WESTERN Bulldogs forward Jake Stringer has called on the younger Dogs to take on more responsibility in the absence of captain Bob Murphy.
The Bulldogs' worst fears were confirmed on Monday, with Murphy rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the dying moments of Sunday's loss to Hawthorn.
Stringer said the shattered playing group had discussed how they could best fill the void left by their skipper, acknowledging that the younger players would particularly need to step up.
"It [the team meeting] was more based around his leadership," Stringer told Fox Footy on Monday night.
"We've got some really good experience with Matthew Boyd, Dale Morris and Easton Wood as well, so it's just about the younger guys stepping up a little bit more and taking a bit more ownership on the group."
Stringer likened the Bulldogs' current situation to when midfielder Tom Liberatore ruptured his ACL in last year's NAB Challenge, missing the entire season through injury.
"He went down but then Mitch Wallis, Koby Stevens, Lachie Hunter – all these blokes stepped up," Stringer said.
"Matty Suckling, 'JJ' [Jason Johannisen] and 'Biggsy' [Shane Biggs] I'm sure will fill the void, but it's more the leadership that we need to take to another level."
Stringer added that Murphy's season-ending knee injury had had an emotional impact on the entire playing group, but they needed to regroup quickly ahead of Saturday night's clash against Carlton at Etihad Stadium.
"It was obviously devastating for the boys and also everyone in the football community losing Bob Murphy," he said.
"We lost 'Libba' last year as well as Clay Smith to ACLs so it's also a good learning curve that we've dealt with."
Smith had surgery to repair his torn right ACL for a third time last May.
After making his debut in 2000, Murphy has played 295 games for the Bulldogs and is just five games shy of his 300-game milestone.
He was named the Dogs' captain in 2015 – the same year he was selected to skipper the All Australian representative squad.
