After their drought-breaking flag in 2016, the Western Bulldogs missed the finals for two straight years and came dangerously close to making it a third.
They went on a tear in the back half of the 2019 season to clinch a finals berth, entering September as arguably the most exciting team.
While the year ended with a demolition job by the Giants in the second Elimination Final, their finish to the season and the big recruits of Josh Bruce and Alex Keath saw them enter the Premiership discussion again heading into 2020.
Despite just two seasons between finals appearances, the Bulldogs side has changed dramatically, especially for a Premiership team which was recognised as one of the youngest and least experienced in recent memory.
Almost half of the Bulldogs’ 2016 Premiership side (11) has retired or left the club, and only eight players in the 2019 Elimination final were a part of the 2016 grand final.
There was the inevitable retirement of veterans like Matthew Boyd, Dale Morris and Bob Murphy (while Murphy did not play in the grand final, he was influential as anyone to their success).
Liam Picken, Tom Boyd and Clay Smith all retired due to their respective battles with their health.
There was the polarising exits of Jake Stringer, Jordan Roughead and Luke Dahlhaus, while Joel Hamling joined Fremantle after the grand final.
Shane Biggs retired to pursue outside opportunities and Fletcher Roberts was delisted last year.
This is not to overlook the key remaining players from the Premiership and the natural influx of new players, which means list changes are inevitable.
Established players like Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Macrae and Lachie Hunter have continued their high standards; Easton Wood and Jason Johannisen are still crucial to the backline; while players like Josh Dunkley, Caleb Daniel and Toby McLean have continued to progress.
Marcus Bontempelli. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Valuable recruits like Sam Lloyd and Hayden Crozier have joined the club, and the Bulldogs have found gold at the draft with the likes of Aaron Naughton, Bailey Smith, Ed Richards and Tim English.
The large changes to the list are in part a tribute to the nature of that Premiership side.
The Bulldogs’ 2016 Premiership is not only historic for breaking the club’s 62-year long drought, but also because of the way they won it.
They experienced waves of injury to key players throughout the season, but they found a way to come together by the finals with every player playing a role, no matter their status or experience.
This mentality is best represented by the Bulldogs’ key backs during the 2016 Finals.
When Joel Hamling and Fletcher Roberts lined up in the grand final it was only their 23rd and 37th game respectively, and Dale Morris played the entire finals series with a broken back.
Despite this, the Bulldogs backline managed to topple the duo of Josh Kennedy (that year’s Coleman Medallist) and Jack Darling, the trio of Jeremy Cameron, Rory Lobb and Jonathon Patton, and ultimately the spearheads of Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett in the grand final.
But the changes on-field are also accompanied by how the club’s culture has been challenged and changed since the Premiership.
During 2018, coach Luke Beveridge said the flag felt like “a lifetime ago” and questioned whether the unlikely win had done his team or the competition any good.
Football director Chris Grant admitted that sliding after the Premiership had always been possible, particularly because of the young list and loss of experience.
Bob Murphy likened the Bulldogs struggles post flag to an “identity crisis”, with the club questioning who they were now.
In the lead up to the Elimination Final last year there was general acknowledgment that this side was far different than 2016, and even a desire to distinguish it given the similarities (they both finished seventh and faced the Giants in a do or die final up in Sydney).
The Bulldogs have changed dramatically both on and off the field in the fallout of 2016.
While any success in the near future will be compared with or even grouped in with 2016, it is clear that this current Dogs side is a different prospect.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
What's lost in the assessment of player turnover is the majority of players who left were mentally tough and physically uncompromising. Hard nuts Dale Morris, Matthew Boyd, Clay Smith, Liam Picken, Libber (still at the club but hasn't played much), Dahlhaus and even Biggs, were all hard nuts. This is too many of this type to lose and they've been replaced mostly by highly promising kids who are still growing into their bodies (and will be tough in time), or the likes of Schache and Lloyd who aren't tough enough yet. The Giants exploited this in last year's final and disturbingly got away with relentlessly attacking the man off the ball. The addition of Bruce and Keath not only fills gaps in our structure but also goes a long way to correcting the physical imbalance and will help the group grow in self-assuredness. I think our current list is the most exciting I can ever recall and I have absolute faith in the genius of Bevo to snag another flag in the next few years.
Max Hatzoglou
Roar Pro
I have always thought that sustaining success a few years after winning a premiership is a difficult task. it requires good list management to replace the legends of the club that may have retired such as Bob Murphy. In this case, however, it is interesting because the Dogs were a young side when they won the 2016 flag. You would've of thought they'd continue their success for a few years to come. It is interesting. Another thought I'll bring up is the way the Giants went about it in that first final last year. It brings back memories of what turned me away from playing local footy. The dirty actions that players would do on the field such as Toby Greene pulling Bontempali's hair (not gently but terribly hard) like he was in the WWE but in real force and violence. https://twitter.com/MHatzoglou/status/1172028185342402560 Greene should have received a week. It would have been a good example of what the game does not want. Rough, dirty, coward like footy.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
I love these throw away lines about Buckley and Beveridge “blowing up a premiership side” . The idea that one bloke, albeit the head coach could or would do that is ludicrous in my opinion. There are so many factors that go into it, so many I wrote an article on it back in the day. Players get old, injured, bitter about not playing their preferred position and there are a multitude of decision makers involved. Buckley and Bevo didn’t have a licence to do whatever they wanted and the changes to a list over 2-4 years are pretty standard in general. https://www.theroar.com.au/2017/12/01/debunking-myths-around-nathan-buckley-pies-actually-headed/
Naughty's Headband
Roar Rookie
I agree. There was a cultural problem at the club, and rather than just sorting out the issue they salted the earth. They didn’t handle the premiership well at all, and it went to some players heads. Roughead is the perfect example; he was a heart and soul type player but things were so bad he was driven from the club, and geez we’ve needed him. The current team is lacking mental toughness; they don’t want to do the hard stuff. Youth isn’t an excuse; Bailey Smith is the hardest tryer in the club. He was the only one to have a real crack in round one. The rest of them need to be rad the riot act, and poor effort can’t be tolerated. It’s like they’re all waiting for Libba to come back and do it for them.
Gecko
Guest
Good observation Hamish about the personnel changes at the Western Bulldogs. Reminds me of the Pies, who had a mostly young side when they won the flag in 2010, and made massive personnel changes in the next few years. I think the Bulldogs in 2016 took other teams by surprise with their game plan: instead of kicking under pressure, they were always able to handball out to a team mate in space. They also spent big chunks of 2016 with four mobile mids on the ball instead of the normal 3 mobile mids and a ruck. I don't think Beveridge has found any successful new tactics since then. And looking at the Bulldogs' round 1 performance in 2020, they're in for another mediocre year.
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
Sorry about the chunk of text, I wrote this in paragraphs but it just turned out like that when I submitted.
Marty Gleason
Roar Guru
This was a good and surprising article to find in the middle of Covid inactivity, thanks mate! Every Bulldogs fan could write a thesis on this very subject I reckon, and I know we’re supposed to band together and everything, but for a lot of us the quick decline does not reflect too well on Beveridge. When Richmond pulled a flag out of nowhere, Hardwick’s attitude was “As you were, gents” and they kept the same structure and players into 2018 and continued to be a power. They were probably a tad complacent towards the end of 2018 but at least their premiership foundations were still there. Beveridge’s stance immediately post-premiership seemed to be that the players and team still weren’t good enough – when they had clearly proven they were – and had to start from zero all over again. He was praised in 2015-16 for cutting players the second they had one bad match and fostering competition for places, but no less a doyen than Leigh Matthews says in his autobiography that it’s the opposite, players play their best when they know the coach has their back and their place in the team is secure. He was last at the peak in 2004 but surely player psychology hasn’t changed that much. While they got Stringer right (although on an emotional level I miss him), I reckon Dahlhaus, Roughead and even someone like Biggs, retiring age 26, had all had a gutful. The mitigating factors (Smith, Picken, M Boyd etc) you cite are all correct but ultimately it seems that, like Nathan Buckley, Beveridge had a premiership team under his charge and whatever his thought processes decided to blow it up. The team under his vision seems to be all or nothing now. It all came together and they were crazy good for three matches in 2019. But they spent two years of completely going missing for an entire half of each game and in Round 1, 2020 it looked like it was back to that all over again. Like I said I reckon we could fill a book on this subject, having had my rant I was happy Beveridge signed the extension, surely not all of the magic has gone and who knows, one day he might prove me wrong again.
Paul D
Roar Rookie
Western Bulldogs was/is another Wests Tigers 2005 moment. Won a flag, had an amazing season where the stars aligned and everything went right for them. Was not the start of a dynasty, just a moment in time.
Naughty's Headband
Roar Rookie
I still can’t fathom why they let Jordan Roughead go. I get that there was some cultural problems going on at the time, but he was a big loss. The rest that left not so much. The big difference between the premiership team and now is that they were hard to play against all the time that year; now they have periods where the whole team seems to stop trying, except for Jack Macrae (who never gives up).