The Space Time Continuum

[1eyedog]

Interesting position we find ourselves in don't you think? Interesting position and an interesting time. Let's look at our current situation.

Reigning Premiers, no doubt we jagged one when we probably shouldn't. Forget the Hawks 08, no-one in their right mind should have won a Premiership from 7th, let alone by beating the form team in W.A, the reigning premiers on their home patch and then the million dollar team on their dung heap. It just shouldn't have happened, yet it did. We got one.

So, how do we get another one? We are likely to finish top 4 and we have very good players coming into the team with only cuspies and Hamling going out. I think we are stronger than last year = good start. I was looking at some of the images of previous drafts that Choco put up in another thread and thought gee-wizz there are a whole bunch of orange jumpers in the top 10 of every draft over the past 5 years and 80% of the team we beat in the prelim were first rounders, why did we win, how did they lose?

The AFEL will lick their thin lips over a GWS - Bulldogs rivalry over the next 5 years, they will. They will use it as the basis for grandstanding the success of their equalisation strategy, whatever that is. The million dollar team chock full of first rounders against the working class sons of the West, both even money to win the 2017 cup. Of course the fact that we displayed individual flashes of recruiting genius as opposed to being handed a bucket load of first round picks each year, coupled with the fact of us having the best people manager / coach in the business will be a byproduct of the fact that the AFEL will reap the rewards of their favourite team up against everyone else's second favourite team. That everyone wants us to beat GWS in a grand Final only elevates the spectacle, and that can only be good for the AFEL.

My thoughts are regardless of whether they can't crack 10,000 people at their home games, given their breath of talent it is highly likely they'll also finish top 4 and likely make the Grand Final, if they don't have to play us first that is, believe me, they won't want to play us anymore than we particularly want to play them up there again. What we want to do is avoid them all the way to the Grand Final, and play them in a Grand Final and beat them. Their prelim wounds are raw, we have the edge in finals experience and, more importantly, already having played in a Grand Final at the G.

As clubs we've peaked at the same time but for different reasons and while I would like nothing more for them to finish outside of the top 4 this is unlikely. They are our fiercest competition, but surely after beating them in the prelim at their home they will have their doubts the next time we play them in a final. I hope it's the Grand Final at the MCG, which will prove that if you make the right decisions internally you'll experience success regardless what happens external to the club.We need another one and if it's going to be against them, I think our best chance is to avoid them and get them at the big dance.

I could not, would not, should not bear the thought of a GWS dynasty starting now but I think we are the only ones that can stop it.

[bulldogtragic]

What we need is for the other 17 clubs to strategically poach their players. They've got about 8-10 guns out of contract next year and instead of bidding wars, the clubs should spread the interest and big cash offers so that they lose 2 or 3 of them. As well as put huge pressure on their salary cap going ahead.

They won't have a dynasty in my estimation. Gryphone, Patful, Stevie J, Shaw, DeBoer, Muzungu, Simpson, Mummy & Lids all at very best have 2 years of good footy in them, Patful, SJ & Gryphone maybe one at best. So they're going to lose a lot of experience and impact shortly. If the other clubs correctly cherry pick them and put pressure on their cap, then the talent rising up to take place will be more thinned. Losing a large chunk of their Academy zone helps also. A run of injuries like we had this year would also test their list.

Next year is the one they really should win, but our development is going ahead too and bringing in Cloke may have a considerable impact. Looking at 2018, we still have plenty of cap room to hunt good free agents next year to further improve our chances of making a dynasty where I doubt GWS can really afford to buy any really decent free agents. So there's going to be a bit of pressure on them next year as their premiership clock is about 11 o'clock. And if like the recent St Kilda inability to win a flag at about 11, then hopefully they fall back into the pack. They're a threat next year, but they had every conceivable advantage to win through to a Grand Final this year. They just didn't and couldn't deal with us.

[Twodogs]

I'm really looking forward to this west v west rivalry developing. I don't know if it's just fallen into the AFL's lap but it's a marketing bonanza for them. It's already got the backdrop of those hateful spiteful shifty types who left us and went up there like Ward and the other chap, ummm, Biffen or Boffen I think his name was against the noble premiership hero Tom Boyd and us turning up in Sydney and upsetting their players during the prelim.

[bulldogtragic]

I'm really looking forward to this west v west rivalry developing. I don't know if it's just fallen into the AFL's lap but it's a marketing bonanza for them. It's already got the backdrop of those hateful spiteful shifty types who left us and went up there like Ward and the other chap, ummm, Biffen or Boffen I think his name was against the noble premiership hero Tom Boyd and us turning up in Sydney and upsetting their players during the prelim.

That Wild West Derby in the USA is going to make a little of people a lot of money.

[Twodogs]

That Wild West Derby in the USA is going to make a little of people a lot of money.

I think it's going to make a lot of people a little money.


What will we call it? The great Bogan Rivalry? Something like that. The Flanny Challenge?

[bulldogtragic]

I think it's going to make a lot of people a little money.


What will we call it? The great Bogan Rivalry? Something like that. The Flanny Challenge?

'The GWS & AFEL can go and get *!*!*!*!ed cup'

[choconmientay]

What we need is for the other 17 clubs to strategically poach their players. They've got about 8-10 guns out of contract next year and instead of bidding wars, the clubs should spread the interest and big cash offers so that they lose 2 or 3 of them. As well as put huge pressure on their salary cap going ahead.


What we have over them is heart. That was the different and won us the pre-lim.
I will see us as THE gate keeper for the AFL over the next 5 years and keep those creepy Giants out of the grand finals or stopping them winning a premiership.

Having all the earlier draft picks earlier on and all the free-run they got from AFL, hide away the salary problem they now facing to retain all those young 'stars'. They surely can't retain all of their gun players and the other 17 clubs will be after them like scavengers after a meal in the desert.

This was the list of former Giants
CLUB FORMER GIANTS
Adelaide Curtly Hampton
Carlton Kristian Jaksch
Jed Lamb
Lachie Plowman
Liam Sumner
Andrew Phillips
Collingwood
Adam Treloar
Taylor Adams
Tim Golds
Essendon Shaun Edwards
Hawthorn Jono O'Rourke
Melbourne Dom Tyson
Tomas Bugg
Sam Frost
Port Adelaide
Jack Hombsch
Richmond Jacob Townsend
Anthony Miles
West Coast Jonathan Giles (via Essendon)
Western Bulldogs Tom Boyd

This year traded away
Cam McCarthy (Fremantle)
Jack Steele (St Kilda)
Caleb Marchbank (Carlton)
Jarrod Pickett (Carlton)
Paul Ahern (North)
Will Hoskin-Elliott (Collingwood)
Jake Barrett (Brisbane)
Patrick McKenna (Melbourne)

Next year on the table: (http://www.woof.net.au/forum/showthread.php?16607-Uncontracted-2017-players-at-other-clubs&highlight=Kelly)
Dylan Shiel, 23
Jonathon Patton, 23
Devon Smith, 23
Josh Kelly, 21
Jacob Hopper, 19
Zac Williams, 22
Adam Tomlinson, 23
Matt Kennedy, 19
Harrison Himmelberg, 20
Matt Buntine, 23
Adam Kennedy, 24
Jeremy Finlayson, 20

It's hard to see other clubs not throwing big offer for some of those on the table.

[Twodogs]

We have a history as well Choco. Replete with heroes and villains and legends and fights and more fights.

[dukedog]

I wish to nominate this thread for post of the year. Can we even do that? . Great work!

[Twodogs]

By the power invested in me as a super moderator I declare this thread as (one of the) Thread(s) of the Year!


How's that?

[choconmientay]

My thoughts are regardless of whether they can't crack 10,000 people at their home games, given their breath of talent it is highly likely they'll also finish top 4 and likely make the Grand Final, if they don't have to play us first that is, believe me, they won't want to play us anymore than we particularly want to play them up there again. What we want to do is avoid them all the way to the Grand Final, and play them in a Grand Final and beat them. Their prelim wounds are raw, we have the edge in finals experience and, more importantly, already having played in a Grand Final at the G.



Hopefully it will be DéjÃ* vu again next year. Meeting a team from Sydney at the MCG which no-one support. (I don't even think they will get 10.000 supporters without corporate sponsors)

We will have GWS officials complaining to the AFL that it would be unfair for them to run out to the MCG under too loud booo-ing.

They will be intimidated by our 'feral' supporters and neutrals which will make up 90% of attendees and will go into their shells, they will forget all about last year's wounds. They won't even know what they play for (quote 2dogs - No history) and will not withstand our 4 quarters pressure.

Our boys have tasted success from this year, will smell blood, hunt them in numbers, tear them apart, quarter by quarter, play by play and come away with the victory.

We will fall into stranger arms, hugging each others and sing our song ... Sons of the West ... Red White and Blue ... :) :) :)

[1eyedog]

By the power invested in me as a super moderator I declare this thread as (one of the) Thread(s) of the Year!


How's that?

I'll get the champagne out

[1eyedog]

Hopefully it will be DéjÃ* vu again next year. Meeting a team from Sydney at the MCG which no-one support. (I don't even think they will get 10.000 supporters without corporate sponsors)

We will have GWS officials complaining to the AFL that it would be unfair for them to run out to the MCG under too loud booo-ing.

They will be intimidated by our 'feral' supporters and neutrals which will make up 90% of attendees and will go into their shells, they will forget all about last years wounds. They won't even know what they play for (quote 2dogs - No history) and will not withstand our 4 quarters pressure.

Our boys have tasted success from this year, will smell blood, hunt them in numbers, tear them apart, quarter by quarter, play by play and come away with the victory.

We will fall into stranger arms, hugging each others and sing our song ... Sons of the West ... Red White and Blue ... :) :) :)

And then we will kill and bath in their blood before burning their bodies as sacrifices to the goddesses and the gods! What the?

GWS? I'd like to...

[Twodogs]

Oh! Do we get to smash a champagne bottle into something?

I'll start practicing.

[Twodogs]

I'll get the champagne out

Oh, bubbles Dah-ling..

[1eyedog]

Oh! Do we get to smash a champagne bottle into something?

I'll start practicing.

Ensure they are empty first following a healthy dose of pre-smashing lubrication.

Ah it's definitely the off-season isn't it, thing is after a Premiership it just feels like it rolls on and on into 2017.

[Topdog]

God damn this thread has got me excited

[BornInDroopSt'54]

What we have over GWS recruiting is character. We also have a cause, a suburb, a history but mainly character in the players. Our lot have it all individually and put it all together and we have a collective soul.
Gruffoon took any non character elements from the Whitten Oval to Western Sydney giving us a moral superiority sure but we're better because we have stronger charactered individuals.

[Twodogs]

What we have over GWS recruiting is character. We also have a cause, a suburb, a history but mainly character in the players. Our lot have it all individually and put it all together and we have a collective soul.
Gruffoon took any non character elements from the Whitten Oval to Western Sydney giving us a moral superiority sure but we're better because we have stronger charactered individuals.

I've made this point before but GWS having so many elite players works against them in one way. Most of them have never had to struggle in their footy lives. Everything has come along pretty simply for them. They were always first picked for teams and squads and rep teams and won medals and eventually found their way onto an AFL list just like they knew they always would.

Where are the kids who were always 18-24 in teams and 38-44 in list numbers. The ones who learned to do anything it took just to get in a team or in a squad? Where is their Dale Morris or Luke Dalhaus? They don't have a Keithy Boyd or a Jason Johanissen.

When the going got really tough in the last quarter of the prelim a few of their show pony types didn't want to know about it it, it had turned into a willing fight and that's not really their go, they like taking big marks and kicking big goals and being patted on the back and told how spectacular everything they did looked, not this stick your head over the ball and risk hurting yourself just to stop a contest to keep your team in it business. That's not footy the way they learned it growing up. But it's exactly how Dale and Luke and Matty Boyd and JJ learned to play their footy. And they are the blokes who got us over the line.

Team of champions or a champion team. Give me the hard nuts over the show ponies any day.

[1eyedog]

What we have over GWS recruiting is character. We also have a cause, a suburb, a history but mainly character in the players. Our lot have it all individually and put it all together and we have a collective soul.
Gruffoon took any non character elements from the Whitten Oval to Western Sydney giving us a moral superiority sure but we're better because we have stronger charactered individuals.

Agreed. We are the old adage. A champion team as opposed to a team of champions*

*posted prior to reading TD post.

[Twodogs]

Agreed. We are the old adage. A champion team as opposed to a team of champions*

*posted prior to reading TD post.

Great minds think alike. And smaller minds in unison.

[LostDoggy]

What we have over GWS recruiting is character. We also have a cause, a suburb, a history but mainly character in the players. Our lot have it all individually and put it all together and we have a collective soul.
Gruffoon took any non character elements from the Whitten Oval to Western Sydney giving us a moral superiority sure but we're better because we have stronger charactered individuals.
If you read this post and pretend to be an opposition supporter, it comes across as something that would make the opposition strongly dislike Bulldogs supporters.

Just saying...

[hujsh]

If you read this post and pretend to be an opposition supporter, it comes across as something that would make the opposition strongly dislike Bulldogs supporters.

Just saying...

If you're a GWS supporter. Otherwise it's mostly innocuous.

[1eyedog]

If you're a GWS supporter. Otherwise it's mostly innocuous.

That was my thought too.

[dukedog]

By the power invested in me as a super moderator I declare this thread as (one of the) Thread(s) of the Year!


How's that?


I like that. I like that alot :)

[LostDoggy]

If you're a GWS supporter. Otherwise it's mostly innocuous.
Yes, a GWS supporter would definitely feel bitter about it.

[jazzadogs]

Yes, a GWS supporter would definitely feel bitter about it.

What is this "GWS supporter" that you speak of? Never heard of such a thing.

[hujsh]

Yes, a GWS supporter would definitely feel bitter about it.


What is this "GWS supporter" that you speak of? Never heard of such a thing.

If I ever find one I'll keep such comments to myself

[BornInDroopSt'54]

If you read this post and pretend to be an opposition supporter, it comes across as something that would make the opposition strongly dislike Bulldogs supporters.

Just saying...

The post could be taken the wrong way but I don't believe GWS has flawed characters just human. The jibe about Gruffoon is fair game. The point is more that the character of our list is exceptional.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

What is this "GWS supporter" that you speak of? Never heard of such a thing.

I think i saw one when i was hiking in the blue mountains this year.....the photo isn't great though.

Anyway, i believe a GWS supporter (singular), in AFEL folklore, is an unidentified/unconfirmed AFL-like supporter, that is said to visit Spotless Stadium in Sydney's outer western suburbs. True AFL supporters discount the existence of the GWS supporter and consider it to be a combination of AFEL greed, a corporate big-wig in disguise from their usual business attire (also known as a monkey suit), or even a hoax, rather than a true, passionate AFL supporter. This is largely due to the fact that the GWS football club has no soul or history or even a purpose to be able to generate a single supporter. Scientists have been examining the existence of GWS and are yet to learn how it came to exist in such unnatural surroundings. It is near on impossible for an AFL club to exist in such conditions, with the only explanation thus far being AFEL greed via TV revenue due to the sheer number of people living in the area. Scientists have likened the club to artificial cloning of real, passionate and supported football clubs, in particular, the Western Bulldogs, whose DNA was stolen [citation needed] in an attempt to manufacture a real football club with a genuine passionate following. Unfortunately, this has so far been a failure, with adaptation being a big problem - something scientists predicted - due to the artificial nature of the club. Countless talented players have either consistently failed or fled for natural surroundings in pure football states of Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia. Occasional new reports of sightings were made in the 2016 Preliminary final against the Western Bulldogs (of which the Western Bulldogs won and went on to win the 2016 AFL Premiership) to sustain a group of self-described 'supporters', also known as the AFEL. These sightings were quickly dismissed by experts as "ludicrous claims by the AFEL to support their self-imposed venture" and that such sightings were obviously a hoax due to the events at the start of the game in which the GWS football club, playing a home final, was incessantly booed by opposition supporters. Scientists say "in the 100+ years of AFL/VFL history, this has never happened before, mostly due to the fact that both teams participating in a match have supporters. The AFEL can argue all it wants, but the fact remains they were booed. Constantly. It was their home game for crying out loud. In a preliminary final. These are facts and only an insane person would continue to claim that a GWS supporter exists." Despite this, scientists expect the absurd claims/sightings of GWS fans to get stronger into 2017 as the AFEL push for the club to be more successful.

841

[Greystache]

Yes, a GWS supporter would definitely feel bitter about it.

We need to stop pandering to tiny minority groups :D