Western Bulldogs Senior Coach Brendan McCartney has complete faith in the emerging key forward prospects on the Bulldog’s list, with a solid belief that their ambition and raw talent will soon be matched by an imposing presence and consistent output.
The Bulldog’s forward line woes have been well documented but Coach McCartney has openly backed the emerging talent in Liam Jones, Jarrad Grant, Jordan Roughead and Ayce Cordy to take the Dogs forward.
To listen to the full SEN radio interview with Brendan McCartney click on the media player above.
To listen to the full ABC Grandstand radio interview with Brendan McCartney, click here.
While there is no established key forward currently available on the senior list to aid the transition, McCartney believes that with time, good coaching and support the young men will develop into a solid forward outfit.
“They are all very good young men - by that I mean they have good training habits, they are good to coach, they listen, they learn quite quickly and they are all quite settled with the picture we have of the type of player we want them to become,” McCartney told SEN radio.
“We will keep putting what I call time well spent into them with some good coaching and good, strong direction.
“All of them are ambitious - they are not loud and brash at the moment but that will come with some more confidence, they are competitive by nature.”
McCartney has made no secret of his intentions to educate, develop and mould the players at Whitten Oval into a ruthless, physical and resilient outfit and has no illusions that such transitions take time.
His teaching background however has instilled a level of patience that will allow his vision to transpire.
The Bulldog’s key forward prospects are still a very young group with Grant the eldest at 22 years old and less than 50 games to his name.
Jones (31 games), Roughead (23 games) and Cordy (5 games) are all only 21 years old and do not currently have the match experience to shoulder the responsibility of the forward line exclusively.
“The young kids we have in our organisation number one have enough talent… and number two remain level headed kids who want to learn and listen and be good teammates and make their Club better,” McCartney told ABC Grandstand.
“Some of our young forwards, the one ingredient they do have is they are high quality people… they want to get better and they are ambitious.
“When their physical stature catches up with those ambitions we are going to have some good young players down there [in the forward line].”
In the meantime McCartney is holding the entire team responsible for the Bulldog’s scoring opportunities, calling on a number of small forwards and more experienced players across the ground to contribute.
The team has responded with 18 players adding to the goal tally so far in Season 2012 firming the belief that the Bulldogs will not rely on one or two scoring options going forward.
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