Oz Footy List Manager takes a look at the Western Bulldogs.
List:
The Bulldogs list is another that needs to decide which way it is going. A look at its twilight (28+yo) and mature (25-27yo) players indicate a good handful of players that weren’t core players last season. It raises the question, again, about club lists that are prepared to maintain ladder position for survival, and those more secure clubs that are prepared to risk their short term for the long term.
Does it continue with the same old midfield – Trelour, Bontempelli, Liberatore? Where are the young midfielders?
Does it continue with Liam Jones and Lobb in the key defensive positions, or does it give the younger O’Donnell, Freijah or Busslinger opportunity. For mind, Freijah, in his first 13 games, has shown that he should be there. Another, who showed a bit in just 1 game last season was young Arthur Jones, good overhead for his size. Poulter, from Collingwood, is another who needs to move to the next tier to become a regular. Sanders at 20yo is another.
The gap in the Bulldogs list is its taller-mediums, with only 4 of a possible 9, with Harmes and Dale in the twilight zone.
Yes, the Bulldogs ‘just keep keeping on’, largely due to a very experienced recruiting group renowned for recruiting talented juniors.
Select 22:
The Bulldogs largely continue as last season. Jones and Lobb are their 2 best tall interceptors, and Freijah has earned a spot as the third tall defender. Jones and Duryea are their oldest players at 33yo, and while Duryea has been a very good acquisition some years ago, one wonders who takes over his position. Liberatore retired last year, then returned, how much longer has he got?
One might understand that the recruitment of Matt Kennedy of Carlton replaces the lost Macrae. But does Kennedy become a list-blocker for the likes of Sanders and other developing and junior players? Kennedy’s best was 2022, declining since. Harmes’s best was 2021 – another blocker!
So, hopefully more of the developing and junior players will be given opportunity and become regulars.
B: Duryea, L.Jones, Freijah
HB: Khamis, Lobb, Dale
C: Bramble, Trelour, B.Williams
HF: West, Ugle-Hagan, A.Jones
F: Darcy, Naughton, Weightman
R: English, Bontempelli, Liberatore
I: Richards, Saunders, Baker, Poulter
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About
It was 25 years ago that I began developing a model for analysing footy squad lists for the purpose of improving those lists into a premiership window. Since then, the model has been used to successfully predict premiership clubs and to improve either lop-sided or underdeveloped lists into premiership lists. Indeed, the model was used for an article that I had published as a double page spread in The Age 2005 Pre-Season magazine. Over the 25 years, I have analysed the annual lists of one particular club but have used it for other clubs upon request. It has always been on my bucket list to display the lists of all the clubs, using the model, which I've done since 2021 on my website - OzFootyListManager.com
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