With a little over five months left until he needs to make a concrete decision on his future, star midfielder Bailey Smith has given the Western Bulldogs no indication he wants to stay at the club.
Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains joined AFL Nation prior to the Dogs’ Round 5 clash with Essendon and was asked whether Smith had given any indication of his future.
“No,” Bains replied succinctly.
It’s a worrying sign for the Bulldogs given Smith won’t play again before he decides on his future, having ruptured his ACL in December last year.
The 23-year-old has played 103 games at Whitten Oval since being drafted with pick seven back in 2018. Smith finished fourth in the Gary Ayres Medal in 2021, the award for the best finals series player, the same year he finished 7th in the best and fairest.
Bazlenka in the house 🫶🏻 pic.twitter.com/J7lhySHqPW
— Western Bulldogs (@westernbulldogs) April 12, 2024
2023 represented a major step back for Smith, putting up his worst numbers since the 2020 season and finding himself out of Luke Beveridge’s midfield mix for much of the season.
Out of contract at the end of 2024, Smith has already been linked to the likes of Geelong and Collingwood in a trade.
He was at Marvel Stadium for the Dogs’ Friday night clash and signed autographs pre-game after doing some brief run throughs on the Marvel Stadium surface.
Smith’s signature is one of three most important to the Bulldogs. Ruckman Tim English and impressive forward Jamarra Ugle-Hagan are also out of contract in 2024.
All reports point to Ugle-Hagan re-signing imminently on a deal two or three years long, while English – a Western Australian – has attracted significant interest from the West Coast Eagles in his home state.
Thankfully for Bulldogs fans, both English and Ugle-Hagan are likely to stay, according to Bains’ comments.
“Tim is progressing really well in terms of staying at the club… with all the guys that are out of contract, particularly the higher profile ones, we’re really keen to see them continue on at the Bulldogs,” Bains explained.
“I think the starting premise is when you have really good players, you want to keep them.
“The starting point is you’re hellbent on retaining… in the back of discussions, particularly from a list management point of view, obviously Sam Power and his team aren’t doing their jobs if they aren’t looking at all of the different eventualities for all of our players, but also the players we’re trying to bring into our club.
“Jamarra is really close (to a new contract)… I think with Jamarra and Tim, the positive aspect is they both want to stay at the club and they’ve articulated that.
“It’s not done until the deal is done but that’s a really healthy starting point.”
Bains acknowledged Smith’s situation is unlike the one of his two teammates and said the club has offered the versatile prospect a deal to extend his time at the Bulldogs beyond a sixth season.
“Bailey is a different case. He started running back in the program this week, which is a really significant milestone for him,” Bains said.
“Our approach with that has been to offer a contract to him, we’re really keen to retain him. He’s had that but at the same time, we don’t want to put any undue pressure on him knowing that the physical part of his rehab and the next few weeks are really important for him.
“He’s been a really positive person around the club the last couple of weeks, particularly this week, with coming back and being able to run, which is significant.”