The bulldog tragician
08-08-2014, 06:11 PM
This article in today's Age aptly sums up our dilemma of whether we will need to make a bold even risky recruiting move to get success:
There is an unspoken acknowledgement at the Western Bulldogs that for all their rich promise, their young guns still need a genuine star forward to polish their industry or they will ultimately go no further than the teams that peaked with a trifecta of preliminary final defeats from 2008-10.
There is also an understanding that such a player will only come at a painful price.
Coach Brendan McCartney on Thursday would not buy into the prospect of his club trading "aggressively" to improve its draft position, reiterating what he has said many times in three years in the job: that he doesn't talk about draft targets or prospective strategy come October.
"In the end, we'll do everything we can to have a team out on the ground that doesn't have any holes and weaknesses," he said.
The longest-standing and most glaring of those is in the forward-50 arc. McCartney is confident he has tall defenders, led by Jordan Roughead, who need only time to ensure a smooth transition when Dale Morris retires. But the search for a key goalscoring target continues.
On Wednesday evening, the Dogs recruiters were in Geelong wooing the name at the top of their wish list, Falcons forward Paddy McCartin. They ended up staying for dinner, but know full well that Matt and Jo McCartin's table has been a busy place of late, so heavy has the traffic been of similarly besotted club officials.
They are in a long queue, but the fact that the Bulldogs think they're a chance indicates there could be a willingness to engage in some high-stakes trading to better their first pick and have a genuine crack at the player widely held to be the No.1 pick of 2014.
As one AFL recruiter said: "There's not many clubs wouldn't jump at the chance to get their hands on a Paddy McCartin, and you need to look at all ways and means to do that - without giving up your other strengths." Self-evidently, he added: "That's the hard part."
The suspicion that headquarters is breathing down the neck of Greater Western Sydney, agitating for the pursuit of mid-20s guns ahead of more high draftees with a view to winning games sooner than later, hints at eye-catching movement in this year's trade period. The Bulldogs now have some serious bargaining chips, but it's hard to see them parting with any of them.
"The demographic of their list, it's Ryan Griffen, then down to Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae, Jake Stringer ... they're the blokes they want playing for them for the next 10 years,'' the recruiter said.
Liam Jones has spent the past five weeks in the VFL, where Ayce Cordy has played the entire season. McCartney remained bullish about Cordy's development on Thursday, happy that he has trained and played every week for the first time in a now six-year career that has featured just 19 games.
"I haven't been in as much of a hurry with Ayce as other people this year," he said of a player who turned 24 on Wednesday.
If the solution isn't coming from within, the disappointing form of other key forward prospects has muddied the equation further down the pecking order.
West Adelaide's Sam Durdin is rated a top-10 draft pick, but one observer reckoned he's hardly touched the ball this season. Calder Cannon Peter Wright, a 203cm forward-ruckman, has also been underwhelming.
The Dogs aren't the only club crying out for a key forward, but must long for the sort of draft fortune that allowed Gold Coast to nab the exciting Tom Lynch with pick 11 in 2010 (the Suns' seventh selection of that draft).
If they pursue a player rather than a pick - such as Giants Tom Boyd and Jonathon Patton, over whom all the have-nots salivate - the cost would be equally exorbitant.
How they choose to proceed could shape how far McCartney's team rises. Given the gravity of the decisions to come, there's little wonder he doesn't want to talk about it.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldogs-weigh-up-the-cost-of-moving-forward-20140807-101gw7.html#ixzz39mn6GWUwhttp://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldogs-weigh-up-the-cost-of-moving-forward-20140807-101gw7.html
There is an unspoken acknowledgement at the Western Bulldogs that for all their rich promise, their young guns still need a genuine star forward to polish their industry or they will ultimately go no further than the teams that peaked with a trifecta of preliminary final defeats from 2008-10.
There is also an understanding that such a player will only come at a painful price.
Coach Brendan McCartney on Thursday would not buy into the prospect of his club trading "aggressively" to improve its draft position, reiterating what he has said many times in three years in the job: that he doesn't talk about draft targets or prospective strategy come October.
"In the end, we'll do everything we can to have a team out on the ground that doesn't have any holes and weaknesses," he said.
The longest-standing and most glaring of those is in the forward-50 arc. McCartney is confident he has tall defenders, led by Jordan Roughead, who need only time to ensure a smooth transition when Dale Morris retires. But the search for a key goalscoring target continues.
On Wednesday evening, the Dogs recruiters were in Geelong wooing the name at the top of their wish list, Falcons forward Paddy McCartin. They ended up staying for dinner, but know full well that Matt and Jo McCartin's table has been a busy place of late, so heavy has the traffic been of similarly besotted club officials.
They are in a long queue, but the fact that the Bulldogs think they're a chance indicates there could be a willingness to engage in some high-stakes trading to better their first pick and have a genuine crack at the player widely held to be the No.1 pick of 2014.
As one AFL recruiter said: "There's not many clubs wouldn't jump at the chance to get their hands on a Paddy McCartin, and you need to look at all ways and means to do that - without giving up your other strengths." Self-evidently, he added: "That's the hard part."
The suspicion that headquarters is breathing down the neck of Greater Western Sydney, agitating for the pursuit of mid-20s guns ahead of more high draftees with a view to winning games sooner than later, hints at eye-catching movement in this year's trade period. The Bulldogs now have some serious bargaining chips, but it's hard to see them parting with any of them.
"The demographic of their list, it's Ryan Griffen, then down to Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae, Jake Stringer ... they're the blokes they want playing for them for the next 10 years,'' the recruiter said.
Liam Jones has spent the past five weeks in the VFL, where Ayce Cordy has played the entire season. McCartney remained bullish about Cordy's development on Thursday, happy that he has trained and played every week for the first time in a now six-year career that has featured just 19 games.
"I haven't been in as much of a hurry with Ayce as other people this year," he said of a player who turned 24 on Wednesday.
If the solution isn't coming from within, the disappointing form of other key forward prospects has muddied the equation further down the pecking order.
West Adelaide's Sam Durdin is rated a top-10 draft pick, but one observer reckoned he's hardly touched the ball this season. Calder Cannon Peter Wright, a 203cm forward-ruckman, has also been underwhelming.
The Dogs aren't the only club crying out for a key forward, but must long for the sort of draft fortune that allowed Gold Coast to nab the exciting Tom Lynch with pick 11 in 2010 (the Suns' seventh selection of that draft).
If they pursue a player rather than a pick - such as Giants Tom Boyd and Jonathon Patton, over whom all the have-nots salivate - the cost would be equally exorbitant.
How they choose to proceed could shape how far McCartney's team rises. Given the gravity of the decisions to come, there's little wonder he doesn't want to talk about it.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldogs-weigh-up-the-cost-of-moving-forward-20140807-101gw7.html#ixzz39mn6GWUwhttp://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/bulldogs-weigh-up-the-cost-of-moving-forward-20140807-101gw7.html