What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 3

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Dancing Dougy

Inside the new Super Draft: Why the 2018 draft class is the best since the famous 2001 crop
Bailey Smith may have slipped to number seven on draft night but did the Western Bulldogs end up with the pick of the 2018 super draft?




Kevin Sheehan thought it could be the best draft haul in 20 years.
The AFL’s No. 1 talent aficionado was at a Darwin training camp with Luke Power ahead of the 2018 draft when he began to believe that year’s crop could rival the famous 2001 super draft.
Instead of AFL greats Luke Hodge, Luke Ball, Chris Judd and Jimmy Bartel, it was Sam Walsh, Bailey Smith, Connor Rozee and the King twins dazzling onlookers at a pre-draft training workout.
“We had watched them play at the national championships, we had seen their testing results and we had met the kids and we just thought at the time, ‘this is a very special group’,” Sheehan recalled this week.
“It was a super group.
“We were actually chuckling about it, that ‘we’ve got a super draft Mark II on our hands’.
“They were just so impressive as a group of young men as well as everything that they were doing on the field, and a lot of it is still to unfold.”

[PLAYERCARD]Sam Walsh[/PLAYERCARD] has been a standout since joining the Blues at pick one. Picture: Getty Images


Entering their third AFL seasons, Sheehan’s private prediction about the top crop in two decades looks like it could be spot on as Walsh, Smith, Rozee, Max and Ben King, Nick Blakey, Zak Butters and Co. stamp themselves as genuine stars of the competition.
Western Bulldogs legend and NAB AFL Academy coach Brad Johnson said we had only seen the tip of the iceberg in the King twins who he predicted would carve up the league in their prime.

“That draft group is only going to get better the more we see the King twins really start to dominate the competition,” Johnson said.
“This draft will be talked about in four years’ time for example as possibly the best-ever collectively, from the players we are talking about.
“The King boys could be kicking 160 goals between them each year, with the way the game is going.
[PLAYERCARD]Max King[/PLAYERCARD] already knows how to take a big mark. Picture: Michael Klein


“Their movement and agility is like no other 200cm players that I have seen. They read the ball well, they attack the contest, they don’t lose their feet.
“And when the ball hits the deck, it is like ‘wow, what is happening here’. And that is what we are seeing today. They are never out of the contest.
“That is what will set them apart as they get bigger and stronger.
“And then you have got the mids like Rozee or Butters, who could win a Brownlow. That is the type of talent there.”
And further outside of the top-10 that year, Jye Caldwell (Essendon), Isaac Quaynor (Collingwood), Jordan Clark (Geelong), Xavier Duursma (Port Adelaide) and James Rowbottom (Sydney Swans) are beginning to shine, as well as smokies Will Kelly (Collingwood), Laitham Vandermeer (Western Bulldogs) and James Jordon (Melbourne).



But it’s the talent at the top end which could separate it from the pack.
“It is rare that you get a top-eight that is that special,” one recruiter said this week.
“The King twins are freaks, then you’ve got these really highly-talented mid-forwards like (Izak) Rankine, Rozee and Blakey, who are your very modern, rangy, hybrid types.
“And then there’s Walsh and Smith who are pure jet midfielders. They have got enormous running capacity and are just super competitive.”
While Walsh has been the face of the group since he was taken at No. 1, and has not put a foot wrong since he landed at Carlton, it’s Smith, who slipped to pick seven, who could yet be the pick of the bunch.
[PLAYERCARD]Zak Butters[/PLAYERCARD] is one of three young guns picked up by the Power. Picture: Getty Images


That’s not forgetting Rankine, who slotted three goals in his unforgettable debut last year, while there is a belief at Port Adelaide – and it is a huge call – that Butters is showing similar traits to Gary Ablett Jr at the same age.
But Walsh is the Rolls Royce who has won 25 contested possessions in his first two games in a new onball role this season and Smith has not missed a game since he debuted, playing 43-straight matches.
Smith, 20, has made clear he wants to be the best midfielder in the game, and has relentlessly pursued that ambition, weighing his food and training intensely from a young age.
One top scout this week said the young Dog’s running power was not unlike a young Ben Cousins.
“We thought it was an unbelievable draft, a cracking draft,” a scout said.
“And everyone loved Smith at the time.
[PLAYERCARD]Isaac Quaynor[/PLAYERCARD] was a Collingwood Academy selection. Picture: Getty Images


“After a game at ‘Sandy’, he would go and do two hours of rehab and recovery at the beach. That was extra running or core work.
“He is incredible, his dedication and professionalism and the player I think he plays like and trains like is Ben Cousins.
“Put the drug issues aside. I’m talking about his work rate on the field, it is absolutely phenomenal, that running power.”
Asked who he would prefer from Walsh and Smith, St Kilda great Leigh Montagna said “I would take Smith”.
“Right at the moment Walsh is the better player and has more runs on the board,” Montagna said.
“But I think Bailey Smith is an absolute star.
[PLAYERCARD]Bailey Smith[/PLAYERCARD] is one of the best young midfielders in the game. Picture: Getty Images


“Probably (Smith) has better skills and he hits the scoreboard a tad more often and his running ability (is elite).
“It is a very tough one and there certainly isn’t a big gap between the two. I like Walsh but I love Bailey Smith.”
But the draft wasn’t without controversy either. There was a genuine question mark in the lead-up over how well Smith would settle at an interstate club.
In a candid interview this year, Smith said he was managing a mental health condition and described himself as a “perfectionist” and an “over-thinker”.




“The club is really good, very open with this, and lots of my teammates know I struggle at times.” Smith told the league website.
“People knew I had mental health issues before I got drafted, which is something which is OK and I take in my stride.”
Walsh has been dubbed a future club captain since his days at the Geelong Falcons and produced one of the most team-lifting moments of the 2020 season when he reeled in the mark of the year backing into a pack against Port Adelaide.
[PLAYERCARD]Sam Walsh[/PLAYERCARD] was taken with the top pick in the 2018 draft. Picture: Michael Klein


That combination of fearlessness, courage and leadership is what made Walsh an excellent first pick, a list boss said.
“It really depends on what you want to bring into your footy club,” the list chief said.
“Just say you rated Smith a nine out of 10 as a player and Walsh might be a 7.5, but then Walsh can be the captain of your footy club and contribute really strongly in some other areas.
“That’s why you take him No. 1. So, as a pure footballer, Smith stands out. He’s probably the best footballer of the lot because he’s more powerful.
“But how often does someone like Walsh come along, someone who has his ability but could also be skipper?
The 2018 AFL Draft Top 20
1. Sam Walsh - Carlton
2. Jack Lukosius - Gold Coast
3. Izak Rankine - Gold Coast
4. Max King - St Kilda
5. Connor Rozee - Port Adelaide
6. Ben King - Gold Coast
7. Bailey Smith - Western Bulldogs
8. Tarryn Thomas - North Melbourne (matching Adelaide bid)
9. Chayce Jones - Adelaide
10. Nick Blakey - Sydney (matching GWS bid)
11. Jye Caldwell - GWS
12. Zak Butters - Port Adelaide
13. Isaac Quaynor - Collingwood (matching GWS bid)
14. Jackson Hately - GWS
15. Jordan Clark - Geelong
16. Ned McHenry - Adelaide
17. Sam Sturt - Fremantle
18. Xavier Duursma - Port Adelaide
19. Liam Stocker - Carlton (pick trade with Adelaide)
20. Riley Collier-Dawkins - Richmond


“He is your ultimate team player, he will do whatever the team needs.
“He will always bring his teammates into the play, and at pick one, do you go the safer option in that regard?”
Port Adelaide stands to be one of the biggest winners of the draft, nabbing Rozee, Butters and Duursma to complete their rebuild-on-the-run, while the Suns opted for two players with huge ceilings, the silky-smooth Jack Lukosius and dead-eye Rankine at picks two and three.
Lukosius has honey-sweet kicking skills on his right side.
An underage expert from a rival club this week said there were no doubts about the Suns’ pair.
[PLAYERCARD]Ben King[/PLAYERCARD] has shown he can be something special. Picture: Getty Images


“They will both work,” he said.
“Rankine is why you go to the footy, to watch a bloke like him. He’ll be a superstar and we need goal kickers in the game.
“Lukosius just needs more time, you can see what he can do with the ball.”
The magic number for any draft, Sheehan said, was 25 stars of the competition.
He said more guns from the 2018 crew would emerge this season.
“Jack Bytel is in that group and has only played only a handful of games because of injury and Caldwell has started to get a run at it and blossom,” he said.
“There is more depth in it than last year’s form would have shown. So this year becomes more about the depth of the group as we strive to get 25 of them who are stars of the game.

“That’s the benchmark around 25, it would be an enormous result if we can get to that many.
“But there is still a long way to play out to see who can play 200 games.”
 

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Bulldog Tragician Blog 2021

Waiting for the great leap forward

With my Irish heritage, I'm a big believer in mystery signs from the universe to explain the meaning of our games. They mightn't feature in dry, fact-based Champion Data analysis. But I hold onto them as significant just the same.

In the leadup to our 2016 final against the Eagles, for example, a snatch of a song lodged persistently , even irritatingly, inside my brain. Even as I read gloomy statistics about our record in Perth and tried not to think too hard about who would play on our nemesis Josh Kennedy, I kept mindlessly humming Paul Kelly’s ‘To Her Door’. The line about ‘could he make a picture, and get it all to fit’ followed me around, haunted me as persistently as Libba The First's controversial tagging efforts on the other Paul Kelly, the Brownlow medalist for the Swans.

Our stirring - and completely unexpected - victory was the greatest win in modern-day Bulldog history (at that point of time of course). The line from the Kelly song had undoubtedly been telling me something, even if some might scoff and say I retro-fitted its meaning. Those boys made a picture to fit on that night. It carried them - and us - through the incredible weeks nobody but they could have dreamt would lie ahead.

This is all in the past, of course, except for the stubbornly nostalgic Tragician. Sometimes I think I need to be sent away for de-programming or subjected to an Adelaide-Crows-style bootcamp with the SAS; forced to let 2016 go, and view our current side and prospects afresh.

Because I still view everything through that prism, measure everything against that extraordinary month. When walking into the MCG last week before our match against the Pies, for example. I was disconcerted to see two premiership players. JJ - the Norm Smith medalist - and Zaine Cordy, the 19-year-old who kicked our first goal in the grand final. - also lining up to enter the ground. Wasn't this a bit lackadaisical, far too casual, arriving at the ground so late, and not looking wild-eyed and ready to chomp raw meat in preparation for the contest?. It took a few moments to recalibrate; to realise that, currently, they are playing in the humble VFL competition. (Yes. In Bevo we... sort of...anxiously... trust).

We also saw our only living premiership captain in the queue (though his omission is due to an interrupted pre-season) - the exceptionally handsome Easton Wood. (I felt, even though we were some metres away, there was a moment of electric connection between Easton and myself. But the Other Libba Sister said I must have imagined it).

Our win against the Pies was satisfying, especially in comparison to a disastrous showing against them at the same time last year, but some of the woes of seasons past were still on display.. Laborious entries into a sluggish forward line, skill errors, concentration lapses, inabilities to capitalise on our dominance. I felt, though, there was a harder edge, greater resilience when the Pies challenged. But the formidable Eagles will be a sterner test of how far we've evolved, what's really changed.

I've admired one noticeable change: the new retro touches on our 2021 guernsey. The splash of red around the collar brings back memories of Footscray teams sloshing around in the Western Oval mud in '70s, with the extravagant mullets of Bailey Smith and Aaron Naughton completing the connection. (I had secretly hoped at least one of them would don a Bjorn Borg or John McEnroe style headband, adorned perhaps with little red white and blue triangles).

This cutting edge visual effect is all part of your custom-made Bulldog Tragician Blog Experience.

One thing which hadn't changed as much as I'd like was the hulking figures of those Eagles. Kennedy, Darling, McGovern, NicNat. Are these guys EVER going to retire and stop tormenting us?

The match takes off at a cracking pace. It's a thrill to see our dash, daring, run, and commitment to the contest. After being starved of footy, just being part of a mainly Bulldogs crowd again is a thrill in itself. I'm mortified, though, to quickly realise our club is the latest to succumb to the trend of flashing up: Make some noise! messages, while the seconds between goals are filled with snatches of music.

Who goes to the footy for this numbing mindlessness? We are there to join with aisles of women and men in red, white and blue, rising to our feet in unison, part of spinetingling roars, riding the emotions that ripple through a crowd all at once. Expectation and disappointment. Amazement at the skills. Fear of the players' bravery and the risks they take. Moanings and mutters at umpiring injustices. Elation whenever the goal umpires march theatrically to signal the score. (It's much more anti-climactic when we await the 'Scoreboard Review completed' message').

The gimmicks are all the more unnecessary because the match itself is so enthralling. Our noses are in front for much of the first half, yet those monster forwards and defenders in Eagles' colours just won't bend to our will. Their footy seems simpler, less complicated. Kick it to some (extremely) big guys, who, just like The Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoos' Nest, pluck the ball effortlessly out of the hands of slighter, less experienced, opponents. Then ..this is the amazing part... they simply go back and kick a goal. When, for our Bulldogs, even in the premiership year, did footy ever seem so straightforward and easy?

Our style is taxing, even though it's frequently exhilarating.Yet, into the third quarter, our resistance begins to falter. We seem, ever so slightly, to be out of ideas. Those Eagles guys aren't getting any shorter; as the match goes on, their bulky frames are even harder to budge (anyone else think they must really scoff those Hungry Jack whoppers?), If the ball hits the deck there is Liam Ryan, whose brilliant efforts might have dazzled and entranced me....IF I were a completely different person, the sort who has a favourite player from another club. (The way I see it, they have plenty of fans from their own club, and certainly don't need my appreciation as well).

We're all reflective, thoughtful, when our seven point half-time lead has slipped to a 12 point deficit at three quarter time. We know that what comes next will tell us a lot about our new brigade.

And we know there is one thing and one player only who can guarantee a Bulldogs victory.

'Bont needs to go nuts,' I say, not even realising the words have somehow been said aloud.

At first, the Eagles pull further ahead, in their clinical, footy-is-easy, way. But The Bont (may have) heard the Tragician's call. The Boy Wonder, our superstar captain - maybe one day our greatest ever player - rises to another stratospheric level.

The Bont's brilliance shines bright: the work of others is less visible but just as important. Countless inches, metres, gained - by the man most home in the hottest of contests, Libba the Second; the relentless running of Jackson Macrae; the bravery of our undersized defenders in those excruciating moments when the Eagles relentlessly pound their way forward.

But we're the ones now pressing, charging; even in my anxiety I relish being part of the heaving, pulsing crowd again. How wonderful to to join with thousands of others when Lachie McNeil steals a handball and we swarm forward to get the ball in the hands of Laith Vandermeer.. To glimpse other fans also with heads in hands, unable to look, when those not-exactly-straight-shooters Josh Bruce, and the swashbuckling Aaron Naughton. take vital shots at goal. To jump up all at once with childish glee when they actually surprise us and nail them.

We ride the ball down the field into space after Bailey 'Ice Man' Williams coolly evades three Eagles and sends it towards Josh Bruce. Because it's that sort of day, it sits up obligingly for him to gather. The din turns into pandemonium when we see who ('You know it's Him!") is standing unmarked in the forward line. The Bont's kicking has been somewhat unreliable of late; he had missed a sitter last week, yet somehow I am certain that he will kick this one to seal the match.

The tedium of listless matches in front of TVs during the 2020 lockdown is gone, hopefully for good. Footy is back in our hometown. There's really no other place we'd rather be. We don't need to look to the guidance of the scoreboard for 'make some noise' prompts. In fact I can't even hear the siren. I only know it's happened by the joyous racket that's all around me.

We can sing our song again, while the players wave and salute us. (Though he was several hundred metres away, I thought I sensed an electric connection between myself and Bont, an understated acknowledgement perhaps of my role in spurring on his match-winning performance. But the Other Libba Sister said she didn't see anything of the kind. She can be a bit of a wet blanket sometimes, I'm afraid).

The Dogs have won, with the right balance of grit, and panache, against a fearsome opponent. It's the sort of game we would have routinely lost over the last few years, blaming our still problematic goalkicking, selection mysteries from Bevo Our Saviour, and everyone's favourite villain Razor Ray, but most of all, a curious brittleness that has been evident in our team in the biggest of occasions.

We savour the moment. We dare to wonder what it means for our future. Resistant to any de-programming efforts, the Bulldog Tragician sees remnants of that 2016 spirit, and recalls the words of commentator Matthew Richardson when we were seemingly out for the count, three goals down in the preliminary final against the Giants: "I think the Dogs will come back. Because that's just what they do."

I remember Terry Wallace saying there is always a point when a team, a group, comes to a heavy realisation: they have given their all. They know they can go no further in their climb up the mountain. I've witnessed those sorrowful moments many times in my Bulldogs journey.

There's another critical moment too, I reckon - a moment when a team understands, and truly believes in, its own potential. When the flame ignites, and individuals become greater than the sum of their parts. Now it all makes sense now in the Tragician brain: the catchy refrain of the Billy Bragg song 'Waiting for the great leap forwards", which I kept humming pre-match, may seem to be just about politics, revolutions and activism. Others may say struggle to see its mystical connection to a Round Two clash between the Bulldogs and the Eagles. But to me, the meaning could not be clearer. We've been waiting since 2016 for Our Boys to show us they're ready to challenge; waiting for them to take us again, on the great leap forward.
 
NBates said:
Bulldog Tragician Blog 2021

Waiting for the great leap forward

With my Irish heritage, I'm a big believer in mystery signs from the universe to explain the meaning of our games. They mightn't feature in dry, fact-based Champion Data analysis. But I hold onto them as significant just the same.

In the leadup to our 2016 final against the Eagles, for example, a snatch of a song lodged persistently , even irritatingly, inside my brain. Even as I read gloomy statistics about our record in Perth and tried not to think too hard about who would play on our nemesis Josh Kennedy, I kept mindlessly humming Paul Kelly’s ‘To Her Door’. The line about ‘could he make a picture, and get it all to fit’ followed me around, haunted me as persistently as Libba The First's controversial tagging efforts on the other Paul Kelly, the Brownlow medalist for the Swans.

Our stirring - and completely unexpected - victory was the greatest win in modern-day Bulldog history (at that point of time of course). The line from the Kelly song had undoubtedly been telling me something, even if some might scoff and say I retro-fitted its meaning. Those boys made a picture to fit on that night. It carried them - and us - through the incredible weeks nobody but they could have dreamt would lie ahead.

This is all in the past, of course, except for the stubbornly nostalgic Tragician. Sometimes I think I need to be sent away for de-programming or subjected to an Adelaide-Crows-style bootcamp with the SAS; forced to let 2016 go, and view our current side and prospects afresh.

Because I still view everything through that prism, measure everything against that extraordinary month. When walking into the MCG last week before our match against the Pies, for example. I was disconcerted to see two premiership players. JJ - the Norm Smith medalist - and Zaine Cordy, the 19-year-old who kicked our first goal in the grand final. - also lining up to enter the ground. Wasn't this a bit lackadaisical, far too casual, arriving at the ground so late, and not looking wild-eyed and ready to chomp raw meat in preparation for the contest?. It took a few moments to recalibrate; to realise that, currently, they are playing in the humble VFL competition. (Yes. In Bevo we... sort of...anxiously... trust).

We also saw our only living premiership captain in the queue (though his omission is due to an interrupted pre-season) - the exceptionally handsome Easton Wood. (I felt, even though we were some metres away, there was a moment of electric connection between Easton and myself. But the Other Libba Sister said I must have imagined it).

Our win against the Pies was satisfying, especially in comparison to a disastrous showing against them at the same time last year, but some of the woes of seasons past were still on display.. Laborious entries into a sluggish forward line, skill errors, concentration lapses, inabilities to capitalise on our dominance. I felt, though, there was a harder edge, greater resilience when the Pies challenged. But the formidable Eagles will be a sterner test of how far we've evolved, what's really changed.

I've admired one noticeable change: the new retro touches on our 2021 guernsey. The splash of red around the collar brings back memories of Footscray teams sloshing around in the Western Oval mud in '70s, with the extravagant mullets of Bailey Smith and Aaron Naughton completing the connection. (I had secretly hoped at least one of them would don a Bjorn Borg or John McEnroe style headband, adorned perhaps with little red white and blue triangles).

This cutting edge visual effect is all part of your custom-made Bulldog Tragician Blog Experience.

One thing which hadn't changed as much as I'd like was the hulking figures of those Eagles. Kennedy, Darling, McGovern, NicNat. Are these guys EVER going to retire and stop tormenting us?

The match takes off at a cracking pace. It's a thrill to see our dash, daring, run, and commitment to the contest. After being starved of footy, just being part of a mainly Bulldogs crowd again is a thrill in itself. I'm mortified, though, to quickly realise our club is the latest to succumb to the trend of flashing up: Make some noise! messages, while the seconds between goals are filled with snatches of music.

Who goes to the footy for this numbing mindlessness? We are there to join with aisles of women and men in red, white and blue, rising to our feet in unison, part of spinetingling roars, riding the emotions that ripple through a crowd all at once. Expectation and disappointment. Amazement at the skills. Fear of the players' bravery and the risks they take. Moanings and mutters at umpiring injustices. Elation whenever the goal umpires march theatrically to signal the score. (It's much more anti-climactic when we await the 'Scoreboard Review completed' message').

The gimmicks are all the more unnecessary because the match itself is so enthralling. Our noses are in front for much of the first half, yet those monster forwards and defenders in Eagles' colours just won't bend to our will. Their footy seems simpler, less complicated. Kick it to some (extremely) big guys, who, just like The Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoos' Nest, pluck the ball effortlessly out of the hands of slighter, less experienced, opponents. Then ..this is the amazing part... they simply go back and kick a goal. When, for our Bulldogs, even in the premiership year, did footy ever seem so straightforward and easy?

Our style is taxing, even though it's frequently exhilarating.Yet, into the third quarter, our resistance begins to falter. We seem, ever so slightly, to be out of ideas. Those Eagles guys aren't getting any shorter; as the match goes on, their bulky frames are even harder to budge (anyone else think they must really scoff those Hungry Jack whoppers?), If the ball hits the deck there is Liam Ryan, whose brilliant efforts might have dazzled and entranced me....IF I were a completely different person, the sort who has a favourite player from another club. (The way I see it, they have plenty of fans from their own club, and certainly don't need my appreciation as well).

We're all reflective, thoughtful, when our seven point half-time lead has slipped to a 12 point deficit at three quarter time. We know that what comes next will tell us a lot about our new brigade.

And we know there is one thing and one player only who can guarantee a Bulldogs victory.

'Bont needs to go nuts,' I say, not even realising the words have somehow been said aloud.

At first, the Eagles pull further ahead, in their clinical, footy-is-easy, way. But The Bont (may have) heard the Tragician's call. The Boy Wonder, our superstar captain - maybe one day our greatest ever player - rises to another stratospheric level.

The Bont's brilliance shines bright: the work of others is less visible but just as important. Countless inches, metres, gained - by the man most home in the hottest of contests, Libba the Second; the relentless running of Jackson Macrae; the bravery of our undersized defenders in those excruciating moments when the Eagles relentlessly pound their way forward.

But we're the ones now pressing, charging; even in my anxiety I relish being part of the heaving, pulsing crowd again. How wonderful to to join with thousands of others when Lachie McNeil steals a handball and we swarm forward to get the ball in the hands of Laith Vandermeer.. To glimpse other fans also with heads in hands, unable to look, when those not-exactly-straight-shooters Josh Bruce, and the swashbuckling Aaron Naughton. take vital shots at goal. To jump up all at once with childish glee when they actually surprise us and nail them.

We ride the ball down the field into space after Bailey 'Ice Man' Williams coolly evades three Eagles and sends it towards Josh Bruce. Because it's that sort of day, it sits up obligingly for him to gather. The din turns into pandemonium when we see who ('You know it's Him!") is standing unmarked in the forward line. The Bont's kicking has been somewhat unreliable of late; he had missed a sitter last week, yet somehow I am certain that he will kick this one to seal the match.

The tedium of listless matches in front of TVs during the 2020 lockdown is gone, hopefully for good. Footy is back in our hometown. There's really no other place we'd rather be. We don't need to look to the guidance of the scoreboard for 'make some noise' prompts. In fact I can't even hear the siren. I only know it's happened by the joyous racket that's all around me.

We can sing our song again, while the players wave and salute us. (Though he was several hundred metres away, I thought I sensed an electric connection between myself and Bont, an understated acknowledgement perhaps of my role in spurring on his match-winning performance. But the Other Libba Sister said she didn't see anything of the kind. She can be a bit of a wet blanket sometimes, I'm afraid).

The Dogs have won, with the right balance of grit, and panache, against a fearsome opponent. It's the sort of game we would have routinely lost over the last few years, blaming our still problematic goalkicking, selection mysteries from Bevo Our Saviour, and everyone's favourite villain Razor Ray, but most of all, a curious brittleness that has been evident in our team in the biggest of occasions.

We savour the moment. We dare to wonder what it means for our future. Resistant to any de-programming efforts, the Bulldog Tragician sees remnants of that 2016 spirit, and recalls the words of commentator Matthew Richardson when we were seemingly out for the count, three goals down in the preliminary final against the Giants: "I think the Dogs will come back. Because that's just what they do."

I remember Terry Wallace saying there is always a point when a team, a group, comes to a heavy realisation: they have given their all. They know they can go no further in their climb up the mountain. I've witnessed those sorrowful moments many times in my Bulldogs journey.

There's another critical moment too, I reckon - a moment when a team understands, and truly believes in, its own potential. When the flame ignites, and individuals become greater than the sum of their parts. Now it all makes sense now in the Tragician brain: the catchy refrain of the Billy Bragg song 'Waiting for the great leap forwards", which I kept humming pre-match, may seem to be just about politics, revolutions and activism. Others may say struggle to see its mystical connection to a Round Two clash between the Bulldogs and the Eagles. But to me, the meaning could not be clearer. We've been waiting since 2016 for Our Boys to show us they're ready to challenge; waiting for them to take us again, on the great leap forward.
Click to expand...
TLDR?
 
David King just gave kudos to Bailey Dale's form.
 
Agree with the Tragician - and no doubt many others - on the subject of never ending noise emanating from the loudspeakers, whether music, or ads, or Make Some Noise! How do we get it to stop! It’s driven me from attending.
 
Fossie 32 said:
What did he say
Click to expand...

Bevo didn't say much on 360 - he rarely does say much to the press. But one thing that reminded me of why I love the guy - he took absolutely none of Robbo's bullsh!t. I don't mean to suggest he was rude - he was very polite, and in a good mood. But Robbo's questions were his usual attempts to seek responses to a flurry of cliches and superlatives. (e.g. "Was this your most important win since 2016?" And "What did you say in the box when Williams won the 1v 3 contest?" - really stupid kinds of questions. And usually on 360 the guest will just humour Robbo with a nothing answer that accepts his rubbish premises.

But in Bevo's case he gave actual answers to all of them. They were all considered responses, and none of them accepted Robbo's premises. For example on that first question he made the point that in both the last 2 years we've made a late run to the finals, so there have been some pretty important wins there too. And of course Bevo's right - winning crunch games on your way to the finals is much more important than beating a lower Top 8 team at your home ground in Round 2. But I loved that he made the effort to provide intelligent answers despite having no incentive to do so. It showed that he is both intelligent and that he is thoughtful and respectful to his hosts and supporters. I like that very much about him.
 
Last edited:
the dog's kennel said:
Bevo didn't say much on 360 - he rarely does say much to the press. But one thing that reminded me of why I love the guy - he took absolutely none of Robbo's bullsh!t. I don't mean to suggest he was rude - he was very polite, and in a good mood. But Robbo's questions were his usual attempts to seek responses to a flurry of cliches and superlatives. (e.g. "Was this your most important win since 2016?" And "What did you say in the box when Williams won the 1v 3 contest?" - really stupid kinds of questions. And usually on 360 the guest will just humour Robbo with a nothing answer that accepts his rubbish premises.

But in Bevo's case he gave actual answers to all of them. They were all considered responses, and none of them accepted Robbo's premises. For example on that first question he made the point that in both the last 2 years we've made a late run to the finals, so there have been some pretty important wins there too. And of course Bevo's right - winning crunch games on your way to the finals are much more important than beating a lower Top 8 team at your home ground in Round 2. But I loved that he stopped and thought about providing an intelligent answer despite having no incentive to do so. It showed that he was both intelligent and that he was thoughtful and respectful to his hosts and his supporters. I like that very much about him.
Click to expand...
Bevo would be on a completely different intellectual plane to Robbo.
 
Dogs_R_Us said:
Agree with the Tragician - and no doubt many others - on the subject of never ending noise emanating from the loudspeakers, whether music, or ads, or Make Some Noise! How do we get it to stop! It’s driven me from attending.
Click to expand...

This stuff has been building since the 90's when basketball became popular with kids and american sports got a higher profile. Over the top theatrics was born at the football.

The stadium employed some company / guy from the UK to create excitement on game day and its got more overbearing ever since. There must be some logic to it although I cant see how you can create atmosphere when its a dull game or the crowd isnt there, it just seems manufactured and ingenuous. Shouldn't be a problem last week with an exciting game.

The stadium doesn't have a PA system to actually deliver annoucements that are clear, so end up just being a mumbled noise in some areas.

Its a shame if its putting people off going. If it could be toned down a little, allow people to chat before the game and at half time rather than having blaring music and silly competitions uging people to constantly look at the screen, I think I could live with it. The need to understand a range of people go, perhaps its to appeal to those less engaged and to make the event seem exciting. It certainly doesnt work for everyone.
 
Northernsoul74 said:
Bevo would be on a completely different intellectual plane to Robbo.
Click to expand...

Get your point but associating Robbo with anything 'intellectual' is overreach.

'Everyman' Robbo would probably be insulted to be associated with anyfink intellectual anyways. (Call it brand protection or dumb ignorance, the outcome is the same).
 

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Mr. Walker said:
Anyone see Bevo on The Front Bar last night? Anything of interest?
Click to expand...
I watched it. Was mostly just discussing his career including his playing days, a bit about coaching St Bede's, a few old clips etc. There wasn't really much talk about the current year, other than him saying it's Richmond first and we're in the pack behind trying to catch them (stating the obvious).
 
Sentinel said:
I watched it. Was mostly just discussing his career including his playing days, a bit about coaching St Bede's, a few old clips etc. There wasn't really much talk about the current year, other than him saying it's Richmond first and we're in the pack behind trying to catch them (stating the obvious).
Click to expand...

I did like his little quip about Richmond copying us though.
 
Northernsoul74 said:
Bevo would be on a completely different intellectual plane to Robbo.
Click to expand...
I listened to it and found slobbo even harder to understand than normal. Sounded like he had lost his dentures or something.
 
Sharkey66 said:
I listened to it and found slobbo even harder to understand than normal. Sounded like he had lost his dentures or something.
Click to expand...

Got on the beers? :tearsofjoy: He's sounded like this since they've been back on.

And on the Tragician's comment about the music etc at the ground, I don't mind before the game & half time, BUT do we have to have 2 bars of a song every time the ball is bounced? I absolutely loathe it - WE ARE NOT BASKETBALL!!!
 
Timewillcome said:
This stuff has been building since the 90's when basketball became popular with kids and american sports got a higher profile. Over the top theatrics was born at the football.

The stadium employed some company / guy from the UK to create excitement on game day and its got more overbearing ever since. There must be some logic to it although I cant see how you can create atmosphere when its a dull game or the crowd isnt there, it just seems manufactured and ingenuous. Shouldn't be a problem last week with an exciting game.

The stadium doesn't have a PA system to actually deliver annoucements that are clear, so end up just being a mumbled noise in some areas.

Its a shame if its putting people off going. If it could be toned down a little, allow people to chat before the game and at half time rather than having blaring music and silly competitions uging people to constantly look at the screen, I think I could live with it. The need to understand a range of people go, perhaps its to appeal to those less engaged and to make the event seem exciting. It certainly doesnt work for everyone.
Click to expand...
Enough said. In UK they have to keep the audience's attention, somehow, during dreary nil-all soccer games played in freezing conditions. Let's face it, not too many of our games are dull; maybe for neutrals or if your team is getting flogged, but most of the supporters who get along to games are invested and attentive. I used to like the buzz that was around during half time and other breaks, discussing the game, listening to others nearby, and winding back the tension with drinks and food.

I agree they should tone it down - A LOT.
 
Dogs_R_Us said:
Enough said. In UK they have to keep the audience's attention, somehow, during dreary nil-all soccer games played in freezing conditions. Let's face it, not too many of our games are dull; maybe for neutrals or if your team is getting flogged, but most of the supporters who get along to games are invested and attentive. I used to like the buzz that was around during half time and other breaks, discussing the game, listening to others nearby, and winding back the tension with drinks and food.

I agree they should tone it down - A LOT.
Click to expand...
Absolutely sh1ts me to tears that over-hyped garbage. I barely go to Marvel these days (it's a factor) but never miss the G. If they do it there (at the G) I can't say I've noticed it.
 
Dogs_r_barking said:
Yeah very negative show, never have anything good to say. I think Darcy is the least over the top compared to Eddie, Brown, Bremerton and a few others.

The best ex AFL commentator I like is Richo, I find him very fair.
Click to expand...
Darcy goes out of his way I reckon to appear not biased

in Sundays game he kept saying Ryan’s mark should have been paid when it clearly hits the turf on the way down
 
Bulldogs Legend said:
Darcy goes out of his way I reckon to appear not biased

in Sundays game he kept saying Ryan’s mark should have been paid when it clearly hits the turf on the way down
Click to expand...

Yeah I thought the entire game Darcy seemed to be barracking for west coast but then he couldn’t hold his joy back late in the game when we took the lead and won
 
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