Do the Western Bulldogs really have a premiership hangover?
THE Western Bulldogs have insisted they aren’t nursing any ill-effects from last year’s fairytale flag. The stats show not a lot has changed.
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THERE can’t be a premiership hangover if there isn’t a hangover to begin with.
After back-to-back losses in Rounds 8 and 9, Western Bulldogs skipper Bob Murphy insisted the Dogs weren’t nursing any ill-effects from last year’s fairytale flag.
They were 5-4 and clinging on to eighth spot.
A week later the Dogs dismantle St Kilda by 40 points to seemingly put their premiership defence back on track.
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A day after the win, forward Tory Dickson dismissed the suggestion the team was suffering from a premiership hangover.
After 10 rounds last year the Bulldogs had one more win.
Remember, the Dogs were the seventh-best team after 23 rounds last year, and had come off an away loss to Fremantle in the final round, before their magical finals run.
Did the Dogs simply fluke last year’s premiership?
While coach Luke Beveridge has tweaked the game plan this year, the end result has been the same.
So far this year the Dogs are scoring and conceding goals at the same rate they ended last year’s home-and-away season.
And their scoring accuracy of 47 per cent is slightly below last season’s 52 per cent.
But where the Bulldogs have dropped off is their hunger for ball and pressure at the contest.
In 2016 the Bulldogs ranked first in disposal differential and contested possession differential, and second in uncontested possession differential and clearance differential. and ninth in inside-50 differential.
This year that has slipped to sixth, eighth, sixth and 14th in those respective categories, but there were signs in the second half of last season the Dogs these areas for falling away.
Tom Liberatore has certainly been missed, and the Dogs will be desperately hoping he rediscovers his form soon.
However, like last year, when the ball is in the Bulldogs’ forward half it stays there, even though their inside 50 differential is slightly lower.
And the defensive pressure in their half of the ground has slightly gone up a notch, which has created more turnovers and scoring more from them, but they are still a middle-of-the-road team in that regard.
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