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View Full Version : Western Bulldogs do tricky dance as they look towards big moments



bornadog
14-02-2014, 10:01 AM
http://images.theage.com.au/2014/02/13/5162693/art_w_grant_1402-620x349.jpg
Just the ticket: Bulldog great Chris Grant handing out flyers at Newport station on Thursday. Photo: Eddie Jim

Chris Grant knows it's no longer about selling hope - the Western Bulldogs' encouraging finish to last season took care of that. His summer theme has been temperance, a reminder that while the future is bright, it's not here yet.
The former captain, club legend and now director of football acknowledged this made for a tricky dance at Newport railway station on Thursday morning, where he handed out vouchers for home-game tickets and urged locals to get on board. Yet he knows the buzz of a few late-season wins is no reason to go overboard.

''While we're encouraged by the last two years and the amount of work that's been put in, we've got nothing to start gloating about,'' Grant said. ''We feel like we're doing it the right way, we believe we're starting to put the jigsaw puzzle together. But that won't play out for a number of years. The reality is we're a bottom-four team still - that's where we finished last year. It's a bit hard to gloat when you're a bottom-four team.''

Grant was part of the selection committee that appointed Brendan McCartney in late 2011, became a director soon after and has since acted as a conduit between the coach and the boardroom, delivering the same message of patience he seeks from fans. He saw winning four of the last six games in 2013 as a snapshot of the future, but cautions that McCartney's plan remains resolutely long-term.


''In a lot of ways the wins last year meant very little to Brendan, but the way we played … when Tom Liberatore's standing in the correct position for longer and the team benefits from that, he gets great pride from that.
''[But] there's things Brendan hasn't been able to actually teach the players yet because they're not ready for it. He's very patient in the way he's putting that together.''

Grant listened with nodding agreement as Essendon coach Mark Thompson spoke recently of the 50-game foundation needed for a footballer to learn the game and their part in it. The Bulldogs have 22 listed players whose AFL experience amounts to at least one game but no more than 50 games, with Liberatore (55), Liam Jones (56), Jordan Roughead (57) and Jarrad Grant (58) just past the mark.
''They're games where you're just learning about yourself; you're learning to compete every week, not just one in every four weeks. It's not that they don't mean anything, but they'll be the foundation of your career from then on. You've just got to get those games out of the way.''

Grant well knows the anguish of supporters who are painfully aware that season 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of their team's sole premiership.
Despite his restraint, the 341-game dual Charles Sutton medallist isn't numb to the sense that something is brewing. He can't help but be excited, especially by a game style that has the potential to mount a greater premiership challenge than the teams that made three consecutive preliminary finals from 2008-10.

''I love the way we play around the footy, that's what I'm most excited about,'' Grant said. ''I've always felt we've never won the really big, key moments in finals. We've potentially been good enough, but we haven't won the big moments to get us across the line.''
He recalls the crunch-time efforts of Lenny Hayes for St Kilda, and sees a similar steel building among the Bulldogs. ''We're not leaving early, we're hanging around a bit longer,'' he said.

''Brendan's big starting point is, 'How are we around the footy? What do we look like?' There's an enormous amount of support when someone's got the ball, and when they have the footy it feels like there's a lot more red, white and blue in the thick of it. It feels like we're learning to win the key moments now.
''You can play a breathtaking brand of footy and play in prelims. You can have a reasonable defence and an unbelievable offence and be good enough to make prelims, but it's proven over time that if you're not good around the footy you're not going to win the premiership.

''Finals are about the big moments, and I reckon we're preparing ourselves for those big moments in games.''
McCartney's coaching is underpinned by a philosophy of good people bringing success, which Grant says is evident at every level of the club. He sees Australian football's reluctance to follow other sports in using coaches who didn't play at the elite level as ''a great mystery''.
''Brendan's legacy could be a whole range of things. It could be that we win a premiership with him. It could be that he sets us up for a long-term future. It could be that all the base philosophies that he lives his life by, we live our lives by for ever and a day.
''Our ultimate aim is to have a premiership achieved, and if that ends up coming off, there will be a sense of pride in it, no doubt.''
http://images.theage.com.au/2014/02/13/5162694/art_n_dahlhaus_1402.jpg
50-and-under Bulldogs (games played)

Luke Dahlhaus 50 (pictured)
Easton Wood 47
Mitch Wallis 43
Mark Austin 33
Clay Smith 30
Tory Dickson 30
Koby Stevens 30
Tom Young 24
Jason Tutt 19
Ayce Cordy 19
Christian Howard 18
Jason Johannisen 16
Jack Macrae 13
Brett Goodes 13
Michael Talia 13
Tom Campbell 13
Jake Stringer 10
Lachie Hunter 9
Nathan Hrovat 7
Lin Jong 4
Daniel Pearce 5
Fletcher Roberts 2

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/western-bulldogs-do-tricky-dance-as-they-look-towards-big-moments-20140213-32ndj.html#ixzz2tFJ2gbWy

azabob
14-02-2014, 10:15 AM
I think this quote answers a lot of questions about the game plan evolving


''[But] there's things Brendan hasn't been able to actually teach the players yet because they're not ready for it. He's very patient in the way he's putting that together.''

Remi Moses
14-02-2014, 10:45 AM
Got a lot out of that article, and it was nice not to read a fluff piece on where we're at.

Twodogs
14-02-2014, 11:01 AM
Luke Dahlhaus 50 (pictured)
Easton Wood 47
Mitch Wallis 43
Mark Austin 33
Clay Smith 30
Tory Dickson 30
Koby Stevens 30
Tom Young 24
Jason Tutt 19
Ayce Cordy 19
Christian Howard 18
Jason Johannisen 16
Jack Macrae 13
Brett Goodes 13
Michael Talia 13
Tom Campbell 13
Jake Stringer 10
Lachie Hunter 9
Nathan Hrovat 7
Lin Jong 4
Daniel Pearce 5
Fletcher Roberts 2


Exactly 22 players by my count so from the backline


Backs:

Lin Jong Mark Austin Koby Stevens

Half Backs:

Jason Johannisen Michael Talia Brett Goodes

Centre line

Easton Wood Christian Howard Clay Smith

Half Forwards

Jake Stringer Tory Dickson Luke Dalhaus

Forwards

Nathan Hrovat Ayce Cordy jack Macrae

Followers

Tom Campbell Mich Wallis Lachie Hunter

I/C

Daniel Pearce Flethcher Roberts Christian Howard Jason Tutt.

Remi Moses
14-02-2014, 11:43 AM
I personally reckon an AFL player is not comfortable in his own skin until he plays 70 games.
There is a few exceptions to the rule, but we have a very young side.
Think we'll push in 2015 onwards

DragzLS1
14-02-2014, 02:07 PM
I personally reckon an AFL player is not comfortable in his own skin until he plays 70 games.
There is a few exceptions to the rule, but we have a very young side.
Think we'll push in 2015 onwards

I called 2016 at the start of last year and I will stick by it! We wont be taken lightly this year.. Just hope we smash the tigers and North to show that we are already overtaking them in development!

WBFC4FFC
14-02-2014, 04:46 PM
Great to see another Skevs kid backing the Bullies! There's a few of us (let alone the players).

jeemak
14-02-2014, 06:54 PM
I personally reckon an AFL player is not comfortable in his own skin until he plays 70 games.
There is a few exceptions to the rule, but we have a very young side.
Think we'll push in 2015 onwards

I think it's closer to 72.

bornadog
14-02-2014, 08:27 PM
I think it's closer to 72.
I'll go 71:D

jeemak
14-02-2014, 08:44 PM
It's different across players with varying abilities and levels of maturity and or confidence.

I look at players like Liberatore who immediately belonged in close, and has already taken his game to a level where it's clear he's comfortable in his knowledge of his place in the team and at the level.

I can see MacRae getting there quickly, as well as Hunter.

Ghost Dog
14-02-2014, 11:40 PM
I remember Brendan saying after that first 50 games, they need to really step on the gas. Hence the requirement for drafting ' good people' because we have much less room for error than the other clubs. Really respect our recruitment team. They are doing really well.

LostDoggy
15-02-2014, 08:50 AM
Exactly 22 players by my count so from the backline


Backs:

Lin Jong Mark Austin Koby Stevens

Half Backs:

Jason Johannisen Michael Talia Brett Goodes

Centre line

Easton Wood Christian Howard Clay Smith

Half Forwards

Jake Stringer Tory Dickson Luke Dalhaus

Forwards

Nathan Hrovat Ayce Cordy jack Macrae

Followers

Tom Campbell Mich Wallis Lachie Hunter

I/C

Daniel Pearce Flethcher Roberts Christian Howard Jason Tutt.

That's fairly even but another tall young forward would be handy. Add the last lot of recruits for a promising future.


I'll go 71:D

Does that include sub games :)

BornInDroopSt'54
19-02-2014, 10:15 AM
Great to see another Skevs kid backing the Bullies! There's a few of us (let alone the players).

My father had the distinction of playing in the first St Pat's, Ballarat team to be beaten by anybody in fifty (50) years, (about 1931)!
They were beaten by St Kevins.

BornInDroopSt'54
19-02-2014, 05:37 PM
My father had the distinction of playing in the first St Pat's, Ballarat team to be beaten by anybody in fifty (50) years, (about 1931)!
They were beaten by St Kevins.

Apologies, they could not have been undefeated for fifty years then as I just checked on Google and they were formed in 1893; unless they went by another name previously. However that is what I remember my father, who died when I was ten, saying. But there would be some truth in it and I remember him saying it was St Kevins who beat them.