WESTERN Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney has hit back at suggestions his club has become irrelevant.
A Fairfax Media article on Wednesday labeled the Bulldogs "invisible", ranking them the last Victorian club on its "relevance ladder", which took into account date on support and engagement. Damian Barrett expressed a similar sentiment on AFL.com.au last Friday.
The Bulldogs have the lowest membership figures of all Victorian-based clubs, and are drawing an average crowd of 24,900 per game in 2014.
Sitting at 3-7 for the season, they have been unable finish the job on several occasions despite being competitive in games, but the coach refused to concede these factors made them irrelevant in the football landscape.
"I don't think Freo thought we were invisible last week," McCartney retorted on Wednesday morning.
"I don't think Melbourne thought we were invisible. I saw how disappointed Roosy and his staff were in the bowels of the MCG straight after the game.
"And I don't think Adelaide and Essendon thought we were invisible the two weeks before that, when the game went to the last three minutes.
"We can control some things. We can't control the relevance ladder, but what we can control is effort and intensity and belief and our players respecting one another on the ground and doing our very best to win games."
Unperturbed by outsiders' perceptions of the club, McCartney declared he would continue to stay strong with his coaching philosophy to develop and rebuild the Bulldogs.
"We committed as a club a couple of years ago to do two things," he said.
"To win the west, it's our heartland. That's our aim to win this side of Melbourne over. And to win games of footy, and every minute of every day that's what we chip away at.
"I've been in a club before where it didn't matter what happened. The wheels kept whirring internally, we kept working as a group, we kept working on our players, and the wheels turned. I've got a feeling it'll happen again here.
"I'm probably not as quiet and easy-going as people think. We've got enough intensity here. There's plenty of fight here too, don't worry. There's plenty of fight in this place."
The Bulldogs face a Brisbane Lions outfit this Saturday night, brimming with confidence following a stirring win against Carlton at the Gabba last weekend.
A win against the Lions is vital for McCartney's side, who struggled to trouble the scoreboard last Sunday against Fremantle despite having 26 more inside-50s.
With pressure from fans and the media mounting, McCartney said the club couldn't afford to be distracted heading into the clash against the Lions.
"You're a fool as a club if you don't hear feedback and you're not aware of the landscape and what's happening," he said.
"But you're a bigger fool if you spend your whole week worrying about it and getting bogged down by it and letting it distract you. Because as soon as you get distracted by those things, you forget about the task.
"And the task for us is to train well, pick the right team and go and have a good crack at Brisbane on Saturday night which we plan to do."
Forwards Liam Jones and Jarrad Grant are both in the mix to face the Lions, however the latter is likely to spend one more week in the VFL before earning a senior recall.
