WESTERN Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney has resigned after a tumultuous 24 hours at the club.

President Peter Gordon announced the coach's departure at a media conference on Friday morning, saying feedback from within the club indicated that McCartney's position for the 2015 season was untenable.

McCartney, 53, had coached the club for three years, with the Bulldogs winning 20 of 66 games with him at the helm.

He had two years to run on his contract.

The press conference was called the day after the club captain Ryan Griffen requested a trade to Greater Western Sydney, the team the Bulldogs lost to in the final game of the season.

Gordon indicated that after Griffen's request, McCartney had indicated that he was unsure if he had enough support within the club to continue as senior coach.

The Bulldogs sought further feedback from the playing group (amongst others) on Thursday afternoon, before coming to the conclusion that the task before McCartney was too great and the coach duly fell on his sword.

Gordon said McCartney agreed that staying on would be an "impediment to our continued improvement" and that he was leaving his post effective immediately.

However, despite the apparent player power at play, Gordon said "our players don't run this club, we do." 

"I'm very proud of our players. The fact that they had these concerns and some for some time but their first, default and predominant position has been not to look to blame a coach or the senior coach or others but to look to themselves and ways they can work through them," he said.

"[The fact] they would reflect on what they could do better to improve the club is a fair reflection of the quality of our players as a whole - the younger ones and the older ones.

"We've got a great group of players who as these issues emerged fought hard to deal with them in a difficult environment, wanting to demonstrate both loyalty and also concern that we progress in the best way we can."

Gordon said players such as Dale Morris, Jordan Roughead and Jake Stringer were all involved in talks at the club on Thursday in the wake of Griffen's news.

He also said the Dogs were "distressed and disturbed" about the way things had played out with Griffen, but held out hope he would see out the final year of his contract. 

"Contracts are contracts and we hope he will see his way clear to honour the obligations he undertook when he executed that contract," he said. 

Gordon last spoke to Griffen on Wednesday night when he was informed of the decision. 

He believed the skipper had since "gone pig shooting" and would look to continue conversations with the "required player" soon. 

However, he expected Griffen would not stay captain if he remained at the club, given his struggles with the off-field side of leadership. 

McCartney is believed to have left Whitten Oval after arriving early this morning. 

He will release a statement later in the day