I'm a bit over some of the threads moving in a circular argument atm, and I just happened to re-watch Bont's jumper presentation on the weekend from his first game, so just for a bit of fun(!), let's take a quick look back at the arrival of a future star onto the AFL stage... and use it to segue-way into our next match against the same opponent.
Round 5, 20 April 2014, Docklands, Sunday twilight game - only 27,986 people showed up to watch the 10th placed Bulldogs coming off a 27 point victory over the Giants at Manuka in Round 4 host the 17th placed (and winless) Blues, who were coming off a 23 point defeat against the Dees at the G.
Interestingly, we wouldn't play the Blues again until R14 in 2015 (31 games before we faced the same opponent again) - so much for the AFL's 'fixturing'!
WB 3.3 8.6 12.8 13.13 91
Carl 7.3 13.6 16.9 18.11 119
Blues jumped us in the first quarter, kicking 7 - including 3 to Lachie Henderon(!) of an eventual 5 for the match, and 2 to Waite (of an eventual 3).
The only quarter we won was the third, by 5 points.
An equally new face was Patrick Cripps playing the second of only 3 games in his first season (weirdly his only 3 games in 2014 yielded a win, a loss and a draw!). Bont would go onto play 16 games in his first year, for 4 wins and 12 losses
Bont didn't set the world on fire just yet - 6 kicks, 0 marks, 8 handballs, 5 tackles - as a comparison Cripps produced 4 kicks, 1 mark, 3 handballs and 1 tackle. Neither of them bothered the scorer.
Brownlow votes went: 3 Murphy (Carlton), 2 Henderson (Carlton), 1 Gibbs (Carlton)
So, this is a game a little over 5 years ago - let's look at the teams:
Bulldogs:
Only 6 players are still at the club: Bont, Jong, Liberatore, Macrae, Wallis, Wood.
Dahlhaus, Higgins, Jones and Stringer are still playing elsewhere.
MBoyd, Gia, Minson, Murphy, Picken and Tom Williams retired as Bulldogs, and Tom Young was not kept on.
All of the rest ended their careers elsewhere: Cooney, Crameri, Griffen, Stevens and Talia.
Blues:
Still there: Casboult, Cripps, E Curnow, Murphy, Simpson, Thomas
Still playing elsewhere: Gibbs, Henderson, Tuohy
Gone (CBF working out how they are gone): Bell, Carrazzo, Ellard, Everitt, Judd, Lucas, Rowe, Scotland, Waite, Walker, Warnock, White, Yarran
Since round 5 2014 up to last round:
WB: Won 61 (4 finals) Lost 59 (so H&A record is W:57 and L:59)
Blues: Won 27, Drawn 1, Lost 89
(Blues have played one more H&A game this year due to our bye).
From 2014 to this year, we have been in the positive for wins in 2015 and 2016, and broke even in 2017.
Blues have not won more than 7 in a season, slipping as low as 2 last year, so no season returns in the 'black'.
Including R5 2014, Bont is sitting on 115 games, 59 wins, 56 losses, no draws, 110 goals (99 behinds), 1 flag, 65 Brownlow votes, 1 AA, 2 BnFs.
For comparison, Cripps (from his debut the week before in R4 2014) is sitting on 93 games, 20 wins, 1 draw, 72 losses, 44 goals (51 behinds), 2 spoons, 49 Brownlow votes, 1 AA, 2 BnFs, and co-captain this year.
What does all this mean?
I don't know, just felt like doing some pointless analysis, if anyone else can read any tea-leaves in that, let me know.
What I do know is it's a hell of a different story to the Bulldogs v Blues comparison of my youth!
Cheerio...
Round 5, 20 April 2014, Docklands, Sunday twilight game - only 27,986 people showed up to watch the 10th placed Bulldogs coming off a 27 point victory over the Giants at Manuka in Round 4 host the 17th placed (and winless) Blues, who were coming off a 23 point defeat against the Dees at the G.
Interestingly, we wouldn't play the Blues again until R14 in 2015 (31 games before we faced the same opponent again) - so much for the AFL's 'fixturing'!
WB 3.3 8.6 12.8 13.13 91
Carl 7.3 13.6 16.9 18.11 119
Blues jumped us in the first quarter, kicking 7 - including 3 to Lachie Henderon(!) of an eventual 5 for the match, and 2 to Waite (of an eventual 3).
The only quarter we won was the third, by 5 points.
An equally new face was Patrick Cripps playing the second of only 3 games in his first season (weirdly his only 3 games in 2014 yielded a win, a loss and a draw!). Bont would go onto play 16 games in his first year, for 4 wins and 12 losses
Bont didn't set the world on fire just yet - 6 kicks, 0 marks, 8 handballs, 5 tackles - as a comparison Cripps produced 4 kicks, 1 mark, 3 handballs and 1 tackle. Neither of them bothered the scorer.
Brownlow votes went: 3 Murphy (Carlton), 2 Henderson (Carlton), 1 Gibbs (Carlton)
So, this is a game a little over 5 years ago - let's look at the teams:
Bulldogs:
Only 6 players are still at the club: Bont, Jong, Liberatore, Macrae, Wallis, Wood.
Dahlhaus, Higgins, Jones and Stringer are still playing elsewhere.
MBoyd, Gia, Minson, Murphy, Picken and Tom Williams retired as Bulldogs, and Tom Young was not kept on.
All of the rest ended their careers elsewhere: Cooney, Crameri, Griffen, Stevens and Talia.
Blues:
Still there: Casboult, Cripps, E Curnow, Murphy, Simpson, Thomas
Still playing elsewhere: Gibbs, Henderson, Tuohy
Gone (CBF working out how they are gone): Bell, Carrazzo, Ellard, Everitt, Judd, Lucas, Rowe, Scotland, Waite, Walker, Warnock, White, Yarran
Since round 5 2014 up to last round:
WB: Won 61 (4 finals) Lost 59 (so H&A record is W:57 and L:59)
Blues: Won 27, Drawn 1, Lost 89
(Blues have played one more H&A game this year due to our bye).
From 2014 to this year, we have been in the positive for wins in 2015 and 2016, and broke even in 2017.
Blues have not won more than 7 in a season, slipping as low as 2 last year, so no season returns in the 'black'.
Including R5 2014, Bont is sitting on 115 games, 59 wins, 56 losses, no draws, 110 goals (99 behinds), 1 flag, 65 Brownlow votes, 1 AA, 2 BnFs.
For comparison, Cripps (from his debut the week before in R4 2014) is sitting on 93 games, 20 wins, 1 draw, 72 losses, 44 goals (51 behinds), 2 spoons, 49 Brownlow votes, 1 AA, 2 BnFs, and co-captain this year.
What does all this mean?
I don't know, just felt like doing some pointless analysis, if anyone else can read any tea-leaves in that, let me know.
What I do know is it's a hell of a different story to the Bulldogs v Blues comparison of my youth!
Cheerio...
