ST KILDA great Nathan Burke has dismissed the Western Bulldogs chances of an AFL dynasty, saying the club is devoid of stars and marquee players.
The former Saints captain tipped the Bulldogs to reach this year’s Grand Final but didn’t believe the club was set up for sustained success.
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Burke said the club’s historic lack of finals success pointed to another narrow premiership window.
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READ NOW“You look at GWS and you say, look, there’s going to be a dynasty there for four or five years,” he said.
“The history of the Western Bulldogs Football Club tells me that they don’t have dynasties.
“It’s been the longest drought of any team making a Grand Final in the history of the game, they’ve got to seven preliminary finals and haven’t got to the Grand Final and then they’ve gone backwards.
“The history of the club tell me ... they don’t stay up for four, five, six, ten years in a row.
Preliminary finals haven’t been kind to the club, losing in 1985, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2008, 2009 and 2010, last making the Grand Final in 1961 when they lost to Hawthorn.
The Bulldogs had three players in the AFL Players’ Association 22Under22 team this season, including captain Marcus Bontempelli, Jake Stringer and Lachie Hunter while Caleb Daniel and Jack Macrae were in the 50-man squad.
Stringer was captain of the 2015 team before being named All-Australian for the first time while Bontempelli is among this year’s Brownlow Medal favourites and Daniel finished runner-up in the AFL Rising Star Award.
The Dogs have also had 10 Rising Star nominations since 2012 with nine still on the list; Mitch Wallis (2012), Macrae (2013), Bontempelli, Stringer, Nathan Hrovat (2014), Mitch Honeychurch, Tom Boyd (2014), Daniel and Josh Dunkley (2015).
However, Burke was adamant the Bulldogs didn’t have the star power to become an AFL power.
“I know it’s a young list. It’s a list a little bit devoid of stars and marquee players who can carry them through for long periods of time like we’ve seen Hawthorn have,” he said on Fox Sports News.
“They’ve (Hawthorn) got their four or five outright stars, the Bulldogs don’t have that, they are just playing very well as a team.
“For me, to have that dynasty you need four or five stars to build around.”
St Kilda has suffered a similar finals and premiership drought since its sole flag in 1966, losing Grand Finals in 1971, 1997, 2009 and 2010 and winning nine wooden spoons.