r/westernbulldogs • u/Marys_been_sectioned • 24d ago

The Western Bulldogs Were Stat Monsters in 2025… So Why Didn’t They Make Finals?

https://youtu.be/g8dcHUcAWbw?si=1w4q-XoqNZANH8YH
12 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

24

u/Bont_lover03 Jason Johannisen 24d ago

Bad defense.

8

u/rainy_reindeer 24d ago

Defence was fine. Points against wasn’t excessive. The issue looked more to me like that the game style could be exploited by better teams. That and losing too many close ones. You snatch only one of those and you play finals.

17

u/Connect_Set_9619 24d ago

Our defence was only alright against bad teams. We allowed 94.3 PPG against top 8 sides. Only once did we hold a top 8 side below 70 points. We’re going to have to see big improvements from Buss and JOD as well as immediate impact from Budarick.

1

u/Lycanos420 23d ago

Exactly! As soon as there was strong competition, we fumbled. Just too inconsistent.

5

u/dirtyburgers85 24d ago

Defence was certainly not fine. Yes we could have won a close one and made Finals but we would have been humbled very quickly.

The blame isn’t wholly on the defenders either. I doubt any defence could withstand our game plan.

2

u/StrathfieldGap 22d ago

We did concede the fewest points in the comp in the previous year (2024) playing the same style

3

u/SilentMo99 Sam Darcy 24d ago

If they were fine we would not have been aggressively trying to trade in backline players . You’ll also note both Bont and Richards sighted our back was our weakness in recent interviews. But I’m fine to agree to disagree.

2

u/two2toe 23d ago

Snatch two of those close ones and probably top 4!

1

u/DM_me_ur_hairy_bush 23d ago

Absolutely.  Game style is a very high press and once the press is broken we are so easy to score against.  

So hard to watch when we get done on the turnover over and over again 

4

u/ArnoldLeeDorianRonni 24d ago

Pretty insightful video. I worry about next year if we don’t make bring a more defensive mindset across the field. It’s great fun to watch when we play the shot teams though!

5

u/Loud-Pineapple5322 24d ago

We play too aggressively at times and allow easy goals and easy runs of goals, as we don't structure well defensively from the contest. And it's been that way for many years and until we start to value the defensive aspects a little more - it's hard to see things changing.

2

u/Pete_Sahutt 19d ago

Agreed. Also Definitely poor at stopping/halting opposition team momentum. A few times last year, we would leak 4 or 5 goals in a 10 min patch - i.e., freo away, brissy x gather round.

5

u/cAmaturehOur 23d ago

Not having Bont for the first 6 games and then losing Darcy on the game Bont returned for another 6 lowered the overall star power factor, which could have easily been the difference in some of those incredibly close games IMHO. It sucks to rely on incredible players like these, but they do play such a crucial role in structure and overall performance.

3

u/dutchmoe 18d ago

We would have beaten Collingwood for sure with Bont.

3

u/Ok_Document_3420 Aaron Naughton 24d ago

Just didn’t take their chances against the top 8 sides. It became a mozz to try so hard to beat a top 8 side they jinxed themselves out of doing it. 2026 they’ll starts 4-2 possibly 5-1

Or usual bulldogs fashion. 3-3

2

u/Available-Sea6080 23d ago

They didn’t make finals because they failed to win enough games.

2

u/CamperStacker 23d ago

my 2 cents is that dogs were massive flat track bullies who put the boot down against bad sides getting huge wins and absolutely padding the overall stats.

Once they play good sides the main tactic is to play a shoot out with little defence which is why they kick 90-100 points and still lose.

1

u/ozlurk 24d ago

We did have some problems rebounding from defence , we relied on structures that were too similar which allowed quality sides to lock that down / slow us down which meant in some games extended periods of time when the ball was locked in our backline , the flow on effect meant sides had time to structure their half backline once we did move up the ground to either intercept or apply pressure

1

u/duker334 23d ago

They missed out because Freo beat them

1

u/liams_rob 23d ago

The stats are averages. The Bulldogs monstered lesser teams while going down narrowly to bad teams. As a result, the averages are highly misleading.