And with that, coach Rodney Eade’s chances of a new contract will also be lost.
Making the top eight would still be a realistic possibility, of course. But president David Smorgon set the bar high when he said the “pass mark” for Season 2011 was a grand final appearance. While falling a touch short of that might’ve been forgivable, a major drop off won’t be.
Action will need to be taken and sacking Eade would appear to be necessary. If the losses continue to mount it might happen sooner than we all think.
But let’s back up for a second and take a look at where the team’s at.
The Dogs have three wins and five losses. The wins came against Gold Coast, Brisbane and Richmond. They were all at Etihad Stadium. Many of the losses, however, were competitive efforts against good teams – Collingwood, Fremantle in Perth, Sydney in Canberra.
The sort of losses that, while disappointing, are a little forgivable. A little more “acceptable” than, say, a 123-point loss.
Two weeks ago I wrote that the Sydney game should serve as a wake-up call for the playing group. I was wrong to suggest that. The loss to the Swans mirrored the losses to the Pies and Dockers beforehand – the result was too close, there were too many excuses to hide behind.
Now, at least, there is nowhere to hide. There’s no way of explaining away the kind of loss West Coast inflicted last weekend.
“The players are aware they have let you, the club, themselves and the jumper down,” Smorgon wrote on the club website this week, taking the extraordinary step of apologising to fans.
The media have got stuck in, too. For once it wasn’t St Kilda copping it from every analyst on Monday night’s TV shows. Instead it was the boys at the Kennel.
To be fair, to an extent you can understand why the club might be struggling to live up to its potential. One of the reasons why I have so much time for the Dogs is that they have the All-Australian full back (Brian Lake), plus another All-Australian at full forward (Barry Hall).
Something clearly isn’t right with Lake this year, given the time he’s spending in the VFL, and it appears only partially injury-related. Hall, meanwhile, has been out the past few weeks.
Without the presence of two players so critical to the team’s structure, you can forgive some kind of negative impact. Take two All-Australians out of any team and there’s going to be an issue.
But the problems are bigger than the absence of Lake and Hall.
Consistency within the playing group is a huge issue. Some players can dominate one week and look terribly below-par the next. Lindsay Gilbee kicked six goals against the Tigers two weeks ago. Against the Eagles his possession tally only just matched his goal tally from a week earlier, leading to him being dropped this week.
The young crop of players supposed to be driving this side’s improvement either haven’t stepped up or are only stepping up in patches. Tom Liberatore is obviously an exception.
So we’re back to where we were two weeks ago. Waiting for the Dogs to show some fight.
Only this time, the stakes are definitely higher.
Lose, and the Rodney Eade era at the Western Bulldogs may be remarkably close to an end.
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Jason Akermanis unloading on his former club: http://video.heraldsun.com.au/1952726375/Live-Mike-plus-Aker
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Fair enough, if you believe Rodney Eade is the man for the next cycle then that's ok. Personally I think this playing group should've made it to at least one grand final. It's not the type of group you look at and say "well they've overachieved", anyway. At least Malthouse made it to two GFs in his first cycle (and were beaten by a powerhouse team on both occasions). At any rate, it's probably time to stop talking like this weekend has already happened yet. You never know, things can change pretty quickly in football.
kick to kick
Guest
All this is a matter of philosophy and judgement. Win or lose this week ( and I think they'll be well beaten) the Bulldogs have seen the premiership window close on them for this cycle. I'd argue it closed in round 20 last year when Geelong beat them by 101 points. This week is only likley to confirm that suspicion. The question is the long term and do they stick with Eade in working towards a new cycle or do they find a new coach? Who? Where? By most measures Eade has been very successful leader at the Dogs. AFL is too unpredicatble and luck influenced a game to evaluate coaching ability solely by winning a premiership. The team's consistent top four appearance is a much better test. So you'd want to be very sure you were going to get an improvement with a new coach The interesting thing about the Malthouse reign at Collingwood - now in its 12th year, is that he was given 2 cycles. When he got the gig in 2000 the Pies were bottom. Within 4 years he'd delivered them 2 grand finals - but like Eade, not the flag . Then 2 years after that in 2005 the Pies were back in the dumps - second bottom . Yet the club showed patience and another cycle began, culminating five years later in complete dominance over the competition.
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Interesting thing about Smorgon's comments, just as an aside, is that last year he said a very similar thing. Instead of the "pass mark" being a GF appearance, it was the "internal expectation" that they would make the GF. Interesting that the media aren't making much of a deal out of this, as failure two years in a row would seem to be a bigger story than failure in just one.
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Kick to kick, appreciate the comment. I will say this, though: I don't usually buy into the annual media witch-hunt as far as coaches go. If you go through my history you'll find I generally leave that to the more sensationalist-prone journalists, largely for the reasons you point out (Bomber needed time at Geelong, Malthouse at Collingwood, etc). So this isn't about seeing a coach in a vulnerable position and kicking him while he's down. Two weeks ago, when the media was mostly silent on the Dogs, I wrote very similar things. At any rate, I actually hope the Dogs do turn it around this week against the Hawks. What I'm saying is, if they can't respond after that performance against West Coast they are never going to respond. And once you get to that point, certain things need to change. Rocket is in his fourth year coaching the team as 'contenders' so to speak - Bomber's Cats and Mick's Pies both won their premierships in that fourth year, as did another recent perennial underachiever (Mark Williams' Port in '04). How much longer can you give him?
Bayman
Guest
It was interesting to see Eade being interviewed on the Footy Show last night. There seemed to be an awful lot of shoulder shrugging of the type often seen when someone is being deferential. There was no hard attitude or aggression. It was as if Eade was agreeing with the interviewer that, yes, the Dogs were awful, yes, the Dogs are in trouble, yes, so is the coach! The body language seemed to be of a person who knew the brown gear was hitting the rotating device and he was standing a bit too close. It will be very interesting to see how the Dogs get themselves out of their current predicament. As has already been suggested, they are missing some key ingredients to their team. They have, until last week, been reasonably competitive but they are a long way from a grand final. Smorgon's comments, while setting the tone, have perhaps not been very helpful. After all, if this team was really good enough they would have done it by now. They haven't....and they're not (good enough, that is).
Ian Whitchurch
Guest
Kick to kick, Could be worse, like the bulls--t in league where Souths fans know Sandow is playing for Parramatta next year.
kick to kick
Guest
There's far too much mid season clamour about giving coaches the bullet in AFL commentary. Already this year Eade , Bailey, Voss and Ross Lyons have been designated for the knacker's yard. Eade and Lyons in particular are proven coaches. And if the Malthouse/Colingwood story shows anything its that there are real dividends in persistence. Collingwood challenged for a flag in two grand finals against Brisbane, fell away for a couple of years then rebuilt and recalibrated its game plan. The same return for perserverance had already been displayed by Geelong and Bomber Thompson. Eade is also being harshly judged because pundits (including the club president) at the beginning of the 2011 season vastly overrated the Dogs as grand final prospects. Most forgot that the team limped into last year's final series, by far the weakest of the top four . They won a single playoff, an elimination final by less than a goal against Sydney. Since then they have effectively lost the services of All Australian defender Lake ,their major goal kicker Hall, Brownlow medalist Cooney, and creative playmakers Harbrow and Higgins. Eade's message and demeanour may be wearing thin for the playing group, but his options are very limited. His team's future would profit more from re-assessment and reform than revolution.
Chris
Guest
Doesn't say much for their list management if someone aged 34 (Barry Hall) is so critical to their performance.