2014 Fixture

[gohardorgohome]

Looks like we play Essendon, North, GWS, Gold Coast and Melbourne twice next season.


No complaints there..

[bulldogtragic]

If that was the pay off for Cairns, well, I could live with that.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Bit annoyed we start the season off over in Perth against West Coast. Always like seeing the new team in the flesh round 1

[Go_Dogs]

Finally looks like we'll get a reasonable draw, like the sound of that. We should be able to cement a few wins out of the double up fixtures which will hold us in good stead.

That being said, Essendon, North and Gold Coast won't be easy beats, maybe St Kilda and Brisbane would've been better options for us. Melbourne also likely to improve.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

By my count we have 5 sunday twilight games. We play GWS last round of the season so i imagine that will become 6

[G-Mo77]

Why does everyone want a weak draw? Am I alone in wanting to play the best as much as possible?

[bulldogsthru&thru]

NO Friday night games again. This is disappointing

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Why does everyone want a weak draw? Am I alone in wanting to play the best as much as possible?

I agree. I like a tough draw. Better to play the best and learn as much as you can than get easy wins where you learn nothing and get false hope/a false idea of where you are really at

[gohardorgohome]

No double up against a top six team........
I think we have done ok.....

Freo had a very weak draw this year and made the Grand Final...... I'd take that any time....

[always right]

Buggerall homes games against bigger drawing clubs. Need the equalisation fund to kick in big time.

[bulldogtragic]

Why does everyone want a weak draw? Am I alone in wanting to play the best as much as possible?
It's not so much a weak draw, per se.

When you look at all the Sundays and Twilights, our brand is getting harder to cut through. The only thing that will cut through is success and winning. The 3 extra winnable games against melbourne, GWS and GCS aren't dead certs. We still need to win. I don't see any advantage if it was a Freo, Carlton and Richmond twice. We need success soon to stem the loss of membership, if we can win these 3 games then that's only a good thing.

Winning breeds confidence, brings people to the games, makes more money, generates positive press, encourages support for the club and can lead to claims for big games the following year. All things we need right now. Look what it did for Port this year.

[gohardorgohome]

Id take it when contending for a grand final/top 4 berth but not when rebuilding

What are your thoughts if it meant making the finals to give the kids a taste of September???

I have good memories of a great win in the 2006 finals series when we were rebuilding...

[bulldogsthru&thru]

It's not so much a weak draw, per se.

When you look at all the Sundays and Twilights, our brand is getting harder to cut through. The only thing that will cut through is success and winning. The 3 extra winnable games against melbourne, GWS and GCS aren't dead certs. We still need to win. I don't see any advantage if it was a Freo, Carlton and Richmond twice. We need success soon to stem the loss of membership, if we can win these 3 games then that's only a good thing.

Winning breeds confidence, brings people to the games, makes more money, generates positive press, encourages support for the club and can lead to claims for big games the following year. All things we need right now. Look what it did for Port this year.

10 free-to-air games is ok. The more the better to give us exposure

[bulldogsthru&thru]

What are your thoughts if it meant making the finals to give the kids a taste of September???

I have good memories of a great win in the 2006 finals series when we were rebuilding...

Im not so sure we were rebuilding that year. We had only just missed out on the finals the previous year so finals were an expectation in 06. Was a great win that year and id take an easier draw next year when finals will be the goal.

Look im not against an easy draw, but id prefer it to be challenging rather than easy

[mighty_west]

My only whinge is I only get one game in QLD at Metricon, oh and Cairns if I can be bothered with a 19 hour road trip :D

[G-Mo77]

It's not so much a weak draw, per se.

When you look at all the Sundays and Twilights, our brand is getting harder to cut through. The only thing that will cut through is success and winning. The 3 extra winnable games against melbourne, GWS and GCS aren't dead certs. We still need to win. I don't see any advantage if it was a Freo, Carlton and Richmond twice. We need success soon to stem the loss of membership, if we can win these 3 games then that's only a good thing.

Winning breeds confidence, brings people to the games, makes more money, generates positive press, encourages support for the club and can lead to claims for big games the following year. All things we need right now. Look what it did for Port this year.

Beat the best, become the best. This is what we should be striving for not beating inferior opposition to make fair weather supporters beat their chests. Sure they'll throw their money down after a few wins they'll also pull their money out when things turn sour.

[bulldogtragic]

Im not so sure we were rebuilding that year. We had only just missed out on the finals the previous year so finals were an expectation in 06. Was a great win that year and id take an easier draw next year when finals will be the goal.

Look im not against an easy draw, but id prefer it to be challenging rather than easy
The reality is someone has to play them twice. Let's say we're challenging for the 8th spot next year. Would you rather Richmond, North, WCE etc have the doubles?

And we still need to win them. When is it easy, GCS and Melbourne best us this year and GWS almost did. They will improve as we will too. Your confidence of calling it easy would upset the other teams. I don't think it's easy.

[bulldogtragic]

Beat the best, become the best. This is what we should be striving for not beating inferior opposition to make fair weather supporters beat their chests. Sure they'll throw their money down after a few wins they'll also pull their money out when things turn sour.
Refer above thread. There's no such thing as a gimme. I don't share that mentality at all. Not at this stage in our development anyway. GCS would be confident of beating us twice, GWS nearly won this year and will be much, much better next year and melbourne best us this year and will improve light years too. Where is this easy thing coming from, we still need to win. I hope the players don't think like this.

[G-Mo77]

Refer above thread. There's no such thing as a gimme. I don't share that mentality at all. Not at this stage in our development anyway.

Neither do I but I know who the better teams are in the comp and know we still have along way to go before we get to their level. Regardless of where GWS, GC, Melb are they are still inferior competition to say Haw, Gee, Fre, Syd who we should be wanting to play and beat.

[LostDoggy]

Western 'Sunday' Bulldogs

[bulldogtragic]

Neither do I but I know who the better teams are in the comp and know we still have along way to go before we get to their level. Regardless of where GWS, GC, Melb are they are still inferior competition to say Haw, Gee, Fre, Syd who we should be wanting to play and beat.
I agree, but I'm not unhappy with baby steps. First we show we can actually beat these teams. Objectively, we did not show conclusively that we can beat them this year. So next year that's a base challenge, beat the teams we should and challenge like hell against the rest. If I'm a doggies player, full of confidence in myself and my teammates, I'd be thinking finals just got an inch closer. That's a good motivator for the off season.

Bu I digress, we still need to best these teams, something we didn't do this year.

[G-Mo77]

Western 'Sunday' Bulldogs

Or Western "Twighlight" Bulldogs. :D

[LostDoggy]

Bit annoyed we start the season off over in Perth against West Coast. Always like seeing the new team in the flesh round 1

My son lives in WA and his birthday is March 20, so for me at least, it might've worked out beautifully… already trying to work out how to raise the money to get over.

[LostDoggy]

Western 'Sunday' Bulldogs

yep the most disappointing is that we have so many Sunday twilight games. Anyone with a young family will find it hard to make it. I'm also a little concerned that we play so many games (home and away) at etihad.

The impact this will have long-term on our players plus our inexperience at the MCG isn't great. We don't want to become Eitihad specialists and then have no idea how to play MCG in finals. I know this is a purely financial issue, but another issue that separates rich from poor.

[Murphy'sLore]

Yet on SEN they're saying we have a soft draw, precisely because we play so many games at Etihad and so few games against the more challenging teams. Guess it depends how you look at it.

[Axe Man]

Western 'Sunday' Bulldogs

Perhaps we can adapt the 'Any Given Sunday' slogan that Peter Gordon is fond of to 'Every F#@%en Sunday'!:D

Actually I like Sunday games since I can't make Saturday games due to local footy, it's just the 4:40pm ones that are difficult living 100kms away. Looks like I'm going to get value out of my Foxtel subscription next year.

[soupman]

WB CEO Simon Garlick on the Dogs' draw:
"In summary, while the football component of the fixture has been progressed in terms of starting to maximise competition, we believe more needs to be done in regards to providing improved fixture outcomes for smaller clubs in relation to revenue opportunities and exposure."

[firstdogonthemoon]

I hate sunday twilight games i hate them, it means the cartoon doesn't get done till wednesday. Annoyed we miss out on the friday night games too.I don't mind if the draw is a bit soft though.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

WB CEO Simon Garlick on the Dogs' draw:
"In summary, while the football component of the fixture has been progressed in terms of starting to maximise competition, we believe more needs to be done in regards to providing improved fixture outcomes for smaller clubs in relation to revenue opportunities and exposure."

At least he's made this clear and not just said "we welcome the challenges".

Would like to hear Gordon speak publicly after his trip on equalization has been deemed a waste of time.

[Daughter of the West]

WB CEO Simon Garlick on the Dogs' draw:
"In summary, while the football component of the fixture has been progressed in terms of starting to maximise competition, we believe more needs to be done in regards to providing improved fixture outcomes for smaller clubs in relation to revenue opportunities and exposure."

Such a polite way of putting it. It's the problem in a nutshell.


I hate sunday twilight games i hate them, it means the cartoon doesn't get done till wednesday. Annoyed we miss out on the friday night games too.I don't mind if the draw is a bit soft though.

Will you have the right Foxtel subscription this year First Dog? You wouldn't want to almost miss out like you did against Port Adelaide :D

[ReLoad]

Well, there is one way we can play on a Friday night, the last round Vs GWS when we finish on top of the ladder. ;)

[LostDoggy]

This just makes me furious to no end.

Yes our draw is 'soft' if we are going by last years form.

However, if North and Essendon improve on last years form which if expected then there's two top 6 teams we play twice.

I honestly cannot believe it. Taking into account if we actually play decent football this year, our average home attendance for the year will be about 19,000.

[bulldogtragic]

This just makes me furious to no end.

Yes our draw is 'soft' if we are going by last years form.

However, if North and Essendon improve on last years form which if expected then there's two top 6 teams we play twice.

I honestly cannot believe it. Taking into account if we actually play decent football this year, our average home attendance for the year will be about 19,000.
Maybe we should go back to the Whitten Oval!

[LostDoggy]

Soft draw or not. We want a fair spread of games across the week. Not just Sundays. GWS and GC get looked after having so many Saturday games!

[always right]

The issue is not just whether we have games scheduled across all days...although one or two Friday games would have been nice. It really is a combination of things including; time of day, FTA access, number of games against big drawing clubs, and whether we are the home team in those games. On all of these measures we have been screwed from the perspective of building membership and giving our sponsors value.

[LostDoggy]

Mentioned in the other thread, but would people be happy if this meant we got the Good Friday fixture?

"You will be royally shafted by the draw in 2014, but you will be getting the Good Friday fixture come 2015"

[LostDoggy]

Mentioned in the other thread, but would people be happy if this meant we got the Good Friday fixture?

"You will be royally shafted by the draw in 2014, but you will be getting the Good Friday fixture come 2015"

Just don't understand why the AFL would do that. We've been royally shafted our entire existence.