Recruiting post Bmac.

[Maddog37]

What is everyone's opinion of our recruiting strategy post Macca? Will we continue to use his process and if so, might this be his legacy for our clubs future?

[ledge]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

I hope so

[F'scary]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

What is everyone's opinion of our recruiting strategy post Macca? Will we continue to use his process and if so, might this be his legacy for our clubs future?

His "no dickheads" policy should be persevered with.

[GVGjr]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

There won't be a lot of difference especially given we have the same recruiting team in place.
We might have a slightly different approach to the "cracking in" theme that was McCartney mantra but it will still be along the lines of best available and identifying youngsters that really want to play football.

[Webby]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

The big strength of McCartney's tenure was the recruiting policy and what it delivered. We've gone from a list that had a huge chasm of 20-26 year olds. A lot of very good players hitting retirement age and not a hell of a lot coming through. His remit was always going to be a poisoned chalice.

His role was to milk the poor bastards (Morris, Murphy, Cooney, Lake, Cross, Gilbee, Picken, Hargrave, Matt Boyd and maybe Minson) who were simply the wrong age for a WBFC premiership window, for as much as they could provide over a five year rebuilding period during which the club introduced a new core generation via the draft. That's a bloody tough gig to pull off!

The inevitable happened: the older group eventually realised that this was a "rebuild" and not a "refresh". McCartney was, in truth, not primarily interested in them, but rather the bigger picture end-game of the newer generation. They got niggly and the rest is history. Understandable from all involved, but, as I say, inevitable!

I think the club bottled it by sacking McCartney. He wasn't the right man to take us to a flag, but he was the right man to complete the final two years of the rebuild. However, that aside, the rebuild still needs to continue. The older generation is now largely moved on. (Bar the two best clubmen in Australia - Morris & Murphy - God bless them!... Selfless. Legends!)

The brighter kids from McCartney's early days (Wallis, Libba, Dahlhaus, Stringer, Macrae) plus JJ, Wood, Roughead etc. are ready to graduate in their development path into leadership roles. Natural progression.

The draft and development path must continue. It obviously hasn't been as smooth sailing as it could've been, but we're still afloat and still on course. It would be ridiculous to change direction now. We will move half a step backwards next season, but we'll take big strides from 2016-2017. By 2018, we'll be cooking with gas.

We just need to stay the course. The hard unpleasant, reforming grunt work has been done by McCartney. That's his legacy - a bit like Peter Schwab's years at Hawthorn. Schwab was looked upon as a bit of a dud 7 or 8 years ago, but in the fullness of time, I think people now look upon him as an astute "big picture" list builder - who's doing a bloody good job back in the game at Brisbane.

History will see McCartney as an important contributor to a dynasty build - IF we stick to the plan. Don't bottle it, WBFC!

[GVGjr]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

We just need to stay the course. The hard unpleasant, reforming grunt work has been done by McCartney. That's his legacy - a bit like Peter Schwab's years at Hawthorn. Schwab was looked upon as a bit of a dud 7 or 8 years ago, but in the fullness of time, I think people now look upon him as an astute "big picture" list builder - who's doing a bloody good job back in the game at Brisbane.

History will see McCartney as an important contributor to a dynasty build - IF we stick to the plan. Don't bottle it, WBFC!

Fantastic contribution to discussion Webby, appreciated

He certainly added a lot to our recruitment process

[boydogs]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

There's been a definite player type preference in the Clayton/Eade and Dalrymple/McCartney eras. First the skinny athletic types like Sam Power, Jordan McMahon, Farren Ray, Tom Williams, Andrejs Everitt. Now the contested ball winners Mitch Wallis, Tom Liberatore, Koby Stevens, Clay Smith, Mitch Honeychurch. If the new coach is to bring a new influence, I hope it is a preference for tall and solid players. We have a plethora of small midfielder-forwards under 180cm but are lacking quality and depth with our talls

[Remi Moses]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

Great work Webby.We're going to either plateau or go slightly backwards, and it's imperative the club realises when you lose that many games regardless of the players input, you will cop some pain.

[Dancin' Douggy]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

There's no doubt our recruiting under Bmac was very good.
Hope the rest of the recruiting/list management staff keep up the standard.

[Murphy'sLore]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

Excellent post, Webby.

I know people laughed at Macca's 'good person' mantra (along with 'cracking in') but I really hope we stick with the policy of assessing strength of character as being almost as important as footballing ability. It will pay off as this young team develops, and has already begun to do so.

[hujsh]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

Di people laugh at the no dickheads policy. It'd be pretty commonplace now I'd have thought. We were meant to have one under Eade anyway

[The Doctor]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

The high risk speculative recruiting which was rife before BMac arrived ended very quickly once he stepped inside the front gate. We stopped rolling the dice with players like Howard, Grant, Skinner, Stack etc, all picked out of the blue and went for real deal players. I just hope Dalrymple doesn't think he's off the leash and goes back to this style.

This is arguably his most important draft in his tenure at the Bulldogs.

[Bornadog]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

The high risk speculative recruiting which was rife before BMac arrived ended very quickly once he stepped inside the front gate. We stopped rolling the dice with players like Howard, Grant, Skinner, Stack etc, all picked out of the blue and went for real deal players. I just hope Dalrymple doesn't think he's off the leash and goes back to this style.

This is arguably his most important draft in his tenure at the Bulldogs.

Don't forget under BMac we started looking at some fringe players hoping they would come good like, Fuller, Dickson, Darley, Goodes, Lower, Stevens, Campbell.

Jury still out on some of these, so its not perfect under BMAC.

BMAC also had the opportunity to look at 1st rounders in the top 5 or 6 due to where we finished, which was not a luxury from 2006 to 2010. Of course Howard was the biggest mistake in that period.

[josie]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

Must have good disposal and reasonable speed (as well as "good bloke" strategy).

[mighty_west]

Re: Recruiting post Bmac.

The high risk speculative recruiting which was rife before BMac arrived ended very quickly once he stepped inside the front gate. We stopped rolling the white for players like Howard, Grant, Skinner, Stack etc, all picked out of the blue and went for real deal players. I just hope Dalrymple doesn't think he's off the leash and goes back to this style.

This is arguably his most important draft in his tenure at the Bulldogs.

I just hope we select best player available for each of our picks regardless, go the mature aged in the rookie draft (less risk) and ultimately trade for needs, you know exactly what you're bringing in to fill needs rather than taking a punt with an untried state league player or speculative athletic type with a valuable 1st, 2nd or 3rd round pick.