What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 4
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Dogs_R_Us
Space Traveller
BMac said when he came in that it would take five years before we would be contenders. Five years later…
Macca was a really bad coach. Negative footy and his coaching style a relic from a time gone by. Bad product and alienated players. The rebuild had to happen but it was not managed well.
The only real payoff we got from the Macca era were some good top draft picks (courtesy of losing a lot of games) that contributed very quickly (Stringer, Macrae, Bont), and we were very lucky in that we turned the Griff saga into a premiership hero.
Most of the work of that ‘five year plan’ was done by Dalrymple (eg Dahl, JJ) and some very timely father son gifts - Libba, Hunter, Cordy. Mitch of course should have contributed too if not for injury.
You can argue Maccas contested ball mantra was key but he was so bad a coach I’m personally not willing to give benefit of the doubt on that one. That last game of 2014 still sits in my mind lol.
I think Bevo has done his dash here at this point, but that hire was (obviously) incredibly astute given the preceding few years. He was backed by some strong assistants (oh to have those days) and way more tuned in to managing modern players.
If we had hired Leon Cameron or someone else, and we didn’t get that success, I think the Macca era would be viewed upon even more negatively. Particularly in such a scenario we turn our captain into the Tom Boyd contract without a premiership to show for it.
The only real payoff we got from the Macca era were some good top draft picks (courtesy of losing a lot of games) that contributed very quickly (Stringer, Macrae, Bont), and we were very lucky in that we turned the Griff saga into a premiership hero.
Most of the work of that ‘five year plan’ was done by Dalrymple (eg Dahl, JJ) and some very timely father son gifts - Libba, Hunter, Cordy. Mitch of course should have contributed too if not for injury.
You can argue Maccas contested ball mantra was key but he was so bad a coach I’m personally not willing to give benefit of the doubt on that one. That last game of 2014 still sits in my mind lol.
I think Bevo has done his dash here at this point, but that hire was (obviously) incredibly astute given the preceding few years. He was backed by some strong assistants (oh to have those days) and way more tuned in to managing modern players.
If we had hired Leon Cameron or someone else, and we didn’t get that success, I think the Macca era would be viewed upon even more negatively. Particularly in such a scenario we turn our captain into the Tom Boyd contract without a premiership to show for it.
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Found myself chatting to a relative of his once and their take was there were plenty of other considerations not necessarily to do with our club at the time. The $50k story was circulated in the press but I doubt it’s the full story.
Dogs_R_Us
Space Traveller
It starts off postulating that Sam Power is in line to replace Chris Grant as football director.
There were some serious Kool Aid drinkers on here too.
I was willing to give McCartney a chance but from his first press conference I found his mixed metaphors and lack a precision concerning.
We were also already a great contested ball side in Rocket’s last few seasons yet people thought it was something new McCartney brought in.
Heard plenty from a player of that era about his man management and I shudder to think what could have happened if he’d been given two more years.
If that is true then it is a great result!
He is a very smart cookie and won't be pushed around.
Macca served a purpose and undoubtably instilled a hardness in the team - but I think the main positives from his tenure was actually his ability to run certain individuals out of the club - ie. Cooney, Higgins, Griffen etc... (Griffen was an unwanted accident but we would never have had Murph assume the role he was destined for which led to him being the All Australian captain)... Cut loose the deadwood so to speak to usher in the new generation that would take us to the flag.
Apart from him cutting the deadwood, Macca did nothing for our club and I'm sick of idiots suggesting otherwise.
Bevo tapped into the mental side of the game and got the team ready to walk into battle for each other and that is 90% of game as we all know... and then he lost half that 2016 team and took them to a GF again 5 years later.
But that isn't good enough for some Bulldogs supporters that are used to winning flags every 5 years.
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We've won flags every 5 years?!
Not disagreeing with the gist of your post btw, just not sure what that last sentence means? Do you mean played in GFs 5 years apart?
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For all the hand wringing about not doing enough to hold onto Callan Ward, I think in he may also have moments when he questions whether he made the right decision to leave, and not just because of 2016.
Yes, he has still had a long high-quality career at AFL level with a competitive GWS team, but it has been at a club with a relatively low profile in a rugby city\state where he is largely an anonymous figure. He could have had all that with us and also been a local legend in the area he grew up in.
Financially the Dogs would definitely have looked after him in the long term, and his post football prospects would probably have been even stronger had he stayed with us due to a likely local legend status.
Yes, he has still had a long high-quality career at AFL level with a competitive GWS team, but it has been at a club with a relatively low profile in a rugby city\state where he is largely an anonymous figure. He could have had all that with us and also been a local legend in the area he grew up in.
Financially the Dogs would definitely have looked after him in the long term, and his post football prospects would probably have been even stronger had he stayed with us due to a likely local legend status.
We could’ve easily matched Wards deal. We were fighting over 50k. Petty stuff.Happy New Year to all.
Each AFL club’s worst decision of the last 25 years
The worst call your club has made since 2000.www.sen.com.au
This article details each team's worst decision since 2000.
View attachment 2208040
What a load of crap re. Callan Ward. We didn't allow him to leave. GWS offered a massive deal that we didn't have the capacity to match. Also, we received Jack Macrae as compensation who kicked the winning goal against Ward's team in the 2016 Prelim.
Surely a better nomination would be ending up with Griffen and Tom Williams as our targeted 1x gun midfielder and 1x gun KPP in the 2024 Draft. Had we decided to target out gun KPP first, we'd have ended up with Lance Franklin and with pick six we probably would have settled for Jordan Lewis assuming Hawthorn or Richmond took Griffen.
Also this one has to been to death, but the Aker situation should have been handled better in 2010. I'm sure we all have our own thoughts, some more passionate thoughts than others, but in my view, the leadership group should have been mature enough to let it work. Who knows how 2010 would have ended if we had the experience of Aker in September alongside Barry Hall?
Also, how much earlier should WCE have been dealing to Ben Cousins? Should the dealing have started in 1996?
Every time I see someone suggest that Macca contributed to our future success in one way or another, I laugh until I cry.
SPower
Premium Platinum
I think it's for the young pups who were not around in the 60's to 90'sWe've won flags every 5 years?!
Not disagreeing with the gist of your post btw, just not sure what that last sentence means? Do you mean played in GFs 5 years apart?
Dogs_R_Us
Space Traveller
What comes next?
WESTERN BULLDOGS
Dominic Bedendo (delisted) – Port Melbourne (VFL)
Charlie Clarke (delisted) — Port Melbourne Colts (Southern FNL)
Alex Keath (retired) – East Brighton (Southern FNL)
Aiden O’Driscoll (retired) – Assistant coach at Perth colts (WAFL) and is eyeing off a career in athletics.
Kelsey Rypstra (delisted) – North Adelaide (SANFL)
Also Lachie Hunter - Spotswood
Josh Schache - Doncaster East
WESTERN BULLDOGS
Dominic Bedendo (delisted) – Port Melbourne (VFL)
Charlie Clarke (delisted) — Port Melbourne Colts (Southern FNL)
Alex Keath (retired) – East Brighton (Southern FNL)
Aiden O’Driscoll (retired) – Assistant coach at Perth colts (WAFL) and is eyeing off a career in athletics.
Kelsey Rypstra (delisted) – North Adelaide (SANFL)
Also Lachie Hunter - Spotswood
Josh Schache - Doncaster East
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7 news about to have injury news
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English?
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Yes abdominal injury
threenewpadlocks
Brownlow Medallist
Higgins made an AA squad in his first year at North, then won their best and fairest in his third and fourth year there, then got more Brownlow votes than in any of those three seasons in his fifth year there.
"Running him out" being a positive seems a very strange way to interpret it. Under a different coach he's an excellent player for us, as he proved to be at North, and as we all thought he might be one day when he showed glimpses of talent and potential in his first few years playing under Eade.
Even Cooney had a productive two years at Essendon.
Lots of "what ifs" in football but I can be convinced of the fact that we'd give the flag a proper crack in 2015, holding all things constant, but if we still had Shaun Higgins and Adam Cooney running around for us that year, had we moved on Macca earlier in the off-season. We'd have given them games instead of Jarrad Grant and a range of young players, like Honeychurch, Webb, Jong, Dale, Daniel, Hrovat, some who became better footballers long term for their development in that 2015 years, but either way were still weaker footballers in 2015 than Cooney and Higgins were.
obviously it wasn’t cooney’s fault that he hurt his knee but for the last 5 or 6 years he was at the Dogs he was our highest paid player and he was an average player (because of his knee)… he absolutely needed to be moved on.
What I’m getting at is that McCartney forced change and that is his legacy… he forced a massive shakeup… that’s it
