Old dogs, one last trick: Bulldogs pre-draft

As part of a club-by-club series, we look at Rodney Eade’s almost complete lack of list turnover at Whitten Oval.

WESTERN BULLDOGS
Live selections: 15, 31, 63, 76
Rookie promotion selections: 86, 92 (James Mulligan, Liam Picken)

Even more than St Kilda, the Western Bulldogs have decided to stick with the list that got them almost all the way, in the hope that they can go that one more step this year. None of the top two in the eight sections of the Doggie depth charts have left the club, and only one #3 player (Wayde Skipper) and one #4 (Scott Welsh) have left among nine list deletions, three of whom were rookies. The big trade-in was Barry Hall, of course.

Despite that trade, the Dogs did manage to hold onto their first-round pick, albeit still rather late at #15 in a shallow draft. Rather than looking at this player, the Dogs are more likely to play rookie-priced kids from previous drafts, such as Jarrad Grant, Ayce Cordy, Easton Wood and Jordan Roughead. The experience with St Kilda and the Bulldogs themselves this year suggest lean pickings for fantasy coaches in the rookie area, nevertheless.

Looking at the depth charts as they stand today, I have this sneaking suspicion that there may be a Bernie Vince break out year for someone lurking in there somewhere, as the Dogs list looks a bit to me like the Crows last year. Callan Ward had a similar trajectory of average to David Mackay this year as Nathan Eagleton slowed down but it may be too much to expect backing that up with a Vincesque effort to get up to premium status in 2010.