Trying to find some positives from a 0/2 start.

[Mitcha]

Some doom and gloom on here so trying to put a positive spin on the first two rounds.
Firstly we have played the reigning premiers (and according to some wanky media types the best team to have ever played the game) and a side everyone is expecting to improve considerably and looking as though they are doing just that.
Round One v Melbourne.
I'm not sure many sides in the comp would be capable of kicking eight goals on the trot against this mob but we managed it after giving up the first four, eerily similar the GF. The fact that we were only four points down halfway through the last quarter shows that we weren't far away.
Round Two v Carlton.
After a dismal first half where we were almost dysfunctional in a way we were able to come out after half time and work our way back into it and with some polish forward of centre could, and should have pinched it. Our ability to create turnover and create opposition panic late shows that our fitness levels seem pretty good.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Now for rampaging Sydney.

[GVGjr]

Thanks Mitcha, I'm far from negative with the way we have played. The 2nd half against Carlton was very promising.

Structurally we have some challenges but our midfield is still very strong and if we can improve our forward line conversions we will get back on track quickly.

[bornadog]

I am annoyed with 0.2 but can see many positives. I think we just need to get our rhythm going and move the ball fluently and not turn it over so much.

[SonofScray]

We haven’t seen anything we didn’t already know. And we know we are capable.

[The Underdog]

I see the start by Ed Richards as a positive. Made a few skill errors the other night, but is strong in the contest and defends well, then has plenty of pace on transition and can usually use the ball pretty well.

[EasternWest]

Thanks Mitcha.

We're still a good team, but a bit more synergy and energy would be great, and any effort to address our flaws.

[Grantysghost]

Spot on Mitcha.

We know we have the ability; the grand final thumping has to have had an affect.

We rebuild that confidence over time we will be fine.

This season might be a test but I think we will still be at the pointy end for a few years.

From there it’s part ability part luck !

[Bullies]

We have a lot of guys either out of form or not fully fit. Hunter, Duryea, and Keath don't appear to be fit. Williams out of form. When those guys were playing well last year the team did. Gardner has not come along like they hoped. Crozier was cooked 2 years ago. Cordy what you see is what you get. Roarke seems to be a permanent fixture shows a bit as to where we are at.

We haven't recruited in the of season any key defenders or a ruckman to assist Tim. The structure without Bruce and Martin does not stand up. We also don't have the depth we used to and guys haven't improved whereas other teams have.

Lose next week and not much chance of Top 4. Need to win 16 out of 19 if we drop to the Swans.

[DOG GOD]

The defence is a HUGE worry. Williams and Keath out of form. Gardner and Cordy playing like they do.
Swans are flying, and next week could get ugly if we don’t play 4 quarters. Mids it’s over to you.

[Happy Days]

I’m really confident that the backline isn’t this bad. Keath was all Australian level last year, Williams looked like a 300 game player, Daniel and Dale are phenomenal distributors and were tracking to only get better, and Gardner for all his flaws was becoming a reliable stopper (and his dropping for the Grand Final is still stupid). There’s just no way they ALL fell off a cliff (Dale’s been pretty good to be fair).

English is the best around the ground ruckman in the game. Now if he can just become anything above the worst stoppage ruckman in the game then look out. We wanna get on the midfield for missing assignments but English’s underperforming at stoppage together with the makeshift backups is what’s killing us.

The forward line looked a lot better in the second half, and the pressure mix is right. If Jamarra can build on the green shoots from Thursday we’re quite well situated.

It’s better than 0-2. It will get better, we’re too good for it not to.

[The bulldog tragician]

We have a lot of guys either out of form or not fully fit. Hunter, Duryea, and Keath don't appear to be fit. Williams out of form. When those guys were playing well last year the team did. Gardner has not come along like they hoped. Crozier was cooked 2 years ago. Cordy what you see is what you get. Roarke seems to be a permanent fixture shows a bit as to where we are at.

We haven't recruited in the of season any key defenders or a ruckman to assist Tim. The structure without Bruce and Martin does not stand up. We also don't have the depth we used to and guys haven't improved whereas other teams have.

Lose next week and not much chance of Top 4. Need to win 16 out of 19 if we drop to the Swans.

This is the positive thread though Bullies. Do you take anything out of the past two matches? I feel like we are “nearly” there in a few areas, somehow there is a bit of lack of chemistry and confidence is down now, but there have been sections of each match which remind me that we have plenty of improvement yet to come.

[FrediKanoute]

2nd half much better and shows that we are there or there abouts. Poor kicking for goal in the last cost us 4 points in the end, but to be honest we should have never been in that predicament had we turned up in the first half.

Richards is a positive, Thought Cody was good in his attack on the footy and pressure acts. Liked what I saw from JUH and feel we have to persist.

Long way to go. but will want ti win next week.

[Bullies]

This is the positive thread though Bullies. Do you take anything out of the past two matches? I feel like we are “nearly” there in a few areas, somehow there is a bit of lack of chemistry and confidence is down now, but there have been sections of each match which remind me that we have plenty of improvement yet to come. You could see we were behind Carlton in preparation. They have been on the track for a longer period. We will only improve with guys getting match fitness. The manic handball we had in the first half of last year is not there but there were signs in the second half it is not to far away.

[chef]

My positive is it's not even April and we need to be peaking in September.

I have faith in Bevo to work it out again and get us firing.

[comrade]

Essendon are also 0-2, which I enjoy almost as much as if we were 2-0.

[ratsmac]

Our problem I believe lays firmly in the midfield. Our defense were sitting ducks a lot of the time in that first half due to poor defensive structures around the ball and stoppages up the field. And still you can't take anything away from Carlton because they were bloody good. They hunted the ball and pressured us way better than we did them. They played a manic style that I don't think you can sustain for 4 quarters and that allowed us to peg them back.
We seem to be out of sync at the moment as to who stays out, who goes in, when do we stay defensive and when to go offensive. It's a fine line.
We aren't far off it but still off it enough to be 0-2. We are scoring OK but defensively leaking goals. Carlton kicked unbelievably straight as well which made it that much harder to stay in touch.
Once we get 22 contributors it should pay dividends as well. We'll be right but we need to get cracking

[DOG GOD]

Biggest problem will be our %. We are literally 3 games behind Melb, Syd atm.

[GVGjr]

Biggest problem will be our %. We are literally 3 games behind Melb, Syd atm.

The percentage doesn't mean much early in the season, it's going to fluctuate until a bigger baseline is formed.

[Grantysghost]

Positive for me is English. Looks really good.

Marra too was happy with his development. He's pretty deadly around goals.

Treloar has started the season really well and looks fit.

Naughton looks ready to take the next step.

Dunkley looks to have recaptured the form we know he is capable of. Just needs to tidy up the disposal.

Bailey Smith seems to have improved again.

We've played two pretty hot sides and weren't in any way non-competitive. In it deep in both.

There's some positives!

[GVGjr]

Positive for me is English. Looks really good.

Marra too was happy with his development. He's pretty deadly around goals.

Treloar has started the season really well and looks fit.

Naughton looks ready to take the next step.

Dunkley looks to have recaptured the form we know he is capable of. Just needs to tidy up the disposal.

Bailey Smith seems to have improved again.

We've played two pretty hot sides and weren't in any way non-competitive. In it deep in both.

There's some positives!

All good points GG and I would add we will get better performances from Keath as well.
Our best football is certainly in front of us.

[Ghost Dog]

Ah well 2016 we had a horrid start.
Glad we are competitive.
Naughton may be one of the best forwards in the game if he keeps it up.

[kruder]

I’m really confident that the backline isn’t this bad. Keath was all Australian level last year, Williams looked like a 300 game player, Daniel and Dale are phenomenal distributors and were tracking to only get better, and Gardner for all his flaws was becoming a reliable stopper (and his dropping for the Grand Final is still stupid). There’s just no way they ALL fell off a cliff (Dale’s been pretty good to be fair).

English is the best around the ground ruckman in the game. Now if he can just become anything above the worst stoppage ruckman in the game then look out. We wanna get on the midfield for missing assignments but English’s underperforming at stoppage together with the makeshift backups is what’s killing us.

The forward line looked a lot better in the second half, and the pressure mix is right. If Jamarra can build on the green shoots from Thursday we’re quite well situated.

It’s better than 0-2. It will get better, we’re too good for it not to.


I agree if we can get Keath Gardner Doc and O'Brien fit then add Dale(Is now one of our best players), Daniel and Richards I think our defence can hold up.

[Grantysghost]

Ah well 2016 we had a horrid start.
Glad we are competitive.
Naughton may be one of the best forwards in the game if he keeps it up.
We won 4 out of first 5 in 16 and were 9-3 after 12 rounds.

[Ghost Dog]

We won 4 out of first 5 in 16 and were 9-3 after 12 rounds.
Well forgive me Bulldogs historians.
Anyway it wasn't the best start.

[Axe Man]

Season over? Why the 0-2 curse is not what it used to be (https://www.afl.com.au/news/729593/season-over-why-the-0-2-curse-is-not-what-it-used-to-be)

Stats show a new trend is emerging and dropping your first two games is not the nightmare it once was

THE CURSE isn't what it once was.

In the past, sides could be forgiven for lamenting an 0-2 start as 'season over' territory. But now, it's a challenge that can be relished and quickly overcome.

This year, six sides stand winless after the season's first fortnight. Of those, the Western Bulldogs, Greater Western Sydney, Essendon and Port Adelaide would still harbour genuine ambitions to play finals football later this year.

Their race is certainly not done.

Coming into this season, 63 teams had made 0-2 starts since 2010. Of those, just eight had made the finals. It's a daunting stat to look in totality. But recent history would suggest a new trend is emerging.

In fact, in five straight campaigns, a side has still made the finals after going 0-2. On two occasions – Sydney in 2014 and Collingwood in 2018 – teams have gone on to make the Grand Final after being 0-2.

Last season, five teams started 0-2. Three of them – Brisbane, GWS and Essendon – went on to play finals. The Lions won eight of their next nine to finish in the top four, the Giants played in a semi-final, and the Bombers still progressed despite going 2-6.

GWS and Essendon will need to conjure such comebacks again this year. The Bulldogs only have to look back just two seasons for inspiration, when they went 0-2 in 2020 but still played finals football despite the truncated campaign.

Port Adelaide hasn't started 0-2 since 2015. Even then – despite finishing ninth and missing the finals by just a game to North Melbourne – the club still ended the season 12-10 and finished with a winning record.

So, while an 0-2 start isn't how six sides would have wanted to start the year, it's not the end of their chances of securing success in 2022. Just ask Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge for how much he reads into the apparent 'curse' of a losing first fortnight.

"I can't even remember if we were 0-2," Beveridge said of the side's 2020 campaign.

"Whether or not the analytics, or even the commentary around it, looks at history and says that teams who start the year like this don't necessarily do this at the end of it or whatever it may be … I'm not a great believer in the now being shaped by history."

[Scraggers]

My positive??

After the loss to Carlton we moved from 17th on the ladder to 13th. At this rate, we will be top four at the end of round five :p

[Bulldog4life]

We have played well during the games but not for the 4 quarters. That's our aim and we capable of doing it. We haven't been blown away in either game.

[MrMahatma]

We lost 7 H&A games last year and missed out on the top 4 by %. So, I guess, if we win 1 extra (only lose 6 games) top 4 is a big chance... and so we can still afford to lose 5 of our next 20 matches to be a top 4 crack.

[Mitcha]

On board with a win now with the best part being that the Bont hasn't had 4 quarter impact obviously playing a bit banged up. Jacko Macrae was also down on usual impact v Swans with the best part being that the bottom end of our 22 all picked up the slack and played their roles well being Gardner, VDM, R. Smith and Anthony Scott. Skies are Blue.

[Bulldog Joe]

Last year I predicted our 6-0 start but had serious trepidation about the early rounds this year.

Felt that 0-4 was possible but still expecting we would be at least 4-4 by round 8.

With Bont not yet hitting his straps, I can see us getting to perhaps 8-3 by halfway and top 4 right on the agenda.