Geelong great Cameron Mooney has a message for those who want to see Western Bulldogs forward Aaron Naughton move into defence.
Shut up.
While that might be easy to say after Naughton’s six-goal performance in Thursday’s 64-124 win over St Kilda, Mooney has long been a supporter of keeping the Bulldog inside 50.
Even though Mooney knows that Naughton would make a quality defender, he thinks that star forwards are hard to find and that targets of the 24-year-old’s calibre simply don’t grow on trees.
“I'll be honest and I'm not trying to pump my own tyres up here or pump up Fox Footy, but we have a show after a Friday night footy called Fox Footy Live … and after the Bulldogs game where they didn't have a great result with Essendon, the debate was flying,” Mooney explained on SEN Mornings.
“My point was that, ‘This man is a forward and everyone who wants him to go back, needs to shut up. He's a man who can kick over 40 goals a year. He's been in the top 10 goal-kickers in the last four years of the competition. Those guys just do not grow on trees’.
“He is a bloke who can fly for marks, take big pack marks in the forward line, crash packs and then kick anywhere between four to six goals in a game. They don't grow on trees.
“I'd prefer a guy who's a seven out of 10 forward than a guy who's an eight out of 10 back, because a seven out of 10 forward is harder to find, in my opinion.”
Many of the calls to move Naughton back have come due to an apparent logjam of Bulldogs forwards as Luke Beveridge has found it hard to fit Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Rory Lobb, Sam Darcy and Naughton into the same side.
While Mooney conceded that you can have too much of a good thing, he thinks that Naughton’s presence inside 50 is crucial for his younger tall forward teammates and how the front six works as a whole.
“You can (have too much of a good thing) and that is something that the Bulldogs I think have wrestled with since they've got Rory Lobb over there,” Mooney said.
“They've got young Sam Darcy coming through that they want to and need to give game time to, because he is going to be the future of that footy club along with Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
“But my thing is right now, if you threw just Jamarra and Darcy down there on their own, there are two young men trying to learn their craft and they would be getting the two best defenders in the opposition.
“I just think that would absolutely kill their development. It would really hurt them, and I think it would hurt the Bulldogs more than anything.
“You've got a guy down there in Naughton who takes the best defender. He's a man who does jump and crash … which brings Cody Weightman into the game … I just think if you moved Naughton away from those two (they could struggle).
“Yes, he'd probably be a fantastic defender. I'm not saying that at all, (but he is a forward).”
Naughton will hope to keep his strong form going when the Dogs face the Dockers at Optus Stadium on Saturday, April 27.
