He’ll play his 200th AFL game against Adelaide on Sunday, but Western Bulldogs star Adam Cooney has just notched a career first.
The 27-year-old has gathered 30 disposals in each of the Dogs’ past four games.
It’s a feat he had never before managed more than twice in succession, even in his 2008 Brownlow Medal year.
While there have been plenty of factors behind the Dogs’ recent form surge – which has yielded wins over Carlton and West Coast and highly-competitive performances against Hawthorn and Sydney – Cooney’s hot form is certainly one.
A fractured knee cap late in the 2008 season has taken a toll on the creative running player’s career since.
Off-season treatment in Germany before this season helped.
But Dogs assistant coach Shannon Grant said the way Cooney has learnt to manage his body between games was as important as anything in his fine current form.
“He’s been able to do a lot of work on the track, but I think the work that he’s doing now is a lot smarter, which gives him the ability to be able to do that,” Grant told AAP.
“We’re certainly benefiting from that, which you can see by the way he’s playing on the weekend.
“He’s been terrific Coons, to play the amount of footy that he has this year at such a high level, he’s been great.
“He’s certainly showed that he’s got plenty of football ahead of him and a lot of good footy.”
Grant said solid leadership from the Dogs’ senior core and the development of youngsters had combined to produce the club’s form jump, which Bulldogs insiders had seen coming.
“We reckon it’s been building but I think it’s all starting to come together now as a whole,” he said.
“All the players are buying into it, everyone’s playing their role and things are certainly starting to take shape.”
While confident the improvement will continue against Adelaide, Grant said the Crows had shown their class with last round’s win over North Melbourne.
“On their day they’re still a very capable team and we saw only a few weeks ago they beat Geelong in Adelaide. They’re still a great team,” he said.
“We’ve just got to make sure we bring the same intensity and the same attack on the ball that we have the past five or six weeks.”