ONE? DOGS HAVE ONLY GOT STARTED
WESTERN Bulldogs veteran Dale Morris has declared the club’s drought-breaking AFL flag win as “just the start” for the exciting young group.
As the players yesterday continued their premiership celebrations in front of thousands of fans at the Whitten Oval, Morris said “anything is possible” for the team.
Coach Luke Beveridge said on Saturday that the aim for the team was to now become “envied” and create a period of sustained success after the Dogs seized their first premiership since 1954.
Morris said yesterday that the team was capable of much more with the long premiership wait now behind it.
“This is just the start for this young group,’’ he said.
“We’ve got some really good, young talented players and some not bad older guys too, so anything is possible.
“The belief has been here for a long time. We have always believed and now we’ve got the reward for it.
“There is a few guys that missed out, we got hit hard with injuries throughout the year, so it would be great to put in a good year next year for them when we get them back.’’
Asked if the victory could be the start of a dynasty for the Bulldogs, Tom Boyd predicted the win would make the club hungry for more success – but the players wanted to make sure they enjoyed it first.
“I don’t know how much we can read into it, we’re just trying to enjoy it now,’’ Boyd said.
“We’ve accomplished some significant goals and to get to the flag from seventh was some sort of feat for us.
“We’re really just trying to enjoy it at the moment, obviously we’ll continue to be driven and try and succeed as much as we can in the future.’’
Morris described the scenes as he stood before a sea of red, white and blue at the Whitten Oval yesterday as “epic”.
The Bulldogs stalwart played the finals series with two fractures in his back.
He yesterday thanked the club’s medical staff for helping get him through the finals.