Tweet
Saturday's loss to the Gold Coast was the last straw for me - the Western Bulldogs need to get rid of coach Brendan McCartney immediately.
And that should be just the first step in a major overhaul of the club's football operations.
People can call me a bitter former player if they like. I don't care. Because the raw facts are these: the Bulldogs have won one of the past 19 games and their five wins before that came against Melbourne, GWS, North Melbourne, Gold Coast and Port Adelaide.
Melbourne might be stealing most of the headlines at the moment but the Dogs' situation is just as perilous.
Advertisement
You can forget about having five-year plans to get the club back on its feet. Ron Barassi instituted a five-year plan at Melbourne in the 1980s and 30 years later it still hasn't come to fruition.
The Bulldogs are strapped for cash and don't have five years in any case. They are becoming more irrelevant by the day and if things keep going the way they are, they are headed for a relegation system the AFL doesn't even have.
Enough is enough. Here's my blueprint for what has to happen at the Whitten Oval:
McCartney out: Brendan McCartney might have a reputation as a great development coach but that doesn't make him a good senior coach. He's trying to turn inside players into outside players and vice versa on what is unfortunately a pretty poor list. The Dogs need an established coach who can handle pressure and sell the club - Mark Williams, who won a flag with Port and is currently an assistant at Richmond, springs to mind.
Go West: Scott West has experience as an assistant coach at Melbourne and is now coach of Werribee. He's a Bulldog through and through - something the club clearly needs.
Take the Micky: Mick Moylan was at Mark Williams' side when Port won the lot in 2004 and he's expert in the field of recruiting and list management. He's currently working as a scout for West Coast and would be a great complement to current Dogs list manager Jason McCartney.
Have a crack at Cooky: It might be a long shot but Brian Cook very nearly went to North Melbourne from Geelong and the Bulldogs need to at least ask the question as well.
The big four: Get Chris Grant, Doug Hawkins, Brad Johnson and Barry Hall on board and promote the life out of the club.
The Dogs have made plenty of mistakes in the recent past. James Fantasia was supposed to be the architect of a Bulldogs revival but things are no better than when he arrived and the architect jumped ship pretty quickly once Hawthorn came calling.
Rodney Eade should never have been sacked as coach.
The Dogs are spending their require 92 per cent of the salary cap and, looking at the teams they are putting out on the park, it's a pretty fair question to ask where the money is going.
But the worst mistake the Bulldogs can be make - and it's one I'm worried they are making - is to accept the current situation and be happy to build slowly.
It doesn't have to be that way. You only have to look at Port Adelaide, which might not play finals in 2013 but already has five wins so far this year, to see how quickly a club can turn things around on and off the field.
We were never a rich club when I was at Footscray in the 1980s. But we were a proud one.
The Bulldogs need to rediscover some of that pride pretty smartly. I'm afraid their very existence is at stake.
Comment