Dogs v North, Round 19, 2012

Before the round 19 match against North Melbourne, the Western Bulldogs hierarchy took the unusual step of dispatching the following letter to 16,000 member households:
 
Dear Member,
 
We write to you as a valued member of the Western Bulldogs Football Club. So far, we are sure you would agree it has been a tough year for the Red, White and Blue.
 
As leaders of the Club, we want you to know that while we share your disappointment, we are 100 per cent focussed on building a successful and sustainable football club. We are confident that we are on the right path and are committed to the challenges that will present themselves.
 
Over recent years we came close to achieving our on-field aims, but not close enough. In light of this, we have taken decisions and made the changes that were needed to give us the best chance of success.
 
We have started this journey, one which will require patience, perseverance and discipline for all of us to stay on track and to not deviate from our path.
 
Our new coaching panel is dedicated to educating, training and developing our players under a total football program that will give them the best opportunity to maximise their potential. This process has started and is on the way.
 
We are regularly fielding one of the youngest sides in the competition. On average, we have played 12 players per match with less than 50 games experience to date, while our competitors, outside of GWS and Gold Coast, have averaged just seven.
 
We will continue to give game experience to our younger players and to give others their opportunity before the season ends. Stick with us. Your continued support for the team is very important.
 
We are sure you will be excited by the likes of Luke Dahlhaus, Mitch Wallis, Clay Smith, Ayce Cordy and Tom Liberatore as they grow into the players we know they will be.
 
Off the field we have never been in a better place to support a period of development.
 
The club has posted five consecutive profits in recent years, wiped almost $1 million off our debt, completed the $31 million re-development of Whitten Oval and secured solid membership numbers in 2012 – reaching 30,000 for only the third time in our history.
 
We are also making significant in-roads into our strategy to 'Win the West' and stamp the Western Region of Melbourne as our own, while continuing to increase the Club's investment in our core business of football – growing our resources and importantly, football staff.
 
Now, more than ever, is the time to stick together to ensure we maximise the opportunity for us to taste success.
 
Thanks again for your continued support.
 
The letter – signed by Messrs Smorgon, McCartney, Grant, Garlick and Boyd – was dispatched against a backdrop of poor form and odds of $8.00 against North Melbourne, a team that not long ago we wiped the floor with constantly.
 
The Roos are one of the most watchable teams in the competition at the moment. They remind me so much of the 2005 Bulldogs. Some of the similarities include: the ability to move the ball with pace and sharp precision; aggression; high score tallies; making a late lunge for the finals after years of mediocrity; a driven coach at the helm; a smattering of experienced players on hand to steady the ship when needed.
 
North are an emerging side with unheralded players. They've won six of their last seven games and rank an impressive number 2 in Points For in the competition, behind only Hawthorn. Conversely, their defence is ranked number 15.
 
Once again Brendan McCartney made so many changes that I had no hope of memorising them without a notebook. In came Nathan Djerrkura, Tom Campbell, Zeph Skinner and Dylan Addison, as well as Michael Talia and Jason Johannisen – our 7th and 8th debutants for the season. Out went Luke Dahlhaus (rested), Daniel Cross, Lindsay Gilbee, Liam Jones, Patrick Veszpremi and Tom Williams. Some of those names have walked in and out of the revolving door so often this year that they’ll soon fall down with dizziness.
 
Weekly tinkering like this can't be good for continuity, but I don't think continuity matters right now. I read the constant changes as McCartney wanting to look at as many players as possible, as often as possible, so that the footy department makes the right decisions about who goes in the looming end-of-season cleanout.
 
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I was one of just a handful in red, white and blue to board the train at Footscray just 40 minutes before first bounce. I remember catching St Albans and Werribee line trains as a kid and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Faithful. After stirring wins, a rendition the club song would be belted out in the carriages. Those were in the pre-iPhone days. Who needs strangers to sing with now?
 
Where has our support gone? Perhaps they've all given up for the year; melted memberships smouldering in microwaves throughout the region once known as the Land of Boulders.
 
It’s not as if Footscray was deserted. Groups of people were out – families, teens – enjoying their weekends and the precious few hours of mid-winter sun above. They were going about their lives – carrying bags of groceries from the bustling Footscray Market; heading to and from Highpoint; bouncing basketballs or cruising along on skateboards.
 
Mainly migrants, these groups seemed oblivious to the footy. Oblivious to the plight of “their” team. The team that supposedly represents all of us in the “fastest growing region of Australia” as David Smorgon would put it. Migrants from the horn of Africa, second generation Vietnamese, families in housing estates at Caroline Springs – these are the people the funky new 'Western Bulldogs' fishing net was supposed to catch.
 
Perhaps our appeal would be greater if we took one of those Premiership chances in 1997-2000 or 2008-2010. My partner’s housemate, a fella from India who works in IT, is into sport generally and enjoys watching the footy. He doesn't have a team yet. It was suggested to him that he should support the Dogs, his local team. I’m sad to report that he's still holding out for a better offer because we're “shit”. Did we give up our Footscray name in an attempt to lure people like that?

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The game's first goal came courtesy of the hard working Tory Dickson. It was the third time from 18 attempts this year I've guessed the Dogs first goal kicker, meaning I gain a point in the Peter Street Pocket’s 'Trent Bartlett Golden Ugg Boot' award. The leader, Waffs' old man 'Honest' Peter Egan, also selected Dickson and thus moved to a near unassailable five points in the competition. A large man of few carefully selected words, he smiled wryly and reclined back in his seat in celebration.
 
For me, our outstanding player of the first quarter was Clay Smith. Typically, teenagers can lack physicality and presence in their early AFL years but that's no problem for Smith. He won the contested ball and cracked in hard – traits which no doubt thrilled the coach. He hunted with enthusiasm and made tackles hurt.
 
The Dogs kicked the first two goals of the second term to establish an unexpected buffer. The boys moved the ball faster and played more attractively than in recent weeks. Dylan Addison, a man who has spent his entire career playing anywhere but the forward line, was thrown into attack. North weren't expecting this and didn't seem to have a match-up for him. 'DFA' ended the first half with 2.1 on the scoreboard to augment 10 disposals.
 
The Kangaroos were way below their best whilst we were somewhere near ours. Late goals gave them a slender 41-45 half time lead.
 
I enjoy fixtures against North Melbourne because the games have spice. The clubs are geographically close and have supporter bases of roughly the same size. Neither set of fans like one another and today, as usual, verbal arrows were shot back and forth in the stands.
 
North are the only decent side (the only side in the league's top 13, in fact) we've beaten to date this season. With the margin so slim, their fans might have been jittery about the prospect of a stinging 'doubling' at the hands of a poor Bulldogs side. If they’re to play in September, the only option for the Roos today is victory.
 
Gradually, North Melbourne took command of proceedings. Third quarter fade outs are the most depressing symptom of the overall malaise of our team. We've now lost seven of them in a row, this one by a relatively acceptable 20 points.
 
Both teams had more handballs than kicks up to three quarter time, an illustration of how many games in the AFL are now played.
 
Jason Tutt went off for substitute Djerrkura before North kicked three goals in the first seven minutes of the last quarter. This had the potential to get ugly, which would be an unfair outcome for the boys who were so valiant for a half.
 
The Roos finished with seven goals to one in the last term to run out 54 point winners. We lost every quarter of the match but most alarming was another second half fade-out. These are our last seven second halves:
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Opponent             Points For    Points Against
Brisbane Lions         20                     61
Essendon                 33                     61
Fremantle                 29                    64
Hawthorn                  10                    63
Carlton                      32                   69
St Kilda                     14                   66
North Melbourne       20                  77
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We endured the fade out alongside a group of painfully irritating North fans who became increasingly pissed as the Saturday afternoon passed by. As the margin increased, so did their alcohol-fuelled bravado and by full time I was eager to leave and get away from their sly goading and witless running commentary. That huge chip on their collective shoulder remains.
 
There were some positives worth noting. Teenaged Jason Johannisen was solid on debut and Liberatore and Wallis played very well.
 
Zeph Skinner was well off the pace but deserves more chances. Reading the Bulldogs Big Footy forum, I was surprised by how many people are ready to write him off. Fans called on the club to cut their losses, or perhaps “delist and re-rookie him”. “I made a point of watching Skinner today as I haven't seen much of him,” posted tassiedog. “I’ve watched the bulldogs for over 40 years and would find it hard to recall someone who looked so lost in a game. He had no clue today.”