Bulldogs’ General Manager of List and Recruiting, Sam Power, says it was pleasing for the Club to achieve what it set out to at the end of the 2022 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period.

Following the completion of the eight-day player movement period, the Dogs have acquired Liam Jones and Rory Lobb while strengthening their future draft hand.

“We’re really happy – we achieved the objectives we wanted going in - obviously firstly with Liam Jones and bringing him in as a key defender, and also Rory Lobb as a key forward,” Power told westernbulldogs.com.au.

“It was a stressful afternoon, but in the end we got everything we wanted done, while also strengthening our draft hand both this year and also next year.”

Power expects Lobb to be tasked with a similar role to what he had at Fremantle, while providing relief and support to the Bulldogs’ emerging stars.

“Rory had a really good year and finished top 10 in (Fremantle’s) best and fairest, so we just feel he’ll take the pressure off Aaron Naughton as a really experienced player,” Power said.

“It’s pretty hard to defend guys that are 206cm. He’s also a genuine second ruck that can also play forward, which will help Tim English as well.”

The Bulldogs will take selections 11, 21, 39 and 69 to the upcoming November draft – a luxury not afforded in recent seasons after matching bids for Next Generation Academy prospect Jamarra Ugle-Hagan (pick 1, 2020) and father-son Sam Darcy (pick 2, 2021).

They also secured a future-first, future-second and two future-fourth round selections in return for Josh Dunkley (Brisbane), Lachie Hunter (Melbourne) and Josh Schache (Melbourne).

“To have three picks around the top 35 – we haven’t had that for a couple of years due to what we’ve traded in but also the bids that we’ve had to match with Jamarra and Sam,” Power said.

“We were pretty keen this year to maintain three picks if we could within the first two rounds.

“You’ve got to keep looking ahead and think about what might happen down the track, so I think it gives us really good flexibility to come into this draft if we need to, but also next year which looks like a really strong draft at the top end.  It also gives us more assets from a trade perspective.”