Brendan McCartney’s coaching methods have given fans and analysts reason to believe he is trying to emulate significant aspects of the football culture employed by Geelong during his time there as assistant coach from 2000 to 2010.
However the Bulldogs coach insists the club is hell-bent on forming its own footballing identity both on and off the pitch.
During McCartney’s tenure at the Cattery, the club enforced a blueprint built around the principles of drafting and developing its own players, winning the contested ball and acting with exemplary discipline both on and off the field.
These trends were followed devoutly by the players and would later pay dividends during the club’s premiership winning campaigns of 2007, 2009, and 2011.
Under McCartney’s reign as senior coach at the Western Bulldogs, many of these principles have been applied in a similar fashion.
Phrases such as: “developing our own”, “good people” and “contested ball” are McCartney clichés and are staple parts of the Bulldogs regeneration under his leadership.
Following his first year as coach, the Bulldogs have made winning the contested ball a priority, while similar importance has been given to drafting and developing their own players and not looking for cheap fixes in the trade window, in addition to ensuring players drafted by the club are honourable “good people”, willing to learn a new football philosophy.
Of the players that most epitomized Geelong’s culture as a club during its successful era were champion fullback Matthew Scarlett and full-foward Cameron Mooney. So when these two players opted to join the Bulldogs at the end of the season for part-time coaching, the various Geelong comparisons gained momentum.
But on Thursday at Whitten Oval, whilst introducing seven of the club’s new recruits, McCartney was asked directly by a journalist whether he was consciously trying to transplant some of Geelong’s winning cultural formulas.
“No. It’s inevitable that there will be comparisons,” was McCartney’s response.
He also addressed the rather obvious links to Scarlett and Mooney, but insisted that they were there to simply share their knowledge of the game and experience coaching, as opposed to educating McCartney’s players on Geelong’s footballing model.
“Two good friends wanted to experience some coaching and it’s quite clear they’re going to help our footy club in a number of ways with their experience and their knowledge.”
McCartney said the club was instead working towards building a unique Bulldog era with its own blueprint. However, he suggested that for the club to forge a stronger identity in the football world it was important that the club would continue to develop around the foundations they already have in place.
In particular, McCartney discussed the importance of strengthening ties with past club legends.
“We are creating a strong link with past Bulldogs champions too because they understand our club environment and they’ve helped create the history of the club, and we’re going to develop that a little bit further.”
While comparisons with that successful Geelong era are inescapable right now, after blooding eight debutants in his 2012 debut season and so far adding a further seven players in the off-season, Brendan McCartney’s young Bulldogs are well on the way to placing their own distinctive stamp on the footballing world.
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