The plaque on Western Bulldogs Recruiting Manager, Simon Dalrymple’s seat in the EJ Whitten Stand reads “The future belongs to those who plan and work for it.”
This same quote by the late Colin Hayes, champion trainer of thoroughbred racehorses, is also prominently displayed in the Western Bulldogs recruiting offices.
According to Dalrymple, Hayes was a big believer in planning for the future, with his planning paying off and seeing him train over 5000 winners during his career and making him an inaugural inductee into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
After joining the Kennel in 2007 as the Development Coach, Dalrymple shifted roles to become the Bulldogs Recruiting Manager. With extensive experience in player development and recruiting, Dalrymple believes Hayes’ quote is particularly relevant to recruiting.
“Recruiting is about looking at a player and trying to see what that player will be when he matures both physically and mentally,” he says.
“That takes planning and plenty of work.”
“We have already seen some exciting young players emerge this year, and on the back of some early draft selections in the next draft, the future is looking extremely bright.”
With all funds raised from the ‘Buy a Seat’ campaign going towards reducing the Bulldogs debt, Dalrymple says that working at a club that was debt free would allow the Bulldogs to thrive in the AFL competition.
“Being debt free would allow us to put more resources into our core business of football."
Simon credits his seat in the stand to his family; Simon and his wife have two young boys (both Bulldogs supporters of course), aged six and nine.
“It’s significant to be able to have this legacy for my family and for my two boys to be able to come to Whitten Oval and see the family name on this seat.”
