The rise of the Western Bulldogs has been sharp and yes the coach has received a lot of praise for getting them into a preliminary final but it all started with recruiting.
Draft analyst Brett Anderson explains how the club has fast-tracked its rebuild under Luke Beveridge by making a number of great decisions at the draft table in recent years.
“Now for the Doggies, we’re going to find out why they’re playing in a prelim final this week,” said Anderson on SEN radio.
“So they’ve had 28 picks in this time from 2010 to 2013 – now they did get a couple of nice handouts with a few father-sons a bit down the order in Mitch Wallis and Tom Liberatore.
“In the 2011 rookie draft is where they’ve nailed it with Lin Jong, Tom Campbell and Jack Redpath.
“A ‘jury out’ for Mitch Honeychurch who if his future isn’t at the Bulldogs I think he’ll find a home elsewhere… also for Nathan Hrovat his future might be at another club, but I think he’s talented.
“We go to 2013 how many ticks can we give Marcus Bontempelli? A hundred maybe. That is an amazing pick from Simon Dalrymple.
“So look they’ve got 28 picks during that time with 15 hits, 11 misses and 2 maybes for the number one ranked hit-rate in the competition (53.6%) – the only one above 50 per cent.
“That’s why the Dogs are in a prelim final and how they’ve been able to regenerate their list better than anyone in the competition.”
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitch Wallis Y | Clay Smith Y | Jake Stringer Y | Marcus Bontempelli Y |
| Tom Liberatore Y | Michael Talia M | Jackson Macrae Y | Matthew Fuller N |
| Jayden Schofield N | Daniel Pearce N | Nathan Hrovat M | Mitch Honeychurch M |
| Zephaniah Skinner N | Tory Dickson Y | Lachie Hunter Y | |
| Tom Hill N | Fletcher Roberts Y | Josh Prudden N | |
| Luke Dahlhaus Y | Lin Jong Y | Brett Goodes Y | |
| Jason Johannisen Y | Tom Campbell Y | ||
| Ed Barlow N | Alex Greenwood N | ||
| Mitch Hahn N | Jack Redpath Y | ||
| . | Mark Austin N |