What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 4

[Golden_6]

Again I come in peace.
Have to ask How on earth are the Dogs a 26/1 chance for the flag ?

Bont, Astro, JUH, English, etc are absolute superstars. I have you pegged for top 4.

I genuinely don’t get it. I’m pretty bullish about the swans but have huge respect for dogs. Must be all the pies and blues kool aid the media’s drinking.

At the end of the day, actual form is what counts. That being said, I do believe we should be significantly lower than that because if things click we should be a top 4 team with premiership credentials.

 

[Dog 36]

Again I come in peace.
Have to ask How on earth are the Dogs a 26/1 chance for the flag ?

Bont, Astro, JUH, English, etc are absolute superstars. I have you pegged for top 4.

I genuinely don’t get it. I’m pretty bullish about the swans but have huge respect for dogs. Must be all the pies and blues kool aid the media’s drinking.

We cannot be trusted as a team and we lack credibility and the facts show this.

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Again I come in peace.
Have to ask How on earth are the Dogs a 26/1 chance for the flag ?

Bont, Astro, JUH, English, etc are absolute superstars. I have you pegged for top 4.

I genuinely don’t get it. I’m pretty bullish about the swans but have huge respect for dogs. Must be all the pies and blues kool aid the media’s drinking.

Sssssshhhh!

 

[Dogsman16]

Again I come in peace.
Have to ask How on earth are the Dogs a 26/1 chance for the flag ?

Bont, Astro, JUH, English, etc are absolute superstars. I have you pegged for top 4.

I genuinely don’t get it. I’m pretty bullish about the swans but have huge respect for dogs. Must be all the pies and blues kool aid the media’s drinking.

Because what side of the bed Bevo wakes up on often dictates the performance of the team.

Also the bottom 6 players we select find ways of self destructing and costing us games.

 

[Northernsoul74]

Again I come in peace.
Have to ask How on earth are the Dogs a 26/1 chance for the flag ?

Bont, Astro, JUH, English, etc are absolute superstars. I have you pegged for top 4.

I genuinely don’t get it. I’m pretty bullish about the swans but have huge respect for dogs. Must be all the pies and blues kool aid the media’s drinking.

If the new coaching set up is allowed to have an influence over Bevo I think we’ll surprise a few.

 

[_Mike_]

Changing the subject, the media said this about the Dogs.. Was that recent?

 

[_Mike_]

ont, Astro, JUH, English, etc are absolute superstars. I have you pegged for top 4.

The achilles heel is the back 6 structure.

 

[doggies ftw]

The achilles heel is the back 6 structure.

Jones, Richards, Dale, JJ - that’s a quality core, no reason we shouldn’t have 2 x AAs out of that bunch. JOD, Buku and Coffield coming through - our defence should be a strength this year, there’s enough quality there to work with for Pratt. No excuses to have a weak back 6 when we have the quality on the list.

 

[maddog37]

Jones, Richards, Dale, JJ - that’s a quality core, no reason we shouldn’t have 2 x AAs out of that bunch. JOD, Buku and Coffield coming through - our defence should be a strength this year, there’s enough quality there to work with for Pratt. No excuses to have a weak back 6 when we have the quality on the list.

Whoever it is we need continuity and to develop synergy so they play as a unit.

 

[_Mike_]

Jones, Richards, Dale, JJ - that’s a quality core, no reason we shouldn’t have 2 x AAs out of that bunch. JOD, Buku and Coffield coming through - our defence should be a strength this year, there’s enough quality there to work with for Pratt. No excuses to have a weak back 6 when we have the quality on the list.

I understand, the issue with the back 6 is that Bev plays a line breaking game, rebound footy. Richards has improved to become that much needed intercept player however neither JJ or Dale are lockdown players and often get beaten 1v1. JOD is still way off being a lockdown KPD, for lack of experience, Buku & Coffield similar.

 

[Freshwater]

Strange little story from Jon Anderson in yesterday’s paper. I hope Brad can get his medal sometime soon? Always a great advocate for us in the media, which he is very good at.

 

[dergert]

View attachment 1913651
Strange little story from Jon Anderson in yesterday’s paper. I hope Brad can get his medal sometime soon? Always a great advocate for us in the media, which he is very good at.

I remember Hardie gunning for BMac pretty early on

 

[Dogs_r_barking]

Bulldogs Media | Western Bulldogs

Watch the latest videos from the Western Bulldogs

www.westernbulldogs.com.au

 

[CarnTheScray]

The achilles heel is the back 6 structure.

Already prefer it over 2021… Keath Cordy and Wood.

That forward line was also carried by Naughton and Bruce who was playing like Christ reincarnate half the year, of course there were smaller names that had the good game too. Seriously, go have a look at some of those line ups.

There is no reason as to why we can’t perform better than that side.

 

[Bulldogs85]

Article on the AFL site

CAPTAIN Marcus Bontempelli believes changes at the Western Bulldogs have coach Luke Beveridge more connected with his players and better-placed to lead the club forward.

Beveridge's heavily reported tension with football boss Chris Grant, and a change in structure to have the coach reporting to Matt Egan instead, dominated the off-season.
The Bulldogs also had an external review into their football department and have changed up their assistant coaches, hiring Daniel Pratt, Alex Johnson and Jarryn Geary.

Bontempelli has played nine of his 10 seasons under Beveridge and believed tweaks to the football department had allowed him to invest more heavily in his players.



"I've probably noticed, to some extent, more availability for sure," he said.

"He's at different points had a lot on his plate and tried to manage a lot of our programs.
"But I feel like with the new people that have come in, he's definitely been afforded an opportunity to focus on some other things, which I think is great, and I can feel the optimism and the energy and his positivity towards our football season.

"So whether that's been different – it's just been improved is probably my read on it.
"He always was heavily invested, but maybe he just gets a bit more time now to focus centrally on his No.1 role at the football club, which is to coach it really well and obviously connect with our players.

"It feels like he's in a great space and I think we're all going to benefit from that."
When asked if there was friction before the changes, Bontempelli said: "Not that I really noticed, to be honest.

"All the people that we brought in have served a purpose and a role. I feel like structurally things look set up a little bit better than prior.

"We've really advanced our football program, which is a really good thing for all of us as players."
Bontempelli noted the club's time away from Whitten Oval amid redevelopment last year had also taken its toll, and more consistency over pre-season had helped as they eye a return to finals.

"We missed out on the finals last year, that's always a bitter pill to swallow, probably for every player who doesn't get a chance to participate. And we're just searching for improvement," he said.

"So I feel like the group's in a pretty good position physically, probably, and mentally.
"Few changes, a few new personalities have come in and really added some things in a short space of time.

"The general optimism at the minute's pretty high about hopefully getting a better start this year than we did last year."

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Jones, Richards, Dale, JJ - that’s a quality core, no reason we shouldn’t have 2 x AAs out of that bunch. JOD, Buku and Coffield coming through - our defence should be a strength this year, there’s enough quality there to work with for Pratt. No excuses to have a weak back 6 when we have the quality on the list.

Expecting 2 out of 4 players to be part of only 6 players who get All-Australian among 18 teams who also have good players is an unreasonably high standard. I can think of many reasons why we wouldn't get All-Australians out of those bunches of players.

Then transferring those expectations over to a bunch of players who have limited or no recent proven output in actual AFL games as well is suggesting a strength, if anything, the fact that they're being thrown up as names as all suggests it's a weakness, not a strength. A good correlation for future positive AFL output is previous recent AFL output, surprise surprise.

I don't see the point of this list. It's just being woefully (deliberately?) incorrect about the talent and quality of players on our team to create measuring sticks that are unrealistic and benefit no-one. Randomly expecting two All-Australians from a bunch of four players who none were all-Australian last year and two well past the wrong side of 30 - not hoping, but using the words "no reason we shouldn't" is just ridiculous.

Not to say that they aren't good players, and if (for example) your first and second best medium defenders in the league are (say) the 10th and 15th best in the league in that position together that's better than league average and that's valuable and contributing as a position of strength to a finals team, but it's a big jump to suggest that a 10th best player should be All-Australian (3rd or 4th best in position).

 

[CarnTheScray]

Again I come in peace.
Have to ask How on earth are the Dogs a 26/1 chance for the flag ?

Bont, Astro, JUH, English, etc are absolute superstars. I have you pegged for top 4.

I genuinely don’t get it. I’m pretty bullish about the swans but have huge respect for dogs. Must be all the pies and blues kool aid the media’s drinking.

To answer question 1, because we are inconsistent combined with the fact that the AFL tipping/prediction landscape is extremely reactionary. How many people in the preseason tipped Melbourne to even make the 8 in 2021? Look at how Carlton are flag locks all of a sudden.

I genuinely think we should be top 4, especially when I compare our list to 2021. Even though the competition has grown closer since then with very few wins separating top 8 sides from bottom 8 sides, I still think we have many points of difference.

I’ll say all this only for us to embarrass ourselves in Round One again.

 

[doggies ftw]

Expecting 2 out of 4 players to be part of only 6 players who get All-Australian among 18 teams who also have good players is an unreasonably high standard. I can think of many reasons why we wouldn't get All-Australians out of those bunches of players.

Then transferring those expectations over to a bunch of players who have limited or no recent proven output in actual AFL games as well is suggesting a strength, if anything, the fact that they're being thrown up as names as all suggests it's a weakness, not a strength.

I don't see the point of this list. It's just being woefully (deliberately?) incorrect about the talent and quality of players on our team to create measuring sticks that are unrealistic and benefit no-one. Randomly expecting two All-Australians from a bunch of four players who none were all-Australian last year and two well past the wrong side of 30 - not hoping, but using the words "no reason we shouldn't" is just ridiculous.

Not to say that they aren't good players, and if (for example) your first and second best medium defenders in the league are (say) the 10th and 15th best in the league in that position together that's better than league average and that's valuable and contributing as a position of strength to a finals team, but it's a big jump to suggest that a 10th best player should be All-Australian (3rd or 4th best in position).

Okay bro my apologies, no reason we couldn’t* is what I meant

Feel better now?

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Okay bro my apologies, no reason we couldn’t*

Feel better now?

I'm not criticisng the grammar, I'm criticising the purpose of the post.

Suggesting that we should have a good defence by using the measuring stick that our defensive unit should have two All-Australian defenders from a bunch of players that are already past the age where rapid improvement is expected (late teens/early 20's), and were not All-Australians last year is just silly. It achieves nothing. The chance of it happening are so remote and so removed from the boundaries of reasonable expectations I just don't see the point of it.

On top of this, keep in mind that the 6 AA defenders from last year came from 6 different clubs. So for us to achieve that it's arguably far more unlikely than us winning the premiership next year, and nobody's realistically suggesting that we should/could be a premiership winning team, or pointing toward positivity that we should have expectations of winning a flag. Keep in mind that bookmakers have us at approx. a 4% chance of winning next year's flag.

If anything given the most likely path toward a flag this coming season is correlated strongly Bont continuing to be a top 3 midfielder in the league.

I would argue given we could still win a flag without having two (or even one) all Australian defenders and that if we were to have two all-Australian defenders I would argue that would naturally result in us winning 19 games for the year or whatever, given that we're also likely to have Bont etc. play to their form.

On the condition that we do actually have two All-Australian defenders, I would legitimately give us a better than 50% chance to finish on top of the ladder. But you're saying it like it itself is almost a 50% (or 25% or whatever) proposition.

I question the wisdom of your general observations of football if this is the measuring stick you set in general.

 

[Charlie Bucket]

It's just being woefully (deliberately?) incorrect about the talent and quality of players on our team to create measuring sticks that are unrealistic and benefit no-one.

Straight out of the Kane Cornes play book.

 

[doggies ftw]

I'm not criticisng the grammar, I'm criticising the purpose of the post.

Suggesting that we should have a good defence by using the measuring stick that our defensive unit should have two All-Australian defenders from a bunch of players that are already past the age where rapid improvement is expected (late teens/early 20's), and were not All-Australians last year is just silly. It achieves nothing. The chance of it happening are so remote and so removed from the boundaries of reasonable expectations I just don't see the point of it.

On top of this, keep in mind that the 6 AA defenders from last year came from 6 different clubs. So for us to achieve that it's arguably far more unlikely than us winning the premiership next year, and nobody's realistically suggesting that we should/could be a premiership winning team, or pointing toward positivity that we should have expectations of winning a flag. Keep in mind that bookmakers have us at approx. a 4% chance of winning next year's flag.

If anything given the most likely path toward a flag this coming season is correlated strongly Bont continuing to be a top 3 midfielder in the league.

I would argue given we could still win a flag without having two (or even one) all Australian defenders and that if we were to have two all-Australian defenders I would argue that would naturally result in us winning 19 games for the year or whatever, given that we're also likely to have Bont etc. play to their form.

On the condition that we do actually have two All-Australian defenders, I would legitimately give us a better than 50% chance to finish on top of the ladder. But you're saying it like it itself is almost a 50% (or 25% or whatever) proposition.

I question the wisdom of your general observations of football if this is the measuring stick you set in general.

**** you’re painful dude, it’s really not that serious… I worded it poorly sure but the general gist of my post is saying I expect us to have 2 of the 4 players I listed put in AA quality seasons, whether they win the luck of the draw in being named AA by a bunch of past it media hacks, I really couldn’t care less but they’ll have that level of season.

Considering two of them were quite common choices in a lot of people’s rolling AA sides before injury last season and one is a recent AA in his prime I really don’t see how this is so controversial to you, but I don’t watch the game from general admission on l3 so maybe I’m not as in the loop as you brother

I’m saying we have a very good core and some promising types coming through who are in the right age/experience to step up who I rate and thus I’m predicting this line to be a strength - I honestly don’t even know what you’re talking about half the time, who mentioned flags or Bont?

It’s called a prediction, relax I’m not gonna call for Pratts head because David flipping King didn’t give two blokes AA ffs

 

[doggies ftw]

I'm not criticisng the grammar, I'm criticising the purpose of the post.

Suggesting that we should have a good defence by using the measuring stick that our defensive unit should have two All-Australian defenders from a bunch of players that are already past the age where rapid improvement is expected (late teens/early 20's), and were not All-Australians last year is just silly. It achieves nothing. The chance of it happening are so remote and so removed from the boundaries of reasonable expectations I just don't see the point of it.

On top of this, keep in mind that the 6 AA defenders from last year came from 6 different clubs. So for us to achieve that it's arguably far more unlikely than us winning the premiership next year, and nobody's realistically suggesting that we should/could be a premiership winning team, or pointing toward positivity that we should have expectations of winning a flag. Keep in mind that bookmakers have us at approx. a 4% chance of winning next year's flag.

If anything given the most likely path toward a flag this coming season is correlated strongly Bont continuing to be a top 3 midfielder in the league.

I would argue given we could still win a flag without having two (or even one) all Australian defenders and that if we were to have two all-Australian defenders I would argue that would naturally result in us winning 19 games for the year or whatever, given that we're also likely to have Bont etc. play to their form.

On the condition that we do actually have two All-Australian defenders, I would legitimately give us a better than 50% chance to finish on top of the ladder. But you're saying it like it itself is almost a 50% (or 25% or whatever) proposition.

I question the wisdom of your general observations of football if this is the measuring stick you set in general.

Also I hate to break it to you but St Kilda literally had 2x AA defenders… last season?

Somebody break the news to them that 3NP had them at over 50% likely!! to finish top of the ladder and they butchered it

Talk about questioning somebodies wisdom of football imagine having such a strong reaction to a mere opinion on a forum yet being so blatantly factually incorrect

 

[threenewpadlocks]

I expect us to have 2 of the 4 players I listed put in AA quality seasons, whether they win the luck of the draw in being named AA by a bunch of past it media hacks, I really couldn’t care less but they’ll have that level of season.

And I'm saying those expectations are so unrealistic that's a pointless, whether it's actual All-Australian or fringe all-Australian. Keep in mind that none of those defenders even qualified for the 44-man squad last year, so expecting well-established players to randomly improve to the point that they're among the best 2-3 players in their position is just a wildly ridiculous expectation. The comparison I made is that I think it's more likely that we win the flag than I expect that we have two All-Australians out of the 6 in defence. Yet you or nobody is going around saying I expect us to win the flag.

Considering two of them were quite common choices in a lot of people’s rolling AA sides before injury last season

Johannisen played well in a seven game spurt at the same time that the team's tactics as a whole were playing well. Other than that, these players were hardly picked in All-Australian squads, other than a few homer picks (Johnson etc.). We can even search through the rolling thread on the main board, other than Dogs supporters only a tiny nominal minority selected these players. You're just stating a falsified statement.

I really don’t see how this is so controversial to you,

I'm explaining why I'm finding it controversial!

• Not a single team had any two of their defenders become All-Australians last year. So expecting it for us specifically is very unrealistic.
• Even so, All-Australians are often multiple-time All-Australians, so the rarity it possibly happening is heightened by the fact that none of our defenders were good enough last year to even make the 2nd All-Australian team of the squad of 44.

I’m saying we have a very good core

I don't disagree. We only have one position of weakness (O'Donnell) with the other defenders pound-for-pound. But there's still a big difference between being above league average and being All-Australian. I honestly believe that Richards was approximately the 8th-10th best small/medium defender in the league last year, which is about or marginally above average for any given team's best player in that position (which by definition would be 9th-10th best in the league), as well as better than the average player in this position in the league (given that teams play about 3 players in this position per best 22). I watched a hell of a lot of games, looked at statistics and roughly ranked the players this way. Calling Richards this good is hardly contorversial and it's an attempt to me being unbiased, but about 9th best is not All-Australian good and I honestly think that people rating him All-Australian good (top 3) or All-Australian fringe good (say squad of 44 and 6-7 players) were incorrect in their assessment. And to say that there should be an expectation that the 10th-best player in a position will/should/could randomly be the 3rd best player in his position this year is just unrealistic - given that all 9 other players in that top10 will also try to improve, also have new coaches, etc. etc. etc.

some promising types

Which every team, all 18, have, if the basis for looking 'promising' is merely good reserves form, or equivalent. Footy is a zero sum game. If they're not better than the equivalents of 17 other teams, it contributes to losing, not winning, teams.

thus I’m predicting this line to be a strength - I honestly don’t even know what you’re talking about half the time, who mentioned flags or Bont?

And I'm saying it's not. It's a group that's old, doesn't have our best fringe talents in it, and the contribution to our 12 wins largely came from having two outstanding midfielders and one outstanding ruck, the three players that made the AA squad of 44.

It’s called a prediction, relax I’m not gonna call for Pratts head because David *ing King didn’t give two blokes AA ffs

And given my dot points above I'm saying it's far less likely than the already unlikely situation that we win the flag next year. No team achieved it last year. Only the premiership team achieved it the year before. And the Premiership team that achieved it the year before did so with a player that was an incumbent All-Australian player (Stewart).

And I would equally callout anyone who had the prediction that we win the flag, or finish bottom 2 or whatever next year. As I said above, it's such an unrealistic prediction that I question your general assessment of anything footy. It's such an unlikely proposition on the basis of what we already know about the team, the thresholds of those rankings, an unbiased view of the strength of our players etc. etc. that I feel compelled to call it out.

 

[doggies ftw]

Not a single team had any two of their defenders become All-Australians last year. So expecting it for us specifically is very unrealistic.

• Even so, All-Australians are often multiple-time All-Australians, so the rarity it possibly happening is heightened by the fact that none of our defenders were good enough last year to even make the 2nd All-Australian team of the squad of 44.

And given my dot points above I'm saying it's far less likely than the already unlikely situation that we win the flag next year. No team achieved it last year. Only the premiership team achieved it the year before. And the Premiership team that achieved it the year before did so with a player that was an incumbent All-Australian player (Stewart).

It literally did happen last year, Wilkie & Sinclair in an average side. It’s actually happened 11 times in the past decade, and only 3 times have those teams finished on the top of the ladder… there’s actually only been two seasons out of the last 10 where at least one team hasnt had 2x defenders in the AA team. Multiple teams have done it in multiple years too, so not sure it’s as incredibly rare as you’re banging on about.

Plenty of people had Jones & Richards in their rolling teams, obviously they missed too many games by the end of the year, I really don’t care if you don’t think they were in contention or not, they absolutely were in the mix.

 

[perro_loco]

I remember, like it was yesterday, being enrolled in an extracurricular course of no particular consequence in the early 90s. A particularly attractive girl was always seated next to me over the duration. This was somewhat distracting and possibly explains my steady progress as opposed to spectacular.

Anywho, there was one particular occasion when I was asked to literally spell something out in front of the class. I shudder when i think about it now. What person in their right mind pronounces the letter H as haychh (it's aychh ffs). Not me. Not before or since....but on that warm summer's evening in the 90's, because she did, I did. It's a shame I carry with me to this day.

I left

I remember, like it was yesterday, being enrolled in an extracurricular course of no particular consequence in the early 90s. A particularly attractive girl was always seated next to me over the duration. This was somewhat distracting and possibly explains my steady progress as opposed to spectacular.

Anywho, there was one particular occasion when I was asked to literally spell something out in front of the class. I shudder when i think about it now. What person in their right mind pronounces the letter H as haychh (it's aychh ffs). Not me. Not before or since....but on that warm summer's evening in the 90's, because she did, I did. It's a shame I carry with me to this day.

And now she is also your wife? Just asking. I happen to live with a woman for over 35 years and it started by me seating next to her by chance. Just saying.