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Thankyou Nathan Eagleton.

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Thanks for the memories Nath. Its been a pleasure to watch you over the years.
 
Goodbye to a great servant of the club.

I hope you stick around and help the younger players. You have a lot to offer the game besides on the field.

Thanks for everything.
 
I remember a game at the MCG about 6 or 7 years ago where the Eagle was playing and every single time he got the ball every Dogs supporter at the ground let out a collective groan (with good reason).

I couldn't believe the club kept him on the year after that, but he turned his career around against Sydney at the SCG and never looked back. If you isolated his last 100-150 games, they were pretty good. But, he was definitely lucky to survive that far.

Will miss his runs on the wing to slam a goal on the left from 50 out.
 

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Eagle is a great man :thumbsu: One of my favourite players ever, the way he turned his career around was an amazing effort, an absolute credit to himself

And I know its been mentioned but a class act not stealing any of Johnno's thunder, such a low profile retirement for a man who was not far off playing 300 games. Would love to see him involved with the club again in the future
 
:thumbsu:

I remember when a young player went down on the turf playing for Port Adelaide when during a game, he had a major problem with his heart that caused his loss of consciousness. The football world watched on as the then, young kid was taken from the field, to recover in a number of weeks and resume his game..

In a year or two after the incident, the young Eagleton was then traded to the Western Bulldogs in exchange for Brett Montgomery who went on to play in a premiership with Port iin 2004.

Great service and loyalty from another old timer at the club.
 
I tried to go back and quote my first ever post on big footy. It went something like "They should piss him back off to Port and give us Monty back." I would like to apologise to Nathan for those comments and am pretty sure I never made another comment like that about him since. In fact I really grew to like the Bald One and thought at times he was harshly treated by the MC.

Thanks Nathan for sticking it out with the club and good luck where-ever the next phase of your life takes you.

Will miss those long raking left footers with the ocassional helicopter thrown in.:D
 
He has been an exceptional player for our club. We're nearly all guilty of bagging him at times but he just stuck at it and he was full of surprises. Best of luck for the future to the bald eagle! He's gonna be missed. I might be the only one, but I genuinely think he could have played one more season and still had something to offer :)
 
Nathan Eagleton is an outstanding example of what a solid club man should be. He had limitations, particularly on the defensive side of his game, but some of his key attributes were pivotal in the Bulldogs rising up the ladder from the quagmire it was in circa 2002-2004 to challenge in the preliminary finals over the last few years.

Unfortunately a lot of supporters concentrated on his negatives and gave scant regard for the positives he brought to the team. And he deserved better.

Hopefully he gets the send off he deserves at our first home game in 2011 (only of course, if he wants it) because like a true clubman, he knew last Saturday night wasn't his time to take the limelight.

Well done on an excellent career with the Bulldogs Nathan. Hats well and truly off to you.
 

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Thank you Nathan you played some good games for us.

Yet for mind I can’t help but ask would he have played so many games elsewhere?

To me Nathan Eagleton typifies what is wrong with the Western Bulldogs. It not his fault it’s the coaches and Match Committee. It’s why we have played in 3 straight prelim loses (7 straight loses total). It’s having too much faith in your players. It’s not having the foresight or mental toughness to say Eagle has let us down in finals under that intense pressure we have to move him on or keep him as backup. This is why certain clubs are successful (re Collingwood) and other are close but never quite good enough.

I hate Collingwood yet I admire Malthouse and the Match Committee for how they went about getting a premiership. Jumped above us in 1 year.
Let’s see if Eade makes the tough decision this year.

I may sound negative yet the whole club has to develop a ruthless approve to next year. I think we are so close to the ultimate success that we must all demand it.
 
100action said:
^ i remember reading the exact same post somewhere, give it a rest eagleton was very good last year (see final vs geelong) and serviceable this year.
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I agree. People need to realise that Eagleton wasn't bad this year. He tried his guts out and never complained about having to play some games in the VFL.
 
LondonBulldog said:
Thank you Nathan you played some good games for us.

Yet for mind I can’t help but ask would he have played so many games elsewhere?

To me Nathan Eagleton typifies what is wrong with the Western Bulldogs. It not his fault it’s the coaches and Match Committee. It’s why we have played in 3 straight prelim loses (7 straight loses total). It’s having too much faith in your players. It’s not having the foresight or mental toughness to say Eagle has let us down in finals under that intense pressure we have to move him on or keep him as backup. This is why certain clubs are successful (re Collingwood) and other are close but never quite good enough.

I hate Collingwood yet I admire Malthouse and the Match Committee for how they went about getting a premiership. Jumped above us in 1 year.
Let’s see if Eade makes the tough decision this year.

I may sound negative yet the whole club has to develop a ruthless approve to next year. I think we are so close to the ultimate success that we must all demand it.
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Eagleton was never a walk up start for the dogs over the last couple of years, however was deservedly selected on merit for each and every game he played.

If we had a better option at Williamstown for that role, tell me who, otherwise why do you secure a position on the match committee based on your own merits and fix the problem.
 

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Its just my opinion and thats what the forum is all about.

Yeah he was handy, could bob up for a few goals but the game constantly changes.

Look at the very best teams of the last few years, Geelong, St. Kilda and last year Collingwood. Ask yourself why they were better than us. Were they more skillful? No Could every player in their team kick long goals like Eagle? No

Yet they had a mental and physical toughness what we didn't quite have in every player. In my opinion Eagleton was one of those. He played to his strenghts yet under pressure his weakness was exposed.
 
LondonBulldog said:
Its just my opinion and thats what the forum is all about.

Yeah he was handy, could bob up for a few goals but the game constantly changes.

Look at the very best teams of the last few years, Geelong, St. Kilda and last year Collingwood. Ask yourself why they were better than us. Were they more skillful? No Could every player in their team kick long goals like Eagle? No

Yet they had a mental and physical toughness what we didn't quite have in every player. In my opinion Eagleton was one of those. He played to his strenghts yet under pressure his weakness was exposed.
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Spot on London Bulldog.

Eagleton was a straight spot for Montgomery which was arranged by Wallet. Now that the careers of both have ended was this a good deal for the Dogs?

Eagle had some good seasons for the Dogs and Werribee but Monty was a gun at Port Adelaide and certainly had that mental and physical toughness that we need in the big games. Port clear winners!
 
I'll never regret seeing Eagle play for the Dogs, but Monty was the winner from the trade as many have said. After all, Monty has an AFL premiership medal to his name which sadly Eagle doesnt and now never will (unless he coaches in the future)
 
LondonBulldog said:
Its just my opinion and thats what the forum is all about.

Yeah he was handy, could bob up for a few goals but the game constantly changes.

Look at the very best teams of the last few years, Geelong, St. Kilda and last year Collingwood. Ask yourself why they were better than us. Were they more skillful? No Could every player in their team kick long goals like Eagle? No

Yet they had a mental and physical toughness what we didn't quite have in every player. In my opinion Eagleton was one of those. He played to his strenghts yet under pressure his weakness was exposed.
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Your right, this forum is all about opinion, but if your willing to put you opinion out there you also need to accept that someone may challenge it.

I agree with your general sentiments on Eagleton, but if we didn't have another player at Willi capable of filling that role, then Eagleton continues to get a game.

A great case in point in 2010 was the emergence of Roughead. If roughy didn't show what he did throughout the year, then Will would have played in the ruck for us all year and we would probably be having this same disucussion at the end of his career.

Not sure if it was a co-incidence or actual improvement but when Will did return to the seniors I think I saw him take more one grab marks than I had seen in his whole career.
 
DoggyStyle said:
Eagleton was never a walk up start for the dogs over the last couple of years, however was deservedly selected on merit for each and every game he played.
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I would dispute this. He was good early in 2009 but then despite having a dreadful 2 month patch he never lost his place in the team - actually he was never dropped for poor form from mid 2003 (when he was one step away from the AFL scrapheap) until the 2010 season, which really is an extraordinary statistic for someone who IMO was never in his team's best dozen players, let alone one who was prone to inconsistency throughout his entire career.

None of that takes away from what was a career fully realised and much longer than anyone could have hoped for when we initially got him. For mine it went a couple of seasons too long but I don't begrudge him personally for keeping the flame burning in search of a premiership.
 
Everyone seems happy to suggest that Eagleton should not have been in the team for various reasons, but no one is prepared to name who should have been taking his place.

There was probably 300 better players in the competition at any given time over his career who might have got a game ahead of him although clearly none of those 300 players were playing at Werribee or Wiliamstown.

Happy to reconsider my thoughts if anyone can put someone forward
 

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Thankyou Nathan Eagleton.

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