2008 in Review

[LostDoggy]

The Good:

Making the Preliminary Final.

The first half of the season.

Beating St. Kilda twice and Sydney 3 times - one of those wins at the SCG!

The continued improvements of Ryan Griffen, Dylan Addison, Big Willy Minson and the debut of Callan Ward and Tim Callan proving he's a great pick up from Geelong.

The pleasure of watching Jason Akermanis kicking goals from the boundary line.

Matty Boyd representing his country, All Australian selections for The Glove Dale Morris and Adam Cooney.

Adam Cooney rewarded with a Brownlow Medal - IN YOUR FACE ABLETT!

Tom Williams looking like a damn good player - while he was on the field.

The promise and expectation that the dogs WILL win a Premiership in my lifetime.

Break out season for Josh Hill and Jarrod Harbrow.

First team to beat Hawthorn.

Great Winning Streak to start the season.

Farren Ray skipping the kennel (which means, Eagleton will be the sole scape goat for the dogs).


The Bad:

Second half of the season.

Adrejis Everitt, second year blues.

Heartbreaking loss against the Kangaroos (and the amount of abuse Brad Johnson received for missing the goal).

Tom Williams injured again.

Dylan Addison injured second half of season and Shaun Higgins injured first half of the season.

Jarrod Grant not being able to get on the field.


The Ugly:

THE loss against Hawthorn - Tom Williams sorely missed.

The Prelim defeat against Geelong - that WAS a free kick to Johnno and turned the game.

No "ready made" KPP picked up in the off season trades.

Scotty West - the man who epitomised what the dogs are about, could not go out on his own terms.


The Future:

Tom Williams is crucial to the future and development of Jarryd Grant as a KPP prospect for the dogs medium sized forward line.

Expectations that Ryan Griffen will be able to play 4 quarters of football, instead of being a "burst" player.

Shaun Higgins to have a full pre season behind him and to show the AFL world "I AM Shaun Higgins".

[GVGjr]

The Bad:

Second half of the season.

Adrejis Everitt, second year blues.

Heartbreaking loss against the Kangaroos (and the amount of abuse Brad Johnson received for missing the goal).

Tom Williams injured again.

Dylan Addison injured second half of season and Shaun Higgins injured first half of the season.

Jarrod Grant not being able to get on the field.



This pretty much sums up what needs to work for us in 2009.
Two years in a row we dropped form in the 2nd half of the season and hopefully Bill Davoren and his team can rectify this from a fitness perspective.

A lot of the improvement we hope to gain will focus on the output we can get from Everitt, Williams, Addison and Higgins.

Nice read Dex

[mighty_west]

Good work Dex, see, you can talk footy in the off season!!!!

[LostDoggy]

T
The Ugly:

THE loss against Hawthorn - Tom Williams sorely missed.

The Prelim defeat against Geelong - that WAS a free kick to Johnno and turned the game.

No "ready made" KPP picked up in the off season trades.

Scotty West - the man who eptimosed what the dogs are about, could not go out on his own terms.


The Future:

Tom Williams is crucial to the future and development of Jarryd Grant as a KPP prospect for the dogs medium sized forward line.

Expectations that Ryan Griffen will be able to play 4 quarters of football, instead of being a "burst" player.

Shaun Higgins to have a full pre season behind him and to show the AFL world "I AM Shaun Higgins".

The club should hang their heads in shame for the way the West dismissal was handled and it was very much on of the low points of the season.

We have so many good young players coming through and if Griffen, Williams and Higgins can step up in 2009 as 4 quarter footballers we will be well on our way to exceeding our efforts in 2008.

The real question mark is how will we structure the forward line and what talls would play there? The jusy is still out on the Minson experiment.

[Dogs 24/7]

DexterT, thanks for going to such an effort to write this up. If you had to mark us out of 10 how would you rate our efforts?
I don't think we "stuck the landing" so I would give the 2008 season a 7.9

[Sockeye Salmon]

The club should hang their heads in shame for the way the West dismissal was handled and it was very much on of the low points of the season.


That didn't come out in the best light but it wasn't really the club's fault.

[LostDoggy]

That didn't come out in the best light but it wasn't really the club's fault.

I won't take this off topic any further but despite what you might have been told it is the clubs fault the way this was handled. The club gave him an ultimatum and little to no time to accept it.

[LostDoggy]

DexterT, thanks for going to such an effort to write this up. If you had to mark us out of 10 how would you rate our efforts?
I don't think we "stuck the landing" so I would give the 2008 season a 7.9

A bit harsh, I'd put it at 8.5. The dogs DID make it to the final four and the only team the dogs did not beat in that top 4 was Geelong and the dogs came pretty damn close in the Prelim.

The losses to the Kangas and Carlton, the draw against the Tiges and the Hawthorn and Geelong massacres certainly took the polish off the year. However you've got to look at the overall performance of a team which relied on a P/T KPP to create contests in the forward 50 and an undersized backline (when Tom Williams wasn't playing). A backline that ran all day and created many "fast breaks" for the forwards to have the opportunity to have space to run into.

You've got to keep in mind too, Brad Johnson was injured for the majority of the season BUT he still was the dogs leading goal kicker. I say watch out for the Smiling Assasin in 2009, he'll want to prove alot of people wrong.

[ledge]

Was there an ultimatum i thought it was just sorry mate your finished and i must admit after seeing him run (hobble) around at Willy i tend to agree he was finished.
And i think after a couple of sleeps Westy knew deep down too.
Not many players retire on their terms, what i think made it hard was Westy was pretty injury free through his whole career and this major one came along at the wrong time.
Griffen, Boyd, Cross,Cooney etc proved they were ready to take over, we ended up 3rd without West and also Eade did mention at the start of the year it was time for the kids to take over and West to play more off the bench.
In hindsight the writing was on the wall when our younger players took us to third.
Was it handled bad like the media made it out or was it just the emotion West would have shown whenever he was told?

[ledge]

If your going to compare with the year before i would say we were a 9, i dont think many expected this much improvement except us Bulldog supporters who expect this every year!
Does anyone know where we were tipped to finish by the scribes?
I bet it wasnt 3rd.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I won't take this off topic any further but despite what you might have been told it is the clubs fault the way this was handled. The club gave him an ultimatum and little to no time to accept it.

The club did say to Westy that it was time. His knee was rooted and he wouldn't accept it. This is pretty common amoungst footballers who will give anything to prolong their careers. Robert Harvey and Scott Burns both wanted to play on next year as well.

Eade had a meeting with West where the told him it was over. During the meeting West started to tear up and asked to leave the room to compose himself - he did not storm out as was reported in the media. While West was out of the room he texted family and a few friends about what had happened. It was one of these people who went to the media while West and the club were discussing how Westy wanted to handle the announcement.

[The Coon Dog]

The club did say to Westy that it was time. His knee was rooted and he wouldn't accept it. This is pretty common amoungst footballers who will give anything to prolong their careers. Robert Harvey and Scott Burns both wanted to play on next year as well.

Eade had a meeting with West where the told him it was over. During the meeting West started to tear up and asked to leave the room to compose himself - he did not storm out as was reported in the media. While West was out of the room he texted family and a few friends about what had happened. It was one of these people who went to the media while West and the club were discussing how Westy wanted to handle the announcement.

I heard this exactly the same too SS.

[Twodogs]

I heard this exactly the same too SS.


That's exactly how I heard it as well.





Great thread Dexter.

[Mantis]

The Ugly:

THE loss against Hawthorn - Tom Williams sorely missed.

The Prelim defeat against Geelong - that WAS a free kick to Johnno and turned the game.

No "ready made" KPP picked up in the off season trades.



1. Tom Williams wouldn't have really helped that night. Our midfield was the problem.

2. The game was already gone when the Johnson incident occured. We had had our opportunities and didn't make the most of them.

3. There were no ready made KPP available at the price we were willing to pay.

[alwaysadog]

I don’t know how you’d score a season, but let’s assume 10 is a premiership, so that’s not possible.

We established ourselves as one of the very top teams without ever really being a Premiership contender, so it’s pretty hard to argue for a less than 8 result.

We played without a proper CHF all season and a quality CHB most of the time. So structurally we can’t get 9 if that is a consideration on the other hand to have done so well without those KPPS may add to the score.

Performance wise we exceeded all expectations after the very ordinary previous season and were in uncharted waters after round 15.

We began like champions but wobbled very badly in the run to the line. Tiredness took its toll and injuries occurred, then we had to keep using players who were injured and this did not work and only sapped confidence and energy. Exactly what one would expect for a side with limited or no depth, that is why Eade is so keen for the next bunch to stand up.

No season is perfect; there were times during 2008 when the Hawks looked pretty ordinary in particular in a game against us. Their supporters would if they’re honest, have to admit things looked pretty gloomy at that point. But honesty in football is a rather scary quality and I have to ask is that possible for a club run by Kennett.

Sound of wrist being slapped and voice saying, “Stop it AAD.”
“Sorry but I just can’t help myself, the memories are so horrific, the nightmares so awful. I promise… I’ll try to behave.”

Meanwhile back at the thread…. rather than focus on the latter part of the season and the maybe/maybe not prelim final game against Geelong, I‘d look at where we came from, what we had and what we did.

Yes we got close, but we were never going to do more than that. So I score us 10 for effort, 8 ½ for structure and 8 ½ for persistence. An average score of 9, which I think reflects our top 3 finish.

[Dogs 24/7]

The Good -
A preliminary final exceed my expectations but it's now set the benchmark higher for 2009
Cooney's Brownlow
Playing some exhilarating football

The Bad -
The thrashing by the Hawks
West being sacked rather than being given the time to think the ultimatum through - Sorry guys but I don't buy for one second that the club handled it well in fact it was disgraceful.

The Ugly -
The way our form dropped off late in the 2nd half of the season
The forward line looked inept at times
Losing to Carlton and North hurt like hell

The Future -
In many ways there is no get out of gaol card that can be played in 2009 because everything is set up for a huge season. Im not sure if we can win it but anything less than 2008 won't be acceptable.
Our time has arrived to stand up and be counted.

[Dogs 24/7]

3. There were no ready made KPP available at the price we were willing to pay.

And yet we chased a borderline tall like Robertson the previous year. If we are to learn from the Hawks we need to draft and develop our own.

[LostDoggy]

The Ugly:
No "ready made" KPP picked up in the off season trades.

Why would not being able to pick a recycled KPP player in a trade be ugly? The cost are over the top and they are huge gamble.

[Mantis]

And yet we chased a borderline tall like Robertson the previous year. If we are to learn from the Hawks we need to draft and develop our own.

My undersatnding of that was that we were only going to acquire him if it could have been done via the PSD. We got Welsh instead and I suppose we will never know, but I think a fit Robertson would have been more valuable than Welsh.

[The Coon Dog]

Sorry guys but I don't buy for one second that the club handled it well in fact it was disgraceful.

What do you know that we don't?

[GVGjr]

What do you know that we don't?

I'm not comfortable with the way the club handled and I know other supporters who share that view. On the Brownlow night Robert Harvey had a fantastic send off and yet West was just given his marching orders.

It was poorly judged on the clubs perspective to deliver an ultimatum to an icon player like West and expect him accept it straight away. It makes no difference that he phoned friends and the club was concerned that the information would be leaked because he simply needed more time to adjust to the decision.

I'm sure it was very hard for all concerned at the club but they dropped the ball in my opinion.

I was talking to a father of one of the young players the other day and he held West in the highest of regard and in fact West told his son that he is only a phone call away if he wanted his assistance with anything even though he is working with the Dees.
Very classy.

[alwaysadog]

And yet we chased a borderline tall like Robertson the previous year. If we are to learn from the Hawks we need to draft and develop our own.

Which is exactly what we have done.

[alwaysadog]

I'm not comfortable with the way the club handled and I know other supporters who share that view. On the Brownlow night Robert Harvey had a fantastic send off and yet West was just given his marching orders.

It was poorly judged on the clubs perspective to deliver an ultimatum to an icon player like West and expect him accept it straight away. It makes no difference that he phoned friends and the club was concerned that the information would be leaked because he simply needed more time to adjust to the decision.

I'm sure it was very hard for all concerned at the club but they dropped the ball in my opinion.

I was talking to a father of one of the young players the other day and he held West in the highest of regard and in fact West told his son that he is only a phone call away if he wanted his assistance with anything even though he is working with the Dees.
Very classy.

It's a long term problem… and one we need to address so we don’t continue to lose the respect of our retiring players and undermine the confidence of our supporters.

The number of players whose retirement wasn't handled well is longer than my arm. I accept that it is a call that no one wants to get, but they seem to walk in all bushy tailed and get told, sorry the game's up, when they least expect it.

I’m confused, Rocket has really good people smarts and he must have known how hard Scotty would take it. It sounds like he didn’t do any contingency planning, or have a support group ready to swing into action.

Maybe Cam should be involved in such meetings, at the very least the club should seek urgent advice about how to do it better both in terms of the individual concerned and in terms of our concern for the members who have a special relationship with such players.

After all giving one of your marquee players the heave hoe is not an insignificant event. It’s better in so many ways if it doesn’t leave a sour taste in one’s mouth, would also project a more professional image of the club.

[GVGjr]

I’m confused, Rocket has really good people smarts and he must have known how hard Scotty would take it. It sounds like he didn’t do any contingency planning, or have a support group ready to swing into action.

Maybe Cam should be involved in such meetings, at the very least the club should seek urgent advice about how to do it better both in terms of the individual concerned and in terms of our concern for the members who have a special relationship with such players.

After all giving one of your marquee players the heave hoe is not an insignificant event. It’s better in so many ways if it doesn’t leave a sour taste in one’s mouth, would also project a more professional image of the club.

They obviously didn't address this with West prior to the day probably to not distract themselves and the team mates from the finals campaign but he was injured for a long period and the fact the club announced that he would have no part in the finals fairly early on so there was some opportunities to start the dialogue.

FWIW, I wouldn't have Cam anywhere near those types of discussions and clearly Fantasia, Eade and Cameron were the right men for the job. I am concerned though that the very thought that the details of the discussion would be leaked to the media could spook them into giving West the ultimatum.

I suppose it's all over now but I'm yet to hear a compelling reason why we he had to give the answer they wanted there and then.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I'm not comfortable with the way the club handled and I know other supporters who share that view. On the Brownlow night Robert Harvey had a fantastic send off and yet West was just given his marching orders.

It was poorly judged on the clubs perspective to deliver an ultimatum to an icon player like West and expect him accept it straight away. It makes no difference that he phoned friends and the club was concerned that the information would be leaked because he simply needed more time to adjust to the decision.

I'm sure it was very hard for all concerned at the club but they dropped the ball in my opinion.

I was talking to a father of one of the young players the other day and he held West in the highest of regard and in fact West told his son that he is only a phone call away if he wanted his assistance with anything even though he is working with the Dees.
Very classy.

Harvey was just as sacked as West, he wanted to play on as well.

When West composed himself and went back into the meeting he actually coped with it pretty well, unfortunately the damage was already in the process of being done.

[KT31]

I'm not comfortable with the way the club handled and I know other supporters who share that view. On the Brownlow night Robert Harvey had a fantastic send off and yet West was just given his marching orders.

It was poorly judged on the clubs perspective to deliver an ultimatum to an icon player like West and expect him accept it straight away. It makes no difference that he phoned friends and the club was concerned that the information would be leaked because he simply needed more time to adjust to the decision.

I'm sure it was very hard for all concerned at the club but they dropped the ball in my opinion.

I was talking to a father of one of the young players the other day and he held West in the highest of regard and in fact West told his son that he is only a phone call away if he wanted his assistance with anything even though he is working with the Dees.
Very classy.

The AFL gave Harvey his send off not St-Kilda.
Altuogh West is a club legend and will be missed we cant have it both ways expect the club to make the tough decisions to win a flag and be soft with the playing group.

[GVGjr]

Harvey was just as sacked as West, he wanted to play on as well.

When West composed himself and went back into the meeting he actually coped with it pretty well, unfortunately the damage was already in the process of being done.

In the eyes of the supporters Harvey got a terrific send off and West got the heave ho. The club didn't need to rush it and go to the media and announce that Scott West wouldn't be at the club in 2009. He accepted the decision a couple of days later which shows me that we just didn't give him enough time.
The highlighted section appears to say that whilst he went off for a think, we jumped in and pro-actively contacted the media before he even returned. If that is correct this is actually worse than I thought.

[The Underdog]

In the eyes of the supporters Harvey got a terrific send off and West got the heave ho. The club didn't need to rush it and go to the media and announce that Scott West wouldn't be at the club in 2009. He accepted the decision a couple of days later which shows me that we just didn't give him enough time.
The highlighted section appears to say that whilst he went off for a think, we jumped in and pro-actively contacted the media before he even returned. If that is correct this is actually worse than I thought.

I agree that the public perception of the handling of the two was diametrically opposite and while it's been explained that maybe it wasn't completely the club's fault it ended up looking worse than it was and that's a problem.
Apparently it was someone Westy contacted who went to the media not the club or Westy himself, however by the time the damage control went into effect it was too late.
I would also argue that the public perceptions of the two amongst the wider football community meant that Harvey was always going to get massive respect while West was only going to get a smaller acknowledgement. West was never rated close to as highly as Harvey by the wider football world (wrong in my view, but I could be biased) so he was never going to be acknowledged in the same way. West also didn't get the chance to play a final game where he could be acknowledged which is a shame.

[Twodogs]

In the eyes of the supporters Harvey got a terrific send off and West got the heave ho. The club didn't need to rush it and go to the media and announce that Scott West wouldn't be at the club in 2009. He accepted the decision a couple of days later which shows me that we just didn't give him enough time.
The highlighted section appears to say that whilst he went off for a think, we jumped in and pro-actively contacted the media before he even returned. If that is correct this is actually worse than I thought.



It was West's 'people' who announced it, not the club. I'm sure the club wanted this to go as smoothly as possible but they couldnt have anticipated that Scooter would inadvertantly start of a round of Chinese whispers and text tag when he left the room to compose himself. The footy people were waiting in the room to address with Westy how we would announce the retirement to the media and then move on. Events (initiated by the player) overtook them.

[GVGjr]

It was West's 'people' who announced it, not the club. I'm sure the club wanted this to go as smoothly as possible but they couldnt have anticipated that Scooter would inadvertantly start of a round of Chinese whispers and text tag when he left the room to compose himself. The footy people were waiting in the room to address with Westy how we would announce the retirement to the media and then move on. Events (initiated by the player) overtook them.

So what? The answer should have been to any questions from the media that we are in discussions with the player and we sort it out soon. Sacking him was not the answer.
We all knew that Harvey was going before the finals campaign because the discussions were held early on and yet there was an expectation by the club that we would rock up on the day and West would just say yes. It could have and should have been managed better because he just needed a bit more time.

I know we won't agree on this so I won't take the thread off the topic at hand any more.:)

[Bulldog Revolution]

A lot of the improvement we hope to gain will focus on the output we can get from Everitt, Williams, Addison and Higgins.



This may be the reality check for 2009

Everitt and Williams are our two most likely key position players for 09 - do we need one to produce something up forward to win a flag this year?

Will Higgins arrive as a prime mover?

Can Addison improve his fitness and smarts to shut down opposition prime movers?

Does Harbrow fit into this category also?

[alwaysadog]

They obviously didn't address this with West prior to the day probably to not distract themselves and the team mates from the finals campaign but he was injured for a long period and the fact the club announced that he would have no part in the finals fairly early on so there was some opportunities to start the dialogue.

FWIW, I wouldn't have Cam anywhere near those types of discussions and clearly Fantasia, Eade and Cameron were the right men for the job. I am concerned though that the very thought that the details of the discussion would be leaked to the media could spook them into giving West the ultimatum.

I suppose it's all over now but I'm yet to hear a compelling reason why we he had to give the answer they wanted there and then.

My point about Cam is that he's the CEO and therefore is ultimately responsible. He needs to make sure we avoid the negative publicity this brings and the hurt it causes to a champion player's many fans.
Your point about the structuring of the decision making is spot on.

[LostDoggy]

The club should hang their heads in shame for the way the West dismissal was handled and it was very much on of the low points of the season.

It was poorly handled & was extensively addressed within the sanctum after the event. A few had eggs on their faces & rightly so.

[Mantis]

Can Addison improve his fitness and smarts to shut down opposition prime movers?

Does Harbrow fit into this category also?

I was thinking the same the other day.

We struggle to find a match-up for Brent Harvey and was wondering if we could perhaps use Harbrow in a lock-down role when we play them?

I wouldn't be using Jarrod in a defensive role all the time, but that added flexibility of being able to play that role could be of great benefit.

[strebla]

I would think 2008 would give us a score of 8 and a half out of 10.Full pre-seasons to Welsh and Hudson plus improvement in Ward, Addison,Tiller and Everett holds us in good stead for 2009.

[Twodogs]

So what? The answer should have been to any questions from the media that we are in discussions with the player and we sort it out soon. Sacking him was not the answer.
We all knew that Harvey was going before the finals campaign because the discussions were held early on and yet there was an expectation by the club that we would rock up on the day and West would just say yes. It could have and should have been managed better because he just needed a bit more time.

I know we won't agree on this so I won't take the thread off the topic at hand any more.:)



I'm just plugging away from the slips cordon mate.;)


If we had said something different to what the press heard from "sources close to the player" then the media would have swarmed all over us and then the situation would have got out of hand. The club found itself in a situation that it didnt choose and didnt want to be in and from what I know they handled it pretty well. After all a few articles in the paper is better than a weeks worth of bad news which could have easily happened.