Brendan McCartney is a man who is seldom troubled by external expectations. He has a clear vision of where the Club is heading and the boldness to not gloss over the more immediate challenges.
The first year senior coach was given an abrupt initiation at the helm, but if his 15 years in the AFL system has taught him anything, it is that building for sustainable success takes patience and commitment.
"I spent a lot of time keeping things in perspective. A lot of our society lose perspective and through the end of the year for us the key thing was we don't lose faith about where we are going but also keep confronting what's not good enough yet," McCartney told The Age.
Adopting an AFL list that by season’s end had only five of the Bulldogs 2010 Preliminary Final starting 18 available, McCartney’s experience in developing players could not be more relevant.
By round 23 the Bulldogs had blooded eight players - in addition to the ten who made their senior debut in 2011 - and elevated four rookie players to counteract a range of long term injuries.
The result was a team that was largely competitive in the first two quarters, then outrun by their more experienced opponents as they faded in the second half of games.
"I think there was some burn-out, there was some cumulative fatigue, there was some deep training where we tried to get some extra training in and that made it worse," he said.
"I think our older players carried an enormous burden through the year and it wore them out physically.
"Apart from GWS and Gold Coast, the brutal reality is we were playing anything from 12 to 14 players with less than 40 games against teams who were playing three or four and the draw was pretty challenging as well.
"What you have to be able to do is ... defy that and be a club that when you get whacked, you just get up and go again. It's not a battler's syndrome, it's what sort of person and what sort of club you want to be."
While McCartney draws upon his teaching background to nurture and support his troops, he is more than capable of pulling a player into line if they detour from the Club’s core philosophy.
"The challenge is also to be honest enough to confront that we can't do it for long enough yet so we have got to get better and work harder,” he said.
"In some way defy the expectations that people have of us. People are already forming expectations of the Western Bulldogs footy club right now for next year. They are already making assumptions that there is going to be another down year. We don't buy that theory.
"Our players have come back fit and strong, they're hurting from how the year finished and they want to get better."
