While for some, youth may go hand-in-hand with ‘rebuilding’ or ‘development’, for the Western Bulldogs it’s a driving factor in their positive start to the 2015 season.
The average age of the senior list is just under 22 years, with the Bulldogs boasting one of the youngest sides in the competition.
According to Dogs’ defender Easton Wood however, that stat has been a big contributor to the Club’s on-field performance in the first five rounds, with the youth striking a balance with the Dogs' older brigade.
“There’s obviously a lot of youth in the team and I think we’ve got a couple of excitable characters and you feed off them,” said Wood, speaking with RSN Radio on Wednesday.
“I’m certainly following the lead of our skipper (Robert Murphy) who’s been a big part of it as well, he’s such an influential character and the intensity he plays with is lifting all of us up as well.”
Wood says the importance of Footscray’s VFL premiership in 2014 can’t be ignored, with six players from that side representing the Bulldogs’ senior side on Saturday.
Mitch Honeychurch, Ayce Cordy, Lin Jong, Tory Dickson, Jason Johannisen and Michael Talia were all VFL premiership players, and averaged 17 disposals between them against the Swans.
It was the taste of success at VFL level that drove those players through the pre-season and may be attributed to a ‘winning attitude’ in the senior side now, says Wood.
“It was definitely very important, having the ability to have our own team for that first year./// you can’t buy that experience.
“For them to galvanise as a group and for them to go on and win that premiership together was fantastic and you’re seeing the results of that on the field now.”
*Average age of list was calculated as of 6 May 2015.
