Where are the Western Bulldogs at?

[JerryWexler]

Given he also asked what is happening with Tom liberatore you can safely assume he doesn’t know much about the dogs.

For those playing at home Libba did his ACL in round one this year but has returned to pre-season training earlier than required.

I know a fair bit about them. Ever since I moved to Melbourne I've lived in the west, so its a bit hard not to.

 

[JerryWexler]

Unfortunately our club just can't develop key forwards

Simon Beasley, one of ours? Kelvin Templeton? I'd like to mention John Georgiades but chose to/not to.

 

[JerryWexler]

And thinking Dunkley is no good because he played vfl at some stage this year is an even grosser mischaracterisation of his worth as a footballer.

He’s tracking better than Sheed overall. Remembering he is two years younger as well and is already a very comparable player

That was just a point I made, I wasn't totally basing my opinion on that.

 

[dylan93]

They've got some gun players in the middle. Some future stars at either end. Just don't seem to gel as a team as of late. Hope they can get back to their best and soon. Got a soft spot for them.

 

[JayJ20]

Reality is that Bulldogs are a young side. They’d be comparable to Carlton and Brisbane in terms of age. I don’t think they’ll do much next year, but I can see them being very good in a few years when the younger players mature.

 

[juss]

Find them incredibly hard to pick, an amazing finals series in 2016, and then just immediately went south from there.

I dont know who the real Bulldogs are so until I see them actually win more than they loss again Il be tipping them to miss the 8. They are not a side that inspires confidence in them. Their last two years have lost the credits they had in the bank from 2016.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

Find them incredibly hard to pick, an amazing finals series in 2016, and then just immediately went south from there.

I dont know who the real Bulldogs are so until I see them actually win more than they loss again Il be tipping them to miss the 8. They are not a side that inspires confidence in them. Their last two years have lost the credits they had in the bank from 2016.

Not really an immediate decline. Possibly more troubling is it was a steady decline over 2017, continued into this year. They picked up late in the season, but only when their year was done and the pressure was off.

 

[captain cotch 9]

They had a very good end to the year IMO.

 

[_Mike_]

I see them as the modern day equivalent to Essendon 93 or Hawthorn 08. Won the unexpected flag but had a combination of inexperienced guns and wily veterans. The fossils’ bodies couldn’t back it up and the young players got a head wobble. The coaches also have taken too long to adjust tactically.

I'd say Essendon 93 for the reason that Hawthorn kept its core playing group through the "mini" rebuild to build on in flags from 13-15. We haven't been able to maintain enough of the core 2016 group to the level needed to sustain the list decline & rebuild in the interim.

 

[flipper83]

Reality is that Bulldogs are a young side. They’d be comparable to Carlton and Brisbane in terms of age. I don’t think they’ll do much next year, but I can see them being very good in a few years when the younger players mature.

Actually last year we were much less experienced on average than those two teams. This table shows ave games of experience for and against and the differential. It was done after round 20 but don't think it would have changed too much over the last 3 games.

Our team was ridiculously inexperienced last year.

 

[Mr.X]

Middle of the road side, anywhere from 8th-14th.

Good enough to be above bottom 4, not good enough to be a threat to the top sides

 

[footyfan000001]

Middle of the road side, anywhere from 8th-14th.

Good enough to be above bottom 4, not good enough to be a threat to the top sides

Yawn

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

Actually last year we were much less experienced on average than those two teams. This table shows ave games of experience for and against and the differential. It was done after round 20 but don't think it would have changed too much over the last 3 games.

Our team was ridiculously inexperienced last year.

Wow

How do you explain the average games against being so far from the norm?

The double ups would have a little influence but it'd be mostly random. Unless other clubs took the opportunity to give guys on the way out farewell games?

 

[Bulldog Joe]

Wow

How do you explain the average games against being so far from the norm?

The double ups would have a little influence but it'd be mostly random. Unless other clubs took the opportunity to give guys on the way out farewell games?

Bulldogs were simply required to give younger inexperienced players a game due to the injury toll on the experienced players.

Premiership players Clay Smith and Liam Picken played no games
Tom Liberatore appeared in the 1st game only
Tory Dickson played 8 games
Dale Morris played 11
Tom Boyd and Jordan Roughead and Easton Wood all played 12

That is a significant chunk of games missing from the most experienced players.

In addition Bontempelli and Macrae also missed games, plus a few of the lesser experienced in Tim English, Bailey Williams and Bailey Dale also missed significant numbers of games.

With the players that were available they did remarkably well.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

Bulldogs were simply required to give younger inexperienced players a game due to the injury toll on the experienced players.

Premiership players Clay Smith and Liam Picken played no games
Tom Liberatore appeared in the 1st game only
Tory Dickson played 8 games
Dale Morris played 11
Tom Boyd and Jordan Roughead and Easton Wood all played 12

That is a significant chunk of games missing from the most experienced players.

In addition Bontempelli and Macrae also missed games, plus a few of the lesser experienced in Tim English, Bailey Williams and Bailey Dale also missed significant numbers of games.

With the players that were available they did remarkably well.

You actually had a disgraceful start to the season.

There's a real commonality amongst Bulldogs supporters that your the only club affected by injuries. Both the GF teams had a bad injury run last year, they dealt with it.

 

[OniAu]

I just cant see where the improvement comes from. 15-17th for mine

Not experienced enough to be consistent , don't have the core senior players to bully lower ranked teams .

 

[ManOfClay]

You actually had a disgraceful start to the season.

There's a real commonality amongst Bulldogs supporters that your the only club affected by injuries. Both the GF teams had a bad injury run last year, they dealt with it.

There really isn’t. You are just bound to say that because of your own personal agenda against Bulldogs supporters. You jump from thread to thread to dismiss them and put them down, and throw barbs from the safety of your own club board so nobody can respond to your ill-informed rants.

The bulldogs were a young team affected by injuries to senior players. Just because clubs like Collingwood were able to overcome their issues it doesn’t mean they didn’t have them. Bulldogs in 2016 also had a lot of injuries we overcame in that instance, but as we know that can’t happen all the time for a variety of reasons

 

[Bulldog Joe]

You actually had a disgraceful start to the season.

There's a real commonality amongst Bulldogs supporters that your the only club affected by injuries. Both the GF teams had a bad injury run last year, they dealt with it.

You asked a question regarding the age experience differential and I gave you a response about the major reason for the pronounced differential.

There was no comment about anything else, except that we performed very well over the season with such an imbalance.

Your response is simply unwarranted.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

You asked a question regarding the age experience differential and I gave you a response about the major reason for the pronounced differential.

There was no comment about anything else, except that we performed very well over the season with such an imbalance.

Your response is simply unwarranted.

I responded to the content of your post and disagreed. I suggest you try and get your head around the fact that will happen.

 

[Isaac Cumming No 1]

There really isn’t. You are just bound to say that because of your own personal agenda against Bulldogs supporters. You jump from thread to thread to dismiss them and put them down, and throw barbs from the safety of your own club board so nobody can respond to your ill-informed rants.

The bulldogs were a young team affected by injuries to senior players. Just because clubs like Collingwood were able to overcome their issues it doesn’t mean they didn’t have them. Bulldogs in 2016 also had a lot of injuries we overcame in that instance, but as we know that can’t happen all the time for a variety of reasons

Mmmm

Interesting concept that you think the competition isn't a relative balance between the positives and negatives of the clubs.

 

[bzparkes]

Man I just read this entire thread and Bulldogs supporters are hilariously defensive of any criticism of their team that, if not for the AFL deciding to have a week off before finals, would never have been premiers.

At least when WCE partied hard and went off the rails after '06 we still made a semi which was only lost do injuries/drugs

 

[ManOfClay]

Mmmm

Interesting concept that you think the competition isn't a relative balance between the positives and negatives of the clubs.

Of course it is a relative balance. Bulldogs had the right balance in 2016 despite injuries but haven’t since. Retirement and other injuries didn’t help in that time.

Collingwood and west coast had the balance right in 2018, but other years may have not.

 

[footyfan1978]

Footscray.

 

[bzparkes]

So you’re saying you would have beaten us if we didn’t have the week off? We sort of pantsed you with 2-3 Players coming off long breaks lol. Would Darling still have pood his pants that game if there was no week off too?

It’s hard to not be defensive when plastic clubs like GWS try and call our flag a fluke. Happy to stick by the club and rip into the haters.

Possibly would've beaten you as you wouldn't have had the players back but we wouldn't have gone much further. As it stands, history says otherwise and I was glad you won the flag that year.

Still the mother of all premierships hangovers but Hawthorn did pretty much the same and look what happened when they matured.

 

[threesixpio]

GWS vs Bulldogs = Geelong vs Hawthorn lite