Announced at the Big Bounce today that he has officially retired
Announced at the Big Bounce today that he has officially retired
For those who were always the underdogs and wore it as a badge of honour.
Good. I hope he gets a retiree champions lap around the MCG tomorrow. This is a much better end to it all.
Thanks Aker.
Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023
The best thing, I would have hated to see him play elsewhere. I hope we can offer him a role at the club.
FFC: Established 1883
Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.
I'd be encouraging him to go out and get experience elsewhere, maybe at a club like COllingwood......
Rocket Science: the epitaph for the Beveridge era - whenever it ends - reading 'Here lies a team that could beat anyone on its day, but seldom did when it mattered most'. 15/7/2023
I am very happy that West decided to retire but I am bitterly disappointed with the clubs management on this. As I have mentioned on other threads about this, he just needed time to make the right decision but we rushed it through and actually delisted a multi time club champion and 300 game player. This would no doubt leave a very sour taste in a lot of peoples mouth and for the sake of a couple of more days we probably could have wrapped this up and given him the type of send off that his many fans, friends and teammates wanted to see.
Western Bulldogs Football Club "Where it's cool to drool"
l think he should have no offical involement with the dogs for at least 1 year.
He should take the year off footy or go to a different club to see how it is done there.
It would be very good for him to see how other clubs do things differently.
He had ample time. He would have known for along time that the most likely outcome from his post season discussion with the coaching staff was that he would be asked to retire. Aker even mentioned that West had spoken to him about it after the Brownlow.
So why then did he act the way he did when he knew it was coming?
I understand that hearing the actual message rather than pre-empting it are 2 different things, but you would have to think that he would have went over how he would handle himself if he was told that his career at the Bulldogs was over.