Welcome to the Bulldogs: Bailey Smith

[bornadog]

Personally it doesn't worry me.

Me neither. He is a Bulldog and gives us some exposure. Hopefully we sign him up sooner rather than later as I don't want to go through the whole season with the stupid speculation.

[Sedat]

The Bailey circus is going to be unbearable.

The entire AFEL industry is a circus. It's all about CoNtEnT.

Bailey is simply one of the higher profile members of the circus - the white noise around his contract speculation will have precisely nothing to do with the on-field performance of our club in 2024.

Win a flag in 2024 and none of us will give a shit about any of it.

[chef]

Me neither. He is a Bulldog and gives us some exposure. Hopefully we sign him up sooner rather than later as I don't want to go through the whole season with the stupid speculation.

So it would bother you?

[chef]

The entire AFEL industry is a circus. It's all about CoNtEnT.

Bailey is simply one of the higher profile members of the circus - the white noise around his contract speculation will have precisely nothing to do with the on-field performance of our club in 2024.

Win a flag in 2024 and none of us will give a shit about any of it.

I guess to win a flag you need just about everything going right for you, having a Bailey sized distraction in the squad is not going to be ideal to me.

[bornadog]

So it would bother you?

Not Bailey, the speculation side from the MSM including, English and JUH

[Happy Days]

I think the circus works weirdly in our favour.

I love Baz, want to keep him and fully support him getting as many bags as possible but the facts are that he’s played pretty average footy for 2 years. Yet for hot guy instagram hard seltzer based reasons he’s still thought of as a superstar; no one ever talks about how poor his on field output has been, just that he’s a superstar who’s gonna be an even bigger one. Which might be true but also might not be?

You’d think that clubs can usually see through this stuff but sometimes they don’t. It certainly doesn’t hurt our chances at maximising compo for him if he does leave.

[kruder]

If he stays or goes we just need Bailey to get back to his best, its going to be very interesting to see where we play him.

Not just to keep him I would prioritise him as an inside mid and demand his defensive side stand up because he does have the ability to apply pressure. If that means Treloar moves around little bit then I'm happy to do so.

[Axe Man]

I love Baz, want to keep him and fully support him getting as many bags as possible

Ummm

[Sedat]

I guess to win a flag you need just about everything going right for you, having a Bailey sized distraction in the squad is not going to be ideal to me.

Only if he's playing shit and is non-committal in 2024 - if he plays at the optimum level he is capable of (ie: 2021 finals level) there will be no negative distractions, and the increased focus/discussion around his contract will largely be welcome for both him and the club.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

So where does he play?

If we want him fully invested, he probably needs to be the #1 mid (i.e. Bont ideally spends some time forward).

To get the best out of him, I think we kind of need to feed his ego. Make him the #1 man in the middle.

[Happy Days]

Ummm

I said what I said

[EasternWest]

Ummm

I said what I said

Ha ha ha.

[hujsh]

So where does he play?

If we want him fully invested, he probably needs to be the #1 mid (i.e. Bont ideally spends some time forward).

To get the best out of him, I think we kind of need to feed his ego. Make him the #1 man in the middle.

Yeah but at what point are we prioritising what's best for him before what's best for the team? Maybe there is a way that playing Bont on a flank and giving him free license to just read the game and be wherever he things he needs to be works for us if Smith, Libba, Treloar and Macrae can pull the load in the middle.

Or maybe we rob Peter to pay Paul and drop about half of what we stole on the way.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Yeah but at what point are we prioritising what's best for him before what's best for the team? Maybe there is a way that playing Bont on a flank and giving him free license to just read the game and be wherever he things he needs to be works for us if Smith, Libba, Treloar and Macrae can pull the load in the middle.

Or maybe we rob Peter to pay Paul and drop about half of what we stole on the way.

What's best for Smith is what's best for us in this case. We need him to be an elite midfielder, not a half forward who pushes up to the stoppage.

Bont needs to be managed better IMO. Clearly our best player, but I feel he often hits the wall a few weeks out from the end of the season. Preserving him is important, as is giving responsibility to others. I feel there can often be a stench of "well, Bont will do it" but if the load is shared it forces others to step up ... or out.

[Twodogs]

Smith was involved in a contract tease last week in response to fresh rumours that he is an "80 per cent chance" of moving clubs.

Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth

-Joseph Goebbels

SALE ENDS SUNDAY!!!!