Western Bulldogs youngsters excite and breathe new life into Whitten Oval
ONE week into a new season and the excitement at the Western Bulldogs is as contagious as it is welcome.
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ONE week into a new season and the excitement at the Western Bulldogs is as contagious as it is welcome.
Not since the early 1990s has the club gathered such an intoxicating bunch of young players.
Back then, Chris Grant arrived in 1990 and then followed Rohan Smith in 1992, Scott West in 1993 and Luke Darcy and Brad Johnson in 1994, and they remained the foundation of the Bulldogs team for almost two decades.
Those five arrived at the Whitten Oval young and ambitious and departed the game as crestfallen champions.
There was a semi-final in ‘94, a qualifying final in ‘95, preliminary finals in ‘97 and ‘98 and a semi-final in ’99. There was hope in 2006 with another semi-final and then the heart break of three consecutive preliminary finals in 2008, ‘09 and 2010.
There was genuine excitement under coach Rodney Eade, but history books aren’t kind to preliminary finals losers.
Quick question: Who finished third in 2005, or 1991, or 1968?
Answer: Who cares.
The beauty of football, however, is upon us.
The Dogs are collared by youthful rejuvenation. They are not haunted by the past, nor are they shy about their future. Their football is fast out wide and furious inside, built in part by Brendan McCartney and expanded now by Luke Beveridge.
Jordan Roughead was the first key plank, arriving in 2010. Little Libba, Mitch Wallis and Luke Dahlhaus arrived in 2011, Lin Jong in 2012, Jack Macrae and Jake Stringer in 2013, Marcus Bontempelli in 2014 and Tom Boyd in 2015.
There’s not a team in the league which boasts such talent aged under 22 — and there’s substance in all of them.
Roughead is the general in the back half. Wallis has matured to be hard-nosed and hungry. Macrae is the quiet assassin, Bontempelli is the known assassin — can anyone remember such an imposing 19-year-old? — and Boyd could the best of all of them.
There are others, such as Nathan Hrovat and Lachie Hunter and Mitch Honeychurch and Clay Smith and there’s more drafts to come for the Bulldogs to prepare for a premiership campaign.
Of all them, I find Stringer the most curious of talents.
He is the size of Matthew Pavlich — 192cm — and carries the weight and body type of Mark Ricciuto — 92kg.
He’s exactly the same dimensions as key backman Luke McPharlin, midfielder David Mundy and Richmond debutant Kamdyn McIntosh.
As a package, Stringer has the core strength qualities of Ricciuto, the hunger of Mundy and the natural football talents of a young Pavlich.
Unquestionably, he is ready to take on the football world.
Brad Johnson calls Stringer unique and that comes from Johnson who was unique himself.
He stood 182cm and played like he was in 192cm. He started his career as an outside wingman and became a courageous and kind-of agile key forward who kicked 558 goals from 364 games. He is a Hall of Famer.
It just so happens that Stringer was a midfielder before becoming a forward and it was as a young forward where he broke his leg.
Johnson sucks in breath when asked what Stringer is capable of.
“It’s the unknown,’’ he said. “He’s getting continuity in his game and I reckon he go a fair way, no doubt.
“He has the ability to go into the midfield like Riccuito, but he probably has to play forward and kick 40-plus goal every year for the next seven or eight years,
“He’s so strong, he’s so hard to tackle, when he kicked multiple goals last year he was so bloody hard tackle.
“He has speed, has power, he can mark ... that’s where the Ricciuto comparison comes in.
“And he’s a natural footballer. He reads the play and that’s how gets the one or two metres on his direct opponent. And that’s hard to stop.’’
Johnson has known Stringer from the AFL Academy days, when Johnson was a coach and Stringer a hopeful.
Even with the broken leg and the ungainly limp Stringer carried for several months, Johnson was excited with what he saw.
It wasn’t the talent alone, it was the confidence and work ethic in the recovery.
“The excitement is back, no doubt,’’ Johnson said. “And the best part is they are all committed.’’
Originally published as Western Bulldogs youngsters excite and breathe new life into Whitten Oval
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