Fake news – never heard of a club called Hawthorn – 2008 premiers but missed finals 2009 and 2010 – then made GF 2012, and premiers 2013,14 and 15.
At least get your facts right.

2015 Bulldogs hosted Adelaide at MCG rather than Marvel (then still Etihad) in elimination final so definitely would be at MCG if it were Collingwood.

Maxine is irrelevant

The article you posted was from 2008 and the “view” projected was that of Leigh Matthews the coach of the Lions at the time who was commenting in the lead up to a game against the Swans – he also had a go at the Swans – sound a bit like pre game tactics. I’d be pretty amazed if anyone booing in 2013 was related to something Leigh Matthews said in 2008.

Truejackman that sounds an awful lot like victim blaming as are many of the rationalisations for the booing. If it’s debatable what caused the booing how can you blatantly ignore that Adam Goodes being outspoken about indigenous Australia particularly after being made Australian of the Year seemed to co-relate to an increase in the booing.

No excuses offered Beveridge was asked the question and answered how 99% of people not vision impaired saw it too….

Please name the Teams which get 15+ games in their home city – not too many in reality is it? Without checking Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and maybe Carlton

Agree re two comps Home and Away and finals -but has been the case for a long time. Don’t they get the McClelland trophy already for finishing top. Also in other leagues the top team is the top team as they all play each other twice home and away – would have been interesting to see how Tigers went if played 17 away games. Their form coming into finals was a bit soft and beat Hawks who were not a typical top four team could just as easily have finished 9th but helped a lot by their draw so not hugely surprised by loss to Pies

Don’t disagree about Hurn but even if it was the wrong decision it only has the impact of evening up playing numbers – especially if limited to how long the player injured was off the ground for. Other levels of Australian rules football have the send off rule why is the AFL such a special case.

Great article Ryan – not saying some minor changes would not benefit the game like getting rid of ruck nominations both to minimise packs and avoid ridiculous frees like the Dangerfield one on weekend – but agree the media is generally destroying the experience rather than adding to it and exaggerates the issues in the game to generate headlines. Seems like there are more so called journos than there are players these days, guess they have to write about something.

Was n’t the bulldogs winning the 2016 flag an Icelandic moment – certainly 4 Icelandic finals games at least?

Fake news

Must have been a special on the bitter pills this week Kane….

Overdose on those bitter pills Hyena? Bulldogs are not the same team as in 2016 and anyone who can read a team list or watch the football with their eyes open can see that. They cannot sustain the manic pressure they did in the 2016 finals when they did perform as a quality team as opposed to relying on a few stars. They are struggling now because apart from Zaine Corey, Toby McClean and maybe Jack McCrae their other young premiership players have either gone backwards or not improved and they are missing some older heads on the field and around the club (one of whom helped plot their downfall last night). Some of their kids look okay for the future in Naughton, Richards, English, Williams, Smith if he stays fit and Lipinski but they are inconsistent at this stage. Dogs need to treat this as a development year for their younger players certainly do not look good enough to challenge for the eight. Must make you choke on your brekky cereal everyday that the record books show them as premiers in 2016 ……forever.

Please get facts straight – Footscray did indeed win the VFL in 2016 but Western Bulldogs actually won the AFL premiership in 2016 – and played “away” every week of the finals including 2 interstate and beating Hawthorn at Hawthorn’s home of the MCG. Swans played at the MCG as much as the Bulldogs in home and away season in 2016 and in both 2015 and 2016 Bulldogs beat Swans in Sydney. MCG is not Bulldogs homeground. Facts. If good enough will win anywhere.

Actually I think it was originally several years ago Fevola said they were too pointy and then following year Akermanis said they were fat and slippery – Sherrin even talked about breaking them in for games -would have been while Aker was playing at Bulldogs so 2009/10 maybe

Let’s see 60’s was the VFL, 70’s was the VFL, 80’s was mostly VFL or are you including then WAFL and SANFL too? WAFL always seemed to be more fast paced and maybe higher scoring, then SANFL and then VFL but which was the best to watch? Of course the VFL pinched the best players. But in that era the best games were often the state of origin games not the home and away games. 90’s saw the start of the introduction of more athletes as opposed to natural footballers and more defensive football and some flooding which was going to ruin football, early 2000’s was the start of the mega flood and even more defensive football which was complained about as going to ruin football (see 2 Swans/West Coast grand finals) and you’ve obviously not enjoyed much of the footy since.
Oh and the dead wood – let’s see North are doing alright, Footscray play in the VFL and were 2016 premiers but if you meant the Western Bulldogs they were premiers less than 2 years ago – which unless you are Richmond supporter is more recently than your team, the Saints were unlucky not to grab a couple of flags in the last decade or so and GCS were not set up to succeed by the AFL in the first place – Paul D ‘s recent article is very inciteful about that.
There have always been low scoring games – some due to the poor weather or ground conditions but also defensive tactics- even in the 70’s and 80’s.
Personally I’ve enjoyed footy right throughout especially watching the changing tactics when you go and watch a game from high up behind the goals it’s sometimes like a game of chess, wizards chess anyway, the pressure of the players just forcing the ball to move in their forward direction, the protective zone which forces a team back under siege in their defensive 50, watching a team try to pick its way through a mega flood.
Is it as great a spectacle – on TV maybe not in terms of the numbers of high marks and goals scored but the goals can still be spectacular, the marks too and the spectacle of the speed at which players collide with each other is greater than its ever been
Has it changed – absolutely yes. For better or worse – that’s in the eye of the beholder and probably how well your team is doing at the time.

Please try to understand context – the original poster Ben suggested maybe they should pay the same fines as the men my comment was related to that – I do not believe they should be paid the same as men yet nor do I believe that pay levels should be based on gender

Read what the AFL have said – the whole basis for their decision was that the penalty in the men’s comp for these offences would have been fines otherwise there was no issue.
You may disagree that the original finding should have been like Dangerfields but it was not and so it is irrelevant to this decision…..understand?

If she was in the men’s comp for those tackles she would have been fined not suspended and that is the whole point of the argument what is it you cannot understand.

Maybe if they got paid the same they would n’t mind paying the same fines

Josh one of the very few level headed and real reviews of where the doggies are at – no way they could keep up their 2016 performance with the loss of mature players and significant injuries to key players for the third year in a row until some of their future potential stars mature and develop. I believe they will turn the season around once they grind out a couple of wins – may be not to the extent of the finals but the reverse of last year where they might win a few more on the run home. The conspiracy theories are fun to read though.

Premature coach ejaculation……love is all you need….but I guess you are banking that as even a stopped clock is right once (24 hour clock) or twice a day you might if you say it long enough be right eventually.
So far the coach has In 3 years, got them to finals, won a premiership and then had an off year where they still finished 10th just a game and percentage out of the 8…if it was round 23 and they’d lost their last 22 games then maybe there might be reason to look at the coach….I think the actual talent on the list and the potential talent on the list have been confused and so has the expectation of what is possible after the premiership….they are still developing and in the normal scheme of things would be expected to be challenging in the next 2 to 3 years …..which they will.

Getting to the finals as the best finishing 7th place team then having the best final series pretty well ever – the premiership may have happened before their time but it was no fluke. ….and they will forever be 2016 premiers no one can take that away even if there are some who try to demean it….go suck on some lemons.
The current team is not the premiership team just compare the list at least 11 missing this week in less than 2 years – they are a very young side and then throw in injuries which were always going to catch up with them as it looks they have this year and to some extent last year too. They just need to tough out one or two wins and things will turn around quite quickly.

Ryan whilst disappointed at the extent of the capitulation it was no surprise the doggies got beaten by GWS who need to get some credit for how they played. If they maintain their team focus they could be almost unbeatable with the talent they have available.
Criticism of how Beveridge is coaching – he actually coached the same way in 2016 – seemed to work ok then he also played Wood at the same end of the ground the whole game – the end the wind was blowing to – I agree he looks better in defence but I think given how the ball is delivered into the forward line so would most of the forwards too.
Team selection did appear strange until you consider Caleb Daniel did not play in last JLT nor VFL as recovering from injury, Mitch Wallis also recovering and missed JLT games, Tom Boyd the same, Dickson had interrupted pre season and JLT form not great, Lin Jong coming back from a knee reconstruction and JLT form only ok, and no one else really knocking the door down. Crozier was recruited to play on backline so would have been odd not to select him given his JLT form was ok, same with Williams in the JLT and at times last year who is a young developing player. However they are missing their 3 most experienced backs Morris, (2 retired in Murphy and Boyd), and their 1st choice full back in Adams.
Throw in that going one player taller was a gamble which backfired badly when Libba went down early and it really is no surprise they were beaten badly – but the apparent lack of fight is the most worrying aspect …if its real….time will tell it is after all only one game.