5 Things We Learned - Round 7

Under Friday night lights the Western Bulldogs were outclassed by the Richmond Tigers whose pride last week took a knock as they bounced back with a 22 point victory at the MCG.

Personally I believe the result meant more to Richmond than to us as it gave them a chance to send a message to the competition that they will still be hanging around for a while longer.

We have improved a fair bit from the previous 12 months across the opening six rounds but to me our past two wins haven't been entirely convincing even if they have been 62 and 39 point victories.

We got handed a lesson on Friday night and it will be the best thing for us in the long run. We are still a very good side who were defeated by a great team.

We are 6-1, sitting in the top 2 on the ladder and have learnt how far we still have to go - lets embrace the challenge laid before us and get on with the job.

The Bulldogs missed out on a chance to make a statement to the competition after its defeat to Richmond but they'll be back. Source: Getty Images.

1) Where The Game Was Lost

Coming into Friday night, the Western Bulldogs were the most handball happy of all clubs this season

reaching levels almost double what our 2016 handball differential was each game (68.8 vs 35.8). It is certainly one of our biggest strengths as it allows all of our midfielders to get involved and move in a wave of numbers.

It is also one way to invite plenty of pressure upon the ball carrier or the release options which would mean in a hurried disposal and ultimately a turnover and to emphasise that amount of pressure we had just the 21 handballs in that third quarter - well down on our quarterly average of 46 this season.

We didn't exactly have Richmond on the ropes in the first half despite our 19-point lead but the fact they didn't look flustered still shows immense confidence in their system which has delivered them plenty of success in recent years.

They dominated contested ball and had 18 inside-50s (including 16 in a row) to just five of our own.

Such was the Tigers response in the third quarter that the Bulldogs only managed their first possession in their forward half with less than six minutes left.

There was also a lack of competitiveness from our key position players and others around the ground as Richmond took 18 intercept marks (six to Balta; four contested, and four to Astbury), with seven of those coming in their defensive half, highlighting an issue for us bringing the ball to ground and preventing our stoppage game from ever happening.

Coming into Friday nights blockbuster both sides were quite suspect one on one down back, as although they each allow the lowest amount of one on one defensive contests, both teams have the worst (Richmond - 37.7%) and fourth worst (Bulldogs - 32.9%) records amongst all clubs in this statistic.

Against Richmond the Dogs were taken to town on this statistic losing 50% of our contests. With us never really playing a one on one game style these numbers become a bit manipulated but it screams that our pressure wasn't up to scratch to prevent such instances occurring.

Our pressure game hasn't exactly been up to scratch the past couple of weeks and against a wounded Richmond outfit it wasn't brought to the table with a pressure gauge rating of 169 which is deemed poor.

2) What Went Right For The Dogs

Keeping Richmond to just the two goals in a half as well as holding them to just the one goal from 16 inside 50s in the second quarter no doubt would make coach Luke Beveridge a happy man, especially for the fact that only 38% of Richmond's 26 inside 50's in the first half registered scores, which is well below the competition average.

All in all we conceded just the 11 goals from 57 entries and if you remove the third quarter debacle altogether, it was just six goals from the remaining 39.

It highlights that we showed enough and that we do have the game plan to beat them, we just weren't able to sustain it long enough. Even with Richmond's dominant third quarter and a fair amount of momentum we were still only five points down with 10 minutes to go in the final quarter.

As well as that, pleasingly even if our pressure rating across the four quarters was deemed poor, the fact we scored scored 6:8 44 from turnovers also suggests that our ball movement on the counter attack was up to scratch and were switched on offensively.

The Dogs were also efficient when converting its inside 50 entries into scoring shots in the first half going at 48%, which was eight percent above the league average; the only negative was the conversion of 5.9 on the scoreboard.

3) "Libba" the Lone Warrior

Before the clash against Richmond, Liberatore was first in the AFL for clearances (49 at 8.17), fourth for pressure acts, sixth for contested possessions (82 at 13.67) and eighth for tackles (35 at 5.83).

One of our few four quarter performers at the MCG on Friday night, Libba featured in 17 of the 22 centre bounces, had the most pressure acts on the ground with 36, 23 disposals, 10 clearances (six from the centre) and a contested possession rate of 72%, which is well above his season average of 56%, highlighting how tough he is.

Unfortunately a lack of support in the centre square lead to our demise in the third quarter but "Libba" was one major reason we had built up a 19-point lead going into half time with five centre clearances.

Although he tapered off in the second half as did many of his teammates, "Libba" has put together a fantastic season to date and is playing to the very high level and to what we know he is capable of - a Charles Sutton Medallist.

Tom Liberatore could hold his head up high against Richmond after controlling the centre square. Source: Getty Images.

4) The Loss of Dunkley might be more important than many think.

We might have several midfield options but there isn't one who can play the role of a battering ram better than Dunkley.

Yes we've got Bontempelli, Macrae, Treloar and Liberatore but they are all still different types of footballers to what Dunkley is. Perhaps Bailey Smith is the man for the job but he probably needs a rocket at the moment after averaging just the 18.33 touches and 12.67 uncontested possessions in the past three rounds after averaging 29 disposals and 22 uncontested possessions from rounds one to three.

This potential move back into the guts might re-spark his 2021 season with a new challenge and get the ball rolling for him once again.

Our biggest strength is our midfield and how well it can extract the ball on the inside and bully opposition midfielders but that was missing quite clearly on Friday night against a team missing Martin, Lambert and Prestia as we lost the contested ball in the apparent premiership quarter 28-39.

Winning the ball at the source is evidently important not only to generate your own dominance but to halt the oppositions as well.

It took us half of 2020 to find a balanced midfield combination that would cover Dunkley's absence and we're going to have to fix this issue a hell of a lot quicker this year especially with many crucial games to come.

5) The Opening Seven Round Rundown

If someone told you prior to round one that Western Bulldogs would be sitting top 2, would create a club record and only lose to the reigning premiers, most would bite their hand off for that type of offer.

Many of us were disappointed with the loss on Friday night but Aussie Rules is a strange ball game with favourites in Geelong and Port Adelaide slipping up on the weekend, still gives us a bit of breathing room and it hurts a lot less to be losing to the reigning premier than to a developing Swans outfit and an out or sorts Brisbane who have been up and down this season.

We've beaten some decent sides so far this year; namely the Eagles and Lions and it has been important to bank the other wins along the way as we continue to build into season 2021.

The challenge comes massively in the next third of our season with sides like Port Adelaide, Melbourne, Geelong and the West Coast Eagles on the agenda. We have set ourselves up for a top eight push in the first third of the season, this next block of games will determine just how capable we really are.

We've failed one test but there are four more to go to re-establish our credentials as we chase the ultimate success.