The Western Bulldogs’ difficult start to the season continued on Saturday afternoon, losing to Adelaide in Ballarat, but what is actually going wrong for last year’s runners up?
David King believes the Dogs have lost their contested brand of footy and doesn’t believe their midfielders, outside of Jack Macrae, are having their usual level of impact.
“They’re in real trouble, it’s not the winning or the losing – it’s the manner and it’s the how,” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“I think at the moment there’s far too many holes in what they’re doing, they don’t play the contested brand that they’ve been famous for.
“Over the last five years, they’ve been one of the toughest teams to play against in terms of having to front up, having to win contest after contest after contest and then watch them flick that ball around with those little handballs and work their way through.
“They just don’t win the contest at the moment, they really don’t, their midfield is just become a little bit humdrum.
“Jack Macrae has had a great year numbers wise, his damage has been there the first three to four weeks but who’s next?”
Bailey Smith ranks third in the AFL for disposals per game so far this year, but King doesn’t believe his disposals have been at a high standard.
“Bailey Smith is getting that much footy, he should be the best midfielder in the comp, but I watched him again on the weekend – his ball use is just awful at the moment,” he said.
King is also worried about an All-Australian Dogs defender: “Caleb Daniel, he can’t kick the footy anymore, I don’t know what’s happened to him.”
“They’ve got to reprogram a couple, throw Caleb Daniel in the middle, he might only get 20 touches but his 20 might be better than someone else’s 40.
“They’ve got problems.”
The Western Bulldogs will be hoping to bounce back when they take on Essendon at Marvel Stadium in Round 7.