If you could change or improve one thing in 2014

[Dry Rot]

For me, it would our kick ins.

How many times in the last few seasons have we seen the opposition score a point and then a goal soon after because we screwed up the kick in or the next kick?

[jeemak]

Field kicking.

Opportunity cost through holding onto the ball and taking a safe option has hurt us so much since half way through 2010.

When foot skill meets confidence great things can happen. We are lacking in both, and small improvements in each will have a massive influence on the way we play.

[Dry Rot]

Don't disagree - why has our field kicking declined so badly since 2010?

[The Bulldogs Bite]

The ability to choke teams up defensively.

Even though we played well in the second half of 2013, we still conceded too much. I'd like to see us be able to really lock games down, and when it isn't going our way, to minimize the damage so that a 2-3 goal burst from the opposition doesn't turn into a 5-6 goal burst.

[bulldogtragic]

Membership Retention & Growth

[always right]

Don't give up the corridor so easily. Lost count of the number of times last year that opposition teams broke us open through the middle once they got through our initial defensive press.

[Mofra]

Coversion from inside 50s - at times we came close to matching (and sometimes exceeding) opposition inside 50 entries yet fell well short of winning.

Given there are multiple aspects to this (a better functioning forwardline, field positioning adjustments and better delivery of the ball) we should be able to imporve on this over the pre-season even before we take into account the addition of Crameri.

[bornadog]

Stat Key stat League rank

Contested possession differential +12.5 1st

Disposal differential +20.5 5th

Clearance differential +5.2 2nd

Had plenty of the ball, now we need to learn how to use it. The stat that really matters is what happens after you win the contested poss and clearances.

[Axe Man]

From the AFL Website. These seem like a pretty good place to start.

Bad stats: where your club needs to improve (http://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-01-09/bad-stats)


Western Bulldogs
Key stat League rank
Score from turnover points differential -10.2 15th
Scoring % per inside 50 45.6% 18th
Marks inside 50 10.1 Equal 18th

THE CURE Hitting targets will be a major focus this pre-season. The Dogs found the footy last year, but turned it over too often. The Dogs' dodgy forward line was another well-documented issue last season, hence the recruitment of former Bomber Stewart Crameri. The Dogs will be hoping Crameri can strike a solid forward partnership with Liam Jones and the pair can work to improve efficiency inside 50 in 2014. – Jacqui Reed

[SonofScray]

Disposal by foot for kicks over 25m. My view is we're OK at hanging onto the ball when we aren't super keen on doing much with it. The hard running, long kick into the forward line seems to come back with interest oo often, or doesn't impact the scoreboard if the shot is on.

[Bulldog Revolution]

Provided everything else keeps trending up Im with jeemak and SonofScray - improving our field kicking is my number 1 priority

[Throughandthrough]

An 80 goal forward

[Eastdog]

An 80 goal forward

Ditto. Also in agreeance with jeemak, Axe Man and SonofScray.

[Happy Days]

To stop getting burnt on the spread all the time

[BornInDroopSt'54]

An 80 goal forward

They're fun to watch but are they obsolete? Too much focus on the one central target is too predictable and one dimensional. Gone are the days of the dominating star as hero of the team. It's more about team system and process nowadays.

[Remi Moses]

Unfortunately the days of the 80 goal forward are gone.
Just kicking efficiency, poise under pressure( got a few panickers).

[LostDoggy]

To stop getting burnt on the spread all the time

Agree with this. We got better as the year went on. What we do when we don't have the ball is crucial.

[BulldogBelle]

Many more goals resulting from a chain of passing that starts from the defence. But I think this may come a bit further into our development as a team.

[Ghost Dog]

Have to be a lot cleaner out of the back half. Missed JJ a lot.

[Ghost Dog]

They're fun to watch but are they obsolete? Too much focus on the one central target is too predictable and one dimensional. Gone are the days of the dominating star as hero of the team. It's more about team system and process nowadays.

If they can defend, then no worries.

[Mofra]

Have to be a lot cleaner out of the back half. Missed JJ a lot.
The optimist in me sees the addition of Fuller & Darley as an attempt to increase depth in our rebounding defenders - you'd expect both will get games next year.

We really felt both Goodes & JJ going down with injury.

[soupman]

I want to see us stop conceding cheap and easy goals.

Too often last season, even in the later rounds where we played well, we would work our arses off to score a goal and then opposition would just manage to pull one out of nowhere in reply, or kill the game with a barrage of easy goals.

The match against Sydney, with the three goals we conceded in the last 90 seconds is good example, as is the match against Essendon where despite us being clearly the better side in the first quarter, every time we forced a goal it would go up their end and they'd pull off some stupidly lucky goal (Melkshem, Winderlich etc.)

Some of these are just bad luck, but it happens to frequently and is of too big a consequence to be ignored and is thus what I want to see us improve most.