What’s wrong with the dogs?

[Cori]

We've basically replaced Murphy, Boyd, Dickson, Picken, Libba, Stringer and Marcus Adams with Ed Richards, Hayden Crozier, Billy Gowers, Bailey Dale, Lukas Webb, Aaron Naughton and Tim English. That's about 1100 games for 100 games of experience.

/thread

 

[cecil]

Is it the kids letting you down or players further up the food chain and some weird non selections?

I wouldn't say it's kids letting us down. You just can't expect them to play to them level of a Bob Murphy or Matt Boyd. In saying that, it looks like we've found some players in Naughton, Richards, English and to a lesser extent Gowers. As for the old guard, I don't think that many have really regressed. Macrae has been a star, Bont missed through injury but has been solid with the occasional brilliant game, JJ has been solid up forward without being spectacular. Wood, Boyd, Roughead, Trengove and Crozier have all missed a period of games, so haven't clicked into gear yet, but I wouldn't say that's an indictment on them

 

[cecil]

I wouldn't say it's kids letting us down. You just can't expect them to play to them level of a Bob Murphy or Matt Boyd. In saying that, it looks like we've found some players in Naughton, Richards, English and to a lesser extent Gowers. As for the old guard, I don't think that many have really regressed. Macrae has been a star, Bont missed through injury but has been solid with the occasional brilliant game, JJ has been solid up forward without being spectacular. Wood, Boyd, Roughead, Trengove and Crozier have all missed a period of games, so haven't clicked into gear yet, but I wouldn't say that's an indictment on them

As for non selections we've been playing about 5 afl listed players in some vfl games. So there's not a lot to draw from. We tend to bring players back conservatively so Roughead and Trengove spent a couple of weeks there before coming back, as is Schache, but that's about it.

 

[Dangerousfield]

What's wrong with the Cats?

Getting smashed by the Injectors!

 

[Igloo]

2016 Premiership side.

Johannisen Hamling Boyd
Roberts* Morris Wood
Hunter Bontempelli Picken
Dunkley Cordy Stringer
Dickson Boyd Smith
Roughead Dahlhaus Liberatore
Macrae McLean Biggs* Daniel

Bolded are either gone or been out all/most of the year with injuries.
* aren't playing good enough footy to be getting a game.
Cordy has swapped from CHF to CHB.

The guys who have replaced the unavailable players include:
Naughton - 8 games
Richards - 8 games
Lipinski - 6 games
Gowers - 9 games
Williams - 26 games
Dale - 39 games
Webb - 23 games
Honeychurch - 29 games
English - 9 games
Young - 9 games

Plus a few players with experience in Suckling (9 games this year), Trengove (3 games this year), Crozier (5 games this year) and Wallis (7 games this year).

Anyone saying "lul that team won a premiership 18 months ago and now suck" is an idiot. It's not the same team. The team that was has since been decimated by injury and retirements and replaced with guys who are completely inexperienced. The forward line alone, which was notably a patch job of not typical forward players has lost the only two guys who were actual forwards and could reliably kick goals.
Our backline last week didn't have a single player who played there in the premiership year. That's an entire back 6 system gone, and has been in a constant state of being unsettled since the start of 2017.

Yes, some players haven't taken a step up since then, and aren't playing the footy some people expected of them. JJ and Dahlhaus would be the obvious choices, and some would suggest Boyd as well, but he's had his well publicised issues. Dunkley probably hasn't progressed as some would like either.
There are also players like McLean who has massively improved and is a genuine gun, Macrae who has taken an extra step over what he was already producing, Hunter who has turned from purely outside and a bit of a frontrunner to a gut running machine constantly helping out the backline (I think I read someone referring to him as his former seagully self. If anyone thinks that, they simply don't watch him play), and Cordy who has been rock solid since mid last year.

There have been some weird team selections, coupled with some very dubious tactics (over handballing in the wet vs Adelaide the obvious one). Some moves that clearly don't work out, our choice to rotate our assistant coaches which I think has backfired tremendously, as well as the apparent need for every player to have "versatility" such as Wood training to be a forward all pre season only for us to figure out 20 mins into the season that that's a terrible idea, which have all contributed to us not doing as well as we could/should/might be able to do.

Some people have labelled it a rebuild. I think it's getting there, but it's more so through the hand being forced rather than any list management decisions. I don't understand why people choose to simply ignore the massive injury toll to key players that the club has endured the last 3 years.

Watching the same tilted posters still crying from 2016 truly is joyous though, and makes reading these kinds of thread worth it during a tough year. Whether it be emotional scarring from walking past a pub and being spooked by the loud noises, or John Longmire-esque blubbering about umpires, or just an already present hatred being fuelled by us beating you in finals, I hope you select few acknowledge who you are and take pride that you're doing all Bulldogs supporters a great service. Wear that badge with honour, friends.

 

[PerthBoy86]

Well the obvious things are lack of tall forwards to be reliable marking forwards inside 50. Experience is also a factor of course. I actually don't think the Dogs are that terrible, there are still some traces of the form of 2016 in their fast paced run and carry game, but they're kind of probably in the rebuilding phase.

 

[cecil]

Well the obvious things are lack of tall forwards to be reliable marking forwards inside 50. Experience is also a factor of course. I actually don't think the Dogs are that terrible, there are still some traces of the form of 2016 in their fast paced run and carry game, but they're kind of probably in the rebuilding phase.

I think that's the biggest frustration for a lot of bulldogs supporters. Boyd showed some form playing full forward in his first game and a half while providing a chop out in the ruck. Then Bevo decided he was a ruck again. We played Roughead FF while Boyd rucked mainly on Friday.

 

[PerthBoy86]

I think that's the biggest frustration for a lot of bulldogs supporters. Boyd showed some form playing full forward in his first game and a half while providing a chop out in the ruck. Then Bevo decided he was a ruck again. We played Roughead FF while Boyd rucked mainly on Friday.

Yeah honestly the Bont is probably your best tallish forward when he plays forward. He's too valuable in the midfield though. He's a good roving crumber and playmaker too, so very versatile. I guess Boyd wasn't consistent enough, and Roughead isn't a huge goalkicker.

 

[BloodySwan]

The fans saying saying youth as an excuse is an absolute cop out. On the back on the '16 cup Doggies fans were talking about how bright their future looked because they won and had such a strong team but now when they're down it's because they're players are young and inexperienced? What happened to the fans talking up a dynasty due to the success of the same young kids? The core foundation from the premiership is still there, they're just being excused now for falling apart. North are a younger team and don't seem to have such a hard time taking it against the opposition.

 

[sonnywalters]

Dogs are very young atm.
Complete rebuild underway.

 

[cecil]

The fans saying saying youth as an excuse is an absolute cop out. On the back on the '16 cup Doggies fans were talking about how bright their future looked because they won and had such a strong team but now when they're down it's because they're players are young and inexperienced? What happened to the fans talking up a dynasty due to the success of the same young kids? The core foundation from the premiership is still there, they're just being excused now for falling apart. North are a younger team and don't seem to have such a hard time taking it against the opposition.

Read the posts above you, especially the one by Ron The Bear , then reply. Across the 9 rounds so far, we have fielded 9 of the 11 youngest teams overall. North aren't young at all, and while they are going great, still have Tarrant, Goldstein, Waite, Higgins, Ziebell, Cunnington et al. We fielded a team with one player older than 25 - Matt Suckling.

 

[cecil]

Yeah honestly the Bont is probably your best tallish forward when he plays forward. He's too valuable in the midfield though. He's a good roving crumber and playmaker too, so very versatile. I guess Boyd wasn't consistent enough, and Roughead isn't a huge goalkicker.

Yes and No. He's a decent forward, but that's only because of how skillful he is generally I think. Dickson when in form is clearly our best forward and is a 50 goals a year player, but has played about 12 games since the Grand Final. Boyd is good for a goal or two a game as a forward/ruck which is probably the hardest position on the ground. There are very few good players who frequently play both spots anymore.

 

[citizen-erased]

We were young in a flag year but still had Morris, Matty Boyd, Liam Picken, Tory Dickson and Libba guiding the team. That's a quarter of the team where we have replaced good quality experienced players with guys who have barely played 10 games. That's disregarding we are also missing Marcus Adams and Clay Smith as older heads too.

We've basically replaced Murphy, Boyd, Dickson, Picken, Libba, Stringer and Marcus Adams with Ed Richards, Hayden Crozier, Billy Gowers, Bailey Dale, Lukas Webb, Aaron Naughton and Tim English. That's about 1100 games for 100 games of experience.

Hamling had a good year too. May have been young but he took some major scalps.
And Bonts' 2016 was at a level he hasn't matched since.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Pretty much how they've played for the last five years except for four games at the end of 2016 where, with massive assistance from the umps, they played completely above themselves. I believe Tom Boyd even play his one career very good game in that block of four.

They are an irrelevance, one of the Melbourne clubs that should have been sent north to save us from the blight of GCS & GWS!

Listen to the GF loser, with your home advantage you can make finals every year, but of of course can’t do it on the big stage in the one career game that counts.

 

[Foucault1989]

The doggies will be fine. Their list is still so young. Wait a couple of years and they will be a force

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Nope, just that you are now a recent premiership team without really deserving it. Just had unbelievable good fortune for that month, AFL introduces a bye week and you get all your injured players back refreshed, umps weren't pinging your blatant throwing of the ball, umps were paying the played for high contact - how is that spring headed McLean going?

So worked up no, annoyed yes, but looks like you'll need to bask in the glory of 2016 because I don't see your team going anywhere in the next few seasons/decades.

Hey there, remember 1997, the rules were changed that year to allow Adelaide to lose its first final but get a second chance, without that you wouldn’t have played after your first final. As for umps, remember Libbas goal that was never paid? They bent the rules to help your franchise club win gf and don’t you forget it.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Consider what we have seen over the years, when the split round was first introduced many years ago almost every team coming off the break lost, remember the Dogs played sides who played 1 game in 3 weeks on their way to the granny, IMO it had a major impact.

Clutching at any straws here champ. Playing four finals as the away team in three States was not easy, your team has never done it, in fact it has never been done before.

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Just my opinion mate, and i went on record at the time stating both qualy winners would lose their prelims because of the extra break.

So what happened this year? The favourites all won their prelims.

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

Is it the kids letting you down or players further up the food chain and some weird non selections?

the experienced players have all fallen off a cliff
they literally should all be playing VFL except suckling.

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

our list management issues are a key reason why we are struggling atm

they didnt address the forward line issue
lack of speed
lack of quality kickers
imbalanced age list

 

[gangsta deluxe]

The fans saying saying youth as an excuse is an absolute cop out. On the back on the '16 cup Doggies fans were talking about how bright their future looked because they won and had such a strong team but now when they're down it's because they're players are young and inexperienced? What happened to the fans talking up a dynasty due to the success of the same young kids? The core foundation from the premiership is still there, they're just being excused now for falling apart. North are a younger team and don't seem to have such a hard time taking it against the opposition.

1. No North aren't. We are the youngest team in the AFL.
2. The side is completely different, with all of the more experienced players injured or gone.

Look at the data before you shoot your bolt you absolute imbecile.

 

[cecil]

Hamling had a good year too. May have been young but he took some major scalps.
And Bonts' 2016 was at a level he hasn't matched since.

Agree about Hamling, although he was borderline best 22 with Adams missing the grand final. Bont isn't at that level, but I'd suggest mainly because of the amount forward he's been playing.

 

[ApplecrossWC]

There is a reason they are considered one of the worst premiership teams in the history of the game.

They actually aren't very good but the premiership fooled people into thinking they are a decent team. Their most highly paid player is a guy who struggles to get a touch in the VFL, let alone the AFL.

 

[hoianbulldog]

North are a younger team and don't seem to have such a hard time taking it against the opposition.

Haven't we been the youngest team in every round this year and by some margin?

Don't let facts get in the way of a good melt.

 

[DelRe]

I sometimes wonder if the form after the flag has annoyed opposition supporters more than the Dogs actually winning it, particularly for supporters of clubs that would consider they’ve had better seasons but not won one and it grates against the sore feeling of opportunity missed.