Josh Dunkley started his career in almost perfect fashion. His first season of AFL football brought with it 17 games, four finals and one premiership.
The tough midfield/forward impressed so much in his first pre-season at the club that coach Luke Beveridge selected him for their Round 1 clash at Etihad Stadium with then Premiership favourites, Fremantle.
Dunkley was serviceable on debut with 15 touches and a goal but his quiet 12 possessions the following week saw him dropped from Beveridge’s teamsheet.
It took Dunkley until Round 10 against Collingwood to return to the side where he showed his class with 18 touches, 2 important goals and a whopping 10 tackles in a tight win against Collingwood at the MCG.
After a further three quiet games, Dunkley was again dropped from the Bulldogs side.
Following his second axing from the Bulldogs team, Dunkley played like a man possessed in a VFL win against Richmond. The then 19-year-old bullied the VFL Tigers with 32 possessions and an remarkable 17 tackles.
He did not play VFL again that year.
Instead, Dunkley went on to become a key cog of the Bulldogs astonishing late season run. The youngster averaged 19 touches a game across the final 12 matches of the season including close to best on ground performances in the Dogs’ semi-final and preliminary final wins over Hawthorn and GWS.
So how is this wonder kid who ended 2016 so well and was the Dogs best with 23 disposals in the JLT Series clash against Brisbane only getting his first game for 2017 four rounds into the season?
You could ask the same about Clay Smith, the man who captured the hearts of the footballing nation with his 26 disposals, eight tackles and four goals in the preliminary final against the Giants in Sydney.
The same could have been asked when Matt Suckling couldn’t find his way into the Dogs Grand Final team despite an impressive first season at the Dogs, or of Lin Jong when he proved his fitness to the win the Norm Goss medal with a dominant display in the Bulldogs VFL Grand Final canter.
And let’s not forget Luke Beveridge has also dropped two of the Bulldogs most prized assets in the past in Jake Stringer and Grand Final hero Tom Boyd. Stewart Crameri has also spent time in the VFL under Beveridge, and is again named to line up for Footscray this week and even Lachie Hunter initially struggled to get a game under Beveridge.
So when the Bulldogs team was announced this week without the ultra consistent Shane Biggs, who played every game last year in the Bulldogs premiership season, and the marvelled young gun in Caleb Daniel ,you had to sit back and wonder who hasn’t Beveridge dropped?
And the answer to that question is limited.
Of the Bulldogs 22 to run out tonight against the Kangaroos, just nine of those players have never had the tap on the shoulder from Luke Beveridge to inform them of their omission.
When you consider this is a premiership side and Beveridge has been at the club just a mere 52 games, that number is significant.
Throw in that one of those nine players is maligned Collingwood recruit Travis Cloke, who Beveridge has coached for just three games.
This weekend expect Caleb Daniel and Shane Biggs to respond in a big way, just like Josh Dunkley did last year against the Tigers reserves. But don’t think the ultra competitive Josh Dunkley and Clay Smith are going to let their long awaited chance slip either.
The message is clear at the Dogs, every week there will someone else good enough to bring in.
No one is irreplaceable, no one is bigger than a Luke Beveridge coached team, someone will always get dropped.
And for as long as the Bulldogs have 22 players running out every week trying to make sure its not them, they will be very hard to beat.
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