Welcome to the club Pick 45 Western Bulldogs Bailey Dale

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he looked 12 last year
improvement
photoshop a beard onto him, see how he goes then

77c.jpg
 
He is looking a bit tired and will probably continue to taper off towards the end of the year, but **** me he is clean by foot.

Even Dunstall said when he got the ball from Redpath the time from receiving to slotting the goal was incredible.

He will build a tank and some muscle and increase the number of contests he can get to / influence. I'm really excited to see what he can do next year with a full pre-season under his belt. Could we see Macrae-esque improvement?
 

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My favourite thing about Dale is he is the draftee i'm FOURTH most excited about and i'm still bloody excited about him. The other draftee dominates vfl every week too
 
Bailey Dale has kicked 15 straight goals since he last kicked a behind.
 
I know he's been settled into a HBF role but sometimes I wonder how he would look with his new found confidence in a more attacking wing role. He would be deadly both in terms of goals and inside 50's receiving the ball in that 50-80m mark.
 
I know he's been settled into a HBF role but sometimes I wonder how he would look with his new found confidence in a more attacking wing role. He would be deadly both in terms of goals and inside 50's receiving the ball in that 50-80m mark.
I think the same every week but then watch the game and think geez his ball use coming out of the back half is so bloody important and we’d struggle with out it - I don’t think there’s a player whose more dangerous by foot he’s absolute dynamite, from the long range pin point kicks he pulls off to even just the shorter easier ones arriving 3 seconds faster than anyone else could manage which can set us off.

If our forward line continues to struggle then maybe yeah Wing/HFF with a more defensively minded player like Croz into replace him - but geez we’d lose a lot out of the back half
 
I know he's been settled into a HBF role but sometimes I wonder how he would look with his new found confidence in a more attacking wing role. He would be deadly both in terms of goals and inside 50's receiving the ball in that 50-80m mark.

Once a player finds their groove and wins an AA in a position I think you'd be crazy to move them, at least in the short term.

Bailey has had an interesting start to the season. In the first half against the Swans I was calling for his head as he was absolutley putrid, but by the end of the game he'd almost moved onto the best player list.

Bailey's challenge is to not go to pieces early and find a way to stay in the game when teams come out hard. He can tend to 💩 the 🛌 a little....
 
I think the same every week but then watch the game and think geez his ball use coming out of the back half is so bloody important and we’d struggle with out it - I don’t think there’s a player whose more dangerous by foot he’s absolute dynamite, from the long range pin point kicks he pulls off to even just the shorter easier ones arriving 3 seconds faster than anyone else could manage which can set us off.

If our forward line continues to struggle then maybe yeah Wing/HFF with a more defensively minded player like Croz into replace him - but geez we’d lose a lot out of the back half
The only concern I do have is suitability of having both Dale and Williams down back at the same time (assuming Daniel doesn't move out). Honestly wouldn't mind seeing Dale push further up the ground, but that relies on Williams not being in the terrible form he's in this year.
 
The only concern I do have is suitability of having both Dale and Williams down back at the same time (assuming Daniel doesn't move out). Honestly wouldn't mind seeing Dale push further up the ground, but that relies on Williams not being in the terrible form he's in this year.
I see Williams in form as a different beast as he’s wayyyy better defensively but yeah not sure what’s up with him at the moment looks a shell of himself. Ideally I think Dale could move out and Williams can take on that long kicking role whilst also being usually a wall defensively but with no trust in him in the backline right now I’d look at using Williams maybe in the wing/hff spot to try and get him some touch with the footy. Can offer a similar long goal threat, can be that target were desperate for out of our wingers and should give us some nice ball movement going inside 50, and more importantly deep inside 50s as he can roost it.
 
I think the same every week but then watch the game and think geez his ball use coming out of the back half is so bloody important and we’d struggle with out it - I don’t think there’s a player whose more dangerous by foot he’s absolute dynamite, from the long range pin point kicks he pulls off to even just the shorter easier ones arriving 3 seconds faster than anyone else could manage which can set us off.

If our forward line continues to struggle then maybe yeah Wing/HFF with a more defensively minded player like Croz into replace him - but geez we’d lose a lot out of the back half

Our fwd line issues are to do with the 6-7 players that line up there. Not the players delivering the ball inside 50. Moving Dale up the ground won’t make much of a difference, but as you say will create a fair loss in the back half of the ground.

26+ shots on goal across the last two games, and 2nd most shots at goal across the whole season.

We’re getting it in there enough, its just the presenting and finishing once in there requires some work.
 
Our fwd line issues are to do with the 6-7 players that line up there. Not the players delivering the ball inside 50. Moving Dale up the ground won’t make much of a difference, but as you say will create a fair loss in the back half of the ground.

26+ shots on goal across the last two games, and 2nd most shots at goal across the whole season.

We’re getting it in there enough, its just the presenting and finishing once in there requires some work.
I'd be curious to see stats on difficulty of shots too. I have no evidence, but my perception has been our delivery inside 50 is pretty bad, leading to a lot of shots on tight angles, or rushed shots blindly in congestion due to flooding the forward line. Seems like were rarely honouring leads into space, or when we do, we're kicking to Naughton who will shank it 90% of the time
 

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Given his bags of 5 and 4 in previous games at Mars, if there was any week to temporarily push him forward of centre, or give him licence to run off half back and run and carry closer to F50, this is probably the week.

As Marc Bolan sang in "Bailey Dale of Mars" (a standout amongst a group of standouts on The Slider)

You talk about day
I'm talking 'bout night time
When the supporters call out
"It's missed again!"
Bailey Dale knows
And I bet Luke Beveridge did
There are shots at goal
That are better not to behold
 
I'd be curious to see stats on difficulty of shots too. I have no evidence, but my perception has been our delivery inside 50 is pretty bad, leading to a lot of shots on tight angles, or rushed shots blindly in congestion due to flooding the forward line. Seems like were rarely honouring leads into space, or when we do, we're kicking to Naughton who will shank it 90% of the time
Not just Naughton, there have been times where Bont, Hunter and others end up with a shot in that left hand pocket - we have a bunch of left footers, surely they should be leading to the fat (right) pocket where it would better suit the common slight swing/hook of most left footers (except Naughton who still seems to veer towards the left goal post from most angles - maybe he should always kick at goal on his right - rarely (if ever?) misses those!)
 
I'd be curious to see stats on difficulty of shots too. I have no evidence, but my perception has been our delivery inside 50 is pretty bad, leading to a lot of shots on tight angles, or rushed shots blindly in congestion due to flooding the forward line. Seems like were rarely honouring leads into space, or when we do, we're kicking to Naughton who will shank it 90% of the time

No doubt we kick wide more often than not and it is detrimental to our goal attempts, but, we don’t have the best functioning fwd line and I constantly see them lead to the same spot, stand stationery asking for a long ball, or they actually lead wide to the pockets.

Have a really good look next game and you’ll see that the delivery inside 50 is dictated by the options the fwds are giving them (usually pretty poor) and we then have to go wide (default setting so the opposition don’t force a turn over in the corridor 30m out).

Last year we were the best team for turning defensive turnovers and transition in to shots on goal. This year, 2nd for total shots on goal. Our inside 50’s aren’t too bad, we just don’t create enough genuine goal scoring opportunities once its in there. Add to that our wobbles in front of goal...
 
Not just Naughton, there have been times where Bont, Hunter and others end up with a shot in that left hand pocket - we have a bunch of left footers, surely they should be leading to the fat (right) pocket where it would better suit the common slight swing/hook of most left footers (except Naughton who still seems to veer towards the left goal post from most angles - maybe he should always kick at goal on his right - rarely (if ever?) misses those!)

Fwds lead to where there’s space. We just so happen to not make enough space for ourselves (lack of fwd cohesion) so lead to the space the opposition gives us. The pockets!!

I’m tipping we take more shots from wide positions than any other team. Put my house on it being by a lot.
 
Don’t get me wrong though, we aren’t masters delivering inside 50, I just think it’s not too bad and the work is required elsewhere.
 
Fwds lead to where there’s space. We just so happen to not make enough space for ourselves (lack of fwd cohesion) so lead to the space the opposition gives us. The pockets!!

I’m tipping we take more shots from wide positions than any other team. Put my house on it being by a lot.
Agree with your last line, but surely your first line is an indictment on the forward coach. We need to be making space where it most favours our forwards.

When Bruce plays, he generally seems to end up having most of his shots in front or to the right, rarely more than a few metres left of centre (although he's a far more reliable set shot than Naughton).

The cohesion is on Spangher. We've often seen this year Naughton and JUH flying for the same ball, sometimes Weightman too. While a good overhead mark, Weightman should know which packs to stay out of. It's interesting that English often seems to drift forward and mark either uncontested, ort against a direct opponent, without having to compete against Naughton and JUH as well. Last year we had an experienced forward coach, and an experienced Bruce, and (to the eye, at least) less overlap between Bruce and Naughton (and English).

I know Spangher is still learning the ropes, but surely one basic rule for the KPFs is try and lead to space AWAY from each other, and try and avoid competing in the same marking contests.
 
Agree with your last line, but surely your first line is an indictment on the forward coach. We need to be making space where it most favours our forwards.

When Bruce plays, he generally seems to end up having most of his shots in front or to the right, rarely more than a few metres left of centre (although he's a far more reliable set shot than Naughton).

The cohesion is on Spangher. We've often seen this year Naughton and JUH flying for the same ball, sometimes Weightman too. While a good overhead mark, Weightman should know which packs to stay out of. It's interesting that English often seems to drift forward and mark either uncontested, ort against a direct opponent, without having to compete against Naughton and JUH as well. Last year we had an experienced forward coach, and an experienced Bruce, and (to the eye, at least) less overlap between Bruce and Naughton (and English).

I know Spangher is still learning the ropes, but surely one basic rule for the KPFs is try and lead to space AWAY from each other, and try and avoid competing in the same marking contests.

Yeah, It’s probably a mix of both inexperienced coach and players.

Bruce is by far the most experienced player with have inside 50 so no surprise they perform better as a group when he’s on the park. When you have someone who knows what they’re doing and has been doing it for so long, they kind of bring it all together. Riewoldt, Hawkins, Dixon, Walker etc would all have considerable influence on how their teams fwd lines function.

Naughts isn’t the most natural of fwds, Marra is a few years off experience wise, and the rest are kind of part timers. So I think regardless of the messaging from the coaches, they struggle a little bit during games.

In regards to Spanger, it’s hard to say, because there’s not many favourable score results to say he’s going well. But, in his defence, it’s hard to get a young fwd line functioning well, let alone doing so after 6 mths in the job.
 
Look at Bruce & Naughty in 2020, they were a legitimate shambles together constantly flying for the same ball. It takes time as they’ve both played as that main FF target for their whole careers, one year on and they were vastly improved.

I don’t think it’s either the delivery or the forward patterns it’s definitely a bit of both - way too often do we burn good leads because we don’t have the confidence to make a relatively straight forward kick.

There’s only so much space in a congested forward line, if Naughty makes a lead you have to kick it almost instantly before it gets shut down. We stop and prop and think and then okay now we’ll try and honour it and it’s too late and it gets cut off - seen it that many times.

I also mentioned in the other thread but take note of our slower entries on the weekend - when we’re going inside 50 in a slow build up, Naughty or Jamarra will make a lead out of the spot, we’ll wait and wait and finally we’ll wait til the leading forward gets back to the hot spot then we’ll kick it in and they’ll both fly.

Whether we’re trying to hit up the leading forward or trying to put it long to the square, you need to go as soon as that player makes the lead. Even if you’re going to the square when he leads his defender out of the hole that’s when you go. We just wait and wait and wait and it’s the same outcome every time, except the times we’re Naughty takes a screamer
 
Apologies if this is not the most recent thread on Bailey Dale but I think we should celebrate his contribution as he approaches his 150th game this weekend. Dale has attracted his share of criticism over the years for his perceived lack of physicality and lack of accountability against strong opponents. However, his physique has never been a comfortable fit for these attributes.
He is, first and foremost, a skillful and creative running half back whose strong suit is his brilliant kicking. Of course, like all creative players he has been prone to the odd turnover but his value to the team far outweighs such minor errors.
Dale is in fine form at present and his role is so important to our success. He deserves high praise for this important career milestone.
 
I spent way too much time arguing with he who shall not be named about how good this guy could be and is now.
Look at what he can do and not what he can’t do. The great and good far outweigh the bad.
Brilliant coaching move with no notice and he hit the ground “running”.
The excitement rises as he launches another attack similar to the way Bubba used to do.
 

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Welcome to the club Pick 45 Western Bulldogs Bailey Dale

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