I’m timid about what the first month of football lies ahead for my Western Bulldogs. Given that everything that could go wrong DID go wrong two months ago against Collingwood, I’m just keeping my hopes up that it was just a one-time aberration, as opposed to a sign of things to come. But I don’t feel exactly assured about it all.
Over the course of the lockdown, I have been wondering how and why the Dogs were so poor on that Friday night against the Pies. I had this exact conversation with a good friend of mine who was a diehard Pies supporter the other day. I know the Pies were the better team on the night and they were on song. But the Dogs are not a team that can be considered 50-odd points worse off than them.
The most reasonable explanation I could’ve thought of was that Luke Beveridge told them pre-game not to worry too much about the result, or the game in general because like most people, he was concerned about the possible ramifications of COVID-19 and anticipated the fact that there may not be football in the foreseeable future. But that’s just me talking with my tin-foil hat - take that with a grain of salt, or you can condemn me to the looney bin.
Before I forge onto to what the first month holds for the Dogs, I will say this about Lachie Hunter. As someone who entered 2020 as the Vice-captain, it was undoubtedly a very stupid thing to do. I can understand that it might’ve been a hard time for him - but it’s no excuse to go out and make a complete tit of himself and cause damage to property and himself. A four-week suspension in my opinion doesn’t feel like it’s a long enough suspension, maybe an extra two or three for good measure for someone who was supposed to be a leader, but what’s done is done and I hope he has learned his lesson.
Yeah, I know I was late to the party on that matter. But I like to think having uni work in the way is a decent enough excuse, so can it and let’s talk about this first week, shall we?
The Dogs restart the season against the Saints on a Sunday night. St. Kilda remind me of that one spoiled child in your neighborhood who got themselves that high-priced drone or RC car at Christmas time and he/she had no idea what to do with it and the poor toy ends up either in the wall or in the lake of your local park and breaks it forevermore.
The Saints brought in all these recruits over the off-season - decent players too mind you, signed a decent coach in Brett Ratten to a full-time coaching job, unveiled the boy wonder Max King to a reasonable debut and come round one this year, they were still the same mediocre St. Kilda team we’ve come to know across the past five years. They looked a million dollars in the first half against North Melbourne, holding a 31-point lead in third quarter before ending up going down by two points.
North aren’t world-beaters, but the Saints have got to beat teams like them to be considered something other than also-rans. So I expect them to be up and about for this one. They'll also have in mind the last time they played the Dogs, and it was Brett Ratten's first game in charge. I too, also have that game in the back of my mind. If the Dogs bring the same level of intensity they brought against Collingwood and it'll be another drubbing we as supporters have to endure against the Saints.
I knew an early meeting against our favourite enemies the Giants was going to be on the card. Such a shame no one is going to be able to go to Marvel Stadium to boo and heckle the numerous Giants players that thought it was a wonderful idea to go and rough up the Bont. I know the term ‘Line in the Sand’ gets thrown a fraction currently, but for the Bulldogs, this is it. They cannot be allowed to be bullied in the same fashion that they did in that Elimination Final last year. It’s time to take a stand.
Since the 2016 Preliminary Final, the Giants have won all but one game, and most of them have been convincing. Granted, they’ve got the talent to be a top-four team and if round one showed anything, they’ll be thereabouts again, but the Dogs have at least got to be fighting and if they go down, I hope they go down swinging and not the kind of whimpering mess they were in September last year.
The only game they must travel in this block is to Sydney to take on the Swans and that’s in round three. The Swans are not as bad a team as their bottom four finish last year suggests, they are a transitioning team that has a lot of young, promising talent coming through the ranks. Callum Mills, Nick Blakey, Ollie Florent, Dylan Stephens, Jordan Dawson, James Rowbottom, Will Hayward and Tom McCartin are all players I really like and I think they’ll propel Sydney to the next premiership tilt.
But, this is another game that the Dogs have to win. The Swans, as talented and as promising as they are, are still perhaps another off-season or two from being genuine contenders again, and the Dogs’ recent record at the SCG isn’t as bad as you might think. Take away that abhorrent game in 2017, and the Dogs have won their past two games there. There should be confidence getting four points there.
Lastly, there's a showdown with North Melbourne. I have remained diligent that there has been a healthy rivalry with the Kangaroos. Since 2015, there have been more games than not where results have been decided by two goals or less, these two have produced many an entertaining game, and I suspect this one will be no different.
As I’ve said earlier, North aren’t exactly world-beaters of the league, but they’ll be fancying themselves not just against the Bulldogs, but they’ll fancy themselves as a top-eight team. They did beat the Bulldogs by five goals when they last met in 2019. They also showed that when Rhyce Shaw was in charge last year that they are a capable team. Their weakness will be in their younger players and whether they can produce on a more consistent basis.
It’s a decent first month and at least three games are very winnable if the Bulldogs can bring their best brand of football. But it’s a very big if, they can’t just expect the game to be handed to them, they need their big guns to get in and under, which was something they failed to do against Collingwood in round one. Three wins is very attainable, and four is certainly capable if they can bring the fight to the Giants.
Right now, I’m a cocktail of excitement and anxiousness. Excitement, because I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of response the Bulldogs will give after all that has happened within the past two months. Anxiousness, because as a long-time Bulldogs supporter, I’ve learned to never rest on your laurels. This list is capable of good things, but it is also liable to do the opposite at the snap of your fingers. It happened with the team that Rodney Eade had in the mid-2000s and ditto with Terry Wallace at an earlier age.
Bring it on.