They say you can’t teach old Dogs news tricks, but you can find ways to keep them young.

Fielding one of the most youthful sides in Coach Brendan McCartney’s tenure in last Sunday’s win against Melbourne, veteran defender Dale Morris said the injection of young talent to the senior side has been reinvigorating. 

 “I love it. Having these young guys come in it makes me excited,” Morris said.

“It gets me excited to be down back to see what they can do and see the growth in our team, in the back six, the midfield, the forwards.

“On the weekend for instance the average age on the bench was probably 19 which I haven’t seen in a long time - it’s exciting and it’s great to see where the Club is going to go.”

In fact ten players that lined-up against the Demons were 21-years-old or younger, with only six of the side having over 100 career AFL games to their name.

But what’s also pleased the veteran defender in 2014 has been the stability of the Dogs’ back six.

Shaun Higgins, Robert Murphy, Liam Picken and Easton Wood have not missed a game this season, while Morris himself has been absent in just two games through injury and suspension.

“We’ve played a fair bit of footy together now, and we’ve got guys like Aussie, Sam Darley, Tom Young, these guys coming into the team and they are settling in really well,” he said.

Emphasising the importance of the stand-alone VFL side, Morris said the whole Club approach was assisting the transition to AFL for young players.

“They know the way we want to play so when they do get the opportunity to come in they are already up to speed.

“Especially with our Footscray team it makes it a lot easier for them to acclimatise to AFL footy and to get used to the back six.

“It’s really great to see and exciting to see this back six group develop so quickly really, me and Murph are down there as the old guys but everyone else is quite young down there and haven’t had much experience down back.”