Dogs close to completing department shake-up

THE WESTERN Bulldogs could fill a new head of recruitment position before the end of the week after a football department restructure following the recent departure of list manager Jason McCartney.

The Dogs are down to a shortlist of candidates and could make the appointment before the club breaks for the festive period on Thursday.

The role has expanded to include responsibilities that will oversee the entire list management and recruiting operations, after reported previous clashes between members of the department.

It will see recruiting manager Simon Dalrymple, who is contracted at the Dogs for another two seasons, report to the new appointment.

"There's no immediate personnel changes; it's essentially just changing the structure to have this role elevated to oversee the entire list management and recruiting department, and then appoint a person for it," the Dogs' new CEO Ameet Bains told AFL.com.au on Tuesday.

"I think for most clubs, the structure has a single point of responsibility across the list management function, which makes decision-making about player acquisition and player retention more efficient and effective by having that structure.

"The structure we've moved to is the structure that's at pretty much every club."

The process to replace McCartney, who moved to Greater Western Sydney as list manager last month after Craig Cameron went to Gold Coast, has been overseen by the Dogs' director of football Chris Grant.

The Dogs are aiming to announce their appointment either this week or early in the new year.

Meanwhile, Bains – who started at the Dogs last Monday after leaving the chief operating officer position at St Kilda – said the club was confident that missing the finals in 2017 wouldn't drastically impact on next year's membership figure.

The Dogs are aiming to surpass this year's record of 47,709, which came off the back of their drought-breaking 2016 premiership win, and believe they're in a strong position to do so.

"Certainly, the aim is to go better in '18 than in '17, notwithstanding not making the finals," Bains said.

"There's a lot of confidence in how the club would do that.

"The other element the club is really keen to grow on is the Ballarat connection, having played one [home and away game] there last year and two next year.

"There are those sorts of opportunities to really grow the footy club as well."

The Dogs have already surpassed their Christmas membership goal of 31,000 with 31,042 signed up.

Bains said he was also keen to reach a resolution between the AFL and Etihad Stadium's "anchor tenant clubs" – the Dogs, St Kilda and North Melbourne – before round one.

He said it would be a "great fillip" for the trio, plus Essendon and Carlton, who are holding individual discussions with the new owners of the Docklands venue, to resolve the revenue issue that has hamstrung tenant clubs for years.

"You'd like before any games have started to have all of the arrangements and economics agreed upon," Bains said.

"It's a significant increase to net revenue on a stadium economics point of view that allows our clubs to compete more evenly with clubs that play at other venues around the country – that's the reality.

"Having that extra revenue allows you to do a bunch of things, but it will actually put us on a more level playing field with most other clubs, which is what I suppose the three of us as tenant clubs have wanted.

"With the AFL owning it, they've got grand plans as to how the grandstand and the precinct gets upgraded and redeveloped in time, which will be exciting for the clubs that play there."