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Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
It's Gerard Waitley. Thanks for listening to the podcast. In this episode, we discuss the Bulldogs in the grip of injury, our leadership portfolio with Luke Hodge, dual sports star Matthew Wade, Barats Andresen with the latest from the IPL, Across the Divide with Andrew Voss, and our annual WrestleMania review. You can get in touch at any time. Waitley at sen.com.au. Thanks for listening. Enjoy.
Tuesday morning. This is your town. This is your station.
This is Waitley. Good morning. What a difference 10 days can make. As the Western Bulldogs headed to gather round, they were the last team standing, unbeaten atop the ladder. The Dogs had flown the gates with the club's best start since its previous grand final year. They were eight points up on the competition. having beaten Brisbane at the Gabba and the Crows in Adelaide.
Over a measurable period, they had three of the top five ranked players in the competition and looked to have solved the defensive vulnerabilities. It was a scaffolding for the top four finish that has been elusive in the Luke Beveridge years. But the question out of Easter Sunday was how would they cope with the loss of lone Ruckman Tim English to injury? And the answer has been poorly.
The trick for the Dogs is that the first sign of absentees, they get very young and very inexperienced very quickly. Against Hawthorne, they put a team on the field with a demographic in the range of Richmond, West Coast and Essendon. And in the heavy losses to a pair of Victorian contenders, there has been a further spate of casualties. There was no escape for Sam Darcy this time.
The dreaded knee reconstruction that has reverberated across the football world. Tom Liberatore is again in concussion protocols with his future being questioned. Their best defender, James O'Donnell, has pinged a hamstring. And out of Friday night, doubts linger on Rory Lobb. And clearly, Ed Richards and Aaron Norton played hurts. This is not a list built to absorb such circumstances.
The depth chart is thin. Having been traumatised on Friday night, it's the place of beverage to be stoic today. He'll have to reach into his reservoirs of inspiration. as a Thursday night looms against the White Hot Swans. That very date might provide the kernel of hope. It is designated as the 10-year celebrations for one of the most heroic premierships of all.
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Chapter 2: How are the Bulldogs coping with injuries?
2016 was one against a backdrop of adversity, beginning with Bob Murphy's wrecked knee, and included a July night in Geelong where injury struck in a cluster. The Bulldogs railed against impending doom, and history records produced the miraculous. What source material to draw on. How stoic might this incarnation of the Dogs prove? Can they cover the permanent absence of Darcy?
Can they hold the fort with the reinforcements? Can the Dogs absorb the early signs of trouble and still contend? Or are they destined to live another season on the breadline or under the restructured final system in the wildcard zone?
What does Bevo and the team do going forward around strategy versus system? It's going to be really interesting. I'm not writing them off though. No, I still think there's a good enough way they play and they've banked a few games early as well. So I think they're going to get to work though. They're going to have to do something a little different.
Whatever it is, they're going to have to make sure they're really well planned and well drilled to give themselves a chance. It doesn't mean they can't because sometimes that's when you do gel together really well is you actually get something done and make a plan and you execute together and you get great satisfaction. It's a real challenge for them now.
I just think it's a glaring issue.
They're stacked in the midfield. They've got depth in that midfield. A Bontempelli to half-back, for me, would change their fortunes going forward. I still think they can contend, but they've got a serious issue in defence, which they need to fix.
And they've got a player inside those walls that I think can be a Luke Hodge at... at the dogs in the back line.
Flips them from top four to bottom six of the ten. That's where I see it. They can rally, but, gee, she's a challenger head for the Bulldogs now.
So the Bulldogs scenario, the 40-wings temper tech, 0-4-3-3-98-11-16. The difference is temper and our open line throughout the day is 1-300-736-736. We start our Tuesdays with a leadership portfolio with Luke Hodge. Luke, welcome. Good morning, Gerard.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do the Bulldogs face with player absences?
It's been an interesting week, to say the least. It's been a little bit since I've spoken. I hope you enjoyed your sleep-ins over last week, but it's good to catch up because you look at different teams through injuries, through the struggles of Carlton, through some freak behaviour of Nick Dacos. It's been a fair week of football. And a lot of it has been based around Thursday night.
I thought we'd cast an eye forward before we go backwards. The Bulldogs on Thursday night are before us. Luke Beveridge speaks this morning. Their scenario has changed so drastically. They were the last team unbeaten. They stride into the gather round atop the table. And two games later, they're in the grip of injury crisis. What's your view of the challenge for the Dogs?
Well, I think this is where, for a football club, what you preach really comes to a reality. Because you hear all coaches throughout the season, it's a long season, it's a marathon, not a sprint. And it's a group or a squad that wins a premiership, not just the team that's out in the field.
And I can tell you what, Luke Beveridge is sitting back at Western Bulldogs right now, hoping that that's true and hoping that they've got...
depth in that football club because you look back at some of the people that we know Darcy's gone Waitman who he was a key pillar for him prior to getting injured his leadership out there and he hasn't been there for a couple of seasons but other blokes have been able to step up in the forward line but
it's when you start to get a couple in all your lines, you look at Libba and we, we, we're concerned with Libba, what his football for the future, um, obviously with the head knocks and how he plays his football, but the reliance on Tim English. And then you look at the defense, um, no Liam Jones. Now they got rid of him because he wasn't quite fitting what they needed as a defender.
Um, but now they've got a couple of main key defenders that are down. So you're sitting back going, who's the next person to come up? Um, You look through a midfield point of view, Adam Treloar had 41 last week. So you sit back and go, oh, he's probably serviceable. He's enough in his footy career to be able to step up.
Lockie McNeil is another one who had a bit of the footy last week in the seconds. But I guess as a glass half full mindset for the doggies, you sort of look back and go, oh, there's a Will Darcy sitting across playing in the seconds. And I know he's raw, he's young, kicked a goal last week.
But are these opportunities where you do look as a glass half full and give some of these younger guys opportunities
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Chapter 4: How can the Bulldogs adapt their strategy moving forward?
The next phase is his well-being. You don't want to over-comment too much on it, but I think every now and then when something like this happens, it looks plain and obvious from the outside. So much is going on internally at a football club that they just miss this, and they would have done it deliberately, but I can tell you what, from now on, they do look at every shadow from now on.
They jump at every shadow because of how bad it looked for a teammate of theirs, foremost, but Also, the look of what they could have done, because everyone would be sitting back going, could I have done something? And that's the worst part as a teammate or someone in a football club.
If you know that you could have done something, didn't say something or didn't spend enough time with your teammates on the day, you sit back and go. You feel a little bit responsible because of it. So that, yes, that leadership meeting that the key Carlton players are part of once a week, it would be a key discussion point there.
Yeah, it's sort of weird because I know I look back in some of my games and you talk to all the guys and there's comments. I say, all right, he looks nervous. There's passing comments, but sometimes the passing comments are just, oh yeah, it's just a game. It's a big game.
They might've put it down to, he's nervous because he's been a little bit, he's paid okay for leading up to it, but it's a Collingwood game. It's a big Thursday night game. It's 80, 90,000 people there. Is he a little bit overawed at the situation? And that's what, as a player, you might've just pushed it down to. So,
All these questions will be thrown between the leaders, between the staff, and next time a player is in that situation, someone will speak up or someone will go to a coach or the welfare manager and just say, look, go and just have a five-minute chat with him just to see if he's okay because he's a little bit abnormal from what he's been in the past.
Right, but there's much to learn and much to still come out regarding all of it, I'm sure. I think you're spot on with that. It's an educational piece for a lot of players because a lot of the players in that situation wouldn't have been through anything like this.
And you go through it, there's not many staff that would have been through it either, but it's about the old fashion of seeing something and saying something, speaking up if you think there's something not right. So it's a massive learning curve for all players and staff in that situation. The best part of Thursday night was Nick Dacos' performance in the last quarter.
How have you savoured it in the days that have followed? I had the discussion with Kane Corns on Locked In prior to the game. And the discussion I threw to Kane Corns was, who's had the best first 100 games? Is it Chris Judd? or is it Nick Dacos? And I was always leaning towards Juddy just because he was, back then, it wasn't about touches.
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Chapter 5: What updates did Bharat Sundaresan provide on the IPL?
Bharat Sundaresan with our update on the IPL. The new McCafe drinks range takes us to the newsroom with Nath. Nath, thank you. Owen Leonard is at Bulldogs training for Channel 9. He's sharing information. Fair to say it's a star-studded rehab group this morning. Bontempelli, Richards, Lobb and English amongst them.
Bontempelli looking sore with the right knee heavily strapped, but will be given every chance to prove his fitness. English, very unlikely. Adam Treloar set to return after 41 disposals in the VFL, provided he gets through training this week. Tom Liberatore to go through normal concussion protocols rather than front the concussion panel over his future.
We'll endeavor to hear from Luke Beveridge as our morning unfolds. This is Waitley for Hyundai. Enjoy. Early deals at Hyundai Preoffice. On now at participating Hyundai dealers. Pay.com.au and Radius Telematics. Manage your fleet with Radius GPS trackers. Visit Radius.com.
There's a sneaky little story out of Tasmania of a former Australian wicketkeeper of great renown tearing it up on the footy fields. We must know more. Matthew Wade, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me, Gerard. Now, if the story's out of Lauderdale or anything to go by, we're going to have to upgrade you to dual sports superstar.
Yeah, it's grown legs, this whole footy thing, but it's been a lot of fun. I've enjoyed it so far. Something that I always wanted to do coming to the back end of cricket and yeah, I'm really enjoying just getting back to local footy and having a bit of fun with my mates. So perhaps we should go right to the origins of the story. So your junior footy days are at Lauderdale, is that right?
Yeah, I played all my juniors for Lauderdale and then obviously cricket took over at 18 years of age and then never really thought about putting the boots on until about a month ago.
I went down and did some training down there just to see how my body would feel to be honest and get a bit of fitness in and And still felt half decent, to be honest, Gerard. And, yeah, a few things came about playing a game in the twos. And, yeah, next minute I played six quarters and I'm playing in the ones, which is a bit ridiculous in itself. But it was great fun. I enjoyed it so much.
So footy's always been a love.
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Chapter 6: What insights were shared about Matthew Wade's return to local footy?
When you were a teenager, what was the wrestle like between footy and cricket? Yeah, footy was my number one sport, obviously. My father...
um played a lot of local footy down here for Clarence and a few games for Hawthorne so um I grew up around football grounds with guys like Jack Riewoldt and um you know that's that's a lot of my memories as a child he's hanging around football grounds so it was uh certainly my first option Gerard I just wasn't good enough to be honest I wasn't big enough I wasn't strong enough I wasn't fast enough and um I played some decent um youth footy but
Yeah, it was certainly my first peak and cricket came a lot later.
To be honest, I didn't really start playing competitive cricket until I was probably 14 and took that a little bit more serious from that point onwards and it kind of eventuated that cricket took over, which is... A good decision, trust me. I've got a lot more out of cricket than I would have out of footy for sure.
Should have had to make do with a grand international career and World Cups and the like and test centuries. So was it always, I hope that, well, yeah, the idea that maybe you'd go back to footy one day? Yeah, as I said, it's always something that I wanted to do, go back to my local community, my local club and play a few games. I certainly didn't think that it was going to be in the seniors.
I thought I'd play a few games of reserves and then my body would give up and that would kind of be it. So it was always the plan, yeah, to go back and have a kick. As I said, it's happened pretty fast in the first month that I've been down there, but I'm just enjoying it just to get back on a Tuesday and a Thursday night down to a
local club, it's freezing cold, it's blowing hard and just get back to grassroots is something I haven't done for a very long time and yeah, I'm enjoying just that aspect of it to be honest. What was the experience of the first game back in the reserves? It was hard. I played a half, actually. My old man, he coaches Clarence, so he was down there watching. It was against their side.
I played just over a half in the first game.
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Chapter 7: How did Matthew Wade describe his transition from cricket to footy?
My hips and glutes, all the things that, you know, from kicking a footy that I haven't done for 20 years was certainly hard work to get through that game.
And then, yeah, I played a game the next week and, yeah, my body started to free up and feel better. little bit better but yeah it's a completely different experience on your body than wicket keeping for 100 overs I can tell you that.
Alright so modesty aside is once you've got going they've gone no no you're too good for the reserves and so up to the seniors yes?
I'm not sure too good I ran around and got a few kicks in the reserves and to be on training surprised me I felt really natural back at training after 20 years off and I think yeah they were They were trying to get me through a few games of reserve to try and bring me in for this week.
So, no, it was a lot of fun. We had Devils guys coming back. So it was a bit embarrassing. The whole thing's been about me coming back and playing footy. We had Robbie Fox come back and play the first game for the club and Sam Siggins and guys that are on AFL lists. So, no, we really enjoyed it. Got a really good win as well. So it was a good day for the club. All right.
So tell me about the seniors on Saturday. Yeah, yeah, North Hobart on Saturday. I'm actually, between you and me, I'm having a week off this week. Actually, I'd already planned to go and watch my cousin play Anzac Day against the Bombers.
So I'm going to give the body a rest this week and then come back, and I'll probably have to make my way back through the twos again, Gerard, you know what I'm talking about. I'll be a few weeks off. No, look, I'm going to try and play as much as I possibly can with other commitments that I have around, obviously, but...
Yeah, hopefully I can play, you know, 10 or 12 games. We'll wait and see. What's your position? I'm a high half forward because I just don't quite have the tank to go much further than that at the moment. So I played half forward and had a few stints in the midfield as well, which was really good, so...
as my body gets a bit better over the next month. Hopefully I can go through there a little bit more.
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