The Sunday Sun carries a story about Rocket Eade and his optimism for a Bulldog recovery in 2008 - Rocket's Bulldogs a work in progress

There's an interesting quote in a panel in the print edition titled "RODNEY EADE ON WHY THE DOGS TAILED OFF LAST YEAR"

"It was a combination of different reasons. We ran into two red-hot teams in Geelong and Hawthorn, we lost Cross, Griffen, Hahn, Gilbee and West, and lost a fair bit of run. Teams went past us fitness-wise."

Now that's all very nice and while he's right about the combination of reasons for the team's downfall, I think every reason he gave also could have applied to Melbourne last year plus we had the extra disruption of a sacked coach and a caretaker replacement and at least three times the number of games lost due to injuries by crucial players. Reading about Eade's excuses for the Bulldogs and the fact that he's confident they will make the eight in 08 just makes me a little more confident that we will make a very quick recovery next season.

Reading about Eade's excuses for the Bulldogs and the fact that he's confident they will make the eight in 08 just makes me a little more confident that we will make a very quick recovery next season.

Careful there, the Bulldogs might be in serious strife by next season.

So might we, for many of the same reasons. So i'm not keen to make the connection too often.

But you're right, we do look like being in a better position to step up than the Bulldogs. Lots of returns from injury (surely, surely, it can't be that bad again), our retired/traded/delisted players are much more replacable than, say Grant and Darcy, and we have a better balance of player types in our young squad.

Add to that, we all seem to rate the new coaching staff and structure pretty highly. Bailey has a lot more back-up than Daniher did, or Eade does.

And Eade just seems like a bit of a tool, so we have the advantage there.

Interesting discussion. What do you think were the reasons for our failure for the previous three seasons where we were bundled out of the finals with barely a fight?

Sometimes I feel that our club is all to eager to look for excuses as a reason for our failures.

Interesting discussion. What do you think were the reasons for our failure for the previous three seasons where we were bundled out of the finals with barely a fight?

Sometimes I feel that our club is all to eager to look for excuses as a reason for our failures.

COACH!

COACH!

I don't think so. After all, Neale Daniher got us to a Grand Final from a pretty poor position in the Final Eight, which shows he could coach in Finals. The fact is that there are never simple reasons or easily identifiable people responsible for success or failure - and to search for excuses rather than answers is one of the reasons why some teams don't succeed.

I don't think so. After all, Neale Daniher got us to a Grand Final from a pretty poor position in the Final Eight, which shows he could coach in Finals. The fact is that there are never simple reasons or easily identifiable people responsible for success or failure - and to search for excuses rather than answers is one of the reasons why some teams don't succeed.

I think there was a clue in the footy record (last game) as to why we were so bad this year

Disposal efficiency (hitting the target)

Average 78.3% (75% considered poor) rank 14

They didn't give the whole team. Listed are the ones they did and it will surprise some

Colin Sylvia 67.9%

Travis Johnstone 71.8%

Nathan Jones 73.2%

David Neitz 74.4%

Simon Godfrey 75%

Cameron Bruce 76.8

What is really scary about these stats is that their kicking efficiency is worse

I thought our skills had improved upto 2006 but we went backwards this year. We can only hope that our skills can be turned around and that the high level of injury contributed to these woeful stats

I haven't been able to find team stats for Disposal efficiency, if anyone comes accross them they would be interesting to compare previous years with 2007.