Why Bailey Smith left the Bulldogs, and the comment that cut them the deepest
The comment prompted the genial Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli to depart from a career of amiably saying nothing to smilingly tell a Channel Seven morning show: 'It's nice to know we're still on Bailey's mind'.
He then needled: 'There's probably a few less people in Ballarat for him to flip the bird to'. Not quite Kendrick Lamar versus Drake, but also not nothing.
Bontempelli's comment was a reminder that in Smith's gusting re-emergence after a year on the sidelines, he has twice been fined for flipping the bird to fans.
The exchanges set up the idea of simmering animus between the club and former player ahead of a reunion in Geelong under lights.
'I live for that sort of stuff, so it's just going to be the best fun. Regardless of how it goes, I can't wait to get back out there.' Smith told Fox Footy on Saturday. Straight after Bont's reply, 'Bazlenka' (Smith's Instagram handle) teased Bontempelli with a post to his 363,000 followers from Torquay's 'Salty Dog Cafe' that his old skipper had taken the bait.
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But Bontempelli's first comment – 'it's nice to know we're still on Bailey's mind' – might actually be the most instructive. In his last year at the Bulldogs, Dogs players felt they were far from Bailey's mind, and that he had checked out of the club.
In 2023, Smith had been deeply frustrated at the Dogs. A star running player, he couldn't get into the midfield (where he felt he belonged) because coach Luke Beveridge was persisting with a combination centred around Bontempelli, Liberatore and Jack Macrae. Smith, meanwhile, was out on a half-forward flank.
Then as training began ahead of a new season, in which Beveridge knew he needed to change what he had been doing with his midfield, Smith did his knee. Had he not done so, and had he played last year, it would almost certainly have been in the midfield. One of the key reasons for Smith eventually leaving might have evaporated.
Instead, for Smith it was injury added to insult. A month after his injury, the club went to Mooloolaba for a training camp and Smith left days early. It annoyed some senior players, who look back on it now as the first moment of him separating himself from the club.
Others at the Dogs figure this was just the first tangible moment to hang the argument off but in reality the significance of him leaving the camp was overstated – there was precious little a player one month into his recovery could do there.
But Smith's departure signalled to some in the playing group that he wanted to just get on and do his own thing. That became the pattern of the year for him at the Dogs. As Ed Richards nailed down the position Smith might have had in the Dogs' recast midfield, Smith was working alone to overcome his knee injury, often doing his rehab sessions alone at night or when no one was there.
It was no surprise to anyone when he wanted to leave at the year's end and nominated the Cats. Bulldogs people, who did not want to comment publicly in order to speak freely, said it was not the fact that Smith left the club that annoyed them, but how he did it.
Beveridge was far more equable.
'I'm really happy, personally, that he's well within himself, and he's playing good footy but there's no ongoing considerations around what could have been from us because there wasn't any negativity around the separation from my point of view and from the club's point of view. That all happened pretty amicably, regardless of the conjecture over 'was the pick low enough', all that sort of stuff, that's probably something that people will continue to talk about,' Beveridge said.
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Smith went to Geelong as part of a trade for pick 17, which also landed them Matthew Kennedy from Carlton. They used pick 17 at the draft on powerful mid-forward Cooper Hynes.
Smith's impact on Geelong has been profound on the field and off. Overwhelmingly he was recruited to help transform the Cats midfield. He has done that with running ability that is on a level above other players. On the field – and this comparison is made with trepidation lest it be interpreted as a broader life comparison, which it is not – Smith reminds of Ben Cousins for his high-speed running and endurance.
He was also recruited – to a far lesser extent – with an eye to the Cats wanting and needing to fill the new stand they had just completed. Smith is box office and he would fill those seats.
Smith is a disruptor on the field and, in a marketing sense, off it. He has a social media impact unparalleled at Geelong and bettered by few in the AFL.
He went to Geelong on a deal – five years at roughly $750,000 a year – that already looks modest. There was cynicism that he was enticed by the club sponsor, and Smith employer, Cotton On. It's an understandable frustration when Geelong land yet another player, but Smith had long worked for Cotton On as a brand ambassador and model and his current deal with the clothing company has another year to run. If his next contract were to suddenly rise dramatically, the AFL would intervene unless it could be proven to be in line with the market for the services provided. When Smith is about the most marketable person in the AFL, it would be hard to challenge a market rate.
Cotton On's bigger problem might be getting Smith in clothes. His popular Instagram page seemingly has more photos of him without a shirt than with one. It makes you want to channel Steve Carell in the movie Date Night, erupting at bare-chested Mark Wahlberg: 'for the love of God will you put on a f---ing shirt'. Smith has Wahlberg-like abs.
Geelong thought they knew the marketable star they were getting, but were still unprepared for what arrived.
Smith wore a Nike headband in the first pre-season games. It was a news item.
Headbands sold out at the club shop and at sport stores while discussions were had between the AFL and Geelong over the wearing of a non-sponsored product displaying a visible logo. It was resolved that it was acceptable for a pre-season game but would not be tolerated in season. He now wears the headband with the swoosh on the inside. Headbands still sell heavily.
They quickly had to learn Smith had his own unfiltered way of connecting to fans. Over summer, 'Bazlenka' encouraged Cats fans to get down to the Torquay Hotel and get on the piss with him, and one of his Barry beer business partners Charlie Curnow, to promote their beer.
At the EJ Whitten grand final legends lunch last year, Smith said of the Dogs: 'I still love the club, that's what people forget. But there's a level of when you outgrow a place, or you just need a fresh change for whatever reason. I still love them, they're still my mates.'
That he needed a fresh start was unchallenged by anyone at the Bulldogs, who were all also acutely aware of the serious mental health problems Smith had endured through his time there. While it is a situation that feels to an outsider at odds with his extroverted on-field and social media persona, those who know him also know that only speaks to the complexity of the issues with which Smith continues to deal.
His old teammates were comfortable with his reasons for leaving, but less impressed to learn he felt he had outgrown them. It made them sound and feel small – a sentiment reinforced by his chip about Ballarat – and it did not sit well. There is undoubtedly still love there. Just perhaps not on Thursday night.
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