Autopsy Post 2021 Grand Final Western Bulldogs game review, the good the bad and the ugly, come talk about it here!

[Mattdougie]

Fritsch kicked nearly 60 goals this year. He got off the leash because he is a good player. Good effort to get to the big dance and what happened should be enough momentum to try and turn the tide moving forward.

He is sh!t.

 

[Libba39]

I’m going to repeat this over and over. We get a better defence and forward line. With our supposed star studded midfield, does anyone see us chasing down petracca or Oliver when they get a hold of the ball?

We are so damn slow down the middle. We need to stop drinking the “we have the best and deepest mids” bath water.

What is going on in that department? Bont in his first year was a sprinter. Now he just strolls around. Libba is the only one I give a pass to with that regard due to his knees.

I’m sad and disappointed and I’m going to keep drunk posting for the rest of the night. F*** this sh*t.

In the end the midfield is solid but is too oriented towards the inside it seems. We simply can't compete with Oliver and Petracca's ability to win the ball AND burst away.

 

[footscray1973]

Well at least Jacko wins the Gary Ayres Award.

Wouldn't have made it to the GF without him and he finishes the year with most disposals by a player in any V/AFL on record.

Doesn't playing 26 games make that a bit of a joke though? How many massive accumulators have played 26 games in a season? If it was awarded on average disposals per game I'd understand. Its not comparing apples with apples.

 

[adogsfan5]

In the end the midfield is solid but is too oriented towards the inside it seems. We simply can't compete with Oliver and Petracca's ability to win the ball AND burst away.

perhaps more smith and treloar in the middle then?

 

[Mutt]

He is sh!t.

He is awesome. You have nfi.

 

[stefcep]

Jake Lever just summed it up. When your mdifield piles on 4 goa

I’m going to repeat this over and over. We get a better defence and forward line. With our supposed star studded midfield, does anyone see us chasing down petracca or Oliver when they get a hold of the ball?

We are so damn slow down the middle. We need to stop drinking the “we have the best and deepest mids” bath water.

What is going on in that department? Bont in his first year was a sprinter. Now he just strolls around. Libba is the only one I give a pass to with that regard due to his knees.

I’m sad and disappointed and I’m going to keep drunk posting for the rest of the night. F*** this sh*t.

Dunkley Libba Macrae even Bont are simply not quick enough. Of the four really only Bont is able to kick a break away goal like Petracca and Oliver. If we are going to win another GF ( that should be our goal ..) we are going to need to beat them, and thats going to be the case for the next 4-5 years.

 

[Dry Rot]

 

[Bazzas Lovechild]

He is sh!t.

Dees leading goal kicker…can’t be that bad.

 

[adogsfan5]

So much for Dunks potentially locking someone down..

 

[Dogs Rule]

It helps they have three senior coaches on their payroll. Chocco, Goodwin and that other dude, no doubt paid from the MCC memberships.

They hunted this year and now they will become the hunted.

Exactly what we need. We need a clean sweep of our assistants. Fresh blood. We need an ex senior coach in there. Anyone got Clarkson's number? Buckley?

 

[Norm De Guerre]

He is awesome. You have nfi.

Its like a vulture. Its always around when there is a carcass to pick over.

 

[glenashley]

How do you lose from 3 goals up halfway through the 3rd?

How do you lose by 13 goals to 1 from that point?

So much for our superstar midfield...

 

[nalik95]

The boys did well to turn it around in the 2nd. You could see they were trying to settle early in the 3rd but costly clangers/turnovers hurt their momentum.

Although we definitely need another KPD and a solid experienced ruck, the team still has a lot of improvement in general skills and footy smarts.

• Need to work on tackling technique. I don't know whether it's fatigue or lacking in strength that's contributing to it. Players of Bont's mass shouldn't be on the ground while their opponent is still standing. Not when you're using your whole weight to drag the opponent down. Daniel v Gawn was a prime example of using your whole body weight to your advantage and shouldn't make size an excuse to tackle properly. Dunkley another good example, when in the tackle, he's smart enough to identify and pull his whole body weight to the side where the opponent is slightly off balance. Took down Petracca a couple of times using that technique.
• Bit of ball watching by the mids and wingers which gave Melbourne the chance to get on a roll.
• The first goal they kicked in the 3rd, they had Daniel on the defensive side of the stoppage. He was the one that got it forward. That was the last time someone was defensive side in a centre stoppage. Basic footy act, especially when a team like Melbourne kept hanballing it forward of stoppage to a running mid. Sure maybe the coaches could've picked that up. However, if you played all of juniors and years of AFL footy, surely a mid would've taken the onus to be a defensive stopper once Melbourne kicked a goal or 2 using that space in front of the stoppage.
• Learn how to run defensive angles when they don't have the ball (most have horrible corralling lines giving the opposition attacking side - prime example was Hannan on the wing running attacking side of the Dees player with the ball instead of defensive side) it's been happening all year by almost every player and it's frustrating to watch that easy out towards goal being given time and time again.
• I'm going to single out Cordy, even though he did some brilliant things in the game, for a defender his defensive craft isn't there. Anyone who has played defense knows if you take front spot, you commit to the ball. Cordy has a habit of trying to find the body after taking front spot, in doing so taking his eye off the ball and losing it in the air. Forward runs past him for almost an easy uncontested mark. Either he needs to learn how to judge the ball quickly and protect the drop zone which should always be in front of him and let the contact come to him OR he plays behind the forward. However that being said, he needs closing speed when playing behind which he lacks and even behind the forward, he tends to be conscious of looking for the body contact and losing the ball in flight. Possibly why he looks like he is always 5m behind his opponent.
• Dale shit the bed tonight but he'll be better for the experience. First year in a new position playing in a Grand Final. His handballs were horrible, he was in 2 minds a few times which contributed to bad disposals. Needs to be told to always play his natural game, which is looking to take that first 5m out of traffic and then delivering.
• That left Daniel with majority of the play making at half back. He was good in patches. I'm of the thinking that he's getting a bit carried away with trying to kick drop punts across his body every time. Sure crab away from traffic to give you space and time to pick a good target but it wouldn't hurt to straighten up and get the momentum going forward. Especially in a game where the ball needs to arrive quickly to the target and not soft and slow in the air.
• Need to practice front and centre crumbing. Plenty of times we kicked it down the line, talls brought it to ground (good), yet most of our players either ran past the pack or were beside the pack. One play the ball came to ground and rolled through 4-5 Melbourne players front and centre before any dogs jumpers were sighted. Not sure whether the players are misreading the play or the kicks aren't getting to the intended target putting most in bad positions.
• Definitely missed Bruce and overall forward separation. English and Hannan aren't really body locking contested marks. Few times they were there just to keep defenders on the ground. Not hard to know where the ball will go with that kind of tactic and was easy for Melbourne mids to flood back to the drop of the ball.

It will definitely burn over the summer for the boys

 

[Mattdougie]

He is awesome. You have nfi.

Like I care what you think

 

[Dogs Rule]

Lockdown for another month at least, no local cricket until mid November and Dogs get hammered in a GF.

I guess life can be pretty s*** sometimes.

 

[ExRoyboy]

Will be interesting to see what happens with Hannan next year. Wallis on the outer, but Hannan only had significant offensive impact in 2 finals, used as a defensive forward most of the year. Under Bevo we've had lots of medium forwards who have one good season, then fail to back it up and/or are moved on. Stringer, Lloyd, Wallis, Gowers. Is it a trend due to the coaching style? Is Hannan next?

Hannan played a huge part in us actually getting into the GF. Can’t pot him like that. Yes he didn’t have an impact today but he wasn’t alone. The players put in a huge effort to be in the Grand Final, now is not the time to go after them.

We will be back here again I’m sure of it

 

[My Tilly]

Mad respect for your footy club.
Love the way they play. Unfortunately ran out of legs but you have a young group and when you have a top 3 player in the competition in his prime, you are going to get there again and win it.

I think you guys sorely lacked that big forward. I did not believe the loss of Bruce would impact you as much as what many believed but I guess it did in the end. It meant Naughton could not plug the hole in defense as he was needed up forward but with Ugle-Hagan about to explode on the scene, you guys will be a nightmare in 2022.

 

[footscray1973]

Interesting off-season, eh?
What will Power do?
How will we line up next year?
JUH should play more/most games, so how will the forward line look?
For all their rebound attack from half back, under finals pressure Dale and Daniel are less effective than Duryea. Will Williams' role change?
Who will be the surprise role-change?

But most importantly, can we back up after a GF appearance for the first time in our V/AFL history?
We missed finals in all of 1955, 1962 and 2017.

 

[Mutt]

Lockdown for another month at least, no local cricket until mid November and Dogs get hammered in a GF.

Life can be pretty s*** sometimes.

It was a pretty good year to be a Dogs supporter though Dogs Rule. Take care, my friend. We'll be back and life will take a turn for the better very soon for us all.

 

[adogsfan5]

Once Jamarra is ready, it’s time to send Naughts back.

 

[footscray1973]

Hannan played a huge part in us actually getting into the GF. Can’t pot him like that. Yes he didn’t have an impact today but he wasn’t alone. The players put in a huge effort to be in the Grand Final, now is not the time to go after them.

We will be back here again I’m sure of it

Please re-read my post. I did not pot him.

 

[Oliver G]

So much for our superstar midfield...

With 2 of them missing for over half the year and the fact that we still made the GF is a pretty impressive effort

It cost us dearly in just 2 out of 26 games and they couldn't have been at a worse time (R21 and the GF).

But our midfield is clearly the 2nd the best in the competition.

 

[VL3OJ]

I never thought I would see a Bulldogs Grand Final, I've seen two now. We have had a great year with wins a plenty however perhaps the injuries just made the grand final a step too far.

For those naysayers, we were outplayed by the dominant team of the year and I doubt any other team would have got closer. Kudos to Melbourne, it was richly deserved.

The team will change next year in its make up but to bag individuals tonight is disappointing when we should be celebrating being part of something few of us had seen pre 2016.

 

[Brad Goodman]

As long as there aren’t too many mental scars from that you should be OK, most of your stars are right in their prime or about to hit it.

Mums side of my family is all Bulldogs so I was hurting on their behalf tonight.

 

[huddo#9]

Dees leading goal kicker…can’t be that bad.

Nah MD knows his shit.
Just tore the dogs a new one, but shit footballer. #flog