I agree MT its got knights bombers saga written all over it. Don't forget Ward could be leaving for the GWS.
Bulldogs need some kind of a rebuild IMO. They currently have a list that could float around 5th to 8th for a few years if they pick teams to win instead of giving experience to the younger players.
I did an age check and as expected there's a massive hole in the middle-age bracket of their list. 11 players are 29 or over and just 14 are between 23-28 y.o. with only Cooney, Griffin, Higgins and Williams arguably top quality. They do have a few father-sons coming through but if Smorgon thinks they only need refreshing rather than rebuilding then he is kidding himself. A new coach would be better off offloading 29+ers in 2012-13 and spending time down in the bottom 4 getting games into their under 22s while accessing the best youngsters in the drafts before rising again in 2014-15. If he does however what Smorgan wants and tries to keep hold onto the oldies they will only make their list problems worse with little A-grade quality youth coming through.
By Round 1 (April), 2012
35:
Hall33: Hudson
30: Gilbee, Hargrave, Lake, Giansiracusa, Hahn#
29: Boyd, Murphy, Morris
(broken leg), Cross
---------------------------------------------
27: Minson
26: Cooney, Moles
25: Griffin, Picken, Williams, Markovic, Sherman, Barlow#
24: Addison, Higgins
23: Stack, Djerrkura, J.Hill
-------------------------------------------
22: Grant, Mulligan, Skinner, Veszpremi, Wood, Reid, Ward
(GWS?), Prato#
21: Cordy, Roughead, Hooper, Jones, Howard, T.Hill, Panos#
20: Tutt
19: Schofield, Liberatore, Wallis, Dahlhaus#, Johannissen#