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Bullies president bullish about club's prospects

10th October, 2014
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Crisis? What crisis?

Western Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney resigned on Friday, the AFL club’s board having last month made a “close and difficult” decision to retain him.

Geelong defender Tom Lonergan, the Bulldogs’ chief trade target who was close to McCartney, decided to stay with the Cats on Friday.

Captain Ryan Griffen remains contracted, but very much determined to leave after walking out of the club and hastening McCartney’s exit.

It’s hard to put a positive spin on the Bulldogs’ tailspin.

But president Peter Gordon tried his best on Friday, while detailing McCartney’s exit in a lengthy press conference that started with a 12-minute prepared statement.

“I’ve been around footy for a long time. This is not a crisis. This is a tough week in the office,” Gordon opined.

“This is a difficult issue we’ve stayed on top of … We are moving forward with what I think is one of the two or three best young lists in the competition.

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“We take that responsibility seriously because we know that we should be playing finals every year for most of the next 10 years.”

It is a remarkably upbeat vision given the Bulldogs are effectively without a captain or coach, arguably the two most important posts at an AFL club.

Football director Chris Grant and chief executive Simon Garlick will start the process to select McCartney’s successor.

Mark Thompson, a two-time premiership coach who worked alongside McCartney at Geelong, is comfortably the most accomplished candidate on the market.

McCartney’s position had been under scrutiny following the Bulldogs’ tepid finish to the season.

The state of play changed significantly when Griffen dropped his bombshell on Wednesday night.

“I asked Macca whether … he could overcome these new impediments,” Gordon said during Friday’s press conference at Whitten Oval, which McCartney did not attend.

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“He was uncertain and asked us to get some further feedback from key people and we spent a lot of yesterday doing so.”

Gordon suggested there was “some significant support for Macca” during Thursday’s “inspiring” talks with players and officials.

But it became clear it would be in the side’s best interest to part ways.

Gordon was at his most pugnacious when it was suggested the players had a say in pushing McCartney out the door.

“That’s a mischaracterisation of what I’ve said,” he said.

“It formed part of the evidence upon which we made a decision.”

Gordon added that analysis such as “the coach has lost the players” and “you can’t let the players run the club” amounted to “aphorisms of the 1960s”.

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“Our players do not run this club of course, we do,” he said.

“But we make decisions based on evidence and judgment and it’s only appropriate that some of that evidence comes from the players, and especially from a critical mass of players.

“In all professional sport we’ve seen that player empowerment is actually a positive thing and an important thing.”

McCartney was appointed coach in 2011, when he pipped favourite son Leon Cameron, who is now coaching GWS.

He had been contracted until the end of the 2016 season.

McCartney released a statement later on Friday, saying the club “is in good hands” and thanking a range of figures at the club.

“It’s a sad man that resigns today, but that’s footy. I leave knowing that I got some things right and got some wrong,” he said.

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