The Western Bulldogs have bid a fond farewell to retiring greats Bob Murphy and Matthew Boyd but their focus will quickly turn to a post mortem of their failed premiership defence.
A season dogged by erratic form, injuries to key personnel and breakdowns within their game plan finally ended with a 15.9 (99) to 13.12 (90) loss to Hawthorn on Friday.
Even if they had won the Dogs would have needed a small miracle to make the finals.
“It has been a muddling year for us. At 11-11, we halve the year and that’s not ideal – it’s not what we set our sights on,” coach Luke Beveridge said.
“Games like tonight we would’ve won last year and we haven’t quite been able to cover (injured) key personnel and we probably haven’t, as a group, come on as we would’ve liked.
“It’s an opportunity to take a breath and consider all of the things that have affected the year.
“And stay positive and keep a clear head … really make sure that in the off-season we have a narrow focus on what we need to improve on.”
Murphy and Boyd, who amassed 33 possessions in his final game, were chaired from Etihad Stadium along with retiring Hawthorn great Luke Hodge.
One of Beveridge’s more pressing concerns ahead of next season is finding a replacement for skipper Murphy.
“There’s a significant change sweeping through our club again with the two boys in Boydy and Murph retiring,” Beveridge said.
“I’m not sure what our demographic will be but it is a shift when you get those players finishing up.
“So that’s exciting in that our younger guys need to make sure that they pick up the slack there now and own the leadership side of things.
“There’s no doubt our leadership group is going to change. Two significant contributors and stalwarts are going to go out of it, so we’ll go down the democratic route and form our leadership team in the off-season, but it’s too early to talk about who might be the figureheads.”
A tough decision also looms on the future of Travis Cloke.
The former Collingwood star forward played just 10 games and kicked 11 goals in the first season of a two-year deal with the Dogs.
“Obviously he’s a mature player who’s had a very, very strong career,” Beveridge said.
“But his heart’s got to be in it and we’ll talk to him about that.”
Mark
Guest
I ate pies - Dogs will play finals and Sydney won't. Want ice cream with your humble pie?
anon
Roar Pro
Last year they were horrible in attack. Still are. Umpires cracked down on them throwing the ball. Had a tougher draw this year because of their high seeding.
Aransan
Guest
There have been a few games this year where it seemed that almost every kick to a contest resulted in a mark to the Dogs opposition. The neglect of recruiting and developing key position players is showing.
Mattyb
Guest
PtS,I'm confident we can do some savvy recruiting,Dalrymple has an excellent record at this,like I said above,the fails have more been ex Beveridge players that I think we need to possibly put a halt on unless their actually good. I'd classify Hamling,Biggs and Adams as some really good savvy recruits which hopefully we can pull off again. I'm interested in what you mean by harsh recruiting? Does this mean trading out some players? There has been some talk of this by a couple of posters.
Peter The Scribe
Guest
The demise of the dogs this year almost adds another layer to their epic quest last year to the top of the mountain. I expect them, with savvy and harsh recruiting decisions, to bounce back but if they don't there will be even more mystique added to their 2016 flag. What the hell happened last year? Did Bevo sell his soul to the devil? How on earth did they get that flag? It's quite incredible. Away against West Coast then the all powerful Hawks, then away to GWS in a prelim of rare emotion? The Doggies after all that should have been belted by 80+ by the Swans but they didn't they actually won the thing. Truly amazing modern day footy miracle. Good luck to them.
Mattyb
Guest
Also,no more players that Beveridge used to coach,we need to leave recruiting to the recruiters and Bev should just coach those guys. Surely there's better options out there than Cloke and Sukling.
Mike Huber
Roar Pro
So much for Beveridge being Joda - wise and powerful with mystical energies. The only correlation is in appearance and he lost credibility when he recruited the basket case that is Travis Cloke .
Mattyb
Guest
I think such a young side having a short pre season played a bit of a role,doing a full preseason is important for young sides. Having said that we have a lot of players who are very similar,with Dikson missing most the season we had no one with any nouse around goal. Our forwards are just mids playing forward,Dale seems ok around goal which is good. Redpaths a natural forward but to slow and one dimensional. We actually have a full forward and full back on our list that are totally not suited to the modern game. We're to small but even some of our tall players struggle to hold their marks. Our skill level is shocking,but I'd actually say there are a few other clubs with that problem,so it could be an under pressure in the modern game thing. Not many players had what you'd call a good season. Macrae,McLean,Cordy and that's about it,3 players,maybe Bont but I thought he was far to inconsistent to say good season. B&F will be interesting. One look at some of the players who finish top ten is going to paint a perfect picture of how the season went. Libba and Smith may as well have been injured,they were important players last year but were very poor. Libbas actually one of our best players when in form and this year I was disappointed he kept getting picked. Adams getting injured after Hamling left,and Morris missing a lot of games left our defence vulnerable. We need him back or slow man Collins to come on,or make Roughead a defender again,or recruit a defender. All in all pretty poor premiership defence,but I'd rather a poor premiership defence to no premiership defence though.
Swannies
Guest
Put simply, everything turned to gold for Doggies last year. They weren't meant to win it from 7th with their massive injury toll but defied all the odds. Lightning doesn't strike twice and they used up 10 years of luck last season. It might be Richmond's turn to be the next Melbourne club to end a long premiership drought.
berrlins
Roar Pro
A glaring lack of a plan B would be one point, having the worst forward line in the competition would be another. It was disappointing to watch them slide so far. McLean and Dale have been the only improvers. Bont had an ok year by his standards but didn't improve. Stringer was disappointing. Hopefully they return with new ideas and a new game plan.