What They're Saying - The Bulldogs Media Thread - Part 3

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brmi

Club Legend
Aug 16, 2009
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57D05EEF-51E8-4925-9AB2-2D43485B9CDF.jpeg
 

zucvv

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Aug 24, 2013
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AFL draft 2019: Former coach Brendan McCartney reveals what traits lead to draft success
Brendan McCartney, Herald Sun

When Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin first met “Clarry” late in his draft year, Goodwin said next time they saw each other he would have a pair of scales.

Oliver had a fantastic second half of the TAC Cup season but was still learning about what the game required at the top level.

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He had to lose some weight.

So, when the Demons interviewed Oliver at the draft camp, Goody had a pair of scales with him.

Oliver didn’t hesitate. He just jumped straight on. That showed me, there and then, that Clarry had great spirit.

Similarly, I never saw him flinch in a contest. He has really special qualities.

The closer he gets to the ball, the harder he goes at it.

Western Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli is the same, these days, not because it was always there but because it has been moulded and crafted.

For as much as recruiters get criticised for picking players who may not go on to long careers, Melbourne’s Jason Taylor and former Bulldogs recruiting manager Simon Dalrymple (now at Sydney) and their recruiting teams deserve great credit for identifying these two.

For different reasons, neither Bontempelli nor Oliver was talked up as a top pick midway through his draft year.

“Bonti” wasn’t always in the game, but when he was you just thought “wow”.

I’ll never forget meeting his family for the first time, including parents Carlo and Geraldine, and having a beer and wine and a great conversation around their fire, and just how comfortable it all felt.

That same night Goody almost sat on and squashed their pet dog but thankfully no damage was done.

These are the players you can build a club around.

WELLS-ROUNDED
When Joel Selwood spent a week with the Cats before he was drafted, Kenny Hinkley and I asked Stephen Wells if he could lock him up in a back room and keep him.

After drafting Joel, he was slow to begin full training because of his knee injury, not that it mattered.

I still remember his first contested training drill. He exploded into a stoppage and it was absolute carnage.

Joel always had this burning ambition in his eyes. He wanted to be great and he wanted to be part of a great team.

Matthew Scarlett had a natural self-assuredness and confidence.

I remember Bomber Thompson asking him early on, “Are you better than these guys in the team?”

Scarlo just looked him in the eye and said, “Yep.”

I didn’t see it as an arrogant boast but someone who knew what he was capable of.

Bomber gave him some feedback about getting bigger and stronger and he just said “Yep” and went away and trained and lifted in the gym with real intensity.

Joel Corey, on the other hand, virtually didn’t talk in his draft interview.

But Wellsy knew him really well and loved his humility, and his competitiveness.

I have always been a big believer that the best way to build your team for the long term is through the draft.

It’s why the next 48 hours is so important for clubs.

You want to work out as a club what you want to achieve, then go and find people and players who fit your mould.

For me it’s always been about taking competitive kids with plenty of character.

A competitive person is someone who is always looking to improve themselves, and, if they lose a contest, they are immediately asking themselves and others “Why did I lose that? What can I do to get better for the team?”

Steve Johnson was that person.

We all saw him kick goals from many angles and the sublime skills, but the thing that first stood out about Stevie was that he was an animal around the ball.

He hated getting beaten.

LISTEN UP, KID
But competitiveness is not just your Selwood and Jack Viney types.

There is fierce competitiveness in Lachie Hunter and Jack Macrae who keep running when others can’t, whether it’s to win an important ball or just help to support a teammate.

Melbourne’s greatest coach was Norm Smith.

His philosophy was based on outnumbering your opposition at the contest. I remain a firm believer in that.

But there are some other qualities which have stood out to me in players over more than 30 years in the game.

When I think back to the great drafts such as Geelong’s in 1999, when the club took Paul Chapman, Cameron Ling, Corey Enright and Joel Corey, yet missed out with some other high picks, some great lessons came out of it.

Often the ones who thrived were great listeners.

Players can question and discuss what they’re told, but ultimately when it came to their craft and receiving feedback, they listened and took it on board.

Having a work ethic and also having a respect, love and admiration for the game is also crucial.

After Ling’s first season, Bomber gave him some feedback and he went away that summer and worked as a brickie’s labourer.

He turned himself into an endurance beast.

Enright was one of the greatest picks in draft history.

But after his first season, he had to get fitter.

He went back to Kimba, where there were no fancy gyms, and came back as one of the fittest blokes at the club. He did it by running on a dirt road.

That’s the kind of drive and determination that sets the building blocks of your club — that integrity and character.

PRESSURE GAME
Self awareness is also a key quality.

Those who shone generally knew where they were at with their games, and what they needed to work on.

It meant when you broached things with them it generally wasn’t a shock.

Those things generally underpinned an ability to deal with the stress and anxiety of the game at the top level. There’s huge pressure on everyone.

We should never forget how demanding the game is on players, and especially young people.

Young men are still maturing in their mid 20s.

One night Geelong had a big win at Marvel Stadium and “Bomber” had seen some things, some trends, that he didn’t like.

As a coach, you’ve got to be continually striving for improvement and looking for things which could trip you up down the track.

So, Bomber was talking about some small issues and I remember Jimmy Bartel, without even really putting his head up, said “it’s easy from the second level”.

It’s something that really stuck with me.

Patience is important. Having faith in players who continue to find improvements in their game year by year, even though there are ups and downs, peaks and troughs.

Only the really special ones can find elite consistency in their first three years in the game. Selwood, Chris Judd and Lance Franklin did, but it’s a small group.

It wasn’t a bed of roses for Jimmy early and he had to work through some things early on in his journey to become a Brownlow medallist and triple premiership champion.

Brad Ottens’ first training session at Richmond was memorable, albeit for the wrong reasons.

He had a big night the night before with his mates and the Tigers had already been training for a month by that point.

But big Otto — who has a heart of gold, is a really sociable bloke, and is one of the greats — had a pretty poor first training run.

At times it looked like he hadn’t played the game, and his new teammates thought, “wow, this guy was pick two”.

After training, you could see how upset he was with himself, but Richmond’s coach at the time, Jeff Gieschen asked me to spend some time with him the following day.

We went for a kick-and-a-catch and a walk-and-talk and once he had settled a bit, he started kicking set shot goals off a few steps from 55m out.

That’s when I thought the kid is going to be all right. He turned out OK.

— with Jay Clark
 

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The Buck

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Always banging on about Geelong, he must have given Boyd and Moz a terrible time when he was coach, rubbing it in.

Bob Murphy refers to McCartney's rabbiting on about Geelong and denigrating Footscray/WB as club in his book Leather Soul. Murph had a heated exchange with McCartney about this and let him know what he thought of him.
 

Mattdougie

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never say never MD
desperate people do desperate things !

lol I would use my hand before anything that a$$hole dribbled out

astounded that any organisation would let him near a female team after his effort with us and his treatment of players
 
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Wouldnt wipe my a$$ with it.
I'd say it in a different way, but I think an opinion on McCartney is something that I can agree with MD on, lol.
 

ivan rassmussen

Premiership Player
Jun 28, 2007
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Just came across an old article while reading abc.net.au (followed a few NT footy links down a rabbit hole!):


Kobe Hodges at the end of the article - says he's a Bulldogs supporter and was relocating late last year to boarding school in Vic,
to have a better shot at AFL. Anyone heard of him? VitalDread perhaps?
 

weltschmerz

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May 23, 2019
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Just came across an old article while reading abc.net.au (followed a few NT footy links down a rabbit hole!):


Kobe Hodges at the end of the article - says he's a Bulldogs supporter and was relocating late last year to boarding school in Vic,
to have a better shot at AFL. Anyone heard of him? VitalDread perhaps?


Still playing as of this year
 

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Just came across an old article while reading abc.net.au (followed a few NT footy links down a rabbit hole!):


Kobe Hodges at the end of the article - says he's a Bulldogs supporter and was relocating late last year to boarding school in Vic,
to have a better shot at AFL. Anyone heard of him? VitalDread perhaps?
I personally haven't heard anything about it, though he won't fall into our zone of NGA
 

giblj

Cancelled
Nov 15, 2014
2,100
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Press conferences with the draftees all up on the club website. I always find it interesting to see who's living with who, Riley Garcia is living with the twin towers Josh Schache and Jordon Sweet and it seems like Louis Butler is staying with Fergus Greene during the week.
 
Press conferences with the draftees all up on the club website. I always find it interesting to see who's living with who, Riley Garcia is living with the twin towers Josh Schache and Jordon Sweet and it seems like Louis Butler is staying with Fergus Greene during the week.
Fergus probably thought he was getting an actual Butler.
 

LoveDamoBarrett

Team Captain
Oct 17, 2016
575
519
AFL Club
Western Bulldogs
Bob Murphy refers to McCartney's rabbiting on about Geelong and denigrating Footscray/WB as club in his book Leather Soul. Murph had a heated exchange with McCartney about this and let him know what he thought of him.

Imagine if Brendan McCartney didn't have a fallout with Shaun Higgins...
 

weltschmerz

Brownlow Medallist
May 23, 2019
11,245
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AFL Club
Western Bulldogs

Outine won't show the list, but here's the article text.
Champion Data ranks every AFL club’s list for 2020 season and has Richmond on top
DECEMBER 04, 2019
Richmond’s list is ranked No.1. Picture: Michael Klein
“I think their list is pretty good,” former Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said.
“I’m surprised they’re starting at No. 2 but I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished at No.2 because I think there is a projection upwards for them.
“Now they’ve added the two talls (Keath and Bruce), they’ve got a well-balanced squad and you would think a lot of their youngsters are going to improve again.
READ MORE:
Knee victim Libba’s advice for injured draftee
Next Biggie thing: Saints could regret draft call

“I would have thought they would be ranked in the top four or five, but I’m surprised West Coast is not second-best.
“It maybe creates a bit of pressure for them (the Bulldogs), but they’ve certainly got a good list.”
Bookmaker TAB has the Bulldogs as seventh-favourite at $13 to win next year’s premiership and $7 to make the Grand Final.
The
The arrival of Alex Keath has bolstered the Bulldogs’ list. Picture: AAP
Melbourne was the big slider in the rankings year on year.
The Demons were rated the best list before last season but are 12th entering 2020.
St Kilda sits at No.13 in the rankings despite a bumper trade period which saw the Saints land Brad Hill, Zak Jones, Paddy Ryder, Dougal Howard and Dan Butler.
Carlton has the third-worst list despite the Blues having 12 players in their squad who were selected as top-10 picks in the national draft.
The rankings are based purely on individual talent and are not linked to overall team statistics or system.
Champion Data’s new ratings formula this year takes into account individual players’ output, game time, what position they play, what they contribute to each position, durability and how likely they are to be selected.
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Western Bulldogs have the second-best list heading into 2020, according to a new-and-improved ratings formula from the AFL’s official number-crunchers.
Champion Data’s list ratings after the trade and draft period have the Bulldogs second behind only reigning premier Richmond for raw talent.
Stream the full or condensed replay of the 2019 Toyota AFL Grand Final on KAYO SPORTS. Get your 14 day free trial and start streaming instantly >
Collingwood (third) and Greater Western Sydney (fourth) round out the top four, with 2018 premiers West Coast fifth and 2019 preliminary finalist Brisbane a surprising 11th.
Premiers in 2016, the Bulldogs won eight of their last 11 home-and-away games this year to finish seventh before falling at the first September hurdle with an elimination final loss to the GWS.
However, Luke Beveridge’s team made two big additions during the trade period, securing key forward Josh Bruce from St Kilda and key defender Alex Keath from Adelaide to bolster either end of the ground.
Richmond’s list is ranked No.1. Picture: Michael Klein
Richmond’s list is ranked No.1. Picture: Michael Klein
“I think their list is pretty good,” former Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said.
“I’m surprised they’re starting at No. 2 but I wouldn’t be surprised if they finished at No.2 because I think there is a projection upwards for them.
“Now they’ve added the two talls (Keath and Bruce), they’ve got a well-balanced squad and you would think a lot of their youngsters are going to improve again.
READ MORE:
Knee victim Libba’s advice for injured draftee
Next Biggie thing: Saints could regret draft call

“I would have thought they would be ranked in the top four or five, but I’m surprised West Coast is not second-best.
“It maybe creates a bit of pressure for them (the Bulldogs), but they’ve certainly got a good list.”
Bookmaker TAB has the Bulldogs as seventh-favourite at $13 to win next year’s premiership and $7 to make the Grand Final.
The arrival of Alex Keath has bolstered the Bulldogs’ list. Picture: AAP
The arrival of Alex Keath has bolstered the Bulldogs’ list. Picture: AAP
Melbourne was the big slider in the rankings year on year.
The Demons were rated the best list before last season but are 12th entering 2020.
St Kilda sits at No.13 in the rankings despite a bumper trade period which saw the Saints land Brad Hill, Zak Jones, Paddy Ryder, Dougal Howard and Dan Butler.
Carlton has the third-worst list despite the Blues having 12 players in their squad who were selected as top-10 picks in the national draft.
The rankings are based purely on individual talent and are not linked to overall team statistics or system.
Champion Data’s new ratings formula this year takes into account individual players’ output, game time, what position they play, what they contribute to each position, durability and how likely they are to be selected.
 
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