2016 Bulldogs v 2020 Bulldogs

[FrediKanoute]

The last 3 weeks have gotten me excited. Its not just winning, but the way we are winning. The pressure football. The swarming over the opposition; The fast ball movement. It got me thinking back to when we last played like this....2016. That said it also got me thinking about what has changed. Yes we have lost a lot of the Premiership team (11 no longer on our list and a further 3 who were not in the 22 last week because of injury or form or suspension. Its not just the personnel who have changed though its the roles they are playing in the team as well.

The table below sets out the 2016 Premiership team, their traditional positions, the role they played (open to interpretation) and then the 2020 equivalent. In some cases not only the personnel have changed, but also the team role.



969

For example our premiership team had 3 lock down defenders, Hamling, Morris & Fletcher, but today's team has 2 at most; the 2020 team has more run from defense with 3 designated run and carry defenders in JJ, Crozier and Williams. There is still a long way to go, but I'd be interested in seeing whether we migrate back to the 2016 roles either through injury or because its too attacking and not sustainable against better teams.

[FrediKanoute]

Sorry, but not sure how to make that image bigger.

[comrade]

I think we lack a hard edge compared to 2016.

Morris, Boyd, Picken & Smith were all so uncompromising there was never a doubt they'd stand up in a final, whereas now we have too many players that are liable to go to water when the heat is really turned up.

The talent is there in 2020, I'm just not sure about the grunt.

[Axe Man]

Sorry, but not sure how to make that image bigger.

You need to use an image hosting website such as https://postimages.org/. Posting images directly on the forum will always result in these tiny images.

[bornadog]

https://www.woof.net.au/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=969&d=1594135891

[merantau]

I am not much good at getting my head around a lot of comparisons, however ...
In 2016 Smith, Picken and Dickson were huge for us up forward as was Tom Boyd in the ruck. Apart from Dickson they are all gone. I would love to see "Dead-eye" Dickson reprise his 2016 form but it is a high mountain to climb.
We have lost Boyd, Morris and Hamling. The first two were veritable rocks and Hamling was very good and hard to get away from. Buddy Franklin will tell you that.
But we now have a very capable defender in Crozier who has gone from strength to strength and has some attacking flair to boot.
Furthermore, Williams has gained some experience (4th season?) and has cemented a place in the team. Daniel is the sweeper down back and plays this role to perfection. The one caveat attached to his role is that his co-defenders cannot allow him to be isolated in one-on-ones. He must receive coverage from the likes of Wood, JJ etc.
Cordy has shown me up this year. I was beginning to doubt his effectiveness as a lock down type backman. He has proved me wrong.
In summary I would say, with the rider that it is still a little early to give a 100% stamp of approval to Keath, that the backs are equal to our 2016 set up.
Our midfielders are elite and have shown that they don't all have to fire at once tyo be a formidable combination.
We now have Libber back doing what he does best and Bailey Smith plays well beyond his years and will have a huge career with us. McLean has shown he can play as a small forward, a mid or a tagger. He is a more versatile player than his 2016 version.
We now have three big forwards all capable of taking a mark inside 50 and kicking multiple goals. We also have Bailey Dale who has played some very good games at times, is creative and clever aznd capable of kicking multiple goals. He needs to work on the defensive side of his game. Lipinski is another who is capable and improving.
Dunckley has gone to another level altogether since 2016.
In the ruck we have Tim English and ...
It seems Trengove is out in the cold. In 2016 Roughy and a little of Cordy were back ups for Tom Boyd. We are asking a lot of English. He is having a very good year but if he gets injured we have a problem that will require all hands to the wheel to fix.

In conclusion, I don't know if we are better than 2016. But this I do know. We have more depth, more marking power and in the last three weeks we have played the best football we've plsyed since 2016.

[G-Mo77]

I think we lack a hard edge compared to 2016.

Morris, Boyd, Picken & Smith were all so uncompromising there was never a doubt they'd stand up in a final, whereas now we have too many players that are liable to go to water when the heat is really turned up.

The talent is there in 2020, I'm just not sure about the grunt.

This.

I still worry when it came to a real finals crunch game that we would falter under the pressure. It only takes a few and like you said we have quite a few that are suspect.

[FrediKanoute]

My feeling is that we have more run and more mobility with some genuinely quick players. We are light for lockdown defenders and could come a cropper if we face a team with quality tall's. Carlton will be interesting. What the roles our 2020 team has does allow is a greater ability to harass and clolse down space. I think Jong is a HUGE loss. He is a quick, strong player who can take a mark.

[Testekill]

We have more silk and skill but we're severely lacking a hard edge. We have a few that can use their physicality like Libba, Cordy and West but I think we need just that one more hardnut that likes to plow through people or drop them in a big tackle.

[Bulldog Joe]

We have more silk and skill but we're severely lacking a hard edge. We have a few that can use their physicality like Libba, Cordy and West but I think we need just that one more hardnut that likes to plow through people or drop them in a big tackle.

i am thinking Josh Dunkley could become this,but it about time Jack Macrae brought this as well.

If Macrae could develop a killer instinct and add a goal a game we would be very hard to beat.

[Testekill]

i am thinking Josh Dunkley could become this,but it about time Jack Macrae brought this as well.

If Macrae could develop a killer instinct and add a goal a game we would be very hard to beat.

It is something that frustrates me about Dunkley in particular, he's a bull in the contest and big and strong but he doesn't use his size enough to impose himself on opponents.

[anfo27]

My big concern after the final last year was were we tough enough? We certainly have the talent but finals aren't won with talent alone. After the first 2 rounds this year i felt vindicated in my concerns but since then they have been producing a harder brand of footy.

We have some kids like Bailey Smith & West who are as tough as they come. The GWS game did us a huge favour. Sure it wasn't pretty to watch but our kids became men that night & realised they weren't made of glass. Its only a 3 game sample size & we need to see how they go in tougher situations & how they respond to things not going their way but i'm thinking this group will rise to the challenge.

The big one for me is English. His work around the ground is huge for us but i need to see him come up against an aggressive ruckman & not be intimidated. He looks a placid kid & i would love to see some mongrel develop in him. He can be the difference for us.

[jeemak]

I didn't think we were hard enough in 2016 before the finals, but we were proven to be. I guess no team is ever hard enough until they are.

[bornadog]

I didn't think we were hard enough in 2016 before the finals, but we were proven to be. I guess no team is ever hard enough until they are.

Men of Mayhem - we went in hard to every contest throughout the year.

[comrade]

I didn't think we were hard enough in 2016 before the finals, but we were proven to be. I guess no team is ever hard enough until they are.

We had a few with question marks but havng Picko, Morris, Clay & Boydy in that side, I never doubted the grit in 2016.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

V 1961, our modern day midfielder, Bontempelli at 192 cm is taller than our '61 Brownlow ruckman, John Schultz, 191 cm!

[jeemak]

We had a few with question marks but havng Picko, Morris, Clay & Boydy in that side, I never doubted the grit in 2016.

But that's only four players and you're missing Libba. The other eighteen give or take may have had question marks on them for when the heat was on but it was only until given the opportunity that they were able to prove they were up to it.

Now we have Smith, Wood, Cordy, Crozier, Libba, Wallis, Keath, Bont and a few others who I would back to be uncompromising if given the chance, but again, they need to be given the chance.

And they're only the first few who come to mind. I think with our team it's completely between the ears and everyone we have playing for us by and large is capable of doing what they need to do when they need to do it.

The questions some have raised over the Dunkley and Macrae interest me. I actually think a lot of the grunt work they do is shaded by how much footy they get. My biggest criticism of them and our main mids in general is they're all a little too offencive and it particularly shows when we are having an off day.

Being captain obvious here, though I reckon without the four finals wins it would be really tough to split the difference between the two teams, save possibly the win against Port in Adelaide which was as hard a game as you'll see. Look back at the season and there were some seriously disappointing losses where we were questioning the integrity of the side, and it wasn't until we beat West Coast that we really believed we were hard enough and good enough.

[AshMac]

...I reckon without the four finals wins it would be really tough to split the difference between the two teams...

Couldn’t agree with this more. There was definitely something special at the kennel in 2016 and we played the greatest team finals campaign of all time but I’m not convinced it is the benchmark for our next tilt.

We need sustained form around the ground and on the scoreboard to continue to improve and we have never really done that - even in 2016.

Agree with all comments here - lots more run and carry and not enough grunt. A fantastic platform for growth and a really exciting position to be in - but a return to 2016 form (over the season) isn’t the answer IMO.

I’ve often thought how likely it was we went out against the eagles that year. No one Would have batted an eyelid in 2017 when we missed finals, and we’d be back by now to being a mid table (5-10) team meeting expectations. Course that doesn’t account for the hunger and motivation we might of had - which clearly dropped out the bottom after 16’.