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Western Bulldogs star Jack Macrae has revealed details of a mid-season meeting in which players vowed not to quietly play out the season, looking forward to the September holidays.
The Dogs headed to the mid-season bye with four wins from 11 games, and having lost seven of their previous nine, sitting 14th on the ladder with commentators consigning them to a third successive season out of the finals since the fairytale 2016 premiership.
But fast forward less than three months, and a finals berth is Luke Beveridge’s side to lose. The Dogs have won seven of 10 matches since returning from the short break, including thrashing top-eight sides Essendon and Greater Western Sydney in rounds 21 and 22 respectively.
The Dogs’ destiny is in their own hands, and a win over Adelaide in Ballarat on Sunday will secure finals for the men from Whitten Oval.
Macrae — who is in All-Australian contention after another prolific campaign in which he has played every game and is averaging more than 33 disposals — told the Sunday Age that captain Easton Wood and his deputy Marcus Bontempelli had stressed the importance of the Dogs taking care of themselves over the mid-year break, portending that 2019 was not yet a write-off.
“Until you’re mathematically out, you always have that belief. And especially with a group like ours, I feel like when we have a bit of momentum we’re a very strong team. I think it’s something that’s been very exciting for me to see, for the team," Macrae said.
Maybe halfway through the year a few other teams may have accepted the season’s not going the way they wanted to, and we’re very proud of the way we’ve managed to turn that around, and as I touched on, have the destiny in our own hands of playing in finals.
“Over the bye week, we made a really strong point as a group to really look after ourselves over the bye, and really look to attack the second half of the year really strong. I remember Bonty just touching on that, that we don’t know how much we can achieve as a group and it’s really important to mentally and physically refreshed but come back really strong after the bye, and we obviously did that, and have performed really well since the bye.
“Me and Zaine still see him a few times a week. It’s been good in that sense to keep in consistent contact with him. For us especially, it feels like he hasn’t left us at all in that sense. It’s been pretty good.
“Every time we catch up with him he’s very keen to talk about the club. He has great memories of the club.
“He’s a great footy mind as well. He’s been watching all the games and keeping in close contact.”
Macrae, who conceded that, as a quiet person, he isn't a "natural-born leader," added that he'd been working on being more vocal given he was now one of the most senior players at the club despite only turning 25 earlier this month.
