Toby McLean’s 2020 campaign didn’t get started until round three, but he’s quickly making up for lost time.
The 24-year-old has had a variety of roles in recent seasons, from midfielder to forward and now tagger – even if the latter is only on a case-by-case basis.
The tagging task worked against the West Coast Eagles on Sunday, with McLean playing perhaps his best game of the season and shutting out star midfielder Andrew Gaff in the process.
McLean finished with 20 disposals and nine tackles while restricting the influential Eagle to just 15 disposals and only 195 metres gained – well down on his season average of 23.6 disposals and 337.6 metres gained.
“Reasonably happy - it’s obviously a bit of a new role for me,” McLean told media today.
“I think that’s the second time I’ve tagged this year. I’m happy to play any role that I get given, and if it helps the team win then I’m happy.”
In a year like no other, McLean has found himself in and out of the Bulldogs’ line-up on multiple occasions, but has settled into a role over the past seven games.
“I didn’t start the year until Round 3 against GWS Giants,” he said.
“It’s obviously difficult watching the team play and not getting picked… it was difficult to bide my time, but I stuck fat and knew that whenever I was brought into the team that I’d do my best and try to stay in there.
“I got dropped again, so resilience-wise it’s sort of a tough one. But I’m in the team now and just doing my best.”
The Bulldogs had it all to play for against the Eagles – and that won’t change over the next fortnight.
Despite the two-point win, McLean’s side still sits just outside the top eight and needing everything to go right to be a chance of playing finals footy in 2020.
“We obviously know that it’s up to us for the rest of the season to win every game possible if we’re any chance of making finals, so waking up this morning all the boys were pretty happy with the win,” he said.
“The next two games are must wins for us.
“When it comes to those close ones, I think we’ve had a bit of bad luck too many times.
“For us to get up in a close one like that, it really instils the belief we can play against the best sides and be one of the best sides.”
