The Western Bulldogs’ middling “brand” was exposed on Thursday night against Adelaide, with multiple greats left doubting their ability to compete “at the pointy end”.
The Dogs were demolished to the tune of 57 points by the rampant Crows, who booted nine first-quarter goals and didn’t look back in the one-way affair.
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Glaringly, Luke Beveridge’s side conceded 51 points from clearance, representing their fourth-worst return over the past five years.
The Dogs failed to punish under the roof, registering seven fewer scoring shots than the visitors despite generating three more forward-50 entries.
It’s left experts questioning their overall profile, as well as a lack of depth around the ground when their best aren’t at their best.
“We spoke about ‘brand’ (pre-game), because they don’t rank high in a lot of areas, and they’re showing exactly that,” Hawthorn legend Jason Dunstall said post-game on Fox Footy.
“If they don’t have all their really good players playing particularly well – and that wasn’t the case tonight – then they’re going to be found out against the good teams, and that’s what we saw tonight.”
Dual All-Australian Leigh Montagna added: “They’re around the mark, but what I think we saw tonight was that they’re probably not right at the pointy end – they’re not in that conversation to be a top-four team.
“Maybe top-six at best, but when they are so reliant on their midfield, it’s not just for clearance and field position, it’s also to impact the scoreboard.”
Two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King, meanwhile, gave a blunt assessment of where the Dogs sit in the pecking order as we edge closer to the business end of the year.
“They’re not a contender,” he said on Fox Footy. “They’re just not.
“You look behind the ball, there are holes. The good teams are going to really capitalise on some of those guys that are just off.
“They’re not massive gaps, and they’re still competent AFL players, but you put a Thilthorpe down there – all of a sudden, they make Buku (Khamis) and (James) O’Donnell look really small.
“When the ball was coming at speed, they couldn’t handle it, really … so you have to make changes to your perfect mix.
“And unless it happens with Bontempelli, Richards, maybe Freijah, they’re in trouble. If they don’t get going in the middle, there’s not a lot to fall back on there, either.”
Despite entering the round in sixth spot on the ladder, a few areas of the Dogs’ game were sticking out for the wrong reasons.
They rank outside the top 10 in the competition for most pertinent offensive metrics, including points from turnover (14th), time in their forward half (13th), and chain-to-score rate (13th), while their post-clearance ranking of 14th suggests there are structural improvements to be made.
Dawson dominates Dogs in 1st half | 02:09
“The scoreline.”
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge was direct when asked what most disappointed him about his side’s costly poor start against Adelaide.
The Bulldogs were punished by the Jordan Dawson-inspired Crows, conceding nine goals to two in a rampant first stanza.
Beveridge delivered a two-word response to the first question of his post-match press conference before diving into specifics on the follow-up.
“You build yourselves up for the contest every week and the intensity that’s required in the game,” Beveridge said.
“They definitely trumped us in those stakes; that’s the most disappointing thing.
“Each week you go into a game, you don’t necessarily talk about it with your players, but one team may be more vulnerable than the other.
“Maybe it was us because we beat them last time in Adelaide, maybe they steel themselves for retribution and they got it – they were impressive.
“We didn’t handle their pressure; they clearly won the aerial battle. We just couldn’t defuse any of those forays they went inside their front third with.
“We’ve been reasonably good with that over the previous period of time, nothing we could get going our way.”
— with NCA NewsWire’s Tyler Lewis