No Dons deal as Dunkley remains

Josh stays at Bulldogs

JOSH Dunkley looks set to be a Western Bulldogs player for at least another year after Essendon’s offers for the contracted midfielder were knocked back.

Essendon had strongly courted Dunkley, but the Bulldogs wanted two first-round picks for the 23-year-old onballer and the Bombers were only willing to offer one.

Reportedly unhappy with being played out of position as a back-up ruckman this year, Dunkley’s manager Liam Pickering said last week his client was “pretty keen” to get to Tullamarine.

However, the Bulldogs held firm on the line throughout the trade period that he was a required player.

And they would only entertain a very strong offer to let him go.

“From our end, Josh is such a valuable member of the club and the team,” Western Bulldogs list boss Sam Power said last week.

“He’s in the leadership group, he was second in our best and fairest last year and is a fantastic player.

“Josh is someone we see being at this football club for a long period of time.

“He’s someone that we want to keep at this football club.”

Dunkley signed a threeyear contract extension until the end of 2022 in only July last year.

But he went through a frustrating 2020 season.

Not only was he not always played in his preferred position, but Dunkley was restricted to just 12 matches due to an ankle injury, which saw him miss six of the Bulldogs’ matches mid-season.

The big-bodied onballer, who stands 190cm tall, averaged only 18.2 disposals and 2.8 clearances this year.

It was well down on his 2019 season when he averaged 28.3 disposals and 5.3 clearances across 23 games.

Dunkley’s second-place finish in the 2019 Western Bulldogs best and fairest came after he had placed fifth in the count in 2018.