Marcus Bontempelli: An Agent Of Change

On several occasions throughout this season, I've gone back to Round 2, and relived the aftermath of that incredible victory over West Coast.

Given how well the side has performed since then, it feels like such a long time ago now, but despite the high-octane intensity of the match, and the memorable finish that ensued, it was what happened after the game that has stayed with me.

The day after the win, Nick and I sat down to record that week's episode, and I put to him a very simple yet significant question: is Marcus Bontempelli the greatest player the Bulldogs have ever had?

On one hand, this sounds like a ridiculous question. On face value, we're talking about a player who had yet to make 150 appearances for the club, and we're comparing him and suggesting that we should rate him ahead of players who have played more, won more, and have impacted the club for far longer.

On the other hand, we're not just talking about any decent player. We're talking about Marcus Bontempelli - a man who has made a living out of being "the man"; the one that we turn to when we need someone to provide a bit of inspiration, or a piece of magic to get us over the line. After all, this is the man who just 24 hours earlier had racked up 30 disposals and three goals, including the winner in the final minute in front of the adoring Bulldogs faithful.

Marcus Bontempelli celebrates his match-sealing goal against West Coast earlier this season. Source: Getty Images

When I posed the question to Nick, I was adamant that The Bont had assumed the mantle of the No.1 Bulldog of all time. Nick was slightly more skeptical, citing the reasons mentioned earlier on, that there are other players who have been able to own the clutch moments for longer than Bontempelli, although conceded that Bontempelli would be a clear No.1 if we were judging players on just their first 150 games. When we put it to The Salty Bulldog faithful, 84.1% agreed with my beliefs. While I respect Nick's point of view, it's one the few facets of the Bulldogs that we haven't been able to agree on this year.

But despite all the debate of where Bontempelli ranks among Bulldogs as a footballer, his legacy already extends far beyond what he brings on match day, and it will be a legacy that lasts long, long after he plays his last game for the club, which we now know won't be until at least the end of 2025, thanks to the new four-deal contract that was officially confirmed yesterday.

As painful as it is to accept, the Western Bulldogs (Footscray included) have historically struggled to draw and retain talent. From experienced, established stars, to future prospects, certainly onwards from the 1950s at least, there haven't been many of the Bulldogs finest that have played out their entire careers at the club. During the second half of the 20th century, several star Bulldogs departed the club for various reasons, including names such as Bernie Quinlan, Kelvin Templeton, George Bissett, Brad Hardie, and David Thorpe.

Admittedly, these names thrived in eras where the Bulldogs were in great financial trouble, and relied on the sale of their star players just to survive. But even in recent times, when the club has been in (comparatively) a far more financially competitive position, top talent has found a way to secure a move away from the club, including the likes of Nathan Brown, Callan Ward and even club captain Ryan Griffen. Whether we choose to admit it or not, the Bulldogs have a history of being a club that struggles to both keep its best players, and to bring in quality from other clubs.

But the arrival and emergence of Bontempelli has sought to change all of that. While Bontempelli is not solely responsible for all of this, it does feel that since his emergence as a footballer during the 2015 season, the he and the club have conspired to lay down a marker, slowly trying to change it's perception from perennial feeder club for the big boys of the game, to the (thus far) elusive title of destination club - a place that players want to go to and stay at, rather than one that players are constantly looking to leave.

Certainly, on-field success helps in shifting such a reputation. The Luke Beveridge-era is undisputedly one of the most successful periods in the club's history, and Bontempelli has been a central component of the team through this stretch of time. With three best-and-fairest awards, three All-Australian honours, an AFL Coaches Association award, a Premiership, and now the honour of captaining the club, it's clear Bontempelli is a core aspect of most good things that happen on-field for the Bulldogs, and if his CV doesn't underline that, then the countless moments of individual brilliance that have got the team over the line almost certainly will. And just in case you need a reminder, here are a few of his noteworthy contributions: - Goal of the Year-worthy winner v Melbourne, 2014

- Clutch goal before 3QT v Sydney, 2015

- Two last quarter goals v Gold Coast, 2015

- Sealer v Adelaide, 2016

- Winner v Port Adelaide, 2016

- v Hodge, Semi-Final, 2016

- Running goal v GWS, Preliminary Final, 2016

- Sealer v GWS, 2020

- Winner v West Coast, 2020

- Sealer v West Coast, 2021

By no means is this the full list, but it's designed to prove a point of just how pivotal he is to the Bulldogs on-field fortunes. Of those 10 instances, there's a very good chance that the Bulldogs lose at least eight of them if it’s a player other than Bontempelli that takes centre stage in those moments. Obviously, match winners of Bontempelli's calibre don't grow on trees, but the beauty of a player like Bontempelli is that these moments all come on top of consistent, top-line performances throughout the rest of the game. With all that in mind, it's no surprise that he's managed a podium finish in the best and fairest in each of the past six years.

On top of that, however, there has always been a burning desire to work hard for the club. At the end of his first season at the club in 2014, a young Bontempelli would've watched on in disbelief as he saw his captain Griffen, and club stalwarts Adam Cooney and Shaun Higgins both leave for pastures new, as well as coach Brendan McCartney, CEO Simon Garlick and a host of other players at various points in their career. At the time, Bontempelli was keeping quiet, but in an interview early the following season, he conceded that the news was a big deal to him.

Even during his first season at the Bulldogs, Marcus Bontempelli showed an unwavering level of committment to the club. Source: Getty Images

In a New York hotel with fellow young gun Jackson Macrae, Bontempelli admitted to sitting down with Macrae and working out what they could do for the club. With recently introduced rules allowing greater freedom for players to move between clubs, and having watched several of his teammates move on, it would have been very easy for a talented but impressionable young footballer to follow suit and leave for a higher-profile club, one even possible challenging for Premierships on a more consistent basis. But Bontempelli has since made it quite clear with his actions rather than his words that he was never about wanting to achieve success elsewhere; he was always about building something special with this club, specifically.

His leadership qualities have been well documented and have been clearly evident even during his early years; he is currently captain of the club now, and became the youngest winning captain in VFL/AFL history when he filled in during the absence of both Easton Wood and Robert Murphy in 2016. On top of that, he's used his leadership to help establish a group filled with talented youngsters that actually want to be a part of the club for an extended period of time.

Think of the names mentioned earlier, and then compare them to the modern day talents such as Macrae, Daniel, Naughton, English, Smith and Williams. Really, in recent seasons, Josh Dunkley has been the only player that has made any genuine attempts to force a move away from the club, but even he in recent weeks has admitted that he's still settled at the club and committed to working hard for the team, and until his recent injury was enjoying a career-best season. It's a stark contrast to the constant revolving door that the club was forced to watch its best players move through in years gone by.

But while being able to retain all of these highly-promising youngsters is important, the Bulldogs in recent years have gone one step further, and reached a point that they've never been able to do - bring in talent from elsewhere.

The Bulldogs Premiership list was largely built off of top picks in the draft - picks that including drafting Bontempelli himself - but since that success, the club has also worked hard to focus on bring in established stars from other clubs. It's taken a few years to be able do reach a certain point, but the effort has been there for a considerable period of time.

Since the arrival of list manager Sam Power, the Bulldogs have slowly strengthened their stocks, bringing in names such as Hayden Crozier, Josh Schache and Jackson Trengove (in 2017), Sam Lloyd and Taylor Duryea (2018), Josh Bruce and Alex Keath (2019) and then of course, the biggest fish of all in Adam Treloar just last summer.

Admittedly, credit needs to go to Power for orchestrating these moves, but as much as he deserves praise, it’s ultimately up to the player to see what is being built, and to decide that they want to come to the club. These aren’t the first players that have joined the Bulldogs from other clubs, but this is the first time that players of a certain calibre have wanted to join the club during the peak years of their own individual career. It’s why the arrivals of Keath and Bruce in 2019 was seen as such a significant offseason for the Bulldogs, and it’s why the acquisition of Treloar is the biggest trade in the club’s history. As brilliant a footballer as Treloar is, it's about so much more than that. It's a sign of what the Bulldogs are actually capable of now, and an indication of the quality they can beat traditionally more powerful clubs to. It's a genuine statement that they've not made before.

Again, for the arrival of players from other clubs, credit has to go to the likes of Power for facilitating these deals, but without the playing group culture that Bontempelli has worked so hard to establish, there’s every chance these deals wouldn’t have gone through.

The announcement of this new four-year deal is not only further evidence that Bontempelli is fully committed to what he was worked hard to build during his time at the club, but also that he believes in what is being built. The reason that the deal took this long to be signed off on was because Bontempelli wanted to focus on getting the Bulldogs off to a strong start to the season, and he would’ve loved what he saw - the culmination of six years of exceptionally hard work to change the reputation of a football club. As fans of the club, we love what he has brought for us both from an on and off-field perspective. Now is the time to cash in.

He's already won one Premiership, now is the time for Bontempelli's hard work to be rewarded with a second. Source: Getty Images