In case if you missed our article on Monday here on Bulldogs Centre, I decided for the first article of 2018, that I will list my top 25 Western Bulldog players over the past 25 years. With the first part of this countdown released on Monday, with players 25-16 named, today’s piece will see players 15-6 named, with a number of quality players very, very unlucky not to be named in the top five, which is to be announced on Friday.
If you did miss the first part, click the link below and it will guide you to the first part:
If you’re up to date, let’s get started on who has made the 15-6 spots.
15. Adam Cooney
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 2004-2014
Career Games: 250 (219 At the Bulldogs)
Career Goals: 202 (186 At the Bulldogs)
Adam Cooney, a former number one draft pick has had a very solid career. He was the first number one draft pick to win the Brownlow Medal, winning the medal in 2008. During his time under then coach Rodney Eade, he was a very exciting player to watch and showed a lot of people why he went number one overall in the 2003 Draft – his speed out of the stoppages was a thing of beauty. Shortly after winning his Brownlow, things started going south for Cooney as injuries stopped him from winning multiple awards. A degenerative knee robbed us of what could’ve been for someone so talented like he was. Cooney was eventually traded away at the end of 2014 and ended his career at Essendon, where his final game was fittingly against the Bulldogs.
14. Daniel Giansiracusa
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 2000-2014
Career Games: 265
Career Goals: 331
For the most part of the 2000s, Daniel Giansiracusa was a regular member in the Bulldogs’ forward line, and would always seem to pop up with a badly-needed goal whenever it was required, Giansiracusa would play his best footy in the late 2000s-early 2010s, when the Bulldogs were in contention for the flag. Season 2011 was Gia’s best season, kicking 45 goals as the Doggies struggled after making three-straight Preliminary Finals. Following the sacking of Rodney Eade, Giansiracusa became more of a mentor to the kids of the club, but was still punching out 28 and 36 goals in the 2012 and 2013 seasons respectively, leading the club in goals kicked in that time frame, before deciding to hang the boots up in 2014.
13. Luke Darcy
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 1994-2007
Career Games: 226
Career Goals: 183
The son of former Footscray player David Darcy, who played over 130 games with the club, Luke Darcy had a very good career, playing predominantly as a ruckman. There were times that he would go down forward and he would have a good effect on the team, with his ability to take very strong grabs and convert his set shots a huge reason why he would be a game-changer. In the early 2000s, Darcy was one of the club’s most important players – in 2001, he took home the club’s best and fairest award and in 2002, he was a hot favourite to win the Brownlow Medal, such was his influence. After being named captain for the 2005 season, Darcy would endure not one, but two knee reconstructions, forcing him to miss most of 2005 and all of 2006, before he returned for one last season in 2007.
12. Tony Liberatore
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 1986-2002
Career Games: 283
Career Goals: 95
Standing at just 163 centimetres, not many people expected much of Tony Liberatore when he walked through the doors of the Whitten Oval for the first time. But after 17 seasons and 283 games, Liberatore would be recognised as one of the best inside midfielders of the 1990s. He was a tough customer who didn’t or wouldn’t back down from a challenge. In his prime, he was a tackling machine and read the play exceptionally well. In 1990 he was awarded the Brownlow Medal and a year later, he won the club’s best and fairest award. In 1992, he became the first player to reach 100 tackles in a season and just a couple of seasons later, he set a record of 142 tackles in the 1994 season, a record that would not be broken until 2006.
11. Daniel Cross
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 2001-2013
Career Games: 249 (210 At the Bulldogs)
Career Goals: 34 (33 At the Bulldogs)
Throughout my time watching and writing about this great game of Aussie Rules Football, there haven’t been many players that can match the guts, courage and professionalism of Daniel Cross. No matter what the result was going to be or where the Bulldogs would be playing, Cross would go out there and give himself 110 percent and then even more, he was as loyal as they came. As well as being a tough-as-nails player, he was also a possession accumulator, averaging over 22 disposals a season from 2005 until his final season in 2013, when the Dogs did not renew his contract (Much to the dismay of many supporters). In his final two years at Melbourne, he continued to do what he did best and that’s throw his body on the line for his club.
10. Dale Morris
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 2005-Present
Career Games: 241
Career Goals: 3
Dale Morris has become one of my favourite Western Bulldogs players of all time. Morris arrived at the club in 2005 from the club’s then-VFL affiliate Werribee as a defender and as a rookie-listed player, established a spot in the side’s back-line from the moment he made his debut against Adelaide back in round five. Morris’ ability to hold his own against both big and small forwards was a huge feature in his game as well as his courage and his desperation to stop the opposition from scoring. In 2008, Morris was rewarded for a sterling job in defence, earning his first and only All-Australian selection in the back-pocket. A broken leg late in the 2011 season forced Morris to miss all of 2012, but upon his return in 2013, Morris hadn’t skipped a beat. One of the league’s most underrated players, Morris achieved what many haven’t been able to do and captured a historic Bulldogs’ premiership, playing a huge role in defence.
9. Scott Wynd
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 1988-2000
Career Games: 237
Career Goals: 31
A former captain for the Bulldogs, Scott Wynd was widely regarded as one of the more prominent ruckmen in the 1990s. This was highlighted by his career-best year in 1992, as he took home the Brownlow Medal - one of the last ruckmen to ever achieve such a prestigious award. It was also this very same year that saw Wynd collect his one and only Charles Sutton Medal, and claim a spot in the All-Australian team – the only time he ever achieved that as well, he would average 18 disposals, 17 hitouts and one tackle per game. In 1994, Wynd was appointed captain of the club until his retirement in 2000, but he received nation-wide recognition for his on-field leadership and was widely regarded as one of the finest leaders in the league. Wynd would end up named in the Western Bulldogs’ team of the century, such was his influence on the team all throughout the 90s.
8. Brian Lake
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 2002-2012
Career Games: 251 (197 At the Bulldogs)
Career Goals: 34 (32 At the Bulldogs)
Will Brian Lake be remembered as a Bulldog or a Hawk? That’s the question that football fans ask whenever the name gets mentioned, but regardless of where he played, he was a star in defence. When he was at the Bulldogs – the club where it all started for him, Lake was amongst one of the game’s best key defenders, particularly from the late 2000s. Lake was a dual All-Australian in 2009 and 2010 and was a recipient of the Charles Sutton Medal as the Bulldogs’ best player in 2007. Lake’s ability to read the play beautifully and take strong intercept marks made him an elite key back, but it was his move to Hawthorn that saw Lake pick up three premierships between 2013-15, including a Norm Smith Medal in the 2013 Grand Final with a sterling job in defence against the Dockers. Whether he is remembered best as a Bulldog or a Hawk truly remains to be seen.
7. Marcus Bontempelli
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 2014-Present
Career Games: 85
Career Goals: 78
Marcus Bontempelli could’ve been anything when the Bulldogs selected him with the fourth overall pick in the 2013 AFL Draft. Fortunately for all of us Bulldog supporters, we had seen the club pluck out what I can only describe as a future legend of the club. From the moment Bontempelli made his debut in the 2014 season, you could tell that this club had a freakishly talented young man on their hands. Doggie fans will remember his match-winning pair of goals against Melbourne in what was just the eighth game of his career. He was extremely stiff not to win the AFL’s Rising Star Award, but since his debut season, he’s become a two-time club best and fairest winner, an All-Australian and a premiership star and all of that at just 22 years of age. With his superb athleticism and incredible skill and composure, I’d expect to see a massive stack of achievements to his name when his career is all said and done.
6. Rohan Smith
Played At The Western Bulldogs From 1992-2006
Career Games: 300
Career Goals: 254
A true Son of the West, Rohan Smith will be forever remembered as a Bulldog through and through. From the Western suburb of Kingsville, Smith was always hard at the footy, loyal to the cause, very passionate and was as reliable as they came, hardly missing a game from the 1995 season up until his retirement in 2006. Smith was an elite runner, with some of his best footy playing off half-back, where he was named All-Australian twice – once in 1997 and again in 2003 – but the truth was he could play well further up the ground as well, either as a wingman, or up forward, as he kicked 42 goals in the 2000 season and 31 goals in 1999. People might remember Smith for him punching the MCG turf on that fateful day in the 1997 Preliminary Final, but he was one of those Bulldogs who were in it for the long haul. He managed to join an elite group of Bulldog players to have played 300 games when he played his last game in the 2006 Semi Final loss against West Coast.
On Friday on Bulldogs Centre, we will announce our top five players, can you guess who they might be? You don’t wanna miss this.