Mofra's Bottom 50 for 2020

[Here2tellyouwhy]

Player Number 1 - Adelaide Crows select Josh Bruce....

... but wait, what? Despite not winning a game until September the Crows are ineligible for the number 1 pick because the Bulldogs pre-listed Bruce as a Next Generation Bottom 50 (NGB50) Selection?

Ok then. Bulldogs choose to match the bid.

Player NGB50 (Matched Bid) - Josh Bruce
View attachment 1032025
Pictured: Josh's penchant for nipple-play sometimes finds its way onto the football field too

Josh Bruce was traded into the Bulldogs last year and was meant to support Aaron Naughton as he develops as a key forward. Unfortunately, Bruce spent most of the year setting an example of what not to do.

Josh was originally drafted to GWS where he performed so badly that Carlton didn't pick him up. He was an 'ACT Zone Selection' because the AFL has granted GWS more access to hopeful teenagers that the US leather-couch industry. He then went to St Kilda where he became a noted goal kicker for many years. With St Kilda drafting Max King he became surplus to their needs and the Bulldogs sniffed an opportunity.

Remember the Billy Gowers write-up? I noted that the Bulldogs have a long and (un)proud history of taking discarded opposition forwards... Simon Minton-Connell, Jade Rawlings, James Cook, Kingsley Hunter, Trent Bartlett, Daniel Bandy, Allen Jakovich, Aaron James, Adam Morgan, Tom Davidson, Lachlan Veale, Travis Baird, Andrew McDougall, Travis Cloke, Scott Welsh, Richard Osborne, and let's not kid ourselves - Tom Boyd was a superstar in finals, woeful in home and away games.
Josh looked long and hard at that list and said "hold my beer" (I really wish he hadn't selected Lachie Hunter to hold it).

The stats say that Josh went at nearly a goal per game. Those stats are as misleading as a Saints players suggesting "we'll just cuddle".

'Juice' (that's his nickname, which would really be more appropriate for any of the Essendon 34) played 17 games in 2020 as the Bulldogs match committee refused to drop him because, well, there basically was nobody else fit to play - and that include Bruce as well.
In those 17 games he kicked 14 goals, of which 6 came in a single game against North. Yes that North, who were less a football team and more a collection of individuals who really would have benefited from a Collective Minds run pre-season camp.

That meant that Bruce, who was traded in on a very healthy 4 year deal, kicked 8 goals from 16 games as the no 1 KPF in a team that made the finals. That's half a goal per game, and players who averaged more than that in season 2020 include superstar forwards like Shaun McKernan, Harley Bennell, Rory Lobb, Jacob Townsend, Mitch McGovern and Tibor.

The only other game he kicked more than one goal was against Richmond, in which he gave away 3 free kicks (Plugger said they were all justified) and was awarded two himself (Plugger needed a new TV after putting his remote through the old one).

Again stats don't tell the whole story here, apart from the Port game where he managed 2 possessions for the whole game.
As a mature tall the idea was that he'd support the developing Tim English in the ruck. He averaged about 1 hit-out per game as a 197cm 28 year old, and performed so well that Bevo decided to spare the side any more embarrassment and put the 190cm 23 year old injury-interrupted season Josh Dunkley in the ruck, who performed just as well as Bruce (1 hit out per game).

This led Josh Dunkley to consider his future and because of (I presume) delayed onset concussion actually considered a move to Essendon, with the lure of a big contract and playing with his brother Kyle. Essendon totally Essendoned the deal, low-balling the Bulldogs with a deal Dodoro said himself he wouldn't accept, then not drafting Kyle. Amazing that a club run in that way hasn't won a final since Yassar Arafat was alive.
It also killed the Dunkley-Bont bromance too as this peer-reviewed paper ably demonstrates:
View attachment 1032035
(Thanks to ash_1050)

To really demonstrate Bruce's year, put it his way. In 2019, Bruce was 4th in the competition for contested marks during the home and away season. The Bulldogs brought him in the support Aaron Naughton who finished (checks notes) first in the competition.
This year, Bruce dropped to 31st in the competition and Naughton fell to 21 (despite playing five less games than Bruce).

So let's summarise Bruce's net effect this year:

• Reduced output from himself
• Reduced output from Aaron Naughton
• A large indirect factor in Dunkley wanting to leave
• The entire Dunkley family unhappy with the football industry in general
• A degraded friendship between a club captain and a club leader
• A somewhat tarnished legacy of the legendary number 17 at the Bulldogs worn by greats such as Adam 'spongey floor' Cooney and Tom 'better than Nick Riewoldt in Grand Finals' Boyd.

If you ignore the decision by the New York tourist board to host the 'Wuhan bat-lover's festival' in late January 2020 this has been one of the worst events of the year - and this was a year that has seen fires, floods, virus, murder hornets, the continued employment of Damian Barrett and Kanye Wests' presidential bid.

Josh, it's been a tough year.... watching you. I'm sure you'll improve in 2021. Thanks for trying and welcome to the Bottom 50 for 2020.

Mofra hold on to that 2016 cup for dear life mate.

Bevo as brilliant as trading a captain out in 2015 then winning a flag was it aint happening again.

#prey4Bruce
#Boydis/waslife

 

[Bont2Bruce]

Mofra hold on to that 2016 cup for dear life mate.

Bevo as brilliant as trading a captain out in 2015 then winning a flag was it aint happening again.

#prey4Bruce
#Boydis/waslife

Bevo wasn't even at the club in 2015 when Griffen left?

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Bevo wasn't even at the club in 2015 when Griffen left?

Griffen left in 2014. Bevo started in 2015.

 

[Here2tellyouwhy]

Bevo wasn't even at the club in 2015 when Griffen left?

He did a Blighty I reckon and fair enough he gets the final say

 

[Bont2Bruce]

He did a Blighty I reckon and fair enough he gets the final say

Took many weeks to find a new coach and at the time Griffen left Bevo had accepted a role at St Kilda until we offered him head coach role with us. You can attempt to re-write history but it won't make it correct.

 

[Here2tellyouwhy]

Took many weeks to find a new coach and at the time Griffen left Bevo had accepted a role at St Kilda until we offered him head coach role with us. You can attempt to re-write history but it won't make it correct.

Yeah its all history now. Clearly everything worked out for the best for the club.