Is this the kick up the arse we need or deserve?

[bulldogtragic]

Missed top 4 by a handful of points.

We miss easy shots game, after game, after game. Lots and lots of behinds and tons of complete misses over 22 games.

Naughton with 38 behinds so far and his complete misses, B. Smith has 9.12 this year. Hunter still misses them and while better this year goes under 50% accuracy over his career. But they are not the only ones to regularly miss easy shots from 10-30m out every bloody game. Some from our most senior leaders.

We should be top 4 owing to the Brisbane cheating. But if we kick just one more easy goal and blow the other chances every game we have 4-5% buffer yesterday and we kick back.

So the question is, being that our goal kicking remains a problem, and some players arevseemingly unable to improve this area of their game, will the narrow loss of the Top 4 serve as a kick in the arse to the club, coaches and players to actually improve in 2022?

[Vred]

Missed top 4 by a handful of points.

We miss easy shots game, after game, after game. Lots and lots of behinds and tons of complete misses over 22 games.

Naughton with 38 behinds so far and his complete misses, B. Smith has 9.12 this year. Hunter still misses them and while better this year goes under 50% accuracy over his career. But they are not the only ones to regularly miss easy shots from 10-30m out every bloody game. Some from our most senior leaders.

We should be top 4 owing to the Brisbane cheating. But if we kick just one more easy goal and blow the other chances every game we have 4-5% buffer yesterday and we kick back.

So the question is, being that our goal kicking remains a problem, and some players arevseemingly unable to improve this area of their game, will the narrow loss of the Top 4 serve as a kick in the arse to the club, coaches and players to actually improve in 2022?

As I just said in the head coach thread, David Teague for our forward line coach in 2022, Dogs should throw everything at him, he'd be a great pick up for us.

[Bulldog4life]

As I just said in the head coach thread, David Teague for our forward line coach in 2022, Dogs should throw everything at him, he'd be a great pick up for us.

Why would Teague be a great get for us?

[Boots]

I saw this very interesting argument on Squiggle (here (https://squiggle.com.au/some-useful-things-i-learned-about-football/)):


It’s better to be a team that kicks 6.18 (54) than 9.0 (54). People will criticize the former and say bad kicking is bad football, but the truth is that there’s a lot of luck – or at least unpredictability – in goalkicking, no matter who you are. It’s harder to fluke 24 passages of play that move the ball into a scoring position than 9 accurate kicks, so you want to be the team that’s generating lots of chances, even if it’s not taking them. Because, all things being equal, that team will perform better in the future.

This is how I knew Port had us on Friday - it was their 9 behinds that spelled our doom. it's also how we competed as well as we did in 2016 I think - with that forward press and repeat forward entries. It's also the biggest part of our problem at the moment, the poor connection between midfield and forward line.

In short, I don't think our goalkicking is a problem. It's frustrating, but it also doesn't matter as long as we're controlling play. If this is a kick up the arse (and it sure is that), I think it's more about the players' psychology. Call it what you want - passion, hunger, belief - I never see our boys maintain their positive on-field body language from week to week the way Melbourne or Geelong do, or Hawthorn did for so long. They go from 'on' to 'off' seemingly overnight. It's only our skillls and Bevo's structure that stop us being a basketcase like St. Kilda or Essendon. We sometimes look like we belong in the big leagues, but something's really off in our players' heads and I don't think it's goalkicking.

[Grantysghost]

I saw this very interesting argument on Squiggle (here (https://squiggle.com.au/some-useful-things-i-learned-about-football/)):



This is how I knew Port had us on Friday - it was their 9 behinds that spelled our doom. it's also how we competed as well as we did in 2016 I think - with that forward press and repeat forward entries. It's also the biggest part of our problem at the moment, the poor connection between midfield and forward line.

In short, I don't think our goalkicking is a problem. It's frustrating, but it also doesn't matter as long as we're controlling play. If this is a kick up the arse (and it sure is that), I think it's more about the players' psychology. Call it what you want - passion, hunger, belief - I never see our boys maintain their positive on-field body language from week to week the way Melbourne or Geelong do, or Hawthorn did for so long. They go from 'on' to 'off' seemingly overnight. It's only our skillls and Bevo's structure that stop us being a basketcase like St. Kilda or Essendon. We sometimes look like we belong in the big leagues, but something's really off in our players' heads and I don't think it's goalkicking.

Makes sense Boots.

Lets hope we don't repeat what we did last time against the Bombers because that was a text book example of the above.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

The script, the plot already written.
Spectacular failure by Bulldogs late in the season and Bombers launching from finals runway.

Bulldogs will rewrite the script and will spiral the Bomber's plane.
Yes our 3 loss end to the season is a wake up call tending towards a final judgement of being flawed.
We will look at the abyss, and rise over it.
Bont, Macrae, Libba, Hunter, x,y and z will rise to lift us.
No longer H&A, it us now the rarefied atmosphere of a covid free finals stadium that raises the stakes.
Stringer is looking like fulfilling his potential but will wilt in the face of his former keepers.

Either that or Essendon are now better than us and our greatest team ever is temporarily impotent.

[EasternWest]

I saw this very interesting argument on Squiggle (here (https://squiggle.com.au/some-useful-things-i-learned-about-football/)):



This is how I knew Port had us on Friday - it was their 9 behinds that spelled our doom. it's also how we competed as well as we did in 2016 I think - with that forward press and repeat forward entries. It's also the biggest part of our problem at the moment, the poor connection between midfield and forward line.

In short, I don't think our goalkicking is a problem. It's frustrating, but it also doesn't matter as long as we're controlling play. If this is a kick up the arse (and it sure is that), I think it's more about the players' psychology. Call it what you want - passion, hunger, belief - I never see our boys maintain their positive on-field body language from week to week the way Melbourne or Geelong do, or Hawthorn did for so long. They go from 'on' to 'off' seemingly overnight. It's only our skillls and Bevo's structure that stop us being a basketcase like St. Kilda or Essendon. We sometimes look like we belong in the big leagues, but something's really off in our players' heads and I don't think it's goalkicking.

I like your post, Boots. But even more I feel your username is the most appropriate for the current thread.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

I like your post, Boots. But even more I feel your username is the most appropriate for the current thread.

Who apart from Bevo are you booting?

[EasternWest]

Who apart from Bevo are you booting?

Nah nobody - I just thought it was funny that "Boots" wrote a great post in the "arse kicking thread".

[Mofra]

As I just said in the head coach thread, David Teague for our forward line coach in 2022, Dogs should throw everything at him, he'd be a great pick up for us.
TBH I'd be trying to poach Anthony Rocca from North.

If he can turn Casboult from a terrible kick to an above-average set shot kick than he can work wonders with anybody.

Step 1 - teaching Naughton not to wave the ball around like an inflatable man in front of a car dealership when he's running to take a set shot. That alone would improve his kicking by 50%

[1eyedog]

I saw this very interesting argument on Squiggle (here (https://squiggle.com.au/some-useful-things-i-learned-about-football/)):



This is how I knew Port had us on Friday - it was their 9 behinds that spelled our doom. it's also how we competed as well as we did in 2016 I think - with that forward press and repeat forward entries. It's also the biggest part of our problem at the moment, the poor connection between midfield and forward line.

In short, I don't think our goalkicking is a problem. It's frustrating, but it also doesn't matter as long as we're controlling play. If this is a kick up the arse (and it sure is that), I think it's more about the players' psychology. Call it what you want - passion, hunger, belief - I never see our boys maintain their positive on-field body language from week to week the way Melbourne or Geelong do, or Hawthorn did for so long. They go from 'on' to 'off' seemingly overnight. It's only our skillls and Bevo's structure that stop us being a basketcase like St. Kilda or Essendon. We sometimes look like we belong in the big leagues, but something's really off in our players' heads and I don't think it's goalkicking.

It's also why I think we're at least a chance against the Bombers this week. We had significantly more looks than they did in round 20.