Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade addresses his players during the AFL Round 07 match between the Western Bulldogs and the Sydney Swans at Manuka Oval, Canberra. Slattery Images
The weekend put the spotlight on a few clubs – not to mention a few coaches – while also taking it off others. Nothing typified this more than Melbourne’s surprising 96-point over Adelaide, which saw a lot of pressure taken off one side’s shoulders and on to another’s.
But it didn’t just stop there. Looking at the other games, there was plenty of bait for the media to bite on.
Western Bulldogs
After seven rounds, the Bulldogs have just two wins. And they were both at home. And they were against the Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions.
This is not the record of a premiership contender.
The latest loss was to Sydney, an understandable enough result on paper (it was played on mutual territory in Canberra and the Swans are always a tough opponent) but unforgivable when you consider, in an effort to put his players on notice, coach Rodney Eade dropped All-Australian Brian Lake for the clash.
After being blitzed by Essendon in Round 1, the Dogs’ other two losses were a competitive effort away to Fremantle and a game against Collingwood in which the reigning premiers were made to look uncomfortable, for the first three quarters anyway. In both cases, the Dogs weren’t good enough – but they weren’t so bad that some instant soul-searching was necessary, either.
There were too many positives. Too many excuses. “We travelled all the way to Perth and were beaten right at the death,” players could say. “We made the reigning premiers panic,” they would be able to suggest.
Hopefully, that can now stop. Surely the 2-4 record – and where those two wins came from – is enough to tell the players that what they’re doing at the moment isn’t enough.
The next two weeks will tell us a lot. Richmond at Etihad and West Coast in Perth await. Hawthorn and Geelong follow, and on the surface they would appear to be the more important games, however more “competitive” performances against mid-range teams simply can’t be tolerated.
The Bulldogs have the next two weeks to show the past three weeks isn’t what they are about.
Geelong had a similar start to this in 2007, giving the odd glimpse into their potential whilst dropping games premiership sides aren’t meant to drop. After a disappointing loss on the road, a game they thought they should have won, the penny dropped. Something “clicked”.
The next week, they chalked up a 157-point win and their ultimately successful charge towards the premiership began. And what fixture did that triple-figures thumping come from?
Richmond at Etihad.
It’s time to find out what kind of side the Dogs really are. More of the same will tell us plenty.
North Melbourne
The Kangaroos’ chances of playing finals in 2011 already appears slim to none. The one thing that had to change this year for finals to happen was their performance against the top teams but, as the weekend’s big loss to Geelong showed, nothing’s changed on that front.
Since Brad Scott took over as coach at the start of last season, the Roos have played last year’s top four – Collingwood, St Kilda, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs – a total of eight times. You can read the game-by-game results here, but the simple overview is this: North have lost every single one of these games and by an average of 69 points.
Losing to Collingwood by 87 points in Round 2, and Geelong by 66 on the weekend, has extended the trend but the real worrying sign is that the results against mid-range teams – what got them so close to September last year – are no longer going their way either.
Hence, North find themselves in 15th place with a 1-5 record.
Luckily for Brad Scott, he can probably afford a year like this. His list is young and a tough year is forgivable for a man two years into the job. However, can North Melbourne as a club afford it?
A few years have passed since the rejection of the AFL’s relocation offer to the Gold Coast and their future is looking only narrowly more secure. Now, to be fair, the club cops a lot of unfair criticism over that decision and what’s happened since.
However, a few more years in the bottom half of the ladder would hardly be ideal in the fight to keep North in Melbourne.
Brisbane Lions
Michael Voss needed his side to beat the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday night. A win-less start to the year did not need a loss to the AFL’s newcomers to compound the club’s woes. Yet it’s happened, and the pressure on Voss will only increase as a result.
We all knew it would be a long year for Lions fans, but to be without a win, and with six losses, would have to worry those in power at the club. So what does Voss need to do to keep his job?
There’s only one option. He must channel his inner Mark Harvey.
First, let’s back up a bit. At the end of 2009, Voss was convinced the Lions were in striking distance of a flag and so went on a trade week recruiting spree.
We all know how that ended up. The Brendan Fevola trade proved to be a disaster. Key players left as a result.
Anyway, now that the dust has settled it’s obvious Voss overestimated where his list was at. It’s obvious, too, the trade week gamble wasn’t the smartest of ideas.
And this is where Harvey comes in. Harvey’s time at Fremantle started off in a very similar fashion to Voss’ time at the Lions – he thought going deep into September was a realistic possibility, he topped up his list accordingly, then it all blew up in his face.
Many thought there was no recovering for Harvey, that there was no way to bounce back from such a disastrous beginning. Craig Hutchison even wrote at the end of 2009: “The hard, cold, brutal truth for Fremantle is that Gold Coast, now, is closer to a premiership than the flailing Dockers.”
But here’s how it all turned around. When it became obvious the gamble for a flag wasn’t going to work out, Harvey stuck his hand up. He admitted he’d got it wrong. He said from that point on, it was all about the youth.
While those words opened him up to criticism, as did the subsequent two years of rebuilding, the fact he didn’t put off making such a statement probably saved his job – and it’s a huge reason behind why Fremantle were able to be the big improvers of 2010 and are right up there again this year.
You might say Voss is already turning to youth, but is it with the same commitment as we saw with Harvey and Fremantle?
Simon Black’s pre-season comments, in which he was confident the club could return to playing finals, suggest that the Lions have not adopted the same sort of all-out rebuilding philosophy that the Dockers had.
Maybe it’s time for Voss to go all-out. It might be just what’s needed to save his job.
St Kilda
The Saints put in a good performance last night. But that wasn’t what they needed. What they needed was a win. Carlton’s thrilling three-point victory means the Saints’ record now reads one win, one draw, four losses.
This is not what we expected from a side that forced a grand final replay last year and lost the previous year’s grand final by just 12 points.
A date with Hawthorn at the MCG awaits this weekend, hardly the kind of fixture Ross Lyon would have wanted now his side are in this position.
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