Western Bulldogs’ list manager Jason McCartney says that his side are still improving despite having already claimed premiership success in 2016, and also shared why the club decided to recruit Travis Cloke.
The former North Melbourne player says that the influence of coach Luke Beveridge pushed the Bulldogs to success far earlier than expected, but considers the development of the young side has not halted due to their surprise flag this year.
“When you stack up where we were against what’s gone the last decade, we were a fair way short on that games experience but when Bevo came in last year, he just didn’t want to put a ceiling on what our group could do,” McCartney said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“He was quite bullish even from day one about what this group could do so, it’s fair to say what we did was with a really inexperienced group and hopefully holds us in good stead for a few years yet.
“Some of (our players) are going to be young and developing so it won’t stop us. We know we can’t stand still, we’ve always got to make this group better because everybody’s now coming for us."
McCartney hailed the work of lead recruiter Simon Dalrymple as outstanding, calling him a major factor in the Dogs’ 2016 flag.
The former Roo says that the club’s draft strategy has always been focused on picking up the best available player.]
“Predominantly it has been just trying to get good players. Good players that can play and fit well into our system,” McCartney said.
“From there we’ve been able to build a group that now we feel like we still have that same philosophy.
“We’ve predominantly gone best available. We’ve got trade, free agency and those mechanisms to look at needs if you really have to.”
The recruitment of much-maligned forward Travis Cloke to the premiers raised eyebrows of many around the competition, but McCartney believes what the 29-year-old can bring will make him worth the little cost it took to get him to Whitten Oval.
“We’re really light-on in that area, obviously we’ve drafted some kids in that area over the last week who’ll take some time, but when Jack Redpath went down with his knee, we just felt we needed to bolster that area of the ground and someone that could actually play now,” he said.
"In the GWS prelim final at times they were intercept marking. It just felt like if you had that bigger guy who can cover some ground but can also compete and bring the ball to ground, it’s just going to be an asset to have on your list.
“Obviously we didn’t have to give up too in terms of a trade transaction which is really important so we were able to protect our draft position for the kids.”