Genuine, honest, tough and dour – they’re all words I would use to describe Dale Morris.

He’s hardworking and resilient. That comes across in his ability to play 250 AFL games after coming through the non-traditional pathway and facing some adversity through injury along the way.

He plays like an animal on the field but off it, he’s one of the nicer guys you’ll meet.

Moz is a reserved person but in my last couple of years at the Bulldogs, he actually became reasonably funny. He became a bit of a class clown and was behind many of the practical jokes around the club.

He ended up doing a segment in our team meetings called ‘Dale’s Desk’, which would highlight the funny things that come across “his desk” to improve the mood of the playing group.

I’m not sure where that came from – all of the sudden he was the funny guy instead of the dour defender we’d all come to know. It was a great revelation to all of us to see another side of Dale.

We found out he has a great sense of humour, which (unfortunately) just added to his already impeccable character and his down-to-earth, nice guy persona that everyone will attest to.

Our careers go back a long way. I’m sure we would’ve crossed paths in the VFL but, being a young person trying to forge my own AFL career, I had my head firmly up my own backside and didn’t realise the quality of the players I was playing against or with at the time.

As it turned out, we played a bit of footy together at VFL level. When he came down for a pre-season at the Bulldogs, he told me that he sent his own tape to the footy club, and to a few other clubs as well, because he just wanted to have a crack at it.

It didn’t take us long to realise he was a good guy to have around the place and it didn’t take him long to press his case for senior selection, either. Dale made his debut in Round 5, 2005 against Adelaide.

He played on Andrew McLeod that day, which was a huge ask for a debutant, and kept him to only eight touches! It set a precedent that he’s maintained throughout his entire career. One week, he’d play on Nick Riewoldt and the next week on Eddie Betts such is his versatility and value to the team. His teammates quickly dubbed him “The Glove” due to his ability to wrap himself around his opponent week-in, week-out.

On a personal level, Dale and I clicked straight away because we had common ground – we both came off the rookie list and had to fight for our spots so there was mutual respect immediately.

We grew up together, really. We were a little older by the time we started our careers but we became men together through the shared experiences of our 20s and 30s.

We both have young families now and began trading dad stories when we had kids.

That bond and respect grew through good times and the bad. Unfortunately for us (and Bulldog supporters), there were far more bad times early in our careers, which probably brought us even closer together.  Luckily though, we got to taste the ultimate success in 2016 which has forged an even tighter bond.

Click here to read the full article from Matthew Boyd on AFL Players.