Midfield ball magnet Jack Macrae is the Bulldog with bite

JACK Macrae is the Western Bulldog with bite, leaving the Crows with plenty of thinking to do before their Adelaide Oval clash.

Western Bulldog Jack Macrae is having a season for the ages to roar into Brownlow Medal contention. Picture: Michael Klein.

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JACK Macrae is the Western Bulldog with bite.

Where opposition clubs once zeroed in on trying to negate the influence of dual club champion Marcus Bontempelli, his midfield sidekick is the Dog who has barked the loudest this season.

And he has Adelaide coach Don Pyke considering breaking with routine and running a tag with him at Adelaide Oval on Friday night.

“We’ll weigh all that up,’’ said Pyke, noting that Macrae had a career-high 47 disposals against Brisbane last week.

“It hasn’t historically been the way we’ve played and we’ll have a look at what the ripple (effect) of that is.

“The challenge you’ve got in that space against a side like the Bulldogs is that they (a tagged player) will go mid, forward, wing, so you’ve got to make sure, that if you do run with someone, that you’ve got clear plans around that.

“That (tagging) is in our kit bag, so it will just be a matter of what’s the way we think we can best set the game up and win.’’

Hungry Jack artwork for Number Crunch

The No. 6 pick at the 2012 national draft — one spot before Port Adelaide happily jumped on midfield bull Ollie Wines — Macrae is having a season for the ages.

The 23-year-old has had more disposals than any Western Bulldog ever after eight rounds, with 271 at an average of 33.9.

Only Crows backline ball magnet Rory Laird (274), who the Dogs will have their own concerns about tonight, and prolific Hawthorn midfielder Tom Mitchell (273) have won more of the ball this season.

Remarkably, Macrae, who leads the competition in SuperCoach average at 135, ranks No. 1 at the Bulldogs in eight key statistical categories.

They are ranking points, disposals, contested possessions (13.9), uncontested possessions (20), groundball gets (11.1), clearances (6.6), inside 50s (5.4) and score involvements (8), illustrating just how good he has been.

Teammate Caleb Daniel predicted Macrae would already have at least 12 Brownlow Medal votes and deserves to be one of the favourites for football’s highest individual accolade.

“I’d say he has polled three votes in all (four) of our wins,” Daniel told Fox Sports after Macrae last week equalled Ryan Griffen’s club record disposals tally from 2012.

“We are only eight rounds in but he’s definitely in that (Brownlow) category at the moment. He’s killing it.’’

Macrae is the big mover in Brownlow betting markets, with Ladbrokes slashing his odds from a pre-season mark of $251 to $17.

A premiership midfielder in 2016, Macrae has had 30 or more disposals in seven of his eight games this season and is coming off consecutive 40-plus disposal efforts.

He had 40 against Gold Coast in round seven before his 47 against the Lions.

Possessing elite hands and a penetrating left-foot kick, Macrae has in the past two seasons recorded the second-biggest spike of any Bulldog in Champion Data ranking points — behind only the vastly-improved Toby McLean.

Western Bulldog Jack Macrae charges through half back against Brisbane Lions. Picture: Michael Klein

Toby McLean beats Brisbane’s Lewis Taylor to the ball. Picture: AAP Image/Hamish Blair

He has risen 39.4 points — from 95.7 in 2016 to 135.1 this year. McLean has raised his ranking by 39.5 points (71.4 to 110.9).

Once considered primarily an outside player, Macrae now wins nearly as much contested ball as he does uncontested.

“He’s built that really hard grunt that we’re now seeing,’’ Daniel said.

Coach Luke Beveridge said he had told his players that Macrae had become such a headache for opposition clubs that it had allowed other Dogs to get off the leash.

“His hands are elite and his left foot can be quite deadly, so the opposition needs to make some adjustments when they are planning to confine him,’’ he said.

“Everyone benefits from that because it puts the opposition on edge.’’

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