WARRNAMBOOL football export Leon Cameron yesterday confirmed his ranking as the next AFL coach in line as he masterfully play ed down the Western Bulldogs' chances of winning their first premiership in more than 50 years.
The Bulldogs head into tomorrow night's AFL NAB Cup final with a great chance of rolling regular season grand finalist St Kilda and claiming the club's first premiership since 1954.
Cameron, 37, was drafted as a 16-year-old from South Warrnambool and proved a master of evasion and skill during 256 senior games with Footscray and then Richmond.
But entering his seventh season as a Bulldogs assistant coach, Cameron should have been wearing kitchen mitts yesterday as he tried to keep a lid on his club's chances as the hype surrounding the Doggies reached boiling point.
"We're going OK. It's still a practice match," he said.
"Everything has panned out. Everyone hopes to go through the NAB Cup unscathed and get three or four decent matches under their belt. It's all about working towards the first round.
"We've not played in a grand final for a while. There's a bit of hype. We're being more mindful that this could be the icing on the cake in terms of our preparation." The assistant coach said the NAB Cup was different to the regular season, with clubs far more focused on their own teams and player development rather than flooding numbers back and being defensive.
He said the Bulldogs had some positives come out of their past couple of wins, not the least being the form of ex-Sydney Swans full-forward Barry Hall and former Geelong rookie Brodie Moles.
"It's all about us improving, keeping the club and players hungry and on edge. It's a hard side to break into," he said.
Cameron hinted that Moles might have to wait to be elevated from the rookie list.
"We'll make that call when we need to make that call," he said.
A place has opened up due to the hip injury suffered by Christian Howard - pick No. 15 in last year's draft.
The Bulldogs are yet to see the full impact of Hall with veteran Brad Johnson still on the sidelines and likely to be so for a couple of weeks due to tightness in an Achilles tendon.
"Who knows how it's all going to work out (the combination of Hall and Johnson)," Cameron said.
"We have to be mindful of pushing Johnno. He's coming up 34 and he's played an enormous amount of football.
"He's had a good pre-season but there will be times when he will have issues with his body. We need him in good shape right throughout the season."
Cameron has one of the most sought-after jobs in the AFL - midfield coach at the Bulldogs with an almost limitless talent pool to work with.
"We've got two bull ruckmen in (Ben) Hudson and (Will) Minson, two kids (Jordan) Roughead and (Ayce) Cordy and then there's eight to 10 midfielders who roll through there," he said.
"They have a huge workrate and appetite."
Cameron said he was pleased to have gone through the process of applying for the Richmond coaching job which went to Damien Hardwick.
"It's all good experience and we'll see what happens from here," he said.
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