Following our exes...................

[westdog54]

That's my guess. Or another place where we wasn't meant to be. Just for colour, WD54 can do a more complete explanation, burglary is where you break into somewhere you shouldn't (a house, building etc), usually to steal property. A serious, but arguably lesser charge against the property. Agg Burglary is where you break into somewhere you shouldn't and there's other innocent people home/inside, usually to steal something or in the extreme to assault someone. A more serious, much more serious charge against the person. The other charges wouldn't bother a good QC too much, but the agg burg charge might pose a few problems for Brian. If he for instance kicked in the front door and then proceeded to undertake the unlawful assault upon someone else, then he's got troubles if that is even remotely close to being true, this is a guess though. We will soon see how severe the Agg Burg is, but the rest is bad, but not lose much sleep over bad from his lawyers viewpoint.

With the recent changes to bail legislation, he needed to 'Show Compelling Reason' why he should be released.

He's very lucky.

[Smads57]

Just finished reading the piece on Dahlhaus in the HUN - helps explain a lot. I am now at peace with him leaving and won’t be booing him when we play Geelong. All the best Luke.

[bornadog]

Just finished reading the piece on Dahlhaus in the HUN - helps explain a lot. I am now at peace with him leaving and won’t be booing him when we play Geelong. All the best Luke.

Are you able to post the article?

[Axe Man]

Are you able to post the article?

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

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.

“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.

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.

“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.”

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?’.

“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.

“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.”

[bornadog]

Thanks Axeman

Very disappointing to read this and I don't buy into it. He only has himself to blame and he has let down the thousands of supporters who loved him.

[Mofra]

I can understand it.
I remember Kosi saying towards the end of his career he didn't enjoy football, hadn't enjoyed playing a game for something like 8 years and it was just a job.
Wingard loves basketball and Fortnite, doesn't watch a second of football he doesn't have to, and just treats it as a job.

[ledge]

Thanks Axeman

Very disappointing to read this and I don't buy into it. He only has himself to blame and he has let down the thousands of supporters who loved him.

You don’t buy into him admitting it was all him and how he felt ? He said it was all him .
I just finished a course on men and mental health, it’s incredibly high in the population and some of it is being out of your comfort zone, being home with family and going back to your childhood happy days is one way of treating it.
AFL football is hugely scrutinised and the pressure is big, having that escape and family close by is what was needed.
A lot of AFL players are going through it nowadays, 18 year olds moving and being bought into a hugely demanding job isn’t something that’s common in the 9 to 5 world.

[hujsh]

Taking it too seriously is not a criticism I've heard of Dahl over the last two years. Doesn't ring true to me but I suppose I can't know what goes on in his head.

[G-Mo77]

Just finished reading the piece on Dahlhaus in the HUN - helps explain a lot. I am now at peace with him leaving and won’t be booing him when we play Geelong. All the best Luke.

I wasn't going to boo him anyway same goes with Stringer, they're both Bulldogs legends and I will always be forever thankful. It's more disappointing than anything, we've lost so many of our premiership team with very little to show in return. I also will continue to question how well our club handles players who are a bit more out there and do a little more than the average footballer does offield. From the outside looking in we can't seem to handle them.

[ledge]

I wasn't going to boo him anyway same goes with Stringer, they're both Bulldogs legends and I will always be forever thankful. It's more disappointing than anything, we've lost so many of our premiership team with very little to show in return. I also will continue to question how well our club handles players who are a bit more out there and do a little more than the average footballer does offield. From the outside looking in we can't seem to handle them.

I don’t agree with we got very little in return, I think we have picked well with the picks that replaced them.

[G-Mo77]

I don’t agree with we got very little in return, I think we have picked well with the picks that replaced them.

What we did with the picks is another story. We looked to have done well with them and well done for that. Who was happy with what we got for Hamling or Stringer at the time? The return for them was poor.

[Topdog]

he actually speaks quite highly of the club so dont get why anyone would be unhappy with him or what he said.

Stringer having another great pre season, good on him.....

[bornadog]

I won't be booing him either, but as some have said, very disappointed in him. He is telling a story to make himself look good, and why wouldn't he, he has to have an excuse for leaving.

[bornadog]

What we did with the picks is another story. We looked to have done well with them and well done for that. Who was happy with what we got for Hamling or Stringer at the time? The return for them was poor.

Yep we got F all for Hamling, but end game we got Ed and Schache for Stringer - I am happy with that.

[GVGjr]

It explains his lack of intensity and why he was distracted but even prior to this article I wouldn't have been booing him and I would wish him all the best...just not against us.