McIntosh enjoying more responsibility with Bulldogs

ADAM McIntosh was entrusted with a spot in South Fremantle's leadership group in 2013 and he continues to emerge as a future captain of the club with outstanding form as a key part of the defensive unit.

McIntosh had played just 17 league games with the Bulldogs coming into the season, but was one of a host of emerging players added to the leadership group underneath captain Ryan Cook and vice-captain Craig White and is paid back that faith shown in him in spades throughout the season.

The 23-year-old has had a strong season but had a day out last Sunday in South Fremantle's thumping 93-point win over Peel Thunder at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium finishing with 26 possessions and a career-best three goals.

Not only was McIntosh's offensive game off half-back outstanding, but defensively he also did well holding former Sydney player Kristin Thornton to just 12 disposals and one goal.

"It's good to finally get some reward off half-back, it has been pretty tough there chasing players around all year. It was good to just play well personally. I had a pretty slow start to the year, but the last few games have been pretty good so that is good going into next year," McIntosh said.

"I was lucky he didn’t kick very straight, but it was also good to keep him pretty quiet. At the start of the year I was beating my opponents but wasn’t doing enough with my offensive run so it's good to be doing both at the end of the year."

It hasn’t been completely smooth sailing for McIntosh this season though.

He was dropped after a quiet game against Swan Districts in Round 5 but took it on the chin well and went back to the reserves to rack up 37 possessions the next week against Subiaco and has been cemented back in the team since with his form getting better every week.

He was solid in the first half of the year but didn’t crack 20 possessions in the first 14 rounds, but he has managed to do that in all six games since culminating in the season-best 26 against Peel last Sunday.

McIntosh actually appreciates that he was given the wake-up call from coach Paul Hasleby early on in the season and is happy with the form he has been able to build throughout the season.

"I probably needed it to be honest," he said.

"I didn’t have much form and I went back to the twos and got some confidence back, and got my own game back on track. The last few weeks now things have started to really come together."

As for the win over Peel last Sunday, it was South Fremantle's biggest of the year and the 93-point margin was the biggest win in all of the WAFL this season.

It also made it the first time that the Bulldogs have strung successive wins together and after a tough year for the club, it was good for McIntosh and his teammates to get to enjoy a game that they had sewn up early to give them a chance to just have fun playing football for an afternoon.

"It was good to have a win like that. We haven’t had much success this year so it's good to finish the season well and have some confidence running into next year," McIntosh said.

"It has been pretty disappointing but it's good to find some form running into next year and finally getting the game plan that Hase wants us to play happening.

"It was pretty enjoyable out there. Everyone gets a kick, everyone gets to kick some goals and days like that are always pretty enjoyable.

"We have shown throughout the year that if we bring four quarters of effort then we can match it with everyone. We did that this week and against a lower side we just showed how well we can play."

With so many leaders and experienced players leaving South Fremantle in recent years including Toby McGrath, Hayden North, Ryan Murphy, Josh Head, Andrew McCarrey, Callum Wilson and Theo Adams the youngsters have needed to step up.

McIntosh has been one added to the leadership group this season along with Nick Borovac and Mitch Carter with Cook, White, Adam Guglielmana and Paul Mugambwa the more experienced members of that group.

McIntosh both has enjoyed being part of the leadership group this year and also likes the look of the defensive unit he is forming part of alongside Dylan Ross, Borovac, White, Guglielmana, Mitch Carter and at times Adam Carter.

"We are all pretty young but we are all starting to gel and the more games we get to play together and experience, the better we get. If we can all stick around, then we should be a pretty force back there for a long time," he said. 

"I have enjoyed being in the leadership group. I'm not much of a big talker off the field, but on the field I don’t mind using my voice and I am starting to learn a lot of leadership qualities from guys like Whitey and Cooky."

The Bulldogs now face a big test this Saturday against East Perth in the final game of the season at Fremantle Oval in the penultimate round, but McIntosh is confident of South Fremantle doing well even though the Royals are set for a finals berth in 2013.

"East Perth is probably the form side at the moment but if we played like we did this week and like we did show against Claremont, Perth and West Perth we can match it with them I reckon."

By Chris Pike