Rumour Future of the club (Bevo, board, assistant coaches, football department)

[Golden_6]

From numerous rumours here it’s looking like possibly Pratt & Hale as line coaches. Maybe a promotion to Edge and Kornberg taking over as VFL coach?

All guesswork of course.

 

[willofwest]

From numerous rumours here it’s looking like possibly Pratt & Hale as line coaches. Maybe a promotion to Edge and Kornberg taking over as VFL coach?

All guesswork of course.

Not bad guesswork, I like it, wouldn’t mind Kornberg as a line coach. What about the senior director coaching role , could that be Lade or someone else?

 

[Claudonious]

Seriously people need to stop using this as an excuse and anyone who still says it clearly only looks at the score as opposed to what's actually happening. If you don't follow the AFLW closely that's fine but at least look at the facts.

Now there is no question that the way the AFLW has been handled by the AFL since day 1 has been nothing short of horrendous and that we certainly did get done in the early expansion period (especially with Kearney) but over the past two seasons we've lost a grand total of 2 players to expansion and 0 over the last season, a season in which we made the finals and were a kick away from winning one. The drop-off this year compared to last has been significant to say the least as you can see by our season rankings below in these KPIs...

View attachment 1831298

Some pretty big drop-offs across the board especially in efficiency, clearances and forward entries. So why has this happened? In my opinion there are three reasons.

List management

We did not go hard enough in the off-season, teams like St. Kilda did and they made some tough decisions with letting go younger talent/picks and went hard to bring in experienced mature players. We were not active during the trade period bringing in no one, with our only trade being Morris-Dalton to Collingwood who was not in even our best 21. We also ended up only taking 1 player in the draft with that being Carruthers. Considering the age profile of our list, this was concerning at the time and even more so now and for me this is a huge indictment on the football department. We've been the youngest selected team in 4 of the 7 rounds so far this year, how we did not try to bring in some maturity is beyond me.

Injuries

It's very hard to ignore the injury factor this year, we will likely be down to 22/23 fit players next week and maybe even to use some train ons.

Bennetts
Berry
Coyne
E. Brown
Lynch
Moody

Have been/will be out for the season, all best 21 players plus Gutknecht and Smith are coming off a broken leg and ACL respectively, Lagioia and McLeod have missed games due to concussions while others like M. Brown, Lamb, Snell and Wilcox did not have any pre-season due to injury or recovering from operations during the off-season, this caused us to be the only team in the AFLW that did not have any listed players play in the 2023 state leagues.

Now of course every team has injuries but with list sizes at 30 even having 3-4 injuries can cause some structural issues let alone 6+. Richmond is in the same boat as us this year and they have actually had to use train on players in certain matches. List sizes to be expanded or at the very least a rookie list introduced.

We have also just been incredibly unlucky over the past few years, in the 2022A season pretty much our entire got COVID early which in turn forced us to play catch up and play while still recovering. We played 3 games in 12 days at one point and for semi-professional athletes that's a big ask. If we didn't get COVID we would've made finals.

Coaching

Our performances this year have obviously been skewed by injuries but I also believe the coaching has played a role, maybe not as big as it seems but one none the less. We seem to fumbling far too much and just making basic skill errors such as dropped marks or giving away lazy free kicks. We also far too often leave opposition players on their own in space allowing them to transition the ball at will. These types of things shouldn't be happening just because players are playing out of position, this is firmly on the coaching staff. Also how we didn't continue with Moody and Newton forward after it worked so well last year is a head scratcher. We only tried that combo once this year and that was against the Cats in R1, a match in which nothing went right so how didn't at least try it against the Hawks is mind-boggling.

It's clear from the messaging from the club that Burke will at least see out his contract next year but it's going to be a big 12 months for both our men's and women's departments. On the women's side we need to go big in the off-season, that's very clear. We are in dire need of an experienced KPP and we need to look at midfield depth.

Apologies for the long post and further apologies if I'm sounding a bit harsh.

All good points but one swallow doesn’t make a summer - the facts are that many of our gun players have moved to other clubs, last year was an anomaly,probably because apart from our captain - the pillaging was complete - until the next gun develops and they will be gone….

In this comp - the gun players make a massive difference.We have lost some serious players over the years.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[lachy]

All good points but one swallow doesn’t make a summer - the facts are that many of our gun players have moved to other clubs, last year was an anomaly,probably because apart from our captain - the pillaging was complete - until the next gun develops and they will be gone….

In this comp - the gun players make a massive difference.We have lost some serious players over the years.


On iPad using BigFooty.com mobile app

Facts are many of our gun players have moved clubs!!!! Who? And is it a fact they are gun players

On SM-G996B using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Bulldog1954]

Seriously people need to stop using this as an excuse and anyone who still says it clearly only looks at the score as opposed to what's actually happening. If you don't follow the AFLW closely that's fine but at least look at the facts.

Now there is no question that the way the AFLW has been handled by the AFL since day 1 has been nothing short of horrendous and that we certainly did get done in the early expansion period (especially with Kearney) but over the past two seasons we've lost a grand total of 2 players to expansion and 0 over the last season, a season in which we made the finals and were a kick away from winning one. The drop-off this year compared to last has been significant to say the least as you can see by our season rankings below in these KPIs...

View attachment 1831298

Some pretty big drop-offs across the board especially in efficiency, clearances and forward entries. So why has this happened? In my opinion there are three reasons.

List management

We did not go hard enough in the off-season, teams like St. Kilda did and they made some tough decisions with letting go younger talent/picks and went hard to bring in experienced mature players. We were not active during the trade period bringing in no one, with our only trade being Morris-Dalton to Collingwood who was not in even our best 21. We also ended up only taking 1 player in the draft with that being Carruthers. Considering the age profile of our list, this was concerning at the time and even more so now and for me this is a huge indictment on the football department. We've been the youngest selected team in 4 of the 7 rounds so far this year, how we did not try to bring in some maturity is beyond me.

Injuries

It's very hard to ignore the injury factor this year, we will likely be down to 22/23 fit players next week and maybe even to use some train ons.

Bennetts
Berry
Coyne
E. Brown
Lynch
Moody

Have been/will be out for the season, all best 21 players plus Gutknecht and Smith are coming off a broken leg and ACL respectively, Lagioia and McLeod have missed games due to concussions while others like M. Brown, Lamb, Snell and Wilcox did not have any pre-season due to injury or recovering from operations during the off-season, this caused us to be the only team in the AFLW that did not have any listed players play in the 2023 state leagues.

Now of course every team has injuries but with list sizes at 30 even having 3-4 injuries can cause some structural issues let alone 6+. Richmond is in the same boat as us this year and they have actually had to use train on players in certain matches. List sizes to be expanded or at the very least a rookie list introduced.

We have also just been incredibly unlucky over the past few years, in the 2022A season pretty much our entire got COVID early which in turn forced us to play catch up and play while still recovering. We played 3 games in 12 days at one point and for semi-professional athletes that's a big ask. If we didn't get COVID we would've made finals.

Coaching

Our performances this year have obviously been skewed by injuries but I also believe the coaching has played a role, maybe not as big as it seems but one none the less. We seem to fumbling far too much and just making basic skill errors such as dropped marks or giving away lazy free kicks. We also far too often leave opposition players on their own in space allowing them to transition the ball at will. These types of things shouldn't be happening just because players are playing out of position, this is firmly on the coaching staff. Also how we didn't continue with Moody and Newton forward after it worked so well last year is a head scratcher. We only tried that combo once this year and that was against the Cats in R1, a match in which nothing went right so how didn't at least try it against the Hawks is mind-boggling.

It's clear from the messaging from the club that Burke will at least see out his contract next year but it's going to be a big 12 months for both our men's and women's departments. On the women's side we need to go big in the off-season, that's very clear. We are in dire need of an experienced KPP and we need to look at midfield depth.

Apologies for the long post and further apologies if I'm sounding a bit harsh.

Great post and not harsh at all, to go from 7-3 and a kick away from winning a final to not winning a game is terrible. Though if you dare say that things aren't 100% fantastic in any of the Dogs AFLW groups on Facebook it's like you killed Santa.

 

[Claudonious]

Facts are many of our gun players have moved clubs!!!! Who? And is it a fact they are gun players

On SM-G996B using BigFooty.com mobile app

Conti,Toogood,Lochland,Brennan,Huntington….for a start, there are more


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[_Cerberus_]

Trying to think of a possible slogan that rhymes with Mickey Mouse......

Mick Malthouse? New coaching director confirmed.

 

[Deadly Darcy]

From numerous rumours here it’s looking like possibly Pratt & Hale as line coaches. Maybe a promotion to Edge and Kornberg taking over as VFL coach?

All guesswork of course.

We’d have to be getting Kornberg as a line coach. He’s done everything he needs to do at VFL level with GC.

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Can’t see it posted here yet but my mail is Daniel Pratt - Eagles defensive coach from their premiership year and their former WAFL alignment coach, has signed with the Bulldogs as an assistant. Will be announced once other coaching appointments drop in coming weeks.

For those unaware - K31 has had impeccable info in the past.

 

[doggies ftw]

I really like the Pratt move, West Coast have been a bloody good side built on their defence & Simpson is a great coach too. Don’t worry about the last two years that list is absolutely cooked.

Really good news, and I’d love Hale too.

What’s everyone’s guess for how we’ll end up?

Pratt defence
Hale & Lade mids/oppo analysis
Edge fwd
Kornberg head of development
Spangher VFL coach (I actually reckon this would be ideal for his development as a coach)

That would be pretty good, really hope we can sign a big name for director role to tie it all together. God Leppa would have been good but we’ve obviously got the money for the role so let’s throw it around. Who else would be good for this role?

 

[King Harold]

Spoke to someone that will know a fair bit going on around the club.
wouldn’t buy into any coaching issues , but told me this side was just mentally weak.

probably not telling us anything we didn’t already know , but I was surprised he was prepared to be so forthright.

 

[cleveland]

Reckon we still need a director of coaching. Dew still a chance haha

 

[cleveland]

Spoke to someone that will know a fair bit going on around the club.
wouldn’t buy into any coaching issues , but told me this side was just mentally weak.

probably not telling us anything we didn’t already know , but I was surprised he was prepared to be so forthright.

Have heard Bevo is prepared to be tougher this year. Interesting to see how that goes. Didn't go well in 2017

 

[Golden_6]

Spoke to someone that will know a fair bit going on around the club.
wouldn’t buy into any coaching issues , but told me this side was just mentally weak.

probably not telling us anything we didn’t already know , but I was surprised he was prepared to be so forthright.

I think that’s a given. Ever since the 2021 GF, the side has looked broken and depleted of spirit at times.

One could also argue that the coaching group has a big say on whether the players are headstrong.

 

[cleveland]

I think that’s a given. Ever since the 2021 GF, the side has looked broken and depleted of spirit at times.

One could also argue that the coaching group has a big say on whether the players are headstrong.

Coaching group has been broken. Has filtered through to the playing group

 

[W W Biscuit]

Spoke to someone that will know a fair bit going on around the club.
wouldn’t buy into any coaching issues , but told me this side was just mentally weak.

probably not telling us anything we didn’t already know , but I was surprised he was prepared to be so forthright.

What’s the best way to address this? Employ another sports psychologist?

 

[Mojorisin]

I really like the Pratt move, West Coast have been a bloody good side built on their defence & Simpson is a great coach too. Don’t worry about the last two years that list is absolutely cooked.

Really good news, and I’d love Hale too.

What’s everyone’s guess for how we’ll end up?

Pratt defence
Hale & Lade mids/oppo analysis
Edge fwd
Kornberg head of development
Spangher VFL coach (I actually reckon this would be ideal for his development as a coach)

That would be pretty good, really hope we can sign a big name for director role to tie it all together. God Leppa would have been good but we’ve obviously got the money for the role so let’s throw it around. Who else would be good for this role?

My guess is Lade as the football director. Kornberg mids.

 

[King Harold]

What’s the best way to address this? Employ another sports psychologist?

not convinced that will help .
Need more MBoyd, Picken , Morris , CSmith types to add to Libber.
Those blokes were born to fight to the last.
interesting 3 of them were originally rookie listed.

 

[Golden_6]

My guess is Lade as the football director. Kornberg mids.

Which would probably be less than ideal. If Lade was well suited or the best candidate for the job, he would’ve been offered it long ago.

 

[mattwa]

Interesting. If we can land some of the names listed it would be definitely an upgrade

 

[cecil]

I really like the Pratt move, West Coast have been a bloody good side built on their defence & Simpson is a great coach too. Don’t worry about the last two years that list is absolutely cooked.

Really good news, and I’d love Hale too.

What’s everyone’s guess for how we’ll end up?

Pratt defence
Hale & Lade mids/oppo analysis
Edge fwd
Kornberg head of development
Spangher VFL coach (I actually reckon this would be ideal for his development as a coach)

That would be pretty good, really hope we can sign a big name for director role to tie it all together. God Leppa would have been good but we’ve obviously got the money for the role so let’s throw it around. Who else would be good for this role?

Maddocks is already head of development, so it's probably Kornberg or Hale, rather than both.

 

[Freshwater]

Spoke to someone that will know a fair bit going on around the club.
wouldn’t buy into any coaching issues , but told me this side was just mentally weak.

probably not telling us anything we didn’t already know , but I was surprised he was prepared to be so forthright.

This was obviously in the Fremantle debacle in the 2022 final. It was Rourke Smith who stood up the most that night.
We all know having Picko, Matty Boyd, Moz, Clay, Biggs, Cordy, Easton, Dahl and Libba drove that hardness through the 2016 finals run. The most intangible but important element of any premiership tilt.
In 2021 finals Taylor Dureay and Rourke, and Libba and Bont and McCrae were driving this.
It’s why a few of us were happy with Harmes. Imagine a younger Callan Ward in this team? Watching Flea flop is demoralising for teammates around him, too much talent to keep doing that crap. Was horrified seeing it again this year, should be coached out of him. Yes this squad needs some mongrel. It is why I argued all week for getting in Selwood, regardless of whether he wants as much money of a line coach to be a development coach, because he is who we need.

 

[Here we go dogs]

This was obviously in the Fremantle debacle in the 2022 final. It was Rourke Smith who stood up the most that night.
We all know having Picko, Matty Boyd, Moz, Clay, Biggs, Cordy, Easton, Dahl and Libba drove that hardness through the 2016 finals run. The most intangible but important element of any premiership tilt.
In 2021 finals Taylor Dureay and Rourke, and Libba and Bont and McCrae were driving this.
It’s why a few of us were happy with Harmes. Imagine a younger Callan Ward in this team? Watching Flea flop is demoralising for teammates around him, too much talent to keep doing that crap. Was horrified seeing it again this year, should be coached out of him. Yes this squad needs some mongrel. It is why I argued all week for getting in Selwood, regardless of whether he wants as much money of a line coach to be a development coach, because he is who we need.

Trent Cotchin would be just as good as Selwood and he would be local. I hope they enquired about him.

 

[doggies ftw]

This was obviously in the Fremantle debacle in the 2022 final. It was Rourke Smith who stood up the most that night.
We all know having Picko, Matty Boyd, Moz, Clay, Biggs, Cordy, Easton, Dahl and Libba drove that hardness through the 2016 finals run. The most intangible but important element of any premiership tilt.
In 2021 finals Taylor Dureay and Rourke, and Libba and Bont and McCrae were driving this.
It’s why a few of us were happy with Harmes. Imagine a younger Callan Ward in this team? Watching Flea flop is demoralising for teammates around him, too much talent to keep doing that crap. Was horrified seeing it again this year, should be coached out of him. Yes this squad needs some mongrel. It is why I argued all week for getting in Selwood, regardless of whether he wants as much money of a line coach to be a development coach, because he is who we need.

It’s why I’m really warming to Sanders at our pick, him Harmes & Coffield would really help address this issue.

 

[dogwatch]

This was obviously in the Fremantle debacle in the 2022 final. It was Rourke Smith who stood up the most that night.
We all know having Picko, Matty Boyd, Moz, Clay, Biggs, Cordy, Easton, Dahl and Libba drove that hardness through the 2016 finals run. The most intangible but important element of any premiership tilt.
In 2021 finals Taylor Dureay and Rourke, and Libba and Bont and McCrae were driving this.
...

Too many people are quick to dismiss Roarke because he's not naturally gifted. But you know you're going to get genuine and consistent effort, which you don't always get with some of the others with more natural talents.

I'm wary of simple generalisations like "they're mentally weak" but if that's part of our problem then having troopers like Roarke in the side does something to address it.

It depends if he can get his body right of course. Doesn't matter how mentally tough you are if you can't get on the paddock.