After a 45-point defeat at the hands of Melbourne to open their 2024 season, there’s one suggestion Kane Cornes can’t cop from the Western Bulldogs.
It’s not just a one-game sample size.
After being in the game up until three-quarter time, Luke Beveridge’s Bulldogs fell away late in the game. The Demons booted six goals to two in the final term after generating 11 scores from just 13 inside 50s.
Inside 50s and contested possessions were ultimately even, while the clearance count was almost identical.
But Cornes highlighted several issues that have plagued the Dogs in recent years and were again on show on Sunday.
Cornes pointed to Melbourne’s 141 marks as a sign of poor defence of the ground from Beveridge’s men and was also hot on the five-goal swing towards the Demons at the end of the first term and start of the second.
He also believes Beveridge allowed Melbourne captain Max Gawn to do as he pleased after a poor showing when physically targeted by Sydney the week before and questioned the selection philosophy of leaving out Jack Macrae and making Caleb Daniel the sub.
While Macrae did have a fitness concern, both players are All-Australians.
“Look, they will win their next couple, the Western Bulldogs. They’ll be off Broadway for a while and the pressure will dissipate, they’ll play Gold Coast in Ballarat and then West Coast, and their draw is soft,” Cornes said on SEN Breakfast.
“But don’t tell me it’s a one-game sample size for the Western Bulldogs. This has been going on for seven years and once again I was watching yesterday thinking this is the exact same Western Bulldogs despite a whole group of new assistant coaches. The same coach is there and the same issues arise after a full pre-season of reviewing it and trying to address it.
“Against a good opposition in tough conditions, essentially they did not want to defend the ground.”
Daniel Pratt, Alex Johnson and Jarryn Geary all joined the Bulldogs’ assistant coaching ranks over the off-season, while Matthew Egan was hired to a new role in the club’s footy department hierarchy.
It came following a review of the Dogs’ operations that was a result of a 2023 campaign that fell short of expectations with 12 wins.
After the year that was in 2023 and Justin Longmuir’s recent contract extension, Beveridge entered the new season as the most under pressure coach across the AFL landscape.
Since winning the premiership in 2016, the Dogs have played finals on four occasions but never finished in the top four.
With games against the Suns, Eagles, Cats and Bombers to come over the following month, the Dogs’ prospects in 2024 will become clearer.