Energetic forward Cody Weightman says he’s more than happy to regain Aaron Naughton’s company inside 50 this weekend, if that’s how team selection plays out.
Prior to the bye, Naughton spent a period of the round 14 match against North Melbourne in defence to help offset the in-game injury losses of defenders Liam Jones and Tim O’Brien.
Weightman thrived at the opposite end – kicking a career-high six goals in his 50th AFL match – but told media he hopes to see the number 33 back alongside him against Fremantle on Saturday.
“I love playing with Naughty – he’s pretty selfless as a player, and he’s obviously an amazing athlete,” Weightman said.
“My personal hope is that he’s forward with me, but whatever end of the ground he is at – obviously we’ve been hurt a bit with injury down back so if that’s where he needs to be, I’m sure he’ll play just an effective a role.
“I’m happy to have him forward though.
“We’re lucky this year that we were pretty stocked for key (talls), so Josh Bruce, even James O’Donnell who’s showed a bit of his resume now and impressed early with some of his aerial stuff, Gardy was a top five B&F finish for us last year - we’ll have full confidence in whoever comes in to play that role.
“Certainly replacing guys like Jonesy is going to be hard though, especially when he was having such a great year.”
The Bulldogs will launch Kidzmania, a new, two-week concept celebrating all things kids this Saturday afternoon at Marvel Stadium.
Weightman said it’s great to see young kids getting involved and learning their love for footy.
“The kids are all excited – I still remember as a family, driving to Caulfield and then getting the train in to come to the footy as a young kid and just loving it,” he recalled.
“The fact that the kids can come free hopefully gets more in the gates and bigger crowds.
“It’s a great initiative and I think the kids really enjoy it. If we can facilitate more kids getting to games, it can improve the quality of the game in the future.
“There’s obviously other sports trying to pinch our young ones’ interests, and I know as a young kid myself I didn’t get to go to the footy as much as I would’ve liked being a fair way out.
“The more opportunities we can get kids to the games, they’ll just fall in love quicker which can only be a good thing for us.”
For more on Kidzmania and/or how to redeem the Kids Go Free tickets, please click here.
