Season 2019 - Western Bulldogs

TBH would be surprised if he played another game.
Hasn’t trained properly for maybe a year, let alone played a game. And he’s 32.

I’m a fan.
People called him a hack, early on.
Not quite that St Kilda guy, but not far off.

Agree Tom Boyd was best on ground and helped them win the flag on grand final day.

If Schache and Boyd can reach their potential.
then with their midfield Dogs could be a decent team.
Sadly at this stage that is just a pipe dream and their forwardline is dysfunctional.
And they have lost their most talented mid/forwards in Stringer and Dalhaus.

JJ is a lot more flaky, dogs have lost a bit of hardness from their defenders when Boyd retired.
If Libba gets up and running, midfield is decent, but I think they still lack some talent with the forwards, and are looking to play surplus mids there.

The Cloke acquisition was dumb, as it changed their game style, and they have lost how they used to play when they were good, and essentially started again and the new blokes since the premiership didnt get the same system.

Is their manic pressure game sustainable for a whole season?
Has the game changed now to forward pressure?

Dogs top 10 from the grand final
Johannisen - Flaky
Macrae - Accumulator
Picken - hasnt been same since head knocks, 15-16 seasons were career best
Dalhaus - Traded
Bontempelli - Gun played too much in forwardline to cover cracks
Tom Boyd - Has gone backwards struggled mentally offield
Liberatore - done AcL will he eve be as good,
Smith - Retired
Roughead Traded/Delisted?
McLean - Accumulator

Of the Premiership side
Traded
Dalhaus
Stringer
Roughead
Hamling

Retired
M Boyd
Biggs
Picken (sorry thought he was due to head knocks?still on footywire list didnt play at all in 2018)

Not a hack, but he looked the roliest role player that ever roled, under Eade and McCartney. I’d be shocked if anyone really predicted the heights he eventually got to.

Not sure I get that.
Peverill, Hocking, Lonergan, Howlett…
I have a whole lot of time for that sort of player.

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So do I.

I’d still call all of them role players.

Peverill, Hocking, Lonergan and Howlett weren’t role players.

That was the core of our playing group for long periods.

We were just rubbish is all.

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I loved Peverill
Taggers generally get lots of love from their supporters, usually due to their physical nature and desire to inflict pain for their teasm benefit
Denham v Greg Williams
Pevrill v Buckley
Welsh v Judd
Hocking vs Judd

Then you have your Pickens, Kane Kornes, Cameron Lings etc
But it is exciting when they are getting lots of possessions and scoring goals with a more attacking game.

Friends and family have been imploring him to do that for the last 12 months.

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I think that applies to the Dogs but I doubt it applies to all teams.

I still have a lot of disappointment from the fact we could only get 2 flags from 1993 -2003.

We should have won more and I suspect Doggies supporters will have their regrets in time also.

Arguably BOG in the GF.

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There’s a semantic argument there that we could all waste lots of time and posts on.

They’re what I would classify as role players - guys who are good at doing one thing (be that tagging or winning the hard ball), and not all that good at very much else.

It’s not intended to be perjorative. Every side has them, because those roles always have value.

Anyway, back to the point, that was Picken for a long long while. Then beveridge threw him forward, and he was really much better than that for a little while.

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Bulldogs = irrelevant - fluke flag - irrelevant again

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It’s very sad. Picken was the ultimate money-ball player. Undervalued by almost everyone but he never cared about that when he played. It’s certainly the best decision for his health

Wow.
Do not agree.

He was always a far better mid than a defensive forward for mine.
And any of those Essendon players thrown into a better team would have been rated higher, too.

Throwing him forward was a luxury they could afford when the rest of the team stepped up, but that doesn’t diminish that he was already at that level when the rest of team wasn’t.

Hasn’t been able to compete in contact drills, prone to headaches during training, dizzy etc.

Fairly sure I read recently that he was going to join full training, see how that went and evaluate from there. Perhaps that has now happened.

I’d be shocked if he didn’t retire before the season, tbh.

No, we do not agree.

Played 125 games as a mid without garnering a single BL vote.
Then moved forward and started getting (some) votes. Not that that’s everything, but it’s A thing.

He did play in some good sides - particularly good midfields - under Eade.
McCartney, not so much.

Anyway, he ended up a much better player than many foresaw.
He can be proud of his career. 198 games, a flag, and should’ve had a Norm.

He was good when they were ■■■■.

I personally would have had Dale Morris with the Norm.

Often gets left out of the conversation .

Plot twist - Wimm & Hap are the same person, struggling for attention in this insipid, cold, desolate online world.

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