Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

[The Doctor]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

We could kick start it by drafting a few of them. But if we are to make our club a football home for indigenous players then we had better make sure we make them feel at home when they get here and not isolated. So our support systems need to be in place.

I'm all for it. This year's draft has some very talented indigenous players. I'd be delighted, for example, if we used one of our top picks on Elijah Taylor and traded for Jack Martin. Add Jamarra Ugle-Hagen next year & we will have created a potentially lethal forward line in a couple of years. I mentioned in another thread I think Ryder from Port on a 2 year deal would be worth considering to bolster our thin ruck stocks. So there are no excuses for us as the opportunities are easily there.

I'm glad to see the club is recognising this but they must do it properly and not just a token effort.

[Bornadog]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

We could kick start it by drafting a few of them. But if we are to make our club a football home for indigenous players then we had better make sure we make them feel at home when they get here and not isolated. So our support systems need to be in place.

I'm all for it. This year's draft has some very talented indigenous players. I'd be delighted, for example, if we used one of our top picks on Elijah Taylor and traded for Jack Martin. Add Jamarra Ugle-Hagen next year & we will have created a potentially lethal forward line in a couple of years. I mentioned in another thread I think Ryder from Port on a 2 year deal would be worth considering to bolster our thin ruck stocks. So there are no excuses for us as the opportunities are easily there.

I'm glad to see the club is recognising this but they must do it properly and not just a token effort.

Listening to PG at the members forum, I think they are serious about this.

Joining the board will be Belinda Duarte:

Ms Duarte was the first female executive at the Richmond Football Club and the first Aboriginal executive in the AFL. In her time with the Tigers, Ms Duarte was the inaugural chief executive officer for the Korin Gamadji Institute, an educational and training facility for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Brett Goodes is taking on the role as Indigenous liaison manager and with Belinda will put together a programme. I also felt PG was targeting some existing players to trade for. The idea is to get a marquee player to also be the face of the club to attract more players.

[The Adelaide Connection]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

Listening to PG at the members forum, I think they are serious about this.

Joining the board will be Belinda Duarte:



Brett Goodes is taking on the role as Indigenous liaison manager and with Belinda will put together a programme. I also felt PG was targeting some existing players to trade for. The idea is to get a marquee player to also be the face of the club to attract more players.

Let’s open the chequebook and throw a Hail Mary play for Sydney Stack. Judging from the Dreamtime game he has a strong connection to this culture and an ambassadorial type role (coupled with a more generous contract offer) might be enough to test his loyalties.

[Bornadog]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

Hopefully Jack Martin will be the one to kick this programme off

[Dancin' Douggy]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

We'll pick up CCP this year, hopefully an experienced indigenous player as well. If we miss out on Jack Martin I'd consider Karl Amon from Port. Outside runner and offers us pace, best 22 now so more expensive than last year but out of contract and I suspect he's gettable at the right price.

Pardon my ignorance...........but who is CCP?

[Mofra]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

Pardon my ignorance...........but who is CCP?

Craig Cooper-Peters.

Designed our indigenous jumper last year, 2019 draft eligible but seems more a Cat B rookie prospect. Tough kid, highly rated leadership / off field. Plays inside mid and has been playing defensive forward roles this year.

[Dancin' Douggy]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

Thanks Mofra

Craig Cooper-Peters.

Designed our indigenous jumper last year, 2019 draft eligible but seems more a Cat B rookie prospect. Tough kid, highly rated leadership / off field. Plays inside mid and has been playing defensive forward roles this year.

[bulldogtragic]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

Link





The Western Bulldogs are making a concerted effort to ensure Indigenous talent call Whitten Oval home in the future after a season without an Indigenous player on their AFL list.

Club president Peter Gordon said the club now had the personnel and resources to create an environment that would meet the needs of young Indigenous people who might join the Bulldogs as an AFL or AFLW player or work at the club.

Gordon said the club was determined to remedy any disconnect between the club and Indigenous people that may have existed in the past telling club members at a forum on Tuesday part of the question the club was continually asking themselves was how they were going to attend to the needs of a young Indigenous player in the 21st century.

‘‘It seems to me it’s the right thing to do as a community and a club that embraces diversity and our indigenous history,’’ Gordon told The Age.

Former Bulldogs player Brett Goodes, the brother of former Sydney Swans champion Adam Goodes, is driving the whole-of-club approach as the club’s Indigenous Liaison Officer in an approach Gordon said was understated.

Goodes is one of 18 Indigenous players to play with the Western Bulldogs with three of the 18 – Joel Hamling, Jarrod Harbrow and Liam Jones – now at other clubs while former Bulldog Michael McLean is one of the most respected footballers in the club’s history.

‘‘We can’t solve that problem overnight and we have tried to take a multi-faceted approach to it,’’ Gordon said.

He said he was heartened by the way the club had embraced Goodes’ initiatives and the Reconciliation Action Plan released last year underpinned their approach with Belinda Duarte, who was the inaugural director of Richmond Football Club’s Korin Gamadji Institute, to officially join the club’s board at their next AGM.

‘‘Belinda has many skills and joins the board for many reasons, but one of them is that she is a proud Indigenous woman with a great track record in AFL footy,’’ Gordon said.

All-Australian Chad Wingard chose to join Hawthorn during last year’s trade period instead of the Bulldogs who were very interested in securing the former Port Adelaide forward.

Gordon told members that although he did not know what drove Wingard’s decision it was logical to suspect that the absence of Indigenous players on the Bulldogs list potentially put them ‘‘behind the eight ball’’ in securing Wingard. He said it made sense to ensure the club was not waiting for an Indigenous player to join their list to get the environment right with the club excited at the prospect of securing NGA academy member Jamarra Ugle-Hagan who the Bulldogs will have priority access to in the 2020 national draft.

‘‘We might potentially draft two or three [Indigenous players] in any particular year and they will be a part of a seachange of the history and culture of the club and will be working alongside good people like Belinda and Brett,’’ Gordon said.

I wonder where we are with this?

Wingard said no. Jack Martin said no. No idea if we were even a shot with Williams. AMT knocked back a better offer from us to stay at Essendon (!!?!?!?!), Jermaine Jones got snapped up by WCE. A theory was having indigenous players at the club when JUH walks in the door. But despite chasing hard, we are still coming up short. I wonder if we draft any other indigenous kids this year?

[Bornadog]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

I wonder where we are with this?

Wingard said no. Jack Martin said no. No idea if we were even a shot with Williams. AMT knocked back a better offer from us to stay at Essendon (!!?!?!?!), Jermaine Jones got snapped up by WCE. A theory was having indigenous players at the club when JUH walks in the door. But despite chasing hard, we are still coming up short. I wonder if we draft any other indigenous kids this year?

We have a lot of off field involvement with various indigenous programmes but we have not been able to recruit players.

Would have been good to entice someone like an Eddy Betts type and give them an on and off field role. This would then encourage other players to come over.

[The Adelaide Connection]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

We have a lot of off field involvement with various indigenous programmes but we have not been able to recruit players.

Would have been good to entice someone like an Eddy Betts type and give them an on and off field role. This would then encourage other players to come over.

Betts or Burgoyne would have to be on the wishlist for 2022. Both seem like outstanding people, are champions, and seem like the right type or leaders for a coaching role and/or head of an indigenous programme. You would think both would have a huge pull getting indigenous players in too.

[Happy Days]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

We made a “concerted effort” by never drafting any since this article dropped?

[bulldogtragic]

Re: Western Bulldogs want future Indigenous stars to call the west home

We played Arty, Marra & Jones Thursday night.

By my record checking, the most Indigenous players selected for a bulldogs team since Round 21, 2011. (Djerrkura, Stack & Jones - Hill & Skinner didn’t play)

I wonder if from the low of the low that was Marra’s suffering. (On top of super exciting young talent) The footy world might see us having demonstrated a far more advanced and extremely supportive environment and club destination for indigenous players with so many not taking up trade offers from us. With Varcoe too, I feel this might be finally a turning point for the club’s ambitions to convince indigenous players to join our club - as per the OP from Peter Gordon.