The know it alls of football.

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immortalmike

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#27
I thought Wallis was a try-hard that had 3 tricks:

1. Jump on the ball
2. Tackle the guy with the ball
3. Hack the ball forward

Never been happier to be wrong.
Won't hold it against you fronk, if you had only really seen his AFL performances I can understand that view.
 

Yojimbo

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#28
Yep. And it feels odd to be saying this...but somehow we turned a shit sandwich into Beluga caviar.
Never had Beluga caviar, but i have had that many shit sandwiches i have
lost count so i get half your point. Even Nostradamus only had us winning
seven games in 2015 and he had the all seeing eye.;)
 

go you pups

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Moderator #29
I've always been optimistic about this season

The VFL premiership win was the main instigator + most of our wins last year came off the back of the kids standing up
 

dogsfan

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#30
I just like the fact that because we are out performing everyone's expectations of us, even the so called experts, we can use that old EJ line " We stuck it up em! that's what we did, we stuck it up em! " ;) :thumbsu:
 

Mattdougie

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#31
I honestly believe anyone that really believed we could improve this much this year is talking out their a$$.

I'm happy to say when Libba went down I predicted bottom 4 and the main reason for that was I thought it would take at least a season to fix the car crash Macca has caused. Players wanting out, no game plan , confidence shot but Bev has done an amazing job and shows how important a real coach is who is honest and doesn't hide behind cliches.

I think it's amusing we would highlight media who thought we would suck when the honest dogs fans on here and outdoor also thought it wouldn't be a great year
 
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#32
I thought we would be bottom 4 even before Libba went down, thought we lost too much experience and I thought our old boys would continue to drop off. Now 18 rounds in and we are talking about a possible top 4 finish! It's funny how things work. Never been happier to be more wronger.
 

lachy

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#33
Prior to Libba going down i thought 10 to 12 wins minimum as we won 7 out of 15 last year before the wheels fell off.

When Libba went down, yep bottom 4. Then the Collingwood game pre season and was confident of 10 to 12.

Other than griff we lost nothing player wise with the best group of young players getting more experience
 

littlenails

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#34
Prior to Libba going down i thought 10 to 12 wins minimum as we won 7 out of 15 last year before the wheels fell off.

When Libba went down, yep bottom 4. Then the Collingwood game pre season and was confident of 10 to 12.

Other than griff we lost nothing player wise with the best group of young players getting more experience
I had similar thoughts as you lachy but could see other players coming more important as the year progressed. That Collingwood practice match was a turning point. You could see it in Buckley's demeanour after the match that he knew that he had screwed up and quickly changed Collingwood's game plan in the following weeks to be more like ours. (Buckley is just not clever enough to be a good coach). Our new game plan was just so Hawthorn-like, running with overlaps and dead-eye-dick deliveries.

I thought that Wallis, Libba, Dahl, Bonti, Stringer, Macrae, Wood, Hunter, Smith, Talia and JJ would all be first class players ably supported by Ayce, Roughie, Jong and T Boyd. Going to the practice matches I could see Redpath coming through and I thought that he would kick a bag of goals. I could also see that we recruited well and all of the new recruits would be keepers.

I guess that Ayce, Talia, Jong and T Boyd have not as yet done as well as I expected and Redpath hasn't kicked a bag of goals. Pleasant surprises to me were the continuing good form of M Boyd, Picken, Morris and Murphy. Others to have done well so far are Crameri, Dickson and Stevens.

So I did a ladder predictor and came up with 14 wins. And... a premiership. We might do better than 14 wins. After a bit of a lull in form we are about to pick up and hit peak form. If the Baby-Bombers did it then why can't the Bulldog Pups. Like the Athenian said in a previous post, "Expect the unexpected."
 

paul scholes

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#36
Let's be honest folks, as we all held out no hope this season.
I thought we'd win 8 games tops, but it's been a wonderful effort which is still to play out .
 

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paul scholes

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#37
I think even though it was a nab cup game, that the place just looked more energised than it had . Just crystal balling next season will be a big test, and I just hope the coaching group and everyone involved do not rest on their collective morals . ( hello port )
It doesn't just happen
 

Dazb86

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#38
I think I had us favourites in 4 games prior to the season starting. Funnily enough we've lost 2 of those games.
 

Dogs_R_Us

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#39
Wallis's first year was better than Libba's but McCartney ruined him over the next 2 years. Always knew Wally had this in him.
I think even though it was a nab cup game, that the place just looked more energised than it had . Just crystal balling next season will be a big test, and I just hope the coaching group and everyone involved do not rest on their collective morals . ( hello port )
It doesn't just happen
Or even their laurels.... ;)
 

Werewolf

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Moderator #40
Aint hindsight great? You're on a slippery slope if you find fault with the predictions of others, especially when most of us didn't expect much joy this year. You only have to look at the time capsule thread, which I forgot to post in, but would have picked 8 wins. Nearly half forecast a bottom 4 finish, but 11 wins so far exceeds 57 out of 60 predictions (and the 19 wins prediction was obviously a joke) :eek:

Wallis's first year was better than Libba's but McCartney ruined him over the next 2 years. Always knew Wally had this in him.
No it wasn't. That was his second year. It remains to be seen whether they can both flourish in the same side.
 

Doggies1972

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Thread starter #41
I honestly believe anyone that really believed we could improve this much this year is talking out their a$$.

I'm happy to say when Libba went down I predicted bottom 4 and the main reason for that was I thought it would take at least a season to fix the car crash Macca has caused. Players wanting out, no game plan , confidence shot but Bev has done an amazing job and shows how important a real coach is who is honest and doesn't hide behind cliches.

I think it's amusing we would highlight media who thought we would suck when the honest dogs fans on here and outdoor also thought it wouldn't be a great year
Not all. I tipped us to scrape into the 8. More so I didn't expect us to go backwards. With our drafts and recruits which again alot said were to short, to many mids etc were no good. Getting "dregs" like Hamling and Biggs. I and others saw the benefits. Our forward line was really only our major issue last few seasons, and our backline suffered because of it. Even the doubters knew our back half would flourish under BEV. Our win in the VFL, Boyd for the forward line (admittedly its been more through Red and Dick playing the key defenders instead to free up crameri stringer and co) and players like Bonts, macrae etc were only going to improve. All things combined I didnt see us going backwards. I didn't see the loss of Griffen or cooney as a great loss. They both had pretty ordinary last two seasons and last year we were fielding the youngest teams in the comp continually and they would only improve with the vfl players coming through as well. Admittedly alot of players have flourished under Bev, Johannsen, Picken, Wallis etc, more than expected, but we all knew the talent was there. Now that these players are allowed to play with a bit of freedom we are seeing what we expected to see over the last couple of seasons. I never saw us going backwards. Ive praised dalrymple and co for their drafts as most on here didn't. Seeing a bigger picture than stats and height. Knowing our forward 50 was getting addressed with the Boyd recruitment and the bigger picture around the forward structures, and the stocking of our mids who would finally have something to kick to in the 50. There was no way we were going backwards. I pegged us to scrape into the 8, but yes like everyone didnt expect the footy we are seeing just yet, thought it would be another year or two off.
 
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#42
We are not all negative on this site. Matt Dougie you know my posts, and I agreed with you on Macca and actually predicted the player revolt, I get a little inside news now and then. So I'm not talking out of my ass and I have a betting account proof that I have $200 on us at 8 to 1 to make they 8 then a further $50 on us at 5 to 1.

Players get into the comfort zones, no offence to Gia but he couldn't keep up to modern footy, Cooney no defence, Griffen over-rater by our own people and the rest all moved on was only going to help the side when you had the talent of Bonts, Wally, Dalhause etc ready to step up. Different if our kids were so so, but most knew we were on to something.
 

King Harold

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#44
My hand is up , predicted bottom 4 finish.
What I find astonishing is we are 6 weeks possibly from finals and despite a very young list ,have depth like never before. I doubt we had this depth in all our preliminary finals years. Fingers crossed we are not crueled any further with injury.
 
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