Former Port Adelaide midfielder Kane Cornes has criticised the list management decisions of the Western Bulldogs before the 2022 season.
Speaking on AFL’s The Round So Far Cornes noted how pivotal young tall Lewis Young could have been for the Bulldogs due to a notable lack of key position power.
“If I'm a Western Bulldogs fan I'm thinking ‘hang on, we’ve got no bookends, it’s (Aaron) Naughton and its nothing, and they’ve given (Lewis Young) up for essentially a nothing draft pick that probably doesn’t even get used in the end,” he said.
“(Patrick) Lipinski and Young both gone from the Dogs, I’m not sure they'd be thinking they got those two right.”
Young landed at Carlton after a three-way trade that saw West Coast receive Sam Petrevski-Seton and the Dogs receive pick 52.
The 23-year-old played just 24 games in his time at the Kennel after being drafted with pick 49 in the 2017 draft, but he has already pulled on the navy blue nine times in his debut season at the club.
The 201-centimetre defender/ruckman has averaged a career-high 13 disposals and 5.7 marks per game in 2022 and would be optimistic about holding his spot in the finals-bound Blues.
Cornes says the addition has been a crucial one for Carlton as they too have found themselves in strife with injuries and off-field incidents leading to a lack of height in defence.
“He’s needed too, because of the players like Liam Jones and Jacob Weitering that they’ve lost,” he said.
“Young was actually really influential on the game.”
Carlton faces the red-hot Tigers on Thursday night in what promises to be one of the games of the round, while the Bulldogs travel to GIANTS Stadium in an intriguing clash with GWS.