Round 5 - Western Bulldogs V Brisbane Lions - Sat 12/4/25 Norwood Oval, Adelaide 4:15PM AEDT

[jeemak]

We've seen this so many times under Bevos tenure. Bit of a soft mentality. It just looked like we found it acceptable to have the premiers overrun us given we're undermanned.

We're clearly struggling for leaders. I think the effort is mostly there atm. We just don't have the cattle. I dunno, it's not like this group will do anything significant anyway.

Struggling for leadership is right. Doc in bad form, backs all over the place, and then Bont and Treloar out.......

Not saying it's OK, just saying how it is.

[josie]

Sorry to be a happy clapper but I am proud of the effort and convinced the future is a lot brighter than I expected in 2025 especially with the loss of Bont and Treloar.

In particular I reckon it’s been a gutsy effort, two weeks in a row, to not simply concede and suffer a 10 goal blowout. To claw our way back to within a point when Bris seemed to have our measure showed a lot of character. Skill mistakes, of course they drive me crazy and we made some critical blunders, but…didn’t we look magnificent in the second quarter. There were definite Men of Mayhem moments, and breathtaking moments from a crazily talented Sam Darcy. That is what our best can be, and when we get the superstar back we will have some of the silk and experience that could have led to victories in the narrow losses.

Oh and please…a nervous kid in his first game tried hard but didn’t prove himself to be an instant superstar and doesn’t deserve no 6? We really don’t need to pot a debutant like that.

Thanks for sharing eloquently exactly my thoughts. Hynes starting easing himself into game a little bit in Q4. I hope he is given another chance next week.

[1eyedog]

At least we fought it out. With Bont we win that. Shits me Hipwood had a day out. Something about his countenance that irks me. Unfair I know.

No we don't.

[1eyedog]

I don't know about you blokes but I can't bear f**king losing a game like that!

Look, fantastic effort but what does a f**king fantastic effort mean? It doesn't get us anything! We don't get diddly squat! We don't get a point. They don't just give us something for just f**king getting close! It means nothing! If you think that I'm going to be happy walking into this room when we get beaten still, we can't be! We just can't accept it! I don't know about you guys, but if I see one bloke walk out of here, getting a pat on the back from people out there for a good effort, I'll spew up! Because it's just not acceptable!

We were a rabble in that second half, absolutely bloody disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful. yeah, for a half we were worked our arses off, we worked our backsides off to dictate the game, but the game is about 120 minutes of footy, and that was the most winnable one that we get for a long time, and we just pissed it down the drain. We absolutely pissed that game down the drain. Don't any one of you forget about it. Take away one thing from this game. You have the ability to play in this competition and to play it very very very well. We cannot got from that which we've displayed right in first half, back to what we displayed in the second half ever again. Ever again.,

Now go and have your showers, we'll see you back at the social club.

Nailed it. Absolutely disgusting.

[The bulldog tragician]

I personally love the juxtaposition of someone self-naming as The Bulldog Tragician, going as far to write thousands of words about being so, and then outing themselves as a happy clapper!

it’s the crazy mystique of being a footy fan, that I can be both, within a season, within a match, within a quarter, or within minutes. Veering wildly from a moment when Sam Darcy outbodies just about the game’s best defender (did anyone else see shades of Bont out marking Hodge in that 2016 final)… to losing my mind when Bramble reverted to Shambles with that awful kick. We’re here for all of it, aren’t we.

[chef]

No we don't.

We might, the Bont is pretty good.

[Bornadog]

Very disappointed in the second half, but we just couldn't sustain it.

• West 16 touches in first half, 8 in second
• Sanders 17 and 5
• Freijah 3 behinds that were gettable goals
• Set shots from a number of players were terrible
• Errors from kick outs that giftered goals
• smashed in stoppage clearances
• 3 first year players
• JJ in too early

[kickit2Koly]

Struggling for leadership is right. Doc in bad form, backs all over the place, and then Bont and Treloar out.......

Not saying it's OK, just saying how it is.

We also had 6 guys under 20 games and 9 under 50 playing. Composure to win close games comes with experience. It makes it pretty tough to win those games when nearly half your side doesn’t have any.

[Uninformed]

Some very good signs when we were on.

Hynes didn't contribute much, but still showed the potential he has.

Dolan keeps impressing.

West could be in career best.

Darcy made Andrews look pretty average. Massive difference in strength for body on body when Darcy matched up on Andrews compared to JOD, even though Darcy looks skinnier.

[jeemak]

We also had 6 guys under 20 games and 9 under 50 playing. Composure to win close games comes with experience. It makes it pretty tough to win those games when nearly half your side doesn’t have any.

100% agreed. Our first half was excellent against a much more credentialed opponent. The second was a nightmare, but as per one of my previous posts, they had ~34% more games experience than us and experience counts.

[jeemak]

Very disappointed in the second half, but we just couldn't sustain it.

• West 16 touches in first half, 8 in second
• Sanders 17 and 5
• Freijah 3 behinds that were gettable goals
• Set shots from a number of players were terrible
• Errors from kick outs that giftered goals
• smashed in stoppage clearances
• 3 first year players
• JJ in too early

The tightening up on Sanders was very noticeable. His hands in close were awesome in the first half.

West while a bit less productive in the second half had a couple of moments where his first touch just wasn't there. Two in particular stood out, running into the fifty in the third where he failed to take the ball above his head and it turned a good surge over, and in the last where a slight fumble made the JF shot slightly more pressured than it needed to be.

He's a good example of not giving up on a player though, especially if they have to rebadge themselves in a different position over time. He's gone from being an inside midfielder to a specialist forward who can help as an inside midfielder - pretty much the hardest gig in the game and he's still getting better. Just needs to concentrate and keep it simple.

[azabob]

Very disappointed in the second half, but we just couldn't sustain it.

• West 16 touches in first half, 8 in second
• Sanders 17 and 5
• Freijah 3 behinds that were gettable goals
• Set shots from a number of players were terrible
• Errors from kick outs that giftered goals
• smashed in stoppage clearances
• 3 first year players
• JJ in too early

Well summarised. You can add.

*Losing Harmes within three minutes
*Darcy critical miss in the 3rd
*Naughton 2nd half non existent

[BontlowSzn]

How good is Kennedy.

He was the one bloke who took it upon himself to do something about the avalanche in the last quarter. Finally a player willing to not accept it and do something about it.

There's a heap of reasons for the 2nd half fade out. Youth, travel the past two weeks, heat, playing against a seasoned team known for big second half's.

The biggest killer was giving up two goals from kick-in errors. Horrific.

If we can beat the Saints we are still in it.

[doggies ftw]

Had to sleep on it because **** that was bad last night, really hurts to lose a game like that when you’re up by 40.

But after sleeping on it there’s a fair few positives here IMO.

Realistically right now we expect to be a finals team, but finals teams don’t have 9 players under 50 games. There is a huge amount of rejigging going on here right now. The offseason from hell has contributed to this but unfortunately that was the hand we were dealt and were making do.

We’re a team of kids up against a super experienced Lions team who has done this to many a good side in recent history, as recently as Geelong 2 weeks ago. Coming off a short break, a lot of travel and a very hot day where everyone was out on their feet, and then losing Harmes early. I’m not really surprised we ran out of legs to be honest. Also in hindsight that wasn’t the game to play an underdone Jj and debut Hynes against the reigning premiers in sapping heat but hey we’re running out of options and they’ll be better for the run.

Weve played 4 out of 5 matches on 30 degree days and outside WCE & Freo we have played in the hottest conditions in the comp, as a very young and inexperienced team, it’d take a lot out of you.

Onto the game there was some really key moments in that 2nd half which contributed to the loss.

- 2 direct turnover goals from kick out to Dale & Bramble, this anyway you look at it, is unacceptable. These are absolute coach killers and both came in key moments, just killed us and should NOT be happening under any circumstances.
- Missed goals to halt momentum - Freijah twice, Darcy set shot, a couple more from memory. These go through and it’s a completely different game and probably a win to be honest. All too familiar though as we’ve seen this before…. Just need to take our chances, to be fair we did also put through a number of goals that we probably shouldn’t have so it evens out but just thought these happened in key moments which could have swung the final result.
- 2 free kicks to Naughty, one clear chopping the arms and then should have been holding the ball in the goal square to put us back in front after we went down in the last. These were so clear and again, important moments to halt momentum or swing it back the other way.

if just a couple of those things went our way the result probably goes our way too. Momentum footy is king in the afl right now, we’re not the only team that gets runs kicked on them, hell we did it to Brissy in the 2nd. It’s just how footy is played. We need to be better at halting that momentum and swinging it back our way but that takes experience and we are NOT experienced right now.

Theres some clear holes in this side, we need class & speed in the forward line which is so crucial in the modern game but our options are non existent, we need help in the backline, I don’t think we have the mix right with Buku as 3rd tall, we need a genuine medium defender who can play small or tall and Buku isn’t that.

But we’ve unearthed some key components of our side in this early season run, Freijah and Sanders becoming key cogs so early in their 2nd years, obviously Darcy, Dolan getting better every week and looks like he’s got so much of what we need but just not there yet, Hynes overawed but will be better for the run just need to keep getting games into him, Davo the winger we’ve been crying for - these 3 have played 11 games between them remember.

It’s frustrating we’re not 3-2, even 4-1 - hell if we had Bont, Cody, Marra, Treloar out there I genuinely think we’d be 5 & zip, but that wasn’t the hand we were dealt this year and we’re just making do.

I really do still think we’re building towards something this season, realistically we’re probably not ready to compete but I think we can go deep if we get rolling.

[Go_Dogs]

I’m on holidays and only caught the first half which was excellent. So, based on what I saw, we’re going to win the flag. Hope those who saw the second half don’t disagree.