Luke Dahlhaus opens up on his Western Bulldogs exit and why a move to Geelong was important

Luke Dahlhaus says he wasn’t in a good space when he fired back at former captain Bob Murphy last year. But the former Bulldog tells JON RALPH why he moved home - and why he’s so much happier for it.

New Geelong recruit Luke Dahlhaus. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

That trademark grin dances across Luke Dahlhaus’ face as he recalls his childhood days growing up in Leopold on Geelong’s outskirts.

During school holidays he and a mate would each buy minimum chips and a 1.25 litre bottle of Coca-Cola and then scoff the lot until they felt like they would throw up.

On Saturdays he would ride his bike to watch the Leopold Lions, eventually following in the footsteps of his dad and his brother, playing eight senior games at the club during his senior TAC Cup year.

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“I felt like I was playing in front of 90,000 at the MCG,” Dahlhaus recalled this week.

The surf coast grommet, with his shock of dreadlocks, would later burst onto the AFL scene, forging a career at the Western Bulldogs that lasted eight years and reaped one extraordinary premiership.

Dahlhaus was his side’s terrier, a cheeky kid with an absolute will to get to the next contest to drag down an opponent.

Luke Dahlhaus tries on his new colours. Picture: Alison Wynd

But somewhere along the way, the fun of football vanished.

Call it the premiership hangover, if you want. Even accuse him of a lack of dedication and hunger, as former captain Bob Murphy famously did over the summer.

But that cheery demeanour masked an internal struggle, a battle with anxiety, that then collided with the pressures of his free agency status.

Dahlhaus sits in Geelong Football Club’s cafe two days before the JLT opener back in his happy place.

The new Cat is again content and settled, 20 minutes from the surf coast beaches and easing into the slower pace of the city.

He is aware some Dogs fans will wonder why he left a club just two years after that famous flag, but opening up for the first time about his struggles, he says moving to Geelong was about reinvigorating a career that was moving to some dark places.

“It just got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it,” he told the Herald Sun.

“I had changed as a person. I wasn’t my bubbly self.

Luke Dahlhaus in action for the Western Bulldogs.

“I am a really happy up-and-about bloke who likes to muck around and have some fun but I lost that side of me.

“Footy sort of felt like life or death. If it was a bad game it just felt horrible and it sort of stayed there for a couple of days if not weeks.

“My form tumbled and I lost confidence not only in my footy but in life to be honest.

“Coming home to a familiar place, being back around my parents and brothers, and I got to hang out with my new niece. It was the sign I wanted to come home.”

Dahlhaus said that anxiety had manifested itself post-match and even in normal everyday situations.

“We had a club psych Lisa Stevens who was incredible for me. Gee, the amount of phone calls I had with her, she was excellent,” he said.

“I was getting anxious before team meetings and that kind of stuff. Just hanging out with mates and feeling anxious at times.

“There was plenty of support but I tried and tried and nothing was working.”

Clay Smith, Luke Dahlhaus and Matthew Boyd celebrate the 2016 premiership. Picture: David Caird

For Dahlhaus the intersecting issues of form and contract snowballed into a season from hell.

“Probably towards the end at the Bulldogs I was feeling like because I didn’t have a contract I was trying to impress too much, trying to do too much, I wanted to be the bloke who has it 30 (times) and kicks four.,” he said.

“(A contract year) is not fun. Being the age I was, I really saw myself as a very loyal guy.

“When the contract negotiations weren’t working it became a grind and that’s when my form dropped. It’s why I was happy with a longer contract because I could just play.”

As the season ticked slowly by the offers from rival clubs begun to roll in.

By then the Dogs’ band of out-of-contract stars was a weekly talking point as Jordan Roughead, Mitch Wallis and good mate Tom Liberatore considered their futures.

“Don’t get me wrong, I loved every single minute at the Dogs but it got to the point where I wanted to come back home,” he said.

“The (Cats’) offer had more security and I thought, ‘Why not?’.

Luke Dahlhaus on the track for the Cats. Picture: Alison Wynd

“It wasn’t much difference with the money, just the four years and the Dogs had offered three years and I thought, ‘I would love to have a job guaranteed until I am 30’.

“I wasn’t happy with the way I was going mentally and the way I was playing I wasn’t sure I would honestly keep going past the three years, so I thought why not change and see how I go?”

Before he moved back to Geelong he holidayed in Portugal with Liberatore, hiring a BMW and driving from Lisbon to Portimao.

It was then that Dahlhaus took to Instagram and responded sarcastically to ex-captain Murphy’s home truths.

They have since hugged it out, Dahlhaus admitting he was not in the right frame of mind to deal with Murphy’s confronting criticism.

“Yeah, we are all good. That sort of showed me and proved to me the mental space I was in,” he said.

Liam Picken, Bob Murphy, Luke Dahlhaus and Marcus Bontempelli sing the song after a win.

“I am not an aggressive person. And the way I reacted to that was s**thouse, to be honest. I was pretty disappointed with the way I reacted.

“I wasn’t happy with the comments, obviously. I see myself as someone who bloody gives their all no matter what, but it’s all good. All hugged out and we are mates again.”

Dahlhaus freely admits he made mistakes following the premiership year.

“I wasn’t mentally going too well and probably made a couple of bad decisions,” he said.

“And I own that 100 per cent … it’s behind me now.”

Dahlhaus is content to be home, regularly visiting his parents and brother in Anglesea and ensconced in west Geelong, near his old school St Joseph’s College.

Cats coach Chris Scott has told him not to worry about racking up big numbers and instead getting back to being a tackling machine.

He is also off Twitter, and mixing plenty of time at the beach with a spot of carpentry.

“Nothing against anyone, but I needed to go home and get happy again,’’ he says.

“Down here everyone just lets you do your thing. It’s just what I am used to.”