The Western Bulldogs are the worst team in the competition for ball movement, damning new statistics revealed as their “pretty ordinary” kick game was exposed by Fox Footy’s David King.
Speaking on AFL 360, King said he was “really worried” about the Bulldogs’ style in 2023 as alarming figures show some of their stars aren’t even ranked in the top 200 for kick efficiency.
As it stands after five rounds, the Dogs are anchored in 18th for what they do with the footy – after sitting first in 2019, second in 2020, third in 2021 and sixth last year.
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“I don’t know where their game’s gone,” he said.
“The thing that really worries me is their strength area of the last four to five years was their ball movement. Able to flick the ball around and get the game out and going.
“(They’re) last! They can’t move the ball coast-to-coast.
“They are 18th. There’s some pretty poor teams in the comp right now.
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“18th once they go inside 50 and 18th by foot.
“I don’t know whether it’s confusion across the board about how they want to play, I don’t know whether it’s confusion in terms of where the options are going? Is it just skill execution?
“They played in a wet game so I’m not judging them on last week’s game … but the games where it was dry, tell me if you can work out where they are absolutely going with the ball.”
Stats show the Dogs do have four players inside the top 75 for kick efficiency, including skipper Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Liberatore, Bailey Smith and Jack Macrae.
But King said some of their players were making good kicks “look pretty ordinary”.
“Some of the kickers in this team have been good kicks along the journey,” he said.
“The guys on the edges who are supposed to the damage – Bailey Dale has slipped to 123rd in the competition (for kick ranking). Ed Richards 140th. Caleb Daniel 155th – now he never used to miss. 155th kick in the competition. JJ (Jason Johannisen) 281st. Bailey Williams 323rd and Adam Treloar outside of the top 500 – those numbers are stark.
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“There’s no real science at the moment.
“Is it the plan or is it the kickers?”
AFL 360 panellist Garry Lyon said he was shocked to hear the rankings for Dale and Daniel.
“Dale and Daniels are the interesting ones for me. When they were flying, they were the two,” he said.
“Dale could run, carry and hit deep.
“Daniel could pick the eyes out of anything.
“I don’t know whether they’ve gone from what they were really good at.”
King said the fact the Dogs were unable to score from the inefficient delivery was a big problem for coach Luke Beveridge.
“They’ve kicked nine, five, 10, 12 and eight goals for the year – 44 in total. Only Hawthorn have kicked fewer,” he said.
“They can’t move the ball.
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“They’ve looked pretty ordinary.
“I think this is a significant investment in fixing this – it might take three or four weeks.
“They are a long way from that top four or six bracket.”
The Bulldogs, who finished in eighth last season after the grand final appearance in 2021, have travelled to Perth for this Friday’s clash with Fremantle at Optus Stadium.
Both sides sit 2-3 with similar points conceded – but it’s the Dockers with the better attack end so far this season with almost 100 more points on the board across the opening five rounds.
