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West wind whisper: Higgins a legend
Courtney Walsh | July 10, 2009
The Australian
WHEN Scott West presented his jumper to young Bulldog Shaun Higgins last November, it was a symbol of significance.
The red, white and blue guernsey bearing the number seven is associated with brilliance in Melbourne's western suburbs.
West, who retired at the end of last season after 324 games, won a record seven club best and fairest awards at Whitten Oval and was placed three times in the Brownlow Medal.
Before that, the jumper was worn with such distinction by Doug Hawkins that he has a statue in his honour in the suburb of his birth, and a stand bearing his name along the wing he once mesmerised and brutalised opponents in equal measure.
Given Higgins had played just 32 matches, the handover spoke of extreme confidence in his ability to shape the future, according to former Bulldogs star Rohan Smith, whose final year in 2006 came in the rising star's first.
"It's the number seven. That's a pretty highly decorated jumper," Smith said yesterday. "Only legends get to wear that."
Higgins is the game's hottest commodity and not simply for his form. Out of contract, Higgins has been identified as the perfect recruit for the incoming Gold Coast side, with his links to Scott Clayton -- the man who recruited him to the Dogs and is now building the new club's list -- flagging fans' fears.
But it has been reported this week Higgins will remain a Dog until 2012 provided coach Rodney Eade's contract is extended.
If that eventuates, his former captain Luke Darcy is confident that despite his youth, Higgins has the character to fulfil expectations.
"He is a special sort of kid, a rock-solid sort of bloke," Darcy said.
"The thing about him is that he has already grasped how hard you need to work to reach the top and his natural leadership skills really stand out."
Higgins has been identified as a future captain given both West and Hawkins held the honour in their lengthy careers.
An outstanding teenager, Higgins was grounded at a time most draftees are seeking to impress by a knee condition that made training impossible for weeks at a time.
"I wasn't playing much footy at that time because we could not find out what it was," Higgins told The Australian in an interview in Darwin two years ago. "It was just a condition caused by abnormal blood vessels in my knee and was something they had never seen before."
That Higgins is playing at all is a credit to the expertise of former Geelong club doctor Jeanne McGivern, who identified and fixed the problem, and current AFL medical officer Hugh Seward, but the setbacks did not end on his recruitment to the Bulldogs.
A badly broken arm restricted him to just five matches in 2006. The following year, he played 20 games and finished as the Bulldogs' third-most prolific goalkicker with 26 behind Brad Johnson and Adam Cooney.
Last year, a shattered ankle in round two grounded him, but his efforts to resume shortly before the finals and then perform with distinction against Geelong in the preliminary final underlined his future importance according to Smith, who regularly hosts both Higgins and his housemate Lindsay Gilbee for dinner.
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