The best young players you've seen at the club

[Twodogs]

Just listening to SEN and they had a spot in where Adam Cooney was talking to Nathan Brown and it got me thinking how similar they were at the start of their careers. Both were young and prodigiously talented rovers with a knack for kicking a goal and I'd have both in the top five or so boom recruits who were going to save the club and lead us to premiership glory in my time watching us.

A top ten would be in no particular order

Adam Cooney
Nathan Brown
Ryan Griffin
Ron James
Brad Johnson
Callan Ward
Marcus Bontempelli
Ijlia Grgic
Chris Grant
Michael Maclean.

Maybe some if those kids didn't arrive with big reputations but their talent became evident very early on.

[1eyedog]

How about

Tom Boyd
Lachie Hunter
Marcus Bontempelli
Libba Jnr
Mitch Wallis
Jack MaCrae
Jake Stringer
Luke Dahlhaus
Toby McLean
Caleb Daniel

For instance...

[lemmon]

One of the more interesting ones is Andrejs Everitt. From memory he came into the team mid-year in his debut season and looked tremendous as a running half back. I distinctly remember him dobbing a long goal from 50 and thinking we'd found our next jet.

He was one of the few guys that would've been better off if he'd stopped growing. He became genuine key position size and lost all that dash he'd had early on. Would've been better off as an Andrew Mackie type.

[boydogs]

Stringer has to be in there

[Twodogs]

KT too. He came into the team as a teenager and kicks 5 or 6.

[bornadog]

The best young player I have ever seen is Chris Grant at 17 years old, closely followed by Leon Cameron. Those two 17 year olds in their first year (1990) were just sensational.

[1eyedog]

Leon Cameron. From memory he won a B&F in his first five years and a bunch of media awards too. He was what they call (albeit cringeworthy) quarterback off half back (ala Hodge) before that term became widely used. He set things up with a brilliant skillset that was seldom seen back then.

[jeemak]

I remember the buzz around Cameron and Grant in 1990 when I was a ten year old. I remember thinking the latter was the bees knees in 1992.

Cooney's raw talent was there for all to see late in his first season, and that got me hugely excited alongside the arrival of Griffen.

This current group of kids excites me most though.

[Twodogs]

I remember the buzz around Cameron and Grant in 1990 when I was a ten year old. I remember thinking the latter was the bees knees in 1992.

Cooney's raw talent was there for all to see late in his first season, and that got me hugely excited alongside the arrival of Griffen.

This current group of kids excites me most though.


I remember Chris Grant's first kick in AFL footy. He was just some gangly kid we'd taken with pick 105 in the year befores draft. But he was only 16 and he'd been picked in the firsts so the club must have seen something in him. Anyway back in those days I was a ground attendant. Sat on a stool just inside the fence at the Geelong road end in a blue coat and got payed to watch the footy.

We were kicking to the Geelong road end and a few minutes into the first quarter Chris led out and took a mark pretty much where the 50 metre line met the boundary line on the Doug Hawkins wing side of the ground. As he lined up his shot I got off my stool and went and stood next to the goal umpire. The kick went over both our heads for a goal and while the ball went back to the centre the goal umpire asked me who the kid in #29 was. I had to look in my footy record to tell him. Then I went back and sat next to my dad (the other ground attendant) who said "Chris Grant, hmm. We'll probably never hear that name again!"

[jeemak]

Love it.

Imagine how distracted from watching the ball with the correct technique, signalling and flag waving goal umpires would get these days with the likes of mid-20's Twodogs in their ears! Goal umpires were clearly made of sterner stuff back then.

[Twodogs]

Love it.

Imagine how distracted from watching the ball with the correct technique, signalling and flag waving goal umpires would get these days with the likes of mid-20's Twodogs in their ears! Goal umpires were clearly made of sterner stuff back then.

I took my glasses off and handed them to a goal umpire one day. Offered him my glasses would be better. I think he was smart enough not to take them.

[LostDoggy]

Let's see:

Scotty West
Chris Grant
Scotty Wynd
Brad Johnson
Luke Darcy
Rohan Smith
Caleb Daniel
Mitch Wallis
Libba Jnr
The Bont
Toby Maclean
Jackson Macrae
Luke Dahlhouse
JJ
Jake Stringer
Lachie Hunter
Tom Boyd

[Twodogs]

Scotty Wynd is a good get. The club worked really hard to get his signature. I think we paid for him to have a knee operation while he was still technically residentially bound to North Melbourne. I'm not 100% convinced on that though. I do know we signed him about 30 seconds after North's hold on him expired.

[KT31]

One of the not so obvious for me was Harbrow, watched him in an inter-club game and thought we had a find.

[bulldogtragic]

Scotty West
Jarrad Harbrow - great intraclub

[bulldogtragic]

One of the not so obvious for me was Harbrow, watched him in an inter-club game and thought we had a find.


Scotty West
Jarrad Harbrow - great intraclub

Looks like I was a couple of minutes slow, damn this prelim replay finishing as I was posting. :D

[Twodogs]

One of the not so obvious for me was Harbrow, watched him in an inter-club game and thought we had a find.


Scotty West
Jarrad Harbrow - great intraclub


Rocket had Harbrow and Hill play on one another right throughout their first preseason. It was great to watch.

[merantau]

Our current crop of young players are top shelf. From years gone by Quinlan, Templeton, Hawkins, Dempsey, McLean, Super, Scotty West, Rohan Smith, Johnno, Scott Wynd, were all very good from the off.

[GVGjr]

Two that stand out to me are Rohan Smith and Brad Johnson.

Smith was a half forward flanker when I first saw him playing for us. He was hard to miss with his mega mullet but the things that always stood out about his game was his balance, pace and kicking skills. He cut the mullet just before he played his first senior game.

Brad Johnson was just a great player as a youngster and he could run up and down the wings with great pace all game.

[Twodogs]

Two that stand out to me are Rohan Smith and Brad Johnson.

Smith was a half forward flanker when I first saw him playing for us. He was hard to miss with his mega mullet but the things that always stood out about his game was his balance, pace and kicking skills. He cut the mullet just before he played his first senior game.

Brad Johnson was just a great player as a youngster and he could run up and down the wings with great pace all game.


The mullet was still there in his first game-his mum was not happy. He wore #31 and kicked a goal from deep in the dead pocket at the Barkly st end against St Kilda. I've only ever seen Jim Edmond kick a goal from the same position.

[bulldogtragic]

Rocket had Harbrow and Hill play on one another right throughout their first preseason. It was great to watch.

As Akermanis labelled them, 'The Brothers' in Hill, Stack, Lynch & Harbrow - I thought we'd finally found ourselves some great indigenous talent for the longer term. Alas, Harbrow is the only real success and I honestly have no idea how Hill gets a game at West Coast.

[Twodogs]

As Akermanis labelled them, 'The Brothers' in Hill, Stack, Lynch & Harbrow - I thought we'd finally found ourselves some great indigenous talent for the longer term. Alas, Harbrow is the only real success and I honestly have no idea how Hill gets a game at West Coast.


The problem was we set up a bloke called Jason Mifsud in place to tutor and mentor the four indigineous players we took at that draft but he shot through after five minutes to take up an AFL position and left the club and the indigineous players in the lurch. I hope the job he took with the AFL was worth it because he pissed all over us for it.

[Mofra]

I remember the (2011?) intraclub and some short-arsed rookie with dreadlocks just kept finding the ball everywhere.
I left the game annoyed that our mids had regressed to the point where some rookie kid nobody else seemed to rate was probably the best player on the day thinking we're in for a long hard few years.

[craigsahibee]

I took my glasses off and handed them to a goal umpire one day. Offered him my glasses would be better. I think he was smart enough not to take them.

Was that the day Peter Foster went to shake the Goal Umpires hand for signalling a goal at the Barkly St end when it clearly was a behind?

[The Pie Man]

I remember the (2011?) intraclub and some short-arsed rookie with dreadlocks just kept finding the ball everywhere.
I left the game annoyed that our mids had regressed to the point where some rookie kid nobody else seemed to rate was probably the best player on the day thinking we're in for a long hard few years.

...and so it came to pass.... The first blocks of our first successful rebuild

Macrae/Stringer/Bont are the best I've seen come in as teenagers since Cameron & Grant

[Ozza]

I remember being at a president dinner function early in the season, in Bontempelli's first year - at the time, Bonti hadn't 'broken out' yet, it was actually a week before the Collingwood game where he shone for the first time. This night was when we lost to Brisbane - which was a low, low night for us.

Matt Boyd must have been injured, as he was speaking at the function. In the Q&A part, I remember Boydy saying that Bonti was the most talented player he had seen at the club. As much as I was excited by what he said, I remember thinking 'gee big call when you've played with Grant, Johnson, Aker, West, Griffen & Cooney'.

[kruder]

Cameron Faulkner easily the best draft bio that has ever entered the club :D

[Eastdog]

Let's see:

Scotty West
Chris Grant
Scotty Wynd
Brad Johnson
Luke Darcy
Rohan Smith
Caleb Daniel
Mitch Wallis
Libba Jnr
The Bont
Toby Maclean
Jackson Macrae
Luke Dahlhouse
JJ
Jake Stringer
Lachie Hunter
Tom Boyd

That is a great list of names :)

[Torpedo]

What could have been if we had been able to retain Shane Loveless!

[Bulldog4life]

Hard to go past Brian "Choco" Royal for me. In his first year for the Bulldogs, he won the Charles Sutton Medal, the Club's Best and Fairest award.Not sure if that has been repeated but I doubt it. A great player for the doggies and a standout for me.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

The best young one's that I instantly thought 'woah this is something special here', irrespective of what they ultimately finished up like. some of these were when i heard them on radio - because I never got to see many games as a kid, and the only time I got to see us on TV was when we moved to the outback and only had ABC...my Dad couldn't change the channel on me then so I got to watch the highlights on The Winners each week!

Brian Royal
Steve Wallis
Steve and Rod Macpherson
John Georgiades
Ron James
Chris Grant
Leon Cameron
Rohan Smith
Brad Johnson
Luke Darcy
Daniel Hargreaves
Nathan Brown
Patrick Bowden
Ryan Griffen
Malcolm Lynch
Callan Ward
Marcus Bontempelli

[Twodogs]

Brian Royal won the B&F in his first year straight from Bairnsdale. That R1 1983 side when him and Steve Wallis and Andrew Purser and Jim Sewell and Chris Hansen all playing their first game with us changed expectations. Five weeks in and we are 4 and 1 and we've already won more games than we did the previous two years combined.

[chef]

Chris Grant is number 1 in my life time, what he did as a 17 year old KPF is still amazing.

Caleb Daniel deserves a shout. Has looked like hes a gun from day dot.

[ratsmac]

I remember Chris Grant's first kick in AFL footy. He was just some gangly kid we'd taken with pick 105 in the year befores draft. But he was only 16 and he'd been picked in the firsts so the club must have seen something in him. Anyway back in those days I was a ground attendant. Sat on a stool just inside the fence at the Geelong road end in a blue coat and got payed to watch the footy.

We were kicking to the Geelong road end and a few minutes into the first quarter Chris led out and took a mark pretty much where the 50 metre line met the boundary line on the Doug Hawkins wing side of the ground. As he lined up his shot I got off my stool and went and stood next to the goal umpire. The kick went over both our heads for a goal and while the ball went back to the centre the goal umpire asked me who the kid in #29 was. I had to look in my footy record to tell him. Then I went back and sat next to my dad (the other ground attendant) who said "Chris Grant, hmm. We'll probably never hear that name again!"

The amazing thing about this story is Chris Grant kicking 50 metres! He didn't have a very big kick for such a big guy. He was a brilliant field kick though, that's for sure.

[jeemak]

Hard to go past Brian "Choco" Royal for me. In his first year for the Bulldogs, he won the Charles Sutton Medal, the Club's Best and Fairest award.Not sure if that has been repeated but I doubt it. A great player for the doggies and a standout for me.

Not many players kick 1.5 goals a game as a rover/pocket. Averaging one a game is good, averaging two is elite.

[LostDoggy]

In my 40 years of following the Dogs, my top 6 would be Hawkins, Grant, Cameron, James, Johnson and Bontempelli in no particular order. All debuted as 16-18 year olds. A player like Brian Royal was very good straight way, but did debut as a 21 year old so doesn't quite fill the brief for mine.

[LostDoggy]

The amazing thing about this story is Chris Grant kicking 50 metres! He didn't have a very big kick for such a big guy. He was a brilliant field kick though, that's for sure.

Couldn't agree more Ratsmac.
Turtle was the best field kick that i've ever seen.