MITCH Wallis says the pressure of being the son of a club great has disappeared as he enters his second season with the Western Bulldogs.
Click on the media player above to watch BulldogsTV's coverage of Mitch Wallis' press conference.
And the hard-nosed midfielder is certainly playing like a young man without any burdens.
Wallis' father Steve averaged 20 disposals over 261 games for the Bulldogs from 1983-96 and captained the club in 1989.
A centreman who later moved to defence, Wallis senior also finished in the top three in the Dogs' best and fairest on three occasions, was equal-fourth in the 1985 Brownlow Medal and represented Victoria three times.
The younger Wallis, now 19, has clearly inherited some of his father's most admirable qualities, and is steadily developing into a similarly solid footballer of great nous and hardness.
After being an obvious father-son selection for the Bulldogs in the 2010 NAB AFL Draft, the blond midfielder played six AFL games last season and looks set to at least double that tally this year.
He admitted he felt a little added pressure to perform last year but it had since faded.
"My dad played it down a little bit [and] made it a bit easier for me, trying to take some of the implied pressure that was put on by the media and other types of people," Wallis told a press conference at Whitten Oval on Tuesday.
"I just went along for the ride. I love footy that much that it sort of overcasts any of the pressure that you do get.
"There's younger kids than me [here now]. I've learned a lot from my first year - a few experiences that I'll never forget - so I'm really excited this year to put some of those things into play."
Bulldogs fans - and the players themselves - gained an exciting glimpse of the future during Sunday's gallant loss to North Melbourne at Ballarat, when their young midfielders stepped up in the absence of veteran duo Matthew Boyd and Daniel Cross.
The Bulldog pups dominated the contested possession count 133-101 - a special effort in the circumstances, with first-choice ruckman Will Minson also rested.
At the forefront were the likes of second-year players Wallis (20 disposals, including eight contested), Tom Liberatore and Luke Dahlhaus and prized draftee Clay Smith.
"That did give us young guys a lot of confidence if one of them (Boyd or Cross) were to miss out through injury," Wallis said.
"But we've still got a long way to go in terms of what happens outside the contest as they did hurt us a little bit on the spread. But we're still young and learning."
Wallis said the job of organising the Bulldogs around the stoppages had fallen to Ryan Griffen in the first half before he was rested, but then the youngsters had taken charge.
"'Libba' and 'Smithy' and myself were all sort of playing a role because it was put on us to step up to the plate, and we all did pretty well in the second half," he said.
"We got on top of them in the stoppages, which was good. Everyone played their role and everyone, when it was their turn to say something or set something up, they did it."
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