The evidence that suggests the Bulldogs are too flawed to match it with the true AFL contenders

The Dogs are fast, fun and slick forward of centre – but, again, their flaws were laid in Saturday’s loss to Adelaide. And the worrying numbers are almost identical to Carlton.

If the AFL’s top nine teams were renting an office building together, the Western Bulldogs would be the tenants stuck on the ground floor with no plans for upwards expansion.

The Dogs are fast, fun and slick forward of centre – but evidence keeps building to suggest their business model is too flawed to match it with the heavyweights.

Firmly in the hunt for second place and a home qualifying final, Adelaide is one of those heavyweights, and the Crows’ 11-point win was more convincing than the final margin as the Bulldogs’ defensive woes were again laid bare.

The loss is unlikely to hamper their finals chances – the Dogs have built strong percentage and earnt a favourable run home with their “national roadshow” in the first half of the season – but there’s little to say they can be any real threat after coughing up 29 scoring shots to the Crows to go 1-7 against their top-nine peers.

An average 99 points conceded in those eight games has left the Dogs’ defensive record for the year almost identical to 12th-placed Carlton.

A dejected Jason Johannisen after Saturday’s loss. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

When they mounted their fairytale run from seventh on the ladder in 2016, they entered the finals with the confidence of a side with the third-best defensive record in the competition.

This time they will reach September knowing Marcus Bontempelli, Ed Richards and Aaron Naughton played out of their skin but it still wasn’t enough to stop Adelaide hurting them the other way.

Coach Luke Beveridge resisted temptation to recall the out-of-favour Liam Jones for a battle against Adelaide’s three-headed monster.

It looked like he was trying to prioritise continuity – this has been a rare past month where the Dogs have had the full complement of defenders on their list available, but the same personnel have been backed in.

Of the back seven who faced the Crows, only Rory Lobb, Bailey Williams and Bailey Dale could be completely sure of their spots against Brisbane after the visitors reeled in 17 marks inside 50 to nine.

Marcus Bontempelli was huge for the Bulldogs. Picture: Mark Stewart

But they couldn’t contain Jordan Dawson and the Crows. Picture: Mark Stewart

Already undersized against the Adelaide talls, Jordan Dawson was a nightmare for the Dogs as he rotated through half-forward to test the defensive mettle of their smaller players – and they were found wanting.

In one passage on the stroke of halftime, already with a goal and a goal assist to his name for the quarter, the Crows skipper lined up next to Jason Johannisen at a defensive kick-in and brushed him aside with ease to crash a pack and send his side off to the races where they finished with a Riley Thilthorpe snap goal in the pocket.

Dawson took Lachie Bramble to 30m out from goal at opening bounce of the third term – a match-up the Bulldogs’ defence accepted for several minutes – before he was targeted and drew a free kick from his shorter opponent for his second goal.

Too often the Bulldogs defenders looked “panicky”, former Bomber Adam Ramanauskas said on ABC Grandstand.

But as Dale noted after the game, there was reason to panic when the Crows’ midfielders had time to identify the most suitable target.

Thilthorpe (6.0) kicked one outrageous goal as he ran towards the boundary line in the pocket, but his other handful came from marks in spots he would rarely ever miss from.

Riley Thilthorpe kicks a crumbing goal from the boundary line

And Darcy Fogarty makes it look easy for his third

The bearded tall’s bodywork on Sam Darcy as he dragged him forward from the ruck to outmark him near the goal line was a striking reminder not to omit him from any best-player-in-the-competition debates.

“They broke a lot of our tackles, which then gave them space to be able to use the ball cleanly going into their forward line,” Dale said.

“That’s never ideal, when you’re giving teams space in front to be able to use the footy and pinpoint whoever they want, so we’ll go to work on that this week, and it’s a massive game next week at the Gabba.”

A first-week finals exit felt like a failure last year, and Beveridge and the Bulldogs are running out of time to find a way to avoid a repeat.

Originally published as The evidence that suggests the Bulldogs are too flawed to match it with the true AFL contenders