Every Word Chris Grant said on Off-Season Arrivals, Coaching Changes, and the Pre-Season Plan

Last Saturday's intraclub match was a great opportunity for Western Bulldogs fans to catch their first glimpse into the 2023 playing group, and fans who caught the action were treated to a highly-skilled encounter with several players catching the eye.

But it also provided an opportunity for fans to gain an insight into what the club's thought processes have been over the summer, and the best example of whicih came at Half Time when Director of Football Chris Grant joined the club's live stream alongside matchday commentator Jason Bennett to discuss all things Bulldogs, including providing more detail on how the club's new recruits will impact the rest of the side, how the new-look coaching panel have settled in, and what the changes will have on the playing group in the year ahead:

Jason Bennett: The Blue Team really made the most of that breeze in the first quarter of football. (They) had complete midfield dominance with the likes of Tim English and Marcus Bontempelli. But credit to the White Team. They worked their way through it, found a way and turned it around. Chris Grant: They did, Jase. It’s been quite a good contest. Out of the middle, it is quite greasy, probably through the centre circle out to the outer boundary line, the breeze is affecting the play a little bit, and you can see just with the nature of where the ball has ended up most of the time it gets stuck over there a little bit, but teams are working through it pretty well, (a) little bit of frustration within a couple of the boys, you were just mentioning it half time before we came on that Tim O’Brien was probably right on the money that they’re right at the end of pre-season, enough of playing against each other and ready for the season to start. So yeah, look it’s been quite an entertaining game, and I think what was good also too, you know, that last 10 minutes of the second quarter the Blue Team did work it out after a run of five goals for the White Team, so encouraging signs. JB: Which is important because the tendency can be in these games sometimes to throw the teams around about, mix it up a bit, you don’t want them too one-sided or the other, but there is an argument to say that, one-sided is sometimes what happens in footy so you do have to find ways to work through a situation where the other team has suddenly managed to get on top of you, and rather than just switch a team around which you can’t do during the regular season, you have to find a way to just dig in and get your hands on the football and get your setups up. CG: Yep. You don’t get a chance at half time just to wipe the score, do you? So, no I think that’s the positive of it, that whilst the scoreboard at times go one way with the team just because of the strength of the selections and the list, of who is playing for White or Blue, I think pleasingly today both teams have fought through those difficult situations quite well. I think even the White Team, whilst they were three goals down at quarter time, they withstood quite an avalanche of inside-50s in that first quarter and the Blue Team put on 4.3 I think it was, but the White Team defended quite well. So that’s encouraging, because the defensive side of the game is so critical, but as you say, when it’s not quite going your way, you’ve got to sort yourself out and work through it as a group because it’s only really at the quarter-time, half-time, three-quarter time break that you can make some significant change or the senior coach can step in with some interesting words or some harsh words to get them going again.

Director of Football Chris Grant talks to the media in the build-up to the 2021 AFL Grand Final. Source: Getty Images JB: So the rain has swept in here at Half Time, we were expecting it to come through at some point, it is here right now. A bit of drizzle coming in as well. Lots to talk about so let’s start all the way back at the end of 2022 when you guys sat down and did your review. What were the key pillars that you looked at and said ‘Ok. Here’s areas we’re going to need to address, here’s some priorities we’re going to need to fix over the next few months’? CG: I think there was two major standouts. I mean, we’re not talking about player list at this point, because we’ll get to that in a moment. Obviously, the desire to acquire Rory Lobb, Liam Jones and Oskar Baker also is included in that. We’ll get to that in a moment and bring some insight into how they’re going. But off field it was really focusing on the inconsistency. That was the first and foremost focus area for us. The team was up and down, players were up and down and we just couldn’t get our mojo going for any length of time. Sometimes it was within game and sometimes it was over the course of a few weeks. So that was a real focus for us. Marcus and the player leaders were really keen with Bevo to explore how they as a player leader group could also improve and then also expand that leadership and that desire for the players to take some ownership within the player group of how to find that consistency themselves, and that’s about standards and attention to details, and all the small things. Because it wasn’t anything glaring, but the thought that there was just some small things along the way that were probably contributing to some of those things as far as outcome and performance, so they were the two things, and pleasingly, which is always a really difficult process to go through, when you’re having some of those conversations about yourself and about your mates, and your teammates and about your staff, what’s been really pleasing is how keen everyone across the department has been really keen to open themselves up for review and find those little edges in performance, and really pleasingly, at this point in time, it has come together quite well. JB: From an off-field personnel perspective, what changes have you made? Have you added some extra resources into particular areas that you identified that needed to be bolstered? CG: Yeah. So definitely, been a very difficult 2-3 year period for AFL clubs to work through COVID and the restrictions that needed to be imposed on club spend, and that obviously impacted football departments as well. Pleasingly, we’ve been able to add some additional resource into our coaching area and really go out and bring another really experienced assistant coach into our program in Brendon Lade, which we’re absolutely rapt to get hold of. He was our No.1 target; sometimes you don’t get them, but pleasingly, he was able to join our crew. JB: Why was he your No.1 target? CG: Well, his experience and also the area of the ground that we wanted to bolster, primarily. We’ve got a really important, like it is for all clubs, that midfield group is critically important to how you play. But also who’s playing in there at the moment and the need to develop some other players to come into that group, obviously with Josh Dunkley being one of those who won’t play in there this year, that was important for us. And also, just in our ruck division. Our tall brigade. Brendon with his playing experience and his ability to teach the craft of ruck was a real desire for us to focus on. We’d have Steven King for a long period of time, I mean Kingy left us, and we thought that was a real opportunity for us to focus on that, too. The great thing about Brendon is he’s not just a ruck coach, he’s a wider, broader midfield coach, and he has done that for many years, so being able to bring him in and work really closely with Marc Webb who had to take on midfield, he had to take on stoppages, during the COVID-period it was difficult for one person to take on, now we’ve got the two working in their hitting zones, if you like, and working brilliantly, so that’s been really helpful for us. JB: So now from a list management perspective you mention two names there in Rory Lobb and Liam Jones. The ability to provide immediate, ready-made depth at either end of the ground that you can continue to build around. You must have been delighted to get your hands on both of them? CG: We were. We were. And it’s always a process, I mean Jonesy is a different case and quite an unusual case, having a year out of football, and getting into the later period of his career, but as far as body and mind (is concerned), still quite a young athlete so, we were very comfortable in bringing him in, and there’s ripple affects to those types of acquisitions. By bringing someone like Jonesy in, it allows Ryan Gardner to play slightly differently. It allows Alex Keath to play slightly differently, and Lobb is exactly the same at the other end. As you say, in the hitting zone in their careers, and then when we’ve got you and up-and-coming and developing key tall position players at both ends of the grounds, both those players provide stability, but they also provide those players to have the ability to develop a little bit in their own time as we try to bring them through. JB: They attract the big-name matchup and allow the younger kids to play on the second of third (tall). CG: To a degree. Yeah, to a degree, that’s right. We rely on all 18 players out there, don’t we? It’s very difficult to allow a position to just be a developing position, but that’s just the nature of youth v experience. All teams have got a blend of that. But it does allow those players to play slightly differently. So, at the front end of the ground with Rory, it certainly allows Aaron (Naughton) some support. It allows Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan) some support in his development. It allows Sam Darcy to have some flexibility in his game. But additionally, it really helps us in the middle of the ground with Tim (English) and Jordon Sweet as our rucks. So yeah, at this point in time we’re very pleased with how those guys are going. And with Oskar Baker, it was a real need. It was a need to try and find someone that we believe has the ability to play that sort of wing role that is becoming incredibly important across AFL teams, but also not quite hit his straps, or had the opportunity of hitting his straps at AFL level, because of the depth of Melbourne. JB: Yeah. He’s played 15 games, but you get the feeling if he was at a club that was further down the ladder and the competition wasn’t as great, he’s probably played 50 by now. CG: That’s right. So, we’re really hopeful that we’ve been able to grab him and bring him in and be a consistent AFL player in our team for us. JB: So, let’s talk about the three zones. We’ll start with the midfield and the departure of Josh Dunkley creates an opportunity for others and it will change the midfield mix, won’t it? So, talk us through your logic because, you can’t replace like-for-like a guy like Josh Dunkley and anyone who says you can is just living in fairyland. You take a big piece of any midfield or any zone of any team out and you have to reshuffle. You’re never going to get the exact same player to come in, so how have you guys gone about it? CG: Yeah, we’ll I think there’s two stages to it. I mean ultimately, from the outset we were really keen to retain Josh. He’s our best-and-fairest winner, clearly, he’s had a great year, and a very consistent year in 2022. Coming into the prime years of his career. So, we were really keen to retain Josh. Stage 2 of that once he’d decided to go was ‘Ok, what do we need to do to replace that position?’ because the depth in that area of the ground and how many roll through on gameday is really important for us as it is for all clubs. But it allows us to think a little bit more laterally about that. It will give Rhylee West an opportunity. It will give Cody Weightman an opportunity of having some game time in there. And we were really quite bullish about that because ultimately those types of players are slightly different than Josh, and allows us to potentially have a bit more of a dynamic sort of fifth of sixth player that runs through there. JB: And we saw Caleb Daniel play midfield minutes in the first half today. CG: He’s the one that’s probably played the majority of the minutes through there through the pre-season period. And that’s a very different player, isn’t it? Josh has got his strengths, and then Caleb’s got his strengths, and because of Caleb’s strengths, you’ll end up playing slightly differently. So, we were quite enthusiastic about that. Ultimately it is going to require one or two of those to really cement that position to make it work. So, time will tell, but we’re really quite pleased with the blend that we’ve got in there at the moment. JB: And then if Caleb does spend more time in the midfield, you talk about ripple effects, that means that potentially an opportunity for someone in the back half for someone who has a similar skill set to be, sort of a launch or rebound or creative back-type. CG: Yep. And you just never know sometimes, you’re absolutely right, you just never know when a decision has been made like to take such a creative half-back player and put them in the midfield, what it then means for those players that just felt that they may not get the opportunity because Caleb was there, and you know that Ed Richards is going to be there, and you know that Taylor Duryea is going to be there. I think it actually allows players like we’ve seen over the pre-season with Hayden Crozier and those types of players who go ‘now there’s a genuine opportunity for me’. And he's had an outstanding pre-season. Now how much of that is related to Caleb going through the midfield? You don’t know. But he’s really attempted to take the bull by the horns with that opportunity. And as we’ve seen through the first half, he’s actually doing quite a good job for us. JB: From a forward line perspective, a lot of talls. So, the way in which you bring the ball inside 50, Bevo said that you spent a lot of time on forward entry this summer, because, every upside’s got a downside, right? So, you’ve got all these great tall marking options, but the downside is if the ball comes out quickly, your ability to maybe defend and lock in with all those bigs, maybe not quite so much as if you’ve got a sort of smaller, more mobile midfield. So, firstly, let’s talk about forward entry and then also what pieces do you put around that? CG: Bevo’s philosophy is stability is better than changing on a rolling, weekly basis. I think he’d be approaching this with the aim of having stability. If you look at the forward line at the moment for the White Team, you’ve got Aaron (Naughton), you’ve got ‘Lobby’ (Rory Lobb), you’ve got Jamarra (Ugle-Hagan) all sort of working through that, so you’ve got this, hopefully stability that you’re looking for, but then you’ve also got flexibility if something’s not quite working, because of the depth of the talls, and that’s where Sam Darcy comes into the picture. So, I think that’s really encouraging for us, because, all of those guys are reasonably flexible in the positions that they can play. We would expect that Jamarra’s going to be playing (in the) forward line, but we would expect that Aaron is going to be playing (in the) forward line, but it does allow Lobby to go into the middle and Tim (English) to go forward, and it does allow Sam Darcy to all of a sudden be in the square and Aaron Naughton’s moving up the ground a little bit. So that’s the tall component to it. And then you know at the bottom at the feet, it’s not only important at the bottom of the feet, but it’s also the ripple effect if you don’t quite get your shape right behind the footy, and Bevo and the coaches, with the players, have done an enormous amount of work on that this year, over the pre-season, and that’s an area that Bevo really wanted to improve, so yeah, there’s always a risk with a tall team or a tall list, but it’s all about the ability and the structure that that list provides as well. JB: Just seeing Ryan Gardner come back to the bench now at Half Time. Hurt his left arm or forearm or elbow in that first half but came off and got it looked at? CG: Yeah. He’s had a little bit of a hyperextension issue with it over the course of pre-season, so he gets those odd little stingers to it. He looks like he’s ok and it won’t him in the weeks moving forward. How much he participates today, we’ll wait and see. That’s the benefit of being able to play an intraclub today so close to the pre-season. JB: So, a raft of changes to the teams as we look at it now, just to make life a little bit more difficult for me. Granty, I really appreciate that. I’ve just seen Sam Darcy back in his polo shirt and he’s behind us, so, he’s obviously not taking any part in the second half. But the Bont’s changed colours, he’s in the White, Tim English is in the White. So, the logic between switching things up at half time and getting the combinations a little different. What’s the thinking behind all of that? CG: Well, I think it ties into, well it does tie into what we were just talking about. Just that flexibility of players playing slightly different positions based on where the game is being played. Bevo would have identified some things, like a few players in that group to play together for this half, so he’s made the changes with the swapping of the jumpers. So again, it just hopefully creates some depth through those areas of the ground.