What can we learn from the 1998 team?

[Tassie Devil]

My humblest grovelling apologies to the highly talented and insightful original author of this very fine thread which has paved the way for all of us to a future path of success and enlightenment. Good enough?

Would've been happy with a fuck off if I'm honest. But thanks haha

 

[DinkumDog]

Would've been happy with a fuck off if I'm honest. But thanks haha

Now I know what to write next time

 

[Bob dog]

The only thing we can learn from is the 2019 season.
What can we do better?
What went wrong?
Maintain desire if behind on the scoreboard early.
Do we have time to pull a rabbit out of our asses?

 

[Chris Harding]

Been thinking long and hard about our current team and the direction we're going in. Do we have enough class to challenge? Why aren't we bringing in more talent?

Looking back at the Bulldogs of old it was all about attitude and togetherness. Never say die and fight for the guy besides you, which is why I fell in love with this club at a very young age. When I'm having a rough day I always look back at those games in 1998 and realise that you should never give up, and that it's not all about 'talent'.

We're clamouring over getting another centre, better halves, wingers, hooker etc. but let's not kid ourselves. Looking back to 1998 Lester & Marteene were really no world beaters. Yes, Ryan was injured for the final but you can't say he was world class either. Corey Hughes as a 5/8? Grimaldi, Relf, Reardon, Stone, Hughes, Thompson in the pack?

Not slagging these guys off, just pointing out that they're far far far from big names. But at the end of the day they put in for the club and gave their all. Their togetherness nearly brought us to an impossible GF win.

Maybe we all just need to be patient for the club to bring our attitude around to allign with the times of the past?

I still look back at the lineup we had in 2002. At the start of the season nobody thought we had the players to make the eight, let alone be a premiership threat. If the salary cap scandal hadn't hit us at season's end those players, who were rated as average at the start of the season, would have been our best side ever.
2004 took an embattled side, recovering from an even bigger scandal, to have the grit and determination to uphold the Bulldogs spirit and win through.
Will we ever see that same team spirit, and determination to push through against all odds, again? In this new game, I'm not so sure.

 

[Chris Harding]

The only thing we can learn from is the 2019 season.
What can we do better?
What went wrong?
Maintain desire if behind on the scoreboard early.
Do we have time to pull a rabbit out of our asses?

Last time we did that, they beat us in the GF.

 

[Malla]

We can't learn a thing from 98. The game has changed so much since then.

 

[Chris Harding]

our guys were able to go on the run they did at the end of the season because morale was up... and morale was up because they continued to turn up despite the results.. our wins all came on the back of attitude and turning up for your mate... we might be lacking in key areas but it could be as simple as one or two guys having their breakout seasons that will really shake things up in regards to our attack.. JMK showed glimpses in 2019, Wakeham could reproduce his Canterbury Cup/ Fiji form in FG... we just never know.. there is a lot to be optimistic about though

Our defence tightened up, and we frustrated teams into error.

It was our lack of defence, and our error rate in the early part of the season that put us behind in the race.

How many times did we have a scoring opportunity, only to blow it with a bad pass or dropped ball? Getting a tighter defence, and focussing on simple ball handling will get us further this year.

 

[GDR]

We can't learn a thing from 98. The game has changed so much since then.

I don't agree... the core values are still the same and will never change.. skill level, fitness, rules etc may have all changes, but executing those little well can still make a big difference.

 

[Howard Moon]

Our defence tightened up, and we frustrated teams into error.

It was our lack of defence, and our error rate in the early part of the season that put us behind in the race.

How many times did we have a scoring opportunity, only to blow it with a bad pass or dropped ball? Getting a tighter defence, and focussing on simple ball handling will get us further this year.

We were shocking with our fundamentals and I can only put that down to so much inexperience in the group, as well as so many new combos.. By the end of the season even Jayden was relatively safe with his hands.. there is no reason why we won't begin the new season the way we finished in 2019

 

[bullanth]

I'm not the biggest fan of Pay but the fact the team were playing like they were towards the back end of the season is testiment to him. Not saying he'll be a success here but...

As for folkes in 98. The fact that we were ripped apart at the beginning in every semi to me signifies that his game plan wasn't good enough. It was up to the players to turn it around, no?

 

[74WOOF]

Amen

 

[Boxer]

Learn nothing from 98 as they didn’t win the Comp now 04 is another level.

 

[Malla]

I don't agree... the core values are still the same and will never change.. skill level, fitness, rules etc may have all changes, but executing those little well can still make a big difference.

Core values are not the same mate lol

 

[albatross]

1998 just shows that teams with less talent can still go on winning runs and make finals. Momentum and confidence mean a lot, and the coach is pretty important obviously.