Breaking up the Bulldogs: How Luke Beveridge’s 2016 premiership team was dismantled

The 2016 premiership wasn’t just a dam wall breaking, it felt like something big building. But that young side is almost all gone, with just three players left at the Dogs. Here’s how it all broke up.

Premiership teams last forever

And they can also disappear before you know it.

So many western suburbs walls are still covered with blu-tacked prints of Western Bulldogs premiership photos, a moment in time from October, 2016 when a team shined like few before.

That glorious Dogs premiership was celebrated with deserved vigour and it didn’t just feel like a dam wall breaking, it felt like the start of something huge.

Of the 22 Dogs who ran over the top of Sydney, 15 were younger than 25 on that day and 16 had yet to hit 100 games.

Caleb Daniel is now a Roo. Picture: Michael Klein

Yet eight years on, just three remain at the club.

From that ecstatic photo of the young pups, just Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Liberatore and Jason Johannisen will be wearing that jumper next year.

A longtime vice-captain, Jack Macrae always appeared destined to be a one-club stalwart at the Dogs, but in 2025 he will wear St Kilda colours.

Caleb Daniel, too, looked to be a player that would hang up his helmet in retirement as a Dog.

Instead, he will be a Kangaroo next year.

The All-Australian admitted moving on did still shock him a little.

“It does but I think it’s part and parcel of it,” he said.

“The game (AFL), there are a lot of trades happening. There are a lot of different things happening and it is a business I guess.

“And the footy club has got to do what they’ve got to do and players are starting to do what they’ve gotta do.”

Jack Macrae tries out Saints colours. Picture: Michael Klein

Exactly two months earlier, when asked about whether he would see out the next two years of his contract the Bulldogs, Daniel told this masthead: “I hope so”.

Those 2016 Dogs were such a revered team, if only for that incredible finals series, that it still surprises that things were dismantled so effectively.

BREAKING UP IS NEVER EASY

Flag winning sides breaking up is certainly not unusual – no full premiership team has ever played together again.

That stat will continue on, given Brisbane’s triumphant September team has already lost Joe Daniher.

And in this modern era, players are passed around clubs like newborn babies at Christmas lunch.

The triumphant Dogs.

But those Dogs barely got close and their fans barely got to celebrate that team on the field together again.

Following that grand final win over Sydney, nine players didn’t feature in another 30 games for the club.

And another three didn’t make it to 40 more appearances.

The break-up was starker than the Beatles.

Consider that Geelong has played just 45 games since winning the 2022 grand final but 14 of the players who won that flag have featured more than 30 times in the hoops.

The Dogs were often compared to the 2008 Hawthorn premiership side, another team that perhaps got one too early and didn’t handle success that well.

But the Hawks stuck fat through 2009 and 2010 to return as flag threats from 2011 onwards, winning a hat-trick of flags in 2013-15.

Nine years on from 2008, just four players – Cyril Rioli, Grant Birchall, Jarryd Roughead and Luke Hodge – were still on the Hawthorn list but they clearly squeezed more juice out of the lemon.

Luke Beveridge has only hinted at the issues the club faced following the miracle flag.

“The hardest years were what happened after our early success,” he told this masthead in March.

“We had more turmoil than just losing games. We just had issues where internally our group hadn’t dealt well with success so it took a while to come out of that.”

Joel Hamling was first out.

Jordan Roughead played good footy at Collingwood. Picture: Michael Klein.

One constant has been the coach.

Beveridge remains in charge at the Dogs and did guide the team to a grand final again 2021 with a revamped list built around players from that flag side.

He has often been accused of playing favourites, with Daniel and Macrae both sent to the fringes this year in a bid to find more speed in the midfield.

Clearly, some players have felt they were played out of their preferred position in past years and while some accepted that, others battled to handle the change.

Zaine Cordy is still with St Kilda.

Jake Stringer landed at the Dons in 2017.

Seen as one of the club’s brightest prospected after a dynamite 2021 finals series, Bailey Smith couldn’t secure the midfield time he desired and eventually asked out and was traded to Geelong.

At all 18 clubs this year, there would have been footballers who felt unloved by the coach and selectors.

Beveridge’s call to add Ed Richards into the middle was a clear success this year, even if it alienated veterans Daniel and Macrae.

“The footy club is looking to always change and always evolve and I think sometimes (Beveridge) sees different qualities in different players and decides to play them,” Daniel said.

Some players left the kennel for more opportunity, with full-back Joel Hamling the first to depart.

Luke Beveridge is one of the few constants. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

Weeks after the flag he was enticed to Fremantle and traded west.

Others felt the need to find a fresh start.

Luke Dahlhaus felt anxious before team meetings and thought returning home to Geelong was best, so he took a longer-term deal there in 2018.

Josh Dunkley twice tried to get out, first to Essendon in 2021, then successfully to Brisbane a year later.

The enigmatic Jake Stringer said it was a “shock” when he was put on the trade table in 2017, when he was sent to Essendon.

“I played in a premiership with them. I love all the boys, I love all the members, I love the club,” he said then.

Ruck Jordan Roughead felt “stale” at the Dogs in 2018 so jumped to the Magpies and played 63 solid games in defence.

Lachie Hunter crossed to the Dees.

Josh Dunkley won a flag at the Lions.

“I was just looking for an opportunity to turn myself into the best player I can be for the last few years of my career,” he said at the time.

The Bulldogs searched for defenders in those years as Roughead thrived and Zaine Cordy also left from defence, joining St Kilda as a free agent in 2022.

Some people at the kennel saw father-son Dog Lachie Hunter as a pseudo-coach, such was his impact on the team, but he too ended up elsewhere, traded to Melbourne, also in 2022.

Other players had their petrol tickets quickly run out after the flag.

Matthew Boyd only played 10 more games before retirement, Clay Smith’s knees failed him, Shane Biggs ran out of gas, Dale Morris’ herculean body finally had enough.

Liam Picken’s career was ended by concussion and Tom Boyd decided to step away from the pressure of the game.

Toby McLean and Fletcher Roberts were eventually delisted.

The faces on that premiership photo will remain frozen in time but football marches on.