Senior Coach Brendan McCartney has acknowledged the growth of the Bulldogs young brigade noting his team is starting to rely less on the experienced heads.
In 2014, Tom Liberatore, Luke Dahlhaus and Jack Macrae have been unable to run around without attention, all enjoying stellar seasons.
But it’s other young players who are starting to emerge according to McCartney, with names such as Liam Jones, Marcus Bontempelli, Koby Stevens and Mitch Wallis playing important roles for the team.
“There was a nice combination – when the older boys were needed yesterday they really come to the fore and came forward to stand up in the game,” McCartney told SEN on Monday.
“Griff, Will, Gia, Roughie is a young emerging leader… and Dale Morris did what he always [does], it was a nice contrast.
“But I loved how those young guys weren’t afraid of the contest yesterday and they weren’t afraid of the battle, they just hooked into it.”
Switching focus to this weekend’s game against ladder leaders Port Adelaide means the Bulldogs need to be fully prepared for another challenge, which is McCartney’s current task.
“Dealing with a win can be as challenging as dealing with a loss sometimes for a younger group,” he said.
“All you can do is recover and train well.”
Four consecutive wins to VFL-affiliate Footscray has a number of young Bulldogs mounting their case for senior selection ahead of this weekend’s daunting task against Port Adelaide.
McCartney said the available depth in the VFL points towards a predominantly healthy and competitive list.
“We’ve got some nice selection challenges this week – the VFL boys were brilliant on Saturday and had a great win,” he said.
“We have a lot of young people in that team pushing up and they are starting to get to the cranky stage, where they are playing really well at VFL level and can’t force their way in.
“So that’s a healthy sign, we will pick a team and get on the plane and go over there and do our best and play our hardest and really set ourselves the challenge of not allowing Port Adelaide just to run and open the game up and do what they want with the ball.”
