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View Full Version : Outclassed but not overwhelmed, the Western Bulldogs refuse to give up the fight



bornadog
04-06-2014, 10:12 PM
By Bob Murphy

"Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts', probably lost." - Martina Navratilova.


Talking to Matthew Boyd at Etihad Stadium a few weeks ago in the hours leading up to a game, we got around to reminiscing about our junior football days. I was interested to hear Boydy tell me that his junior club was so dominant and had been on such a long winning streak that after a couple of years the kids got bored, disbanded and went their separate ways.

Bored with winning, now there's a mindset to wrap your brain around! I couldn't remember a year of junior football when my team didn't make the grand final, although I don't ever recall becoming bored with it all.
The irony of our current state relative to past glories wasn't lost on either of us as we prepared for another battle under the roof. Winning games of football is a tough old caper in any year in the AFL, but it has been particularly hard this year for our boys. I'm sick of writing about losing games of football almost as much as I'm sick of actually losing games of football. It starts to wear you down after a while.
I had a good feeling going into last week, although I couldn't tell you exactly why that was. Human chemistry is a mysterious shadow.

That same good feeling I'd had in my gut all week was still there by the time the game roared to life on Sunday afternoon.
Even though we were behind for the whole day against Fremantle, it did feel at times that we were the ones controlling a lot of the play. Twelve months ago we played Fremantle at Etihad in bright sunshine, and although the end margin was a respectable five or six-goal defeat, the Dockers completely overwhelmed us. I had the sneaking suspicion then that they would go on to big things, which they did, of course.

Last Sunday we weren't overwhelmed, but we were outclassed. I couldn't help but think at one point as I was chasing Stephen Hill through the middle of the ground before he lovingly caressed one of his four goals. "Yeah, we could probably find a spot for him in our side, I reckon." He's a beautiful player to watch.
Fremantle has that thing all teams are after - balance. Size, speed, class and the anticipation of each others' movements.
Clearly, the Western Bulldogs are not quite there yet. We must push on.

As the final siren sounded, I was spent. With hands on knees I looked up to see the outstretched hand of Matthew Pavlich, the class captain of my 1999 draft. He's someone I admire.
Having long suffered near the bottom of the ladder, he now sits near the top of the heap on the cusp of another tilt. He hasn't done it on his own though. Watching the Dockers defend the ground from behind-the-goals footage is like watching a disease spread and attack. It's both frightening and inspiring.

There are always lessons to be taken from defeat. Although only brief, I did shake the hands of a few Dockers and a few of them were encouraging of our efforts to push them on the day. I guess that's what they call an honourable loss.
This week - in the pages of my very own paper might I add! - we've had our relevance as a football club questioned. The theory is that by losing more than we win we've become invisible.

Sometimes the good fight is the one you started some time ago and have the will to see it through the whole way. To suddenly come out now shaking our sparklers would be insincere or spineless. Apart from the odd show pony who goes on TV, that's not who we are.
Nothing comes easy in this game and it isn't coming easy for the Bulldogs at the moment, but there is plenty of fight inside our walls. At the risk of becoming a boring habit, it would be nice to get a win on the board this week. I'd even take a dishonourable one.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/outclassed-but-not-overwhelmed-the-western-bulldogs-refuse-to-give-up-the-fight-20140604-zrxra.html#ixzz33fiBOYdV

bornadog
04-06-2014, 10:13 PM
Not just the fans want a win, the players need a win.

bulldogtragic
04-06-2014, 10:19 PM
Not just the fans want a win, the players need a win.

Everyone needs a win. I hope they hit the first bounce at a million miles an hour this week.

LostDoggy
04-06-2014, 10:24 PM
God bless you Bob. I needed that. Love the subtle little dig at his mate the fossil towards the end :)

SonofScray
04-06-2014, 10:41 PM
I get the feeling these 'invisible' comments have rankled the Club, expect us to come out snarling. We shouldn't need that type of stuff to bring a bit of emotion into the game but I hope we do really play with some rare menace and moxy on the back of these responses.

Greystache
04-06-2014, 10:47 PM
I get the feeling these 'invisible' comments have rankled the Club, expect us to come out snarling. We shouldn't need that type of stuff to bring a bit of emotion into the game but I hope we do really play with some rare menace and moxy on the back of these responses.

We're also playing stone motherless last on the ladder. If we can't stick it to them then we're a genuine contender for the wooden spoon.

always right
04-06-2014, 10:57 PM
Staggered at this comment in Mark Robinson's article.



Tackling was another foundation stone under McCartney.

The Dogs love stoppages. The Dogs lay half their tackles between the stoppage and the clearance point, which Champion Data tells is 20 per cent of where the game is played.

The other half of their tackle count is made up of where 80 per cent of the game is played, and they are 18th in that area, and one of the reasons why they are the fourth highest in points against.

jeemak
04-06-2014, 11:00 PM
God bless you Bob. I needed that. Love the subtle little dig at his mate the fossil towards the end :)

I'm a touch out of the loop, but I though Bob still did some things on Fox Footy? I thought that dig was him being overly self-deprecating to make a point.........but I've been wrong before (refer Always Right's signature to finish that sentence).

Ghost Dog
04-06-2014, 11:01 PM
I will be gutted if we win a wooden spoon. We've won precious few in our history.

"Even though we were behind for the whole day against Fremantle, it did feel at times that we were the ones controlling a lot of the play. " Maybe but if you can't control it in the forward line, eventually, it matters little where else you control it.

"Last Sunday we weren't overwhelmed, but we were outclassed"

I have to disagree with both of these. I felt we were overwhelmed ( Griff, 10 touches ) and outclassed ( couldn't convert a 50 entry to save ourselves.) Freo spread so well from defense and are so cool under pressure.

jeemak
04-06-2014, 11:05 PM
Staggered at this comment in Mark Robinson's article.

To me it says we don't have forwards who are great at keeping the ball in, and that we struggle after putting all that effort into nullifying the stoppages to stop the bleeding if it gets out. I put it down to fitness and positioning.

If we were fitter we'd cover more ground and balance out our tackling. If we were smarter we'd learn to do the things we do with big numbers around the ball with less numbers, and concentrate on nailing players who damage us in open space.

always right
04-06-2014, 11:07 PM
I will be gutted if we win a wooden spoon. We've won precious few in our history.

"Even though we were behind for the whole day against Fremantle, it did feel at times that we were the ones controlling a lot of the play. " Maybe but if you can't control it in the forward line, eventually, it matters little where else you control it.

"Last Sunday we weren't overwhelmed, but we were outclassed"

I have to disagree with both of these. I felt we were overwhelmed ( Griff, 10 touches ) and outclassed ( couldn't convert a 50 entry to save ourselves.) Freo actually don't mind having the ball in the opposition 50. They seem very comfortable with their defence and set themselves up to catch the other team on the rebound really quickly.
Disagree.....I felt we more than held our own in general play but they seemed to do everything so much easier....including score goals. "Outclassed" describes it perfectly in my view.

boydogs
04-06-2014, 11:08 PM
I read that show pony line as a shot at Cooney, who is often on the Footy Show. Could be way off though

always right
04-06-2014, 11:08 PM
To me it says we don't have forwards who are great at keeping the ball in, and that we struggle after putting all that effort into nullifying the stoppages to stop the bleeding if it gets out. I put it down to fitness and positioning.

If we were fitter we'd cover more ground and balance out our tackling. If we were smarter we'd learn to do the things we do with big numbers around the ball with less numbers, and concentrate on nailing players who damage us in open space.
Might also say something about our lack of pace. Never seem to run anyone down nowadays.

Sedat
04-06-2014, 11:09 PM
To me it says we don't have forwards who are great at keeping the ball in, and that we struggle after putting all that effort into nullifying the stoppages to stop the bleeding if it gets out. I put it down to fitness and positioning.

If we were fitter we'd cover more ground and balance out our tackling. If we were smarter we'd learn to do the things we do with big numbers around the ball with less numbers, and concentrate on nailing players who damage us in open space.
To me it says we do everything in our power to create stoppage after stoppage - basically do whatever it takes to make sure it doesn't get into space where we will get torched.

always right
04-06-2014, 11:10 PM
I read that show pony line as a shot at Cooney, who is often on the Footy Show. Could be way off though

I think you're way off:). Almost certain he was referring to himself.

Ghost Dog
04-06-2014, 11:14 PM
Have to agree to disagree here.
If we had kicked a few more points, ie got actual shots on goal, I would agree. But getting a shot out of your work is part of general play.

always right
04-06-2014, 11:17 PM
So you feel our captain held his own in general play? Griff will bounce back, no worries, but he was overwhelmed and outclassed on the day.
I'm not going to conclude that we were overwhelmed based on one player's game.

jeemak
04-06-2014, 11:26 PM
To me it says we do everything in our power to create stoppage after stoppage - basically do whatever it takes to make sure it doesn't get into space where we will get torched.

I don't disagree with you on that front, to a point.

Can you honestly say we have forwards at our disposal that are competition standard at keeping the ball in? I saw on Sunday we managed to do it a fair bit, but that in a lot of ways from what I saw was the byproduct of ensuring numbers were even enough once it was in there.

Yes we do try and get numbers to crowd midfield contests, but we're not alone in that. Do you really think that's the end game though? I give our MC a bit more credit than you do it seems. We were belted in that area by Fremantle on the weekend, but only slightly beaten in that area in games against Adelaide and Essendon in which a few lapses really hurt us.

Hot_Doggies
05-06-2014, 08:41 AM
I read that show pony line as a shot at Cooney, who is often on the Footy Show. Could be way off though


Murphy has resorted to pot-shotting his teammates through the media??

Ozza
05-06-2014, 11:04 AM
Clearly Murphy was referring to himself, in a self deprecating way - as is a common theme in most of his articles. Bob is the only one at the club with a weekly spot on a Tv program.

Scorlibo
05-06-2014, 03:22 PM
Have to agree to disagree here.
If we had kicked a few more points, ie got actual shots on goal, I would agree. But getting a shot out of your work is part of general play.

We had 21 scoring shots to their 24.

If you think we were overwhelmed then you're in the minority.

wimberga
05-06-2014, 04:15 PM
I'm not sure if we were "overwhelmed" but I always felt like Fremantle had another couple of gears to kick into if we started to more properly challenge them.

bornadog
05-06-2014, 04:38 PM
One thing that really stuck out against Freo, is their ability to kick the ball long and accurately, like passing over the top of the forward press, or long shots for goal or general field play.

GVGjr
05-06-2014, 06:35 PM
One thing that really stuck out against Freo, is their ability to kick the ball long and accurately, like passing over the top of the forward press, or long shots for goal or general field play.

Agreed, we had a number of shots from 45 out and either couldn't make the distance or sprayed because we tried to thump it.
We need to look at guys with solid kicking skills.

Hrovat kicked into the man on the mark and missed and easy goal and even Murphy should have settled and kicked an easy one.

The players need to take their opportunities

boydogs
05-06-2014, 07:08 PM
Clearly Murphy was referring to himself, in a self deprecating way - as is a common theme in most of his articles. Bob is the only one at the club with a weekly spot on a Tv program.

Thanks

chef
05-06-2014, 07:18 PM
Agreed, we had a number of shots from 45 out and either couldn't make the distance or sprayed because we tried to thump it.
We need to look at guys with solid kicking skills.

Hrovat kicked into the man on the mark and missed and easy goal and even Murphy should have settled and kicked an easy one.


The players need to take their opportunities

We also played on from 2 frees in the 50 which was pretty dumb football.

bornadog
05-06-2014, 10:42 PM
We also played on from 2 frees in the 50 which was pretty dumb football.

Actually three times, but lucky Crameri's dribble kick from the boundary went through.

Ghost Dog
05-06-2014, 10:59 PM
As others say ( so clearly not the minority ) Freo had a few extra levels in reserve if they needed it. They toyed with us I felt.

Remi Moses
06-06-2014, 02:09 AM
I'm not sure about toying with us, but they had us at arms length.
They should be considering they've come off a grand final and we were 15th.