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In so many ways, the Western Bulldogs and Luke Beveridge have smashed the mould that tells us what to expect of AFL premiership teams.Beveridge entered the 2016 finals with hardly any of the KPIs that have come to be gospel in footy circles.For instance:1. The Dogs did not have enough experience, so it seemed. The team that won the preliminary and grand finals averaged 81 games per player, a ridiculously low number. Outside of the crusty veterans, Matthew Boyd and Dale Morris, and a 176-game player in Liam Picken, they were callow youth, with nine players having logged fewer than 50 games. Hawthorn in 2015 had players averaging 167 games.You needed to delve back to Adelaides 1997 outfit to find a less-experienced premiership team, the Crows coming in at 73 games per player. This explains why the Dogs were so nervous on grand final day. Or not!2. Beveridges team came from seventh place, which we know is unheard of. In the 23 years the AFL has had a top-eight finals system, no one has done it from there, or even reached the grand final before. Since the current finals configuration was adopted in 2000, the Bulldogs are the first to win from outside the top four. The reasons for that are simple: it requires winning four finals (and in the Bulldogs case, two of them interstate). The only previous team to win four finals, Adelaide in 1997, did it under the previous finals system.The conventional wisdom, spouted year-after-year, is that you have to finish top-four to win the flag. Its just been blown out of the water.3. The Bulldogs are not a high-scoring team. In the era of Alastair Clarksons Hawthorn, and following on from Bomber Thompsons Geelong, it has been accepted thought that you needed to be a heavy-scorer, probably in the top-four rankings, to win a flag. Hawthorn in their three consecutive flags, were No.1 every time. Fox Footys much-hyped premiership standard suggests a premiership team needs to score at least 100 points a game and concede fewer than 86 points, for example.But in the regular season, the Bulldogs were 12th in scoring with an average of 86 points per game. It is the lowest scoring rank of a premiership team since Paul Roos remarkably strong 2005 Sydney team, which defended so well and was 14th in points-for that season, eventually winning a premiership with eight goals on a picture-perfect afternoon.The key here is that when it counted, and when they played their best footy, the Dogs found a way to score an extra two goals a game in the finals: from the regular-season average of 84 points to 96 points. They conjured 14, 16, 13 and 13 goals in the big games, and continued to defend at the same rate (73 points per match). They did enough, albeit with an unconventional forward set-up with only one genuine tall (Tom Boyd), and with the seasons top goalkicker, Jake Stringer, having a stinker on grand final day.4. They did not spend big. Aside from the front-ended Tom Boyd contract, the Bulldogs have bucked the trend with football department spending, too. According to reports this week, they will be the first team in many years to win a flag without being in the top handful of clubs for football department spending, which counts player wages as well as coaching and other football costs. Beveridge has worked a miracle in this sense, for the whole point of the recently-introduced tax on this spending was based on the premise that the wealthy clubs were getting a clear advantage. So much for that theory.The lesson from all this? It is that there is hope. The Bulldogs were 14th in 2014, a short two years ago, which shows that with good coaching (and Beveridge has just written himself a ticket to years in this job), excellent recruiting (Simon Dalrymple and list manager Jason McCartney might be excused for the odd head-wobble this week) and smart development, a team can make quick strides.Fifteen of the 22 players who took the field on Saturday were taken after pick No.30 in the draft - an astonishing return on a modest investment. In the overall scheme of things at Whitten Oval, Dalrymple, the recruiting chief, has proved himself almost as valuable as the coach. Almost.All of these factors trump the idea that extracting early picks in the draft, which is fluky at best, are the key to improvement. Rather, the Bulldogs found organic growth from existing players like Picken, perhaps the most improved player in the competition and certainly the player of the finals, and from Jason Johannisen, a rookie. And, of course, they nailed the picks that they had Not to mention the great intangible of sports the world wide ... they had self-belief and it was never, ever shaken.Why not us? Why not, indeed. Willie Anderson Jersey . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. Manu Ginobili Jersey . -- The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 tie Saturday night that left the top of the Western Conference standings unchanged. https://www.cheapspurs.com/596j-joe-hamilton-jersey-spurs.html . 1, meaning problems for the doping controls at both major international sports events next year. The World Anti-Doping Agency provisionally suspended the Moscow Antidoping Center on Sunday, saying its operations must improve or a six-month ban on the facilitys accreditation will be imposed. Chimezie Metu Jersey . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. San Antonio Spurs Shirts . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. HOUSTON -- In a message to fans on Twitter, Texans defensive end J.J. Watt spoke for the first time since having back surgery.As I sit here, recovering from back surgery, the doctors wont really let me do much, so I end up just pacing around my house all day, Watt tweeted. Ive spent a lot of my time reading through the notes and letters that yall have sent to me and trying to respond to as many as I can. I know I wont be able to respond directly to everyone, so I wanted to write one note to all of you to say thank you. You make our jobs possible. You make them fun and you make difficult times like these much easier. So thank you, I truly appreciate you. See you on the field very soon.Watt had surgery last week to repair a herniated disk in his back. He played with the injury last season, but it was not thought to need surgery. Reccently, the injury flared up and surgery became necessary.ddddddddddddWatt will miss at least training camp and all of the preseason, but the rest of his timetable is uncertain. There is some concern about his availability for the early part of the season, sources familiar with Watts condition said.According to people familiar with the surgery who have not treated Watt, rest is critical in the immediate aftermath of such a procedure. The more he rests now, the quicker his recovery will be. It could take anywhere between six and 10 weeks.The Texans placed Watt on their physically unable to perform list Monday ahead of training camp.Watt has never missed a game since the Texans drafted him No. 11 in 2011. ' ' '