The good, the not so good, the exhilarating, the heartbreaking… we’ve taken a look at the Moments That Mattered during the AFL season.
From now until the full playing group returns for the start of pre-season on November 25, westernbulldogs.com.au will count down 19 moments that had a big impact in 2019.
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The bird is in your hands.
Is it dead? Is it alive?
We genuinely have no idea… not that we’re doubting Bevo’s genius for one second.
Dale Morris and Rhylee West are to blame for their horrendous acting skills.
No matter what happened to the bird, 2019 breathed life into the AFL careers of five young Bulldogs and it got us pretty excited.
Bulldogs fans got a look behind the scenes, as a series of jumper presentations and other closed-door moments involving West, Bailey Smith, Will Hayes, Lachie Young and Ryan Gardner were revealed.
But more importantly, Bulldogs fans saw some exciting talent unveiled on the field.
Let’s start with Smith.
What a debut season. The teenager with the long, flowing mullet looked right at home in red, white and blue – particularly when rocking the ’89 Fightback guernsey. He scored a win on debut against Sydney and played every game in 2019 to be one of the competition’s rising stars.
Debuts for Hayes and Young came in round five against Carlton – unfortunately not the result they or we would have been hoping for.
But both were great stories.
After five years of hard work in the VFL for Footscray, Hayes finally got his opportunity at AFL level in his first year on the senior list – going on to play nine games for the season.
Young was a rookie pick in the 2018 draft, and remarkably it took him just five weeks to earn a call up for the first of his six games in 2019.
Then there’s Gardner – and what a whirlwind week it was for him.
He made his way onto the Bulldogs’ list on the Monday in the mid-season rookie draft, got told he’d be playing on Tuesday, and ran out on Sunday against the West Coast Eagles in Perth.
Slotted a nice debut goal too.
Last but not least, the son of the West – seven-time Charles Sutton Medallist, Scott – finally got a call up late in the season, after beating down the door in the VFL.
It took no time at all for him to endear himself to the Bulldogs’ faithful.
A debut goal in a big win against Fremantle in round 19 got a big roar, and many will remember him throwing himself courageously head-first at the footy as the Bulldogs chased a finals spot in round 23 in Ballarat.
Here’s hoping all five can build on their promising maiden seasons in 2020!
Counting down the 2019 Moments That Mattered…
