5 Things We Learned - Round 23

The Western Bulldogs have been defeated by two points after being overrun by Port Adelaide, 10.4. 64 to 9.12 66. The defeat was our seventh of the year and it rounds out the 2021 Home and Away season and the Bulldogs first loss to Port Adelaide at Marvel Stadium since the 2003 season after notching victories at the venue in 2007, 2012 and 2015.

It is truly hard to believe that it has come to this, that we could have spent 19 rounds in the top four

and sat no lower than second place between rounds three to 21 yet still find ourselves in a sudden-death elimination final against a demographic rival of ours and a Club who has looked down on us for decades.

It sucks for sure but we must dust ourselves off and regain focus (fourth week lucky surely!), but on a positive note, the fifth-place finish is the highest finish the Club has had at the completion of the Home and Away ladder since 2010 where it finished in fourth place.

Yes, we might not be in the top four like we all thought we would be, but we are still playing finals and that is something that can certainly be worked with in comparison to 10 other clubs whose seasons have ended.

Here's hoping for the latest box seat of four finals wins to get the job done and sit alongside the 2016 DVD set we all own!

The Western Bulldogs walk off Marvel Stadium, ruing another missed opportunity to seal a top-four spot. Source: AFL Photos

1) Where The Match Was Lost

The Dogs had plenty of chances in the final quarter to put the game to bed as we had 15 inside 50s to the Power's eight but could only manufacture the one goal while they kicked three themselves but in retrospect, the damage was actually done in the first quarter where we couldn't build a substantial lead.

We gave ourselves a strong account in the opening quarter kicking four goals from our first five inside 50s but unfortunately, we weren't able to sustain our pressure and fastball movement as we could only conjure up a behind from our next 10 entries up forward.

This was namely due to how Port set up behind the ball and how they were able to slow the tempo of the game down.

The Dogs were able to move the ball rather fast in the opening quarter before Port Adelaide were able to slow the game down and have it played on their terms as they took 33 marks to our 26 despite our tenacity but what is interesting is that 15 of those came from their defenders, with 11 of them uncontested.

This meant that we weren't able to bring the ball to ground level in our front half because Port's defence was able to peel off from our forwards while it also didn't give us the opportunity to reset for a stoppage and have repeat entries.

We also strangely made the most of our limited opportunities in the second and third quarters kicking five goals from just 13 inside 50 entries, equating to 38%, which is well above the AFL average of 22.51% but the problem was when we actually were relatively on top (in the first and fourth quarters) we could only generate eight scoring shots and it would come back to haunt us.

Another factor in the loss was Port's ability to withstand our 15 forward 50 entries in the opening quarter, holding us to just the five scoring shots (4.1.25) whilst still being able to relieve their defence as they didn't lose the territory game as they had 12 inside 50 entries themselves which released the stress on their back half.

What was also concerning was with plenty on the line after halftime and a 19 point lead to protect, the Dogs were only able to lay 22 tackles in the second half which was well below what Port reached (41) and it just showed who simply wanted it more.

As Tim Notke once said “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard,” and that was the case with us as the Power showed more desire and tenacity to get the job done in the second half with their pressure rating in the third and fourth quarters reaching 207 and 203 (both ranked elite) to our below-average ratings of 175 and 177.

2) The Positives From Round 23 And The Year

I'll be blunt and honest with no sugarcoating here, there weren't many positives that we could take from Friday night's game but there were some things that should be pointed out.

Even though we still lost the clearances (28-35), we were able to even up the centre clearances (9-9) which has been a major area of struggle since the Crows game and that our much-criticised defence also held up quite well under the barrage of inside 50 entries when Port were able to control large portions of the game (13-30 in quarters two and three - Ports favour).

No sides defence is perfect and it is quite hard to find the most appropriate players to execute the exact style of play a team prefers but we aren't doing too bad down there, bar that one particular hole at center-half back.

Although there have been moments this year that have seen fans and the team at The Salty Bulldog tear their hair out seeing undersized defenders be outmuscled in a marking contest, those have been far and few in between. Against Port, we held their three key forward/rucks to just two goals.

Even if Port Adelaide had kicked a bit straighter with the AFL goal kicking average, we still would have only conceded four or five goals in the first half, which is a decent effort in a game of footy.

People might have a go at our defence but it has only conceded above 80 points four times this year and it once again did its job on Friday night. It is good enough to keep us in games and gives us something to work with. The tricky part now is trying to kick that winning score...

As well as this, we still have to focus on what has been achieved this year so far.

If we (somehow) try and put aside the late-season disaster, we are playing in our third consecutive finals series, which is only the third time in our history that we have done so (1997-2000 and 2008-10).

On a personal level, Marcus Bontempelli has established himself as a top player in the game, Cody Weightman has helped solve our small-medium forward hole, Josh Bruce and Aaron Naughton have shown they can work together and are a key forward duo to be reckoned with while Bailey Dale has resurrected his career down back and Jackson Macrae has turned himself into a genuine premier midfielder.

There are probably a few more but I think the most positive thing we can take away from the home and away season is that we can arguably dispel the belief that our backline isn't good enough to cope under intense pressure and that it needs its midfield to protect it.

Perhaps from a centre clearance that might be the case but from around the ground play and stoppages, we have held up quite well this season, even when there has been fastball movement by opposition clubs.

3) Where Has The Drop Off Really Occured And Are We Able To Get Out Our Form Slump?

People might look at Lewis Young playing in the ruck and think that was the difference in the game but to me, it wasn't the major reason as to why we lost. The lack of a ruck played its part for sure but after what English has served up recently, you can't say Young did any worse.

I won't sit back and ignore that part of the game but generally, we have been smacked in the hitouts department a number of occasions before and it has rarely affected us in a clearance and contested possession aspect as our midfielders have been good enough to pick up the slack and then some.

The real issue has been the immense drop-off in form from our midfielders.

I touched on the topic last week that they have had a huge workload throughout 2021 and just appear fatigued when moving from contest to contest and as such a major strength of ours has turned into a weakness to an extent.

After being ranked first in stoppages in 2019, 2020 and from rounds one to 16 this year, we have fallen to 18th in that statistic over the past six weeks and this has seen us produce three of our four lowest clearance tallies this year in that stretch of games (31, 33, and 28).

From rounds one to 19 the Dogs also were able to score on average 13.9 points more than their opponents via a stoppage to be ranked 1st, but since then it has gone full reverse as in the following four games, we have been outscored on average by 20 points from that source, ranked 17th in that time.

Interestingly the game against Port Adelaide was the first time since the Dogs played the Gold Coast Suns in round 18 that we have not lost the centre clearance duel (9-9), having gone -24 in that statistic from rounds 19-22 (-3, -9, -6 and -6).

Over the past three games, our percentage in that time is a rather poor 81% which is a million miles off the 142% we had at the end of round 20 so it does seem quite hard to see us doing a full 180-degree flip but strangely enough, there were some aspects of our game against Port that showed there is still a spark of life at the Kennel, namely our centre clearance work tightening up despite the obvious ruck flaw and our ability to score heavily from turnovers (7.3.45) remained strong.

At the completion of the Home and Away season we are four wins clear of Essendon and comfortably made the top eight several rounds ago while they qualified for finals on the final day of the home and away season and although in hot form, would have spent a few petrol tickets in getting there.

We have seen how in 2019 and 2020 that our late-season form ultimately accounted for nothing with finals being a different game altogether that brings about unpredictable predictability, as we suffered an embarrassing first-round exit against a GWS Giants outfit who had been out of sorts coming into the finals and a St Kilda team who hadn't played finals since 2011.

Winning form no doubt is good form but perhaps the wheel might have started to turn in the right direction even with the loss to Port as we did show a fair bit of fight to hang in the contest when we were under the pump and responded.

The game against Hawthorn no doubt was our worst match over the past three weeks while the Essendon game was our worst in terms of being opened up on the inside and outside but the Port game felt a bit different and left me wondering. We weren't great by any means but if we played with a bit of that effort in the previous two weeks we wouldn't be in this situation we find ourselves in.

If we can sort out this midfield mess we are still in this. But I am now stressing the "if" a fair bit more than I would have a month ago.

Source: The Age - Champion Data

4) It's Time For Aaron Naughton To Stand Up.

Naughton is not just one of the most promising key position players going around but he is also one of the most exciting players in the league but since returning from concussion in round 18 against the Gold Coast, he is averaging 8.4 disposals, has kicked just seven goals in those past six games, and has reached five marks just twice in that stretch.

When you consider that he reached double digits in disposals in every game in the first half of the season (besides round eight), kicked multiple goals from rounds one to 10, and that five marks was the lowest amount he had taken from rounds one-15 (withstanding his injury against Geelong in round 14), it is well below par and a massive reason why the forward line hasn't been able to re-adjust to the absence of key forward Josh Bruce.

No doubt the absence of Bruce has hurt him and our forward line but we need him to be our game-breaker as he is the only player in our forward line capable of a five-goal game. Naughton is a very good footballer and one of the most important players at the Kennel but he has to find that swagger and strut that made him a potential All-Australian candidate at the mid-point of the season.

We have seen this man tear opposition defenses to shreds with his contested marking. We now need him to do it with his goal kicking to send us into the second week of the finals.

The Western Bulldogs need the "Astronaut" to find form and it has to be this week. Source: AFL Photos.

5) Where To From Here?

Our finals opponents have been determined and we shall face the Essendon Bombers next Sunday 29th August at 3:20 pm at UTAS Stadium, Tasmania, the very same venue we played at two weeks ago against Hawthorn, and just once since 2015.

People might try to look at how we finished the 2016 home and away season and take hope from that but the difference is in 2021 there has been greater expectations put upon the Club and understandably so when you consider how the majority of the season has gone.

The Western Bulldogs have to salvage something from 2021 and hope to extend our season for at least one more week or have a year that promised so much come to a crashing end with a humiliating defeat at the hands of Essendon.

We have won 15 games this year and although the past few weeks have been a massive letdown, there is a reason why we were sitting in the top two for the majority of the year. It's just a matter of once again finding that spark to breathe life into our 2021 campaign again.

We might look shot but we have shown throughout the majority of this year that we are a quality team to be reckoned with. It's time to go out swinging with whatever we have left.

Imagine how good it will feel to see us touch up a dreaded enemy of ours and extend their winless run in finals to 17 years.