Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle panel has detailed when the tension between Bailey Smith and the Western Bulldogs truly began before the star’s trade to Geelong.
Smith, who moved to the Cats after 113 games at the Western Bulldogs, has been a revelation for Geelong so far this season, averaging a career-high 30.1 disposals and 4.9 clearances from eight matches.
His blistering start to 2025 comes after a frustrating 2024 campaign, which saw him sidelined due to an ACL rupture before ultimately being traded from the Bulldogs during the AFL exchange period.
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Smith on Saturday night lit the fuse weeks out from his first meeting against the Bulldogs. Asked after Geelong’s thrilling win over Collingwood how good it was to be playing in front of 82,000 fans at the MCG, Smith cheekily replied with a sly grin: “Beautiful mate. Not getting that at Ballarat.” Hours earlier, the Bulldogs thumped Port Adelaide by 90 points in front of just over 4800 fans in Ballarat.
While Smith’s comment has whet the appetite ahead of the Round 11 Cats-Dogs clash at GMHBA Stadium, reports have since emerged of the Bulldogs’ disappointment in Smith’s exit last year.
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After officially requesting a trade in September last year, Smith said at the EJ Whitten Grand Final Legends Lunch: “I still love the club, that’s what people forget. But there’s a level of when you outgrow a place, or you just need a fresh change for whatever reason. I still love them, they’re still my mates.”
Herald Sun reporters Jon Ralph and Lauren Wood on Tuesday night broke down the state of play on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle.
“So normally you have to work hard to try and uncover serious bad blood between teammates – you talked about ‘lighting the match’. So I think the Western Bulldogs guys were just waiting for Bailey Smith to do something. They knew that it would occur,” Ralph said on Fox Footy.
“So the comment about ‘outgrowing’ the Dogs was really the last straw (and) seriously frustrated senior players, senior administrators. It wasn’t that he left the Dogs – because you saw Caleb Daniel and all the hordes of (former) Western Bulldogs teammates there on Thursday night supporting their vice-captain, who was basically shunted to the VFL for so much the last year – it was the way that he exited this football club … and it wasn’t well done.”
Wood reported that when Smith left a pre-season camp in Mooloolaba early in January last year – a month after his ACL tear at training – some figures at the Dogs believed “that essentially was the beginning of the end for Bailey Smith at the Bulldogs”.
“Luke Beveridge spoke (on Tuesday) about ‘the trauma’, emotional and psychological, that goes with the ACL rehab – and probably what went into shifting Bailey’s psyche, potentially in those last few months, it was all of that,” Wood told Midweek Tackle.
“He’d be in meetings, he’d be out of meetings, he’d come, he wouldn’t come – and he’d be his quirky self, which I think we’re seeing playing out in the media, particularly over the last few weeks, which some at the Dogs sort of saw as a bit of a distraction at the time.
“Essentially, it was a flexible training arrangement, but the fact that he was injured, he couldn’t really do much anyway.
“So off to Europe it was, posting online – ironically enough, as his teammates played in Ballarat, of all places – and came back and requested a trade to Geelong. I think the fact he only requested to Geelong as well, some of the Bulldogs feel like they were stifled a little bit when it came to their leverage.”
But Wood said sources she’d spoken to from both Smith’s camp and Geelong described “the depth of his love and affection for the Bulldogs”.
Wood added: “The Cats are backing him in, they’re backing his personality. They describe it as a ‘no filter’ approach when that adrenaline is pumping in those post-match interviews, which we love to see.
“But the Dogs, I think, feel this is a little bit of disrespect and opening those old wounds. I think there would be some Dogs players who would prefer that this game was maybe played straight away – I think there was feeling potentially before what he said – and they obviously now have to wait until Round 11.”
Smith was central to a four-way trade late in the 2024 exchange period, which saw the Bulldogs part with him and Jack Macrae yet acquire Pick 17 and Carlton’s Matt Kennedy. They used that first-round pick to acquire powerful midfielder-forward Cooper Hynes from Dandenong Stingrays, while Kennedy has made strong start to his Bulldogs career, kicking seven goals and averaging 24.1 disposals and 7.3 clearances from eight games.
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“At some stage they (the Dogs) do need to move on – not before Round 11, because it’s going to be ‘bring the popcorn’ stuff,” Ralph said. “But they got a first-round pick – they got Cooper Hynes, who’s doing really well in the VFL – and they got Matt Kennedy in. H’s not Bailey Smith, he’s not as good a player as him, (but) he’s the inside midfielder they need. He’s tougher than Bailey Smith.
“So be aware of the fact that you could still win out of this from the long-term point of view.”
Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, Melbourne champion Garry Lyon said he admired how Smith was backing up his words and cheeky nature by showing strong form.
“He’s loving it and he’s playing the role,” Lyon said of Smith.
“It’s like everything: If you want to play the role and you want to put yourself into the news cycle regularly – Bailey, if he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t run away from it – then you’ve got to keep playing well – and he’s playing beautiful footy.
“So continue on, Bailey – and bring on the Western Bulldogs and the Cats. I’m evolved enough to go ‘it’s good for the game’.”
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