acquisition is more likely to stick to the players, gaining more benefit out of the training session. It's that sort of scientific research that we apply to our club through our partnership with VU, and whilst some other clubs are also doing similar stuff, the vast majority will only begin to understand this sort of thing in 3-4 years time. And whilst we're only talking about fractions of a percentage here and there, in helping us win (I'm not claiming that the order that you conduct training drills has anything more than a fraction of a percent difference in improving a player) it's more about developing a scientific club culture, where you apply this understanding and knowledge to everything you do, where application of fractions of a percent in multiple areas adds up in the aggregate, and we gain a competitive advantage of a few percent total here and there which had an influence in us winning the flag.

 

[dogwatch]

Lol, I must be way ahead of the pack. I was changing the order of the drills every week (and introducing new ones all the time) when I was coaching juniors 15 years ago!

 

[AJARWA]

Not very rebellious but... Jong's kicking. Particularly set shots. Putrid. Embarrassing. Not good enough. If he doesn't have his own kicking coach and/or doing extra drills in his own time (not much indicating to this point that he's doing that) then he's not serious about improving.

While I'm here. Shaun (it's all about me) Higgins. Just didn't represent anything about the club that I value. Good to see him doing well at north. And couldn't be happier he's at north.

Lastly, don't much care if the club doesn't fork out $800k for JJ. He's not there yet. Thought he was lucky to win the Norm Smith ahead of macrae, picken and even Toyd. Important player but not unhappy for a top ten pick in return to use on a classy mid and cap space to fill other needs.

 

[The Original Swooper]

I recall when the VU partnership with the redevelopment was announced. I waxed lyrical about potential for the flow on effects. Whilst most were excited about better facilities and other issues surrounding the upgrades, and some cynics even suggested to me VU would be stand alone and we'd have no say, I remained optimistic. Well the years have rolled on and look where we sit. We went from a club with "tin she'd" facilities to leading the AFL in many off field operations and sports science was the one that lead the way. As was pointed out above, other clubs now harnessing those type of partnerships. Our pioneering efforts did and still is, and will remain, a pivotal reason why we will remain a competitive club.

 

[worbod]

Barry Hall should have served 15 weeks after striking Brent Staker. Hall broke his arm against the fence later in the game which kept him out for 8 weeks. Seeing as he was going to have to wait 8 weeks for his arm to heal anyway, he should have been forced to wait for this to occur, then serve the 7 weeks for the offence of striking Staker.

 

[The Original Swooper]

Some posters piss me off when they babble on about players "stolen" from our club or claiming we were foolish to "let them go".

This years whine subjects, Hannan and Long, were VFL listed players. Our VFL team is NOT an academy. We have no rights of entitlement just because they played for Footscray. We would have been aware of what they offered our AFL list and rated them internally regarding picks we'd be prepared to use. Because another club rated them higher, is not theft. Nor is it ignorance by us. EVERY single pick in the draft can be analysed with hindsight, why are ex Footscray players any different ? Why does not drafting them create so much angst ?

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Some posters piss me off when they babble on about players "stolen" from our club or claiming we were foolish to "let them go".

This years whine subjects, Hannan and Long, were VFL listed players. Our VFL team is NOT an academy. We have no rights of entitlement just because they played for Footscray. We would have been aware of what they offered our AFL list and rated them internally regarding picks we'd be prepared to use. Because another club rated them higher, is not theft. Nor is it ignorance by us. EVERY single pick in the draft can be analysed with hindsight, why are ex Footscray players any different ? Why does not drafting them create so much angst ?

I agree with the "theft" angle, but we did invest AFL quality resources into them as players, and identified their talent more than other players. To say the nature of the draft means that other clubs shouldn't take them I agree with, but to say that they shouldn't be treated any differently is also kind of missing the point.

 

[The Original Swooper]

I agree with the "theft" angle, but we did invest AFL quality resources into them as players, and identified their talent more than other players. To say the nature of the draft means that other clubs shouldn't take them I agree with, but to say that they shouldn't be treated any differently is also kind of missing the point.

Not quite understanding WHO is treating them differently ??

 

[redmania]

I don't actually like footy. I just love the doggies.

 

[Fossie 32]

I don't actually like footy. I just love the doggies.

Hah yeah, apart from our games now I mainly just like anyone who beats GWS
I used to like it all - it was a great era when I started watching in the late 60s, with full forwards kicking a ton every year, great high marks like Royce Hart, the Tiggers centre line of Bourke Barrot and Clay [will be upsetting Chicago1 here], the magic of Peter Hudson, classic grand finals like the one where Carlton kicked 28 goals to Richmond's 22, through to the 77 series with Snake Baker taking screamers at FF one end and Peter Moore likewise at the other end. The 80s were good but after that ..... hmmm, not so much to like apart from the Dogs, especially after they tried to kill us off in 89.

 

[Chicago1]

Speaking of Royce Hart... another reason to hate Richmond. Worst coach ever! An 8 - 45 record says it all. Going 2-20 in 1981 is something I'll never forget nor forgive. I sometimes think back about the GFs of yesteryear. I didn't miss one from 1976-1994. The ball was in.

 

[BulldogJake]

Lin Jong's decision making irritates me like nothing else and was holding him back from being a break out player this season.

Hopefully he fixes it up when he can get back on the park next year.

 

[Vinegar Mess]

Speaking of Royce Hart... another reason to hate Richmond. Worst coach ever! An 8 - 45 record says it all. Going 2-20 in 1981 is something I'll never forget nor forgive. I sometimes think back about the GFs of yesteryear. I didn't miss one from 1976-1994. The ball was in.

I look back on the 1981 season with retrospective fondness. We were dreadful during the late 70s/early 80s and that season was our nadir. My family made the 260 km round trip to almost every game and I'd like to think experiencing such despair as a 14-year-old youth shaped me into the pessimistic, miserable, angst-ridden cynic I became for decades beyond. Made 2016 so much sweeter.

 

[The Original Swooper]

I'm a rebel. I wear my bulldog cap with the peak actually at the front.

 

[DroopStDanny]

I didn't buy any Premiership merchandise.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

I appreciate what Suckling brings, would not look to trade/delist him, and would still have signed him in FA with the benefit of hindsight.

 

[Hoges64]

I didn't buy any Premiership merchandise.

Wouldn't expect any different from you, Danny. ;-)

 

[Hard Ball Get]

I didn't buy any Premiership merchandise.

Victory Pack was my only purchase.

 

[Chicago1]

I look back on the 1981 season with retrospective fondness. We were dreadful during the late 70s/early 80s and that season was our nadir. My family made the 260 km round trip to almost every game and I'd like to think experiencing such despair as a 14-year-old youth shaped me into the pessimistic, miserable, angst-ridden cynic I became for decades beyond. Made 2016 so much sweeter.

I think back on those days with fondness. Standing in the pouring rain at the scoreboard end while trying to keep my hot chips from getting wet toughened me up as a teacher! When we beat Fitzroy at the Junction Oval in 1980 for our first win of the season after 11 losses, it was like winning the Grand Final. I guess after being a Cubs fan for all of my almost 65 years and a Bulldogs fan for 40 years, nothing could ever beat 2016.

I really should write a compendium of my stories as a young teacher and Bulldogs supporter in the 70s/80s.

 

[DroopStDanny]

Wouldn't expect any different from you, Danny. ;-)

Well, knowing my luck, somebody would just break in and steal them. The crime rate in Droop Street is through the roof.

 

[timtamWB]

After seeing some of our posters around the joint, both here and on other boards, I can actually see why some other people here say our club is the worst on bigfooty.

 

[Hoges64]

After seeing some of our posters around the joint, both here and on other boards, I can actually see why some other people here say our club is the worst on bigfooty.

Name and shame!!! :-D

 

[Hard Ball Get]

After seeing some of our posters around the joint, both here and on other boards, I can actually see why some other people here say our club is the worst on bigfooty.

I haven't heard that. I've heard North and st. Kilda are...

Really though, every club has good posters and s**t posters. I don't think we're any better or worse.