Alright lads, how bad was it?

[hujsh]

I was just walking home and noticed only Bulldogs jumpers and scarves leaving the station.

Looking at the stats my guess is we dominated possession but kept kicking it to Stewart and wasting chances while they kicked easy goals and/or goals out of their ass?

I refuse to read AFL media jerk off over how great it is to see the premiers back in action so I would like to request a calm summation of the game (this is not the gameday thread)

[bulldogtragic]

Real bad. Real. Real. Bad.

[macca]

I am not going to use any expletives

but I will be taking a break from watching the team next week.

this is a game where they let the supporters down.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Bad enough that I won't be attending another game this season.

[whythelongface]

I’m sure it is not just the lads who thought it was bad.

It was crap. Here we had a chance to beat a Geelong team without some of their stars and we just blew it. Mindlessly dumb football

[bulldogtragic]

I am not going to use any expletives

but I will be taking a break from watching the team next week.

this is a game where they let the supporters down.

This game makes we wonder why I came back to watching this side. Honestly, I don’t know why I’ve done it. I was far happier without BS like tonight.

[macca]

This game makes we wonder why I came back to watching this side. Honestly, I don’t know why I’ve done it. I was far happier without BS like tonight.

Infact they have done it twice in a row now.

We let our old bad habits rear its head again this week. same old same old garbage that allowed GCS to win last week.

Yes they kicked 5 in a row as well.

[hujsh]

I’m sure it is not just the lads who thought it was bad.

It was crap. Here we had a chance to beat a Geelong team without some of their stars and we just blew it. Mindlessly dumb football

That's meant to be a gender neutral 'lads'.

[JanLorMill]

Embarrassing

[westbulldog]

Last week we butchered a chance to be top 4.
This week we somehow thought Stewart needed some Brownlow votes and we are now also rans.

[EasternWest]

I was far happier without BS like tonight.

But we're happier with you here.

[GVGjr]

The amount of fans leaving early is a sign that our supporters were very dispirited by the display.
I think that is a clear sign it was bad.

[Bullies]

I’m sure it is not just the lads who thought it was bad.

It was crap. Here we had a chance to beat a Geelong team without some of their stars and we just blew it. Mindlessly dumb football With the players they had out we will never get another opportunity like that and even if we did we probably still wouldn't beat them.

[Eastdog]

Just so frustrating.

We have our chances and blow them very time. Always the way when we seem to have an opportunity at going higher top 4 we just don't take it.

Just so happy that 2016 happened in winning the flag.

[Scorlibo]

Honestly I didn't think it was that bad. The Cats came to play, and they are still a very good side when playing well. They defended the ground, denying us time and space, especially in the second half. We won contested ball convincingly, and our ball movement at times was magnificent. English and Daniel played out of their skins. We had more looks than they did, and actually won a few ground balls in the forward half. All of this while battling against the umpires.

Sure there were a few howlers by foot. Baker, Gardner, English on at least one occasion just kicking it straight to the opposition. And our decision making when the heat went up a notch was questionable, but by and large I thought we played well and didn't get reward for effort on the scoreboard.

There's been a lot of talk about us being a top four side in the wake of our winning streak, well you'd be a fool to believe it. My expectations on this season plummeted after the first two rounds, and although we did well to resurrect the season, there's been nothing in our wins to convince me that we're a true threat. Our forward half connection and conversion is woeful, and in my view questions need to be asked of the coaching department in that area of the ground. Take a look at the Cats and how good they are at the 20-30m chip kicks to find a teammate closer to goal. When do we ever manage to do that? We are terrible at creating space in our forward fifty.

[AshMac]

By a country mile this is not the worst I?ve seen us play. God I?ve sat through some years of horrid football and serial disappointment.

This period though feels like we?re wasting a golden opportunity. Like we have all the tools but can?t build up - which is worse than us just being bad.

[The bulldog tragician]

Something really hurt about this one. It felt like a train wreck slowly unfolding as we butchered the ball, played dumb footy and missed gettable shots. There was the inevitable red time goal to them at 3/4 time. At no point in the last quarter did we look like we had any idea how to win. That’s what hurt most of all.

[SonofScray]

It was bad enough that I am getting my axe out again.

Piss weak tackling, awful goal kicking and had rings run around us by a team that has a coach who has our coach’s number.

Then an hour to get out of the car park at Docklands, and a further hour to get home to Sunshine. FFS.

[GVGjr]

By a country mile this is not the worst I?ve seen us play. God I?ve sat through some years of horrid football and serial disappointment.

This period though feels like we?re wasting a golden opportunity. Like we have all the tools but can?t build up - which is worse than us just being bad.

I think we are playing very well in patches and very poorly in others. Our goal kicking accuracy has hurt us in the last 3 weeks as well.

[lemmon]

I could swallow last night a little more easily if we'd banked four points last week and that's where I think the discourse about that being an 'okay' loss is frustrating. Again we have statistical dominance, again we dominate field position but again our forward 50 connection and ability to make that dominance count on the scoreboard is missing. That's absolutely a pattern of Bevo's time and to write it off because the other parts of our game are in okay shape is ludicrous.

Either the personnel in the forward 50 need to change, or the way we move the footy into the forward line needs to because at the moment we work ridiculously hard for each scoring shot, most of the time they're low value or scrappy and we're odds-on to either miss or cough it up and have it slung down the other end to a dangerously open defensive 50.

I think this is a top 4 list and we're again not going to be there because of games we've dominated everywhere but the scoreboard.

We have Jones, English and Bont who are all in the AA team right now, one of the most stacked midfields in the comp, excellent running defenders in JJ, Richards and Dale, and a guy in the forward line that is being touted as a million dollar player. Finishing 6th and scrapping through to the second week of the finals is simply not good enough.

[Hotdog60]

We are giving ourselves a look in most games but there should be no way league footballers should miss goals with a 30 metre arc.
Bontempelli, English, McNeil, Naughton, Ugle-Hagan and Williams all left goals out there they should have nailed at that was the game.

[Dogs 24/7]

We play some scintillating football at times but we are beaten by an AFL version of own goals with our poor goal kicking.
It's not the end of the world stuff but its going to be hard to get top 4 from here.

[bulldogtragic]

It’s not the last two losses in and of themselves. Despite dominating scoring shots. It’s the opportunity blown. That’s the gut punch.

Use our superior numbers of I50 and shots on goal, and take workman like wins against a lowly GCS and depleted Geelong off three losses. Cement top four and dream big.

Now we spend the year rooting for other teams to lose and maybe we will make up the numbers again. It’s not the losses per se. But it’s an entirely avoidable horror result. But that’s maybe just who we are under Bevo. Never a top 4 side, scrapers into the 8 and hopers for the best. For whatever reason, Bevo can’t mould this list into finishing top four in his tenure. Not sure why, but he can’t.

[Bullies]

Something really hurt about this one. It felt like a train wreck slowly unfolding as we butchered the ball, played dumb footy and missed gettable shots. There was the inevitable red time goal to them at 3/4 time. At no point in the last quarter did we look like we had any idea how to win. That’s what hurt most of all. Agree with this. In the last quarter no one actually wanted the ball. There was no lead up so we had to kick to contests. The only time we kicked to our man was when we kicked backwards even then there was no one running on the other side to give it off again. Whether they were fatigued from Darwin game i don't know.

Our skill level is deplorable. We have 2 guys down back Gardner and O'Brien who continuously butcher the ball yet persist on kicking across goal. Baker is another with skills not at AFL Level.

[angelopetraglia]

It’s not the last two losses in and of themselves. Despite dominating scoring shots. It’s the opportunity blown. That’s the gut punch.

Use our superior numbers of I50 and shots on goal, and take workman like wins against a lowly GCS and depleted Geelong off three losses. Cement top four and dream big.

Now we spend the year rooting for other teams to lose and maybe we will make up the numbers again. It’s not the losses per se. But it’s an entirely avoidable horror result. But that’s maybe just who we are under Bevo. Never a top 4 side, scrapers into the 8 and hopers for the best. For whatever reason, Bevo can’t mould this list into finishing top four in his tenure. Not sure why, but he can’t.

Yes. We lack that ruthless edge or class to finish teams off. When the Cats had the dominance we showed in patches last night when they played us last year, what did they do? Piled on 6-7 goals in quick succession and killed the game off.

[SonofScray]

Bevo says they went up a notch and we couldn’t go with them.

WTF not?

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

Bevo says they went up a notch and we couldn?t go with them.

WTF not?
Playing in Darwin the week before - we ran out of steam. I remember Bob Murphy saying he lost eight kilos playing there and the following game we were cooked at half time (against St Kilda we were ten goals up at half time, Clay Smith did his knee and we were running up and down on the spot by the last quarter for an embarrassing loss)

[Grantysghost]

Playing in Darwin the week before - we ran out of steam. I remember Bob Murphy saying he lost eight kilos playing there and the following game we were cooked at half time (against St Kilda we were ten goals up at half time, Clay Smith did his knee and we were running up and down on the spot by the last quarter for an embarrassing loss)

Amazingly the Suns backed up with a decent victory.

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

Their climate

[Bullies]

Amazingly the Suns backed up with a decent victory. Suns train in those type of conditions most of the year.

[angelopetraglia]

Amazingly the Suns backed up with a decent victory.

The suns also were battle hardened to the conditions from the week before and played Adelaide who came into those conditions for the day. MASSIVE advantage to the Suns.

[Danjul]

It was bad enough that I am getting my axe out again.

Piss weak tackling, awful goal kicking and had rings run around us by a team that has a coach who has our coach?s number.

Then an hour to get out of the car park at Docklands, and a further hour to get home to Sunshine. FFS.
l left early. The final result was predictable and, as someone at the game said, the Dogs have to work twice as hard to get a score. The longer the game went the further behind they would be.

So I thought that I would avoid the crowd at the end. I walked out the gate and into hundreds of Bulldog supporters who had the same thought. The best part of the night was getting an earlier train.

[Grantysghost]

The suns also were battle hardened to the conditions from the week before and played Adelaide who came into those conditions for the day. MASSIVE advantage to the Suns.

True, I just am not sure if that had any effect on the outcome of the Cats game.
Like the heat didn't make us miss set shots.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Playing in Darwin the week before - we ran out of steam. I remember Bob Murphy saying he lost eight kilos playing there and the following game we were cooked at half time (against St Kilda we were ten goals up at half time, Clay Smith did his knee and we were running up and down on the spot by the last quarter for an embarrassing loss)

No the loss to the saints was after the classic "belief" game where we beat the Swans in the wet up in Sydney.

I remember it clearly as the loss to the saints was the moment in time we all realised the greatness of Jack Billings. Lewis Taylor > Jack Billings > Bont.

[westbulldog]

Not only bad it was pathetic as one poster correctly said we couldn't hit the side of a barn and 2 consecutive losses have consigned us to the chasing pack. The inability to kick accurately must surely have consequences or the coaches are just banking their money and couldn't give 3/5 of 5/8.

[bornadog]

11 Games to go. Take our opportunities and we will be there at the end.

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

You?re right My memory failed me. I?ll see myself out

[AshMac]

I think we are playing very well in patches and very poorly in others. Our goal kicking accuracy has hurt us in the last 3 weeks as well.

That?s the problem entirely - we have a highly capable list who on their day can beat anyone in the league. Yes that?s true of a lot of teams - but we see our best footy every week - just in small patches.

Removing rounds 1-2 from our memory entirely - every game has been winnable. The port Adelaide and cats game we lost both because we just fell away in the last quarter. The suns game we in the second. Each of those 3 games we should have been 3-4 goals up at 3/4 time

[I'm Not Bitter Anymore!]

No the loss to the saints was after the classic "belief" game where we beat the Swans in the wet up in Sydney.

I remember it clearly as the loss to the saints was the moment in time we all realised the greatness of Jack Billings. Lewis Taylor > Jack Billings > Bont.
You’re right my memory failed me. I’ll see myself out

[lemmon]

Woop, wrong thread

[Stevo]

The people we sit with at the football just kept sighing at the missed opportunities. Over my journey of following the Dogs Ive seen worse and it wont stop me going again on Friday night :)