Get your first month for just $1. Limited-time offer.<\/a><\/p>\nBontempelli has signed a new four-year deal with the Dogs (Photo by Michael Willson\/AFL Photos via Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a few different things happening – getting married in the off-season, opening a small coffee shop out in Kew – but ultimately it is no different to how I\u2019ve dealt with other things in the past,\u201d Bontempelli said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an important decision to spend the right amount of time on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis club means so much to me, it\u2019s hard to put it into a few words to be honest. It is where I have grown as a man and spent all of my adult years coming here at 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think about the person I want to become it has been influenced by the people I have spent a lot of time with at the Western Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI owe so much from a footballing experience perspective but I think I really owe a lot of my maturing as a person and as a man to the football club.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it\u2019s such a special place, the fans, the people that have supported me along the way. I\u2019ve never not felt supported by our people here at the Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel incredibly lucky to have had that for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes fresh off Bontempelli being named the second-greatest ever Bulldog \u2014 behind only EJ \u2018Ted\u2019 Whitten \u2014 at the club\u2019s centenary celebration on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Bontempelli\u2019s stacked resume includes six All-Australians, three MVPs, six best and fairests, and of course, that 2016 premiership across 253 AFL games.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a club, we\u2019re really pleased to lock Marcus away for another four seasons at Mission Whitten Oval,\u201d Dogs executive footy boss Sam Power said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarcus has not only become a generational player for the Western Bulldogs but one of, if not the, most influential players in the competition. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis leadership and influence over our group and wider club is phenomenal, continually setting the standard on and off the field, always striving to get the best out of players and staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a player, Marcus has impacted games of football for the past decade with his unique blend of skill, athleticism and thriving in the game\u2019s biggest moments, rising to the occasion when our club has most required it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis unwavering commitment to the red, white and blue has shone throughout his career and every person associated with the Western Bulldogs will be thrilled to watch that number four jumper run around for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Bontempelli\u2019s signature secured long-term along with the likes of Tim English, Sam Darcy (both signed until 2029) and Aaron Naughton (2032), the Dogs will now turn their attention to retaining Tom Liberatore. Adam Treloar is also still without a deal for 2026. <\/p>\n
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge also re-signed at the Kennel earlier this year on a new two-year deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marcus Bontempelli has officially re-signed with the Western Bulldogs on a new four-year deal that will tie the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9126,64,63,689,684,14175,2105,14173,663,647,14178,7198,677,85,8018,14176,14174,14177,14172,660,698],"class_list":["post-12449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adelaide-crows","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-cotton","tag-four-year-deal","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-laura-kane","tag-luke-beveridge","tag-melbourne","tag-michael-christiansen","tag-michael-willson","tag-oceania","tag-sports","tag-steven-may","tag-strangest-contract-saga","tag-superstar-signs","tag-superstar-skipper","tag-toughest-decision","tag-victoria","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}