At the halfway mark of the season Richmond are the biggest disappointment, but the Western Bulldogs can’t be that far behind.
The Tigers were expected to make the eight, many thought the top four, but with three wins and eight losses neither is going to happen.
The Bulldogs were not predicted to reach those lofty heights, but after winning four of their last six in 2013, they were expected to improve and maybe scrape into the eight.
Like Richmond, they also only have three victories, but have suffered three defeats by less than two goals, including last Saturday’s poor effort against the Brisbane Lions.
The Dogs are producing good patches and are competitive, but they are into the third year of this rebuild under Brendan McCartney and if there was genuine improvement and they were on an upward curve, they would have beaten the Lions, Essendon and Adelaide – all games they led for long periods.
Since taking over at the end of the 2011 season, McCartney has maintained his rebuild will take time, but there are signs they will become further worse before getting better.
Many of their better players, such as Robert Murphy, Daniel Giansiracusa and Matthew Boyd, are near the end of their careers and won’t be replaced straight away. Some of their youngsters look promising, such as Jack McCrae and Marcus Bottompelli, but they have too many inside young midfielders and lack outside run, which Brisbane exposed badly on the weekend.
They have always struggled to develop their own key position players and although the club says these players are inexperienced and take time, Jordan Roughead, Liam Jones and Jarad Grant have all played more than 50 games and, with the exception of Roughead, haven’t established themselves.
If you do a list and age profile of the Bulldogs, they are not as young overall as first thought.
In the team that lost to the Lions, six had played more than 150 games, eight over 100, and six between 50 and 100 – so less than half had played under 50. At times last year and in 2012 they had at least half a team or more who had yet to reach the 50-game milestone.
The defeat by Brisbane was the first time in 39 losses from 55 encounters I have seen much emotion from McCartney publicly.
Whether they win or lose, it’s always been about making them better people and helping the coaches. His coaching style has been like secondary school, with the former teacher breaking the game up into different parts.
He has started with contested ball, which they got an A for last year, but only a C this year. Becoming a better defensive unit has been next – a grade ranging between B and D. Then there’s scoring from forward 50 entries, playing with flair and polish and outside run – areas the club is failing in.
There doesn’t appear to be enough time given to these aspects. Like all clubs they have an abundance of assistant coaches and have increased the budget in their football development area, so there should be no excuses why some areas of their game are clearly better than others.
The lack of tall forwards doesn’t help the scoring, but the use of the ball inside their attacking 50 continues to be poor.
At the halfway mark of his coaching tenure, the honeymoon is over for Brendan McCartney and the clock has started ticking.
As he said in his press conference after the Brisbane loss, this is a winning business. The days of honourable losses are over!
mattyb
Guest
Where's the Carlton guy and he's compromised draft replies?
Cat
Roar Guru
All those other clubs have had several periods of success, if the Dogs want more people to care about them they need to give the people something on the field worth caring about. One flag in 88 years just doesn't cut it.
Gecko
Guest
Part of the Bulldogs' problem is that only a handful of people have cared enough to write comments above. If this article had been about Essendon's, Richmond's or Carlton's struggles, there would have been 50 responses by now!
Pumping Dougie
Guest
Great article Dan, I think everything you wrote is spot on, except for the suggestion that we might have been aspiring to Top 8 on the back of last year's finish - I think that comment was delusional. But everything else is true. That said, I'm a big fan of Macca and the way he operates. I fully support him to continue until at least end of 2015. Port Adelaide have been a remarkable exception in the competition and although they offer inspirational hope, I don't think other teams can realistically expect they can achieve the same remarkable turnaround. We have struggled for a few years now but haven't benefited from the draft like other clubs have historically, because of the major concessions given to GWS and Gold Coast. Port bottomed-out before these new teams and reaped players like Wingard, Boak, Hartlett, (and more recently, Olliver Wines). I wish we had of selected Nat Fyfe a few years ago instead of Christian Howard - massive blooper. Macca and his team of coaches will succeed eventually.
Daws
Guest
Finally some common sense...
Paul
Guest
For a 'true' Bulldog supporter Dan doesn't seem to mind sinking the slipper at times.
Darren
Guest
spoken like a true supporter Dan. Bulldogs are pretty where you would expect them to be unless they were a bolter which you were obviously hoping for.
Lewis Stewart
Roar Rookie
They need to draft better key position players and be more active in the trade weeks. A couple of tall timbers at each end would be the go. They just need players that can develop into the types that other teams fear. Bob Murphy said it best on AFL360 when he suggested other teams(Hawks in particular) smell blood against them. Reverse that scenario and the wins will come.
bp2
Guest
Good article Dan. Two years ago Port Adelaide were in a worse position than us with regards to their playing list and results. Yet somehow in that time they have gone to the top of the table and we continue to "rebuild". Surely something has to be wrong. I live in Sydney and am also a Western Sydney Wanderers member in the A League. They created a team from scratch using bit part players from both Australia and around the world and immediately finished top of the league. Before i get shouted down i am not an idiot, i know the games are different, and one is the elite competition in the world and the other can get players from throughout the world, but the premise is the same. Build a system that your players can adapt to and go from there. Not everyone can fit into the Geelong mould where Macca came from. that is what is great about Paul Roos, he understands the capabilities of his players and structures his tactics accordingly. I like to give all coaches a decent amount of time to develop their systems but this is starting to become very frustrating.
Axle an the guru
Guest
Its not made Kevin for clubs like Footsgray to get to the top. The AFL only want those type of clubs so they can make money with TV deals,otherwise they would be gone. The AFL dont want them to save money for a big name player,they want that type to go to NSW or QLD, thats all there is to it. I dont think the AFL have any right to tell the clubs what they have to spend,the club should be allowed to use that money as they see fit weather thats to save for some good players or pay off dept,it should be up to the club,its the way the AFL can control things.
Paul
Guest
Try Marcus Bontempelli. I guess you sort of got close (Marcus Bottompelli), so how about a C for effort. Too many trying to win contested ball, not enough allowed to run and a refusal to go in with a decent structure with talls in the forward line.
Winston
Guest
I don't mind not having a tall forward line. As you said, all his KPPs don't seem any good, so what's the point of playing them? I don't even rate Roughead as I put him in the category of being a tall player who started in forward but can't mark and can't kick, and therefore the best place to put him is as a defender where he doesn't have to mark or kick precisely. Lack of outside pace can also be overcome. They can always use the Swans 2005 plan of locking things down, and when they extract the ball just hack it forward, create another stoppage, repeat. I think it's most disappointing that they're now losing the contested ball. That seemed to be the one thing which they were getting good at and could rely on. If that's gone - plus all those other things which were always deficient - they've got real issues. Clearly with the list they've got they can't switch the game plan to anything else. They can't rely on tall forwards, nor can they make it a free flowing sprinting contest. Their only chance to salvage anything this season, I reckon, is to put their best players on the ball and scrap their way to low scoring contests every week.
TomC
Roar Guru
I feel like I’m shouting into the void a bit, but nonetheless here I go… The Dogs played some pretty good football on Saturday. They were narrowly beaten by a team playing above themselves. They didn’t lead at all after the early stages of the second quarter, so good knows what Dan was watching when he says they ‘led for long periods. Expectations were foolishly high for the Dogs after a solid (not spectacular, solid) finish to last season. Lonergan isn’t breaking new ground when he details how old their senior players are. Right now they’re in a period where the contributions of these players are being scaled down while the youngsters are scaling up. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone that that would lead to a flattening in form, rather than the meteoric improvement that would have been needed for a finals appearance. Cameron Rose wrote an article the other about how lazy it is to death ride the bottom clubs. This is a great example.
Foot
Guest
Kevin - they move to 100% next year. That said, McCantCoach ranks alongside Tim Watson and Peter Rhode as one of the worst match day coaches I have ever seen. Have yet to see him try anything when a player is being tagged out of a match and he's locked into the Geelong 2007/8 gameplay which opposition coaches worked out a long time ago.
Kevin
Guest
Dan fair piece, and I hope that someone at the western oval is reading it... I think the tough pill for the fans the last couple of weeks has been the structure of the side, there seems to be no effort to play a dedicated tall forward line, thus frustration... Macartney has some KPP 's, though not Stephen silvani and tony Lockett by a long stretch, he still has them and should use them there as such, the fans deserve a fighting chance.... Also has anyone considered how wrong it is to force a club to spend 92% of the salary cap ( or whatever it is ) every year.. Most of this list has yet to prove themselves, so why are the dogs forced to pay them 9/10ths of what Hawthorne pay theirs? It makes no sense.. This poor club has no hope of signing a buddy or a Tippett for big money in free agency if they are forced to pay top dollar for duds at other times , how can they accumulate funds??