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Former Western Bulldogs vice president Susan Alberti says the team’s winless start to the AFLW season is unacceptable and their coach Nathan Burke has questioned his team’s professional standards as they slumped to an 0-5 record.
At the midway point of the season, the Bulldogs are 17th – only ahead of GWS, themselves without a win – and have endured blowout losses to Geelong (48 points) and Melbourne (42 points) and fell to newcomers Hawthorn in round two.
The Western Bulldogs are yet to register a win this season.Credit: AFL Photos
Alberti is a vocal advocate for women’s football and for her beloved Bulldogs but she described the Dogs’ most recent loss, by 18 points to St Kilda at the reopening of Whitten Oval last Friday night, as embarrassing.
“It was embarrassing watching our young women last Friday night,” Alberti told this masthead.
“They are aware this performance was unacceptable and have been working hard this week to turn things around … I want our Western Bulldogs AFLW [side] to give everything they have to pull off a win.”
Alberti had wanted to attend the game but had prior commitments with AFL Masters. She said she loved them but was “disappointed thus far”.
The Bulldogs’ 2023 slump comes after they made the finals last year for the first time since winning the premiership in 2018. They won seven of their 10 home-and-away games to finish seventh, though they bowed out in the elimination final to Collingwood by five points.
But with only five rounds left of the season, there is no way for the Dogs to even equal their efforts of last year.
‘That doesn’t cut it’
After their latest loss, Burke slammed his side’s sub-par professional standards.
“We’re not fit enough. I said that to the girls in there, we’re not going to make excuses over that because I think there are probably things outside of injuries, within our control, that would make us fitter,” Burke, who signed a two-year contract extension in 2022 and moved from a part- to full-time role, said.
Nathan Burke and captain Ellie Blackburn chat during the loss to the Demons.Credit: AFL Photos
“Just understanding the level of professionalism required now – skipping an ice bath or not eating properly, that doesn’t cut it anymore … I’m not going to point fingers at anyone, it’s general across the group. The whole league has raised the level, and we have to accept that and go with it as well.”
He added the group was “too nice on the football field”.
“They need to find that grunt that ‘Lamby’ [Kirsty Lamb] and ‘Blackers’ [Ellie Blackburn] do, so that for 72 minutes out here, they’re fighting for every single ball”.
‘The gap’s just way too big’
Former AFLW player Kate McCarthy, who is part of the Bulldogs coaching group, said their injury-interrupted pre-season and youth in the squad has impacted performance, but it’s really their inconsistency that was hurting them.
“Even though we did get that result of making finals last year, I think we’re still a pretty young and developing team minus kind of the key players [Blackburn and Lamb] … We don’t have that sort of real core group that’s been around for a long time.”
Amy McDonald of Geelong handballs during the round one AFLW match between Geelong Cats and Western Bulldogs at GMHBA Stadium, on September 02, 2023, in Geelong, Australia.Credit: Getty
The Dogs, like other inaugural clubs Carlton and Brisbane, lost a slew of crucial players through expansion to rival sides over the years, including Katie Brennan and Monique Conti to Richmond, Bonnie Toogood to Essendon and star defenders Libby Birch to Melbourne and Emma Kearney to North Melbourne.
However, McCarthy said after reviewing games this season there were probably three of the five they should have won but had too many missed opportunities and let easy goals slip late in games.
“When we’re good, we’re really, really good and we could probably match it with most teams in the competition, like we did for a couple of quarters with Geelong … But I think the major thing for us is our best performance compared with our worst performance in games is the gap’s just way too big.”
McCarthy said footy IQ and in-game tactics were other major areas of growth for the Dogs, including knowing when to attack and when to defend a lead. The Bulldogs kicked three goals in quick succession against St Kilda in the second quarter but then conceded three majors before half-time, giving away their lead.
“If you’re off for one quarter, or 10 minutes in a quarter, the game’s developed to a point now where you’ll get punished for your mistakes,” said McCarthy.
“We’ve gone into every game this year feeling like we’re a good chance of winning … We just haven’t quite been able to execute.”
As the Bulldogs won’t be qualifying for finals this year, McCarthy said an internal aim was to keep developing, especially younger players who have been thrown around different positions, and gain some confidence with some back-end wins.
That starts on Friday night at Whitten Oval against the eighth-placed Blues, who have three wins and two losses so far this season.
“We just want to make sure that we work on those things that we’ve identified in the first five weeks have cost us games and make sure that they don’t come back up in the last five weeks,” said McCarthy.
“Hopefully we can finish off really strong and maybe even up the ledger heading into the last round.”
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