Western Bulldogs captain Easton Wood is evolving as a leader before the eyes of senior coach Luke Beveridge.
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The 2016 premiership coach said Wood, 29, who will play his 150th game for the Bulldogs against Collingwood on Sunday, had become "rounded" in the time he has served as captain of the club.
"All the best leaders lead through actions and words and over time Easton has led extremely well through actions and the voice aspect - as far as instructional, supportive and educational type of voice - is something he is now evolving with," he said.
"He is quite rounded and he is obviously a great role model on a lot of fronts, he is a professional and he is such a stand-up figure in our game.
"He led through Bob's (former captain Robert Murphy) absence years ago and he has established enormous credibility and self-belief in those times."
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Wood led the Bulldogs to their second premiership in 2016 when Murphy, who was skipper at the time, was out with an ACL injury.
The defender, who is originally from Camperdown, has suffered a number of setbacks at the AFL level since being drafted with pick 43 at the 2007 national draft.
In the 13 years he has spent at the Bulldogs, he has suffered multiple injuries which have seen him not play a full season with his closest years coming in 2015 (22 games) and 2016 (20).
But when on the field Wood's athleticism allows him to play on a range of different opponents in the heart of the Dogs' defence.
In 2015, as the Bulldogs stormed to the finals in Beveridge's first year at the helm, Wood had one of his best years securing his first and only Charles Sutton Medal as the club's best and fairest and selection on the half-back line in the All-Australian side.
"It's certainly been a very positive year for me," Wood said back in 2015.
"With a new coach coming in and having my body hold up, I was able to grow in confidence and explore elements of my game that I probably didn't know I was capable of."
"So much of who you are is where you come from," he said after the 2016 grand final win.
"I was a Camperdown boy, born and raised, until around 16 years old when I went off to Geelong Grammar.
"The football club has been my home for the last nine years."
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