Gawndy the Great

I’m changing my mind every 5 mins with reload or rebuild. Premise being reload what? a super soaker?

Seriously pull the plug. We are on life support. Have some pride for the jumper and respect for each other.

Coming off a 5 day interestate game. Ripe for the picking.

I suspect #FreekickBulldogs will be in full tonight. 28-11. 4 goals from frees to Naughton and JUH; 2 from 50's with a real distance of 135m. 4 throwing free against Oliver; 0 against Libba. :D

Doggies off a 5-day break, they are 5 from last 6, ahead of themselves after knocking Sydney, 1.28 odds. Well beat them just because it’s going to be the anti favourite round

Waterman and Houston would be huge acquisitions IMO. The right ones too. Doesn’t completely solve the midfield issue or address the Ruck dilemma, however it will allow Petty to swing back as TMac likely to retire and put Rivers permanently into the midfield.

I’m not. Both have been below their best by a fair way.

It is what i think every pre-season - so am sure its not that bad. I thought it would have been harder to keep the weight off without the exercise. Those with Mediterranean upbringings will know what i mean. Mum and Nonna would have been having daily bake-offs to ensure whatever Trac had lost weight wise would be put back on with a bit extra.

But we reverted back after the bye. So it tells me that we are in no man’s land. Players are confused, frustrated and without clear direction. The issues are deeper than most people care to admit. Our game plan is outdated. contest and defence has been superseded by fast ball movement from defensive half. We don’t have the ability to defend that nor do we have the ability to implement that. Houston will make us better if we continue down the new direction. But we still need a good ball user in the forward half too to complete the play. EG Lions rebound a lot through Zorko - why he isn’t getting tagged is beyond me - and a lot of their f50 connection comes from there midfielders in mcclugage and Neale.

[censored] - thread titles like these make my heart stop. Can we add a bit more context to the thread title to help poor souls like me :D

Perhaps. I dont see it that way. Goody tried to make adjustments to the gameplan to improve our turnover scoring issue. I think its safe to say it didn't work and we reverted back to our forward half pressure game, which also was inconsistent. Consequently we lost our ability to defend ball movement and have had the worst defensive record in the last 5 years. We are a bit lost from a DNA / gameplan perspective. These things need time / pre-seasons to sort out and hence why im a bit concerned for '25. Is it impossible, no its not - but it needs a lot of investment from the team and potentially some trades. The other aspect is our list management strategy, do we load up and trade again (ala Geelong and Sydney style) or do we take a slightly more conservative approach and plan for longer term success.

That’s great!

I fail to see how this relates to the current discussion. My response was that a fit Oliver isnt the difference between us being a contender vs not. Oliver has largely been irrelevant for almost 2 seasons now. He is not the reason why our DNA is unrecognisable in '24. Goodwin himself has said on numerous occasions that we have been uncompetitive.

Last night we had the 2023 #1 playing in Cadman as a KPF. I think i heard his name called maybe 2-3 times. He did nothing, but he is young and still getting used to the pace of AFL. Jeffo is at almost 2 years in the VFL and needs to be exposed to AFL footy to see what can learn over next pre-season. We are out of the finals, so we have nothing to lose now. I'd like GOody to start experimenting with 2025 structure. This includes Petty back to Defence so that JVR, Turner and Jeffo can all play in the forward line. What do we do with TMac? if he's not playing next year, give him a farewell game and he can ride the season out on the pine.

Absolutely no way. We are deplorable. If you think Oliver is the difference, then i don't know what to say to you. You just have to look at the games where we lost convincingly: Lions (MCG game) Freo x 2 WCE (In Perth) Pies We were outclassed from the first bounce onwards. Never had a sniff. Looked miles and miles off it. Then you have Blues (missing for ~3 quarters); GWS (missing for 2 quarters); Lions (Gabba Missing for 2 quarters); We have 2 modes of losses: "no where near it" (1st group) and "cue in the rack" 2nd group. 1. We are bottom 4 in defending ball movement; 2. We have lost our ability to defend turnovers from back half 3. We are no longer a Contested Footy powerhouse 4. We are no longer a clearance powerhouse. What was our DNA again? "Contest and Defence". When your DNA is failing, all i know is you are in a bit of trouble (figuratively speaking).

Sydney will not win it this year. Blues will not win it either. The AFL will do by right by the Lions and make sure they get it done this given last years robbery. it is an even comp, but there is not one team that strikes the fear in an opposition. Arguably Sydney, but there forward line is average at best and in a finals campaign, you cannot win it without a-graders all over the park. Its really annoying because anyone of our sides from the last 2 years would have been neck deep in it.

I’m worried for 2025 and beyond.

I agree re: Turner. He has real good athletiscm. Just looks like a solid powerful mover and jumps hard at packs. Hopefully he can further develop his forward craft and become a good 2nd tall for the Dees.

Reasons why we lost: 1. Switched off after quarter time thinking the game was wrapped up. Took us another 2Q to wrestle back some involvement 2. Outworked around the contest again. GWS dominated the stoppage >> post stoppage. Its a real concern now for Goody as this was a repeat of last week 3. Umpires did actually cost us 2-3 goals from dodgy frees or non-frees in our d50. 4. Our ball movement is terrible. Made more terrible by lack of movement ahead of the ball. Again real concerning here - too many passengers. Reasons for these reasons: 1. Players lack the hunger and drive -> has Goody really lost htem 2. On Field leadership is failing to inspire a kick into gear 3. Senior players are failing to impose themselves. Lots and lots to work on in the off season and some big list decisions. Its going to take a lot to rebound next year. Its not just getting a pre-season into Melksham, Oliver, Trac and Petty. Its what do we do with our bottom 6 - they are just simply not afl material.

This will be our 3rd umpire affected loss this year.

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Beating us is hardly an accomplishment anymore. Wouldn’t read too much into last weeks result.

Almost?