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Cautious approach with father-son gun Sam Darcy
The Bulldogs’ main play in the trade period was to get enough draft points to match an early bid for Sam Darcy. Here’s why he’s so special, but Dogs fans might need to patient.
The Western Bulldogs plan to take the same cautious approach with father-son draft hope Sam Darcy in 2022 as they did with last year’s No.1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
Bulldogs general manager of list and recruiting Sam Power said the club would not put a ceiling on what the 18-year-old could achieve next year, but would be mindful that he had played minimal football across the past two seasons, due to the pandemic.
Asked if the club would tread carefully without putting too much pressure on the highly-rated forward, Power said: “Absolutely, and we do that with any 17 or 18-year-old coming in.”
“We need to be even more so with those draftees coming in now, given they haven’t played too much footy (in the past two seasons).
“We saw that with Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan) this year. He hadn’t played (in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic) and we didn’t really have expectations on him this year.”
Ugle-Hagan, who missed the entire final season of his TAC year, had to wait until Round 17 to make his AFL debut. He played five AFL games this year, with the Bulldogs intent on taking a conservative approach on a player they see as a 10-plus-year footballer.
“We needed to get him (Ugle-Hagan) to get a good grounding at VFL level, so that when he did get an opportunity at AFL level, he was as prepared as he could be, and that he was able to have an influence at different times, and hold his spot for a period as well,” Power said.
The Grand Final runners-up were not big players in the trade period by design as they looked to bring in the necessary points as a safeguard to claim Darcy as a father-son selection in next month’s draft.
They brought in Hawk Tim O’Brien as a free agent and facilitated moves for Patrick Lipinski (Collingwood) and Lewis Young (Carlton) in their search for greater AFL opportunities.
Power said he hadn’t had any indication on whether an early bid would come on Darcy, whose father Luke and grandfather David represented the Bulldogs with distinction.
“We know he (Darcy) is a promising kid that has a bright future,” he said. “We prepare for every scenario.”
“Coming into the trade period, that (getting enough picks) was a key focus and a priority to increase our points which we were able to do by trading pick 17.
“We also had a couple of players who had requested trades to get more opportunities at other clubs.”
“We’ve come out of it with a really good hand from a points’ perspective.”
He said the Bulldogs would now finalise their draft plans across the coming weeks.
The Bulldogs’ main play in the trade period was to get enough draft points to match an early bid for Sam Darcy. Here’s why he’s so special, but Dogs fans might need to patient.
The Western Bulldogs plan to take the same cautious approach with father-son draft hope Sam Darcy in 2022 as they did with last year’s No.1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
Bulldogs general manager of list and recruiting Sam Power said the club would not put a ceiling on what the 18-year-old could achieve next year, but would be mindful that he had played minimal football across the past two seasons, due to the pandemic.
Asked if the club would tread carefully without putting too much pressure on the highly-rated forward, Power said: “Absolutely, and we do that with any 17 or 18-year-old coming in.”
“We need to be even more so with those draftees coming in now, given they haven’t played too much footy (in the past two seasons).
“We saw that with Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan) this year. He hadn’t played (in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic) and we didn’t really have expectations on him this year.”
Ugle-Hagan, who missed the entire final season of his TAC year, had to wait until Round 17 to make his AFL debut. He played five AFL games this year, with the Bulldogs intent on taking a conservative approach on a player they see as a 10-plus-year footballer.
“We needed to get him (Ugle-Hagan) to get a good grounding at VFL level, so that when he did get an opportunity at AFL level, he was as prepared as he could be, and that he was able to have an influence at different times, and hold his spot for a period as well,” Power said.
The Grand Final runners-up were not big players in the trade period by design as they looked to bring in the necessary points as a safeguard to claim Darcy as a father-son selection in next month’s draft.
They brought in Hawk Tim O’Brien as a free agent and facilitated moves for Patrick Lipinski (Collingwood) and Lewis Young (Carlton) in their search for greater AFL opportunities.
Power said he hadn’t had any indication on whether an early bid would come on Darcy, whose father Luke and grandfather David represented the Bulldogs with distinction.
“We know he (Darcy) is a promising kid that has a bright future,” he said. “We prepare for every scenario.”
“Coming into the trade period, that (getting enough picks) was a key focus and a priority to increase our points which we were able to do by trading pick 17.
“We also had a couple of players who had requested trades to get more opportunities at other clubs.”
“We’ve come out of it with a really good hand from a points’ perspective.”
He said the Bulldogs would now finalise their draft plans across the coming weeks.
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