Dejected and defeated, the Western Bulldogs leave the Optus Stadium arena last Saturday night. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The Western Bulldogs were good enough to jump out to a 42-1 lead against statistically the second-best defence in AFL football in a cut-throat elimination final on Fremantle’s home deck.
They were also bad enough to score just two second-half goals, melting down against a team whose structure and tenacity is the exact opposite of what the Dogs were for the bulk of season 2022.
The loss punctuates the most frustrating season of Luke Beveridge’s largely excellent eight-season reign and leaves his club in a confusing place within the AFL’s increasingly competitive ecosystem.
Saturday night’s loss was emblematic of a campaign that was capable of plenty, yet which capitulated the moment any kind of pressure was applied to it, the Dogs’ inclusion in the finals revealed to be as fraudulent as so many had believed.
Last season, the Dogs thoroughly deserved their spot in the grand final, knocking out three teams in three different states and appearing to have their hands on a third club premiership only to have it stripped from them in one of the most dramatic “no soup for you” moments in grand final history.
The scarring from that defeat appears to have haunted their every move this year, constantly looking over their shoulder, saddled by a defence that dropped from fourth to 11th within 12 months.
While the Dogs, as always, injected even more ludicrous talent into their team, with Jamarra Ugle-Hagan’s performances increasingly living up to his hype and Sam Darcy on a similar trajectory, the reality is the club’s aspirations will continue to be stifled until a semblance of accountability can be found.
In 2022, the Dogs were the only team to allow opponents to execute at 70 per cent or better by foot while ceding the competition’s highest overall disposal efficiency.
Being able to move the footy at absolute will against them resulted in opposition forward entries converted into marks at the highest rate in the league, which unsurprisingly helped opponents convert 24.2 per cent of their inside 50s into goals – a category in which only West Coast, Essendon, North Melbourne and Adelaide fared worse.
Put simply, playing against the 2022 Bulldogs was the equivalent of manoeuvring a knife through hot butter with the team parading as a defensive train wreck that was as disorganised as it was disinterested.
As a result of such a meek campaign and because of how pure much talent there is on this list, all eyes will naturally gravitate towards the coach. However, it’s the kind of scrutiny which Luke Beveridge ought to embrace and which could ultimately unleash a scarier, premiership calibre outfit as soon as next season.
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On the one hand, Beveridge has precious little to prove. He’s clearly the most exceptional coach the club has had in its existence, helping it land a premiership and making it competitively relevant the moment he took over at the end of 2014. Throughout his tenure, he’s proven to be one of the game’s most innovative minds as well as a brilliant motivator.
With that said, he remains incredibly frustrating. The form fluctuations throughout his reign have been dizzying, while there’s been little consistency to how he wants his teams to play. While they have at times been scintillating, he’s yet to preside over a top four team, and in six of his eight seasons in charge the Dogs have failed to advance beyond an elimination final.
So much of what makes Beveridge special comes from his powers of imagination, yet so much of what makes his teams susceptible is his inability to come down from the clouds.
Which leads to what shapes as a massive off-season for the Dogs in terms of both their short and long-term prospects.
While much attention will be devoted to the probable addition of Rory Lobb, it will be decisions made away from the trade and draft table that define just how far the Dogs can go over the coming seasons.
Beveridge has increasingly ruled with an iron fist and with a leadership style that’s left plenty of scorched earth at Whitten Oval. Highly capable assistants such as Daniel Giansiracusa and Ash Hansen have fled the kennel as have a litany of other deputies, greatly reducing the tactical scope of what this list is capable.
Which begs the question whether it’s time for the Dogs to get a lot more ambitious this off-season and perhaps go fishing for a highly-credentialed assistant to work alongside Beveridge.
Would the club perhaps consider a play for premiership hero Matthew Boyd, who this season led the largely impenetrable Fremantle defence, having worked at Collingwood previously?
Could a figure like Adem Yze be a target should he not land the head coaching gig at Essendon? Would someone like Jaymie Graham or Troy Chaplin or Blake Caracella be the missing piece in maximising the Dogs’ potential?
Last season, Richmond snapped up David Teague after he was fired at Carlton and saw its attack leap from 11th to first within a season of arriving at Punt Road. Similarly, Damien Hardwick immediately welcomed back Ben Rutten, comfortable with his role as coach and not intimidated by having strong personalities around him.
If the right changes are made in the coming weeks and months, the Bulldogs could be on the cusp of something both special and sustainable.
Alternatively, if nothing changes from a coaching department perspective, the club’s once-in- a-generation list will remain compromised.
