Western Bulldogs defender Lachie Bramble opens up to Mark Robinson about his long footy journey

When Sam Mitchell looked Lachie Bramble in the eye and told him he was no longer wanted, the former Hawk was lost. Enter Luke Beveridge and the Bulldogs. MARK ROBINSON uncovers the truth about the SSP success story.

One of the first questions Luke Beveridge asked Lachie Bramble at the end of the 2023 season was why he was no longer on Hawthorn’s list.

It’s a question the mild-mannered Bramble still asks himself.

An SSP selection for the Hawks when Alastair Clarkson was coach in 2021, Bramble’s shock elevation from Box Hill player to a Hawthorn list spot was, he hoped, the start of a late-starting AFL career.

He was 23 then. He’s now 26. And on Friday night, he plays his 50th AFL game.

His is a story of setbacks, perseverance, shattered hopes and finally a semblance of salvation at the Bulldogs.

He recently signed a one-year contract, which is not the monster six, seven or eight-year deal which has become commonplace. Yet for Bramble, it meant the world to him.

“I always hoped I’d play one game and when that happened, I didn’t think I’d get to 50,’’ he said. “It’s gone quick, but at the same time it’s also been a long time.”

Lachie Bramble has become an important part of the Bulldogs’ defence. Picture: Michael Klein

Bramble is not destiny’s child. He was overlooked in the 2016 draft, played VFL at Williamstown through 2017 and 2018 under coach Andy Collins, returned to the Sunbury Lions in 2019 and in 2020, Covid wiped out the season.

“Andy helped me so much, to be honest I owe a lot to him. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be on a list,” he said.

Collins got him to Willy after his Calder Cannons season and he played a mix of senior and twos footy.

“Then I thought I’d have a year off VFL footy and I thought that was probably me done,” Bramble said.

“But looking back, it was probably the best thing I did. It freshened me up and made me pretty hungry to give VFL another crack because I was playing decent footy.”

At Sunbury, he won the club goalkicking as a midfielder, came third in the club B&F, made the league team of the year and represented Vic Country under coach Danny Frawley.

When Collins left Willy for Box Hill for the 2021 season, he made contact with Bramble again.

“He called me and said ‘mate, please don’t sign at Williamstown’. Andy was the only reason I was going to go back to Willy anyway, so that was an easy decision for me.’’

And the correct one. After completing half the pre-season training, Bramble was blown away when he was selected in the pre-season supplemental selection period, and save for a burst bursa in his arm, he was on track to be in Clarkson’s Round 1 team.

Other niggles meant he eventually made his Hawthorn debut in Round 14 against Essendon, and played every game for the rest of the season.

Bramble played 30 games for the Hawks. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

His 2022 season, now in a dashing halfback role under new Hawks coach Sam Mitchell, started with a stress fracture in his foot and ended with stress fracture in his back.

In between, he played in nine games. He played rounds 1 and 2 to start 2023, was sub in round 3 and was dumped for round 4. Cue the confusion.

“Still to this day, I’m not really sure what exactly happened,” Bramble said. “I was pretty flat once I got told I wasn’t going to be in the team after having a reasonable start.”

He played another eight games – for 30 all up at Hawthorn – before he was chopped for good.

When asked what happened, Bramble said: “It’s a good question. We had a really good relationship, him believing in me at the start and giving me the opportunity and then, yeah, during that year, after going out of the team … not a lot of contact.

“I felt a little bit of a gap between me and him. So, I’m not really sure what happened. Nothing bad happened, but I wasn’t playing to the potential he thought I was capable of. That was the reasoning I got.”

Trade week saw the hammer come down.

“I had a meeting with them (Hawthorn) and they told me if they get who they wanted in the trade period, you won’t have a list spot at this footy club,” Bramble said.

They got him. He was Massimo D’Ambrosio. And Bramble got a call to come into the club the next day.

“It was pretty hard to take to be honest,” he said. “I always thought my best footy was good enough, I didn’t really play poor footy, so to be thrown out of the side, and to be driving to the club where I’m so close to all the guys, to be told thankyou your time is up … It was a really strange feeling, it was something I’d never felt before, just knowing what I had to leave behind, and it happened so quickly. For Sam to look me in the eye and tell me I was no longer wanted at the footy club, it was really hard to take.

“I probably didn’t (say) what I wanted to say to him at that meeting, purely because of the raw emotion and being, sort of, frozen. I’m not a really confrontational person when it comes to that sort of stuff, so I was a bit lost, I pretty much just zoned out.

“There was no anger at that point in time, I was just upset and sad.”

He was 25, unemployed, had an arm in a sling because of shoulder reconstruction, and virtually zero on the horizon.

“I was thinking, what am I going to do,” Bramble said.

“I was really struggling to be honest. I was nowhere.’’

Then the Bulldogs list manager Sam Power called.

“The Dogs were awesome,” Bramble said. “The conversations were similar to what we’re having (now): why aren’t you on a list? And I had the same answer, I’m not really sure.”

He spoke to Beveridge.

“That first conversation was over soon and I was blown away with how he listened, he really wanted to know more on a deeper level,’’ Bramble said.

Bramble and one of the teammates who has fallen out of the side as a result of his rise, Caleb Daniel. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

Beveridge and Power had set about changing the Bulldogs list.

Bramble, James Harmes and Nic Coffield were the recruits, and it was soon apparent Beveridge was keen to slot Bramble in at halfback.

Colleague Sam Landsberger broke the news that Bramble had been preferred to popular premiership halfback Caleb Daniel for round 1, and that Jack Macrae’s spot was also under threat. Bramble heard the critics of such a move.

“That kind of motivates me,” he said. “I’ve always had doubters ever since I could remember.

“There’s a lot of people out there that have knocked me and still to this day they know who they are, but it sits well with me that I’ve probably silenced them a little bit.’

Still, those early rounds were a little awkward for him, he said.

“Jacko (Macrae) and Caleb (Daniel) are popular players within the club, but they took it extremely well. They were very good to me.’’

Bramble is the dashing half-back flanker in Beveridge’s reworked back group which includes himself, Liam Jones, Rory Lobb, Taylor Duryea, Buku Khamis, Bailey Dale, Coffield and maybe James O’Donnell.

“Every week Bevo backs me in,’’ Bramble said.

He’s played every game this season.

The 50-game milestone is a million miles from Scott Pendlebury’s 400-game celebrations, but Bramble is just as chuffed.

“To get to 50 games, bloody hell, it just shows that anything can happen, it’s really a nice little milestone to hit.”