{"id":473695,"date":"2026-02-11T21:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473695\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T21:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:56:13","slug":"footscray-vfl-product-strong-contender-for-dogs-vacant-list-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/473695\/","title":{"rendered":"Footscray VFL product strong contender for Dogs&#8217; vacant list spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__summary\">\n                Will Lewis is set to get a chance for a train-on opportunity with the Bulldogs\n            <\/p>\n<p>                                Will Lewis celebrates a goal during the VFL Grand Final between Footscray and Southport on September 21, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>THE WESTERN Bulldogs have turned their attention to filling James Harmes&#8217; vacant list spot, with Footscray VFL product Will Lewis shaping as a strong contender for a train-on opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.afl.com.au\/news\/1464341\/western-bulldogs-midfielder-and-former-melbourne-demon-james-harmes-retires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Harmes this week retired ahead of the season<\/a>, giving the Dogs three weeks before the March 2 pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP) deadline to fill his list position.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis has been training with the Dogs&#8217; AFL program among other VFL-listed players across the pre-season, including attending their Queensland camp, and looms as a call-up for a train-on chance.<\/p>\n<p>The Dogs can only start to officially invite players to train on once Harmes&#8217; retirement paperwork is processed and the list vacancy is official.<\/p>\n<p>Lewis, 26, is a 194cm utility who featured in the Dogs&#8217; VFL premiership last season. He played 19 games last season after five in 2024, and kicked 40 goals, including two in the Grand Final.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Bulldogs have often selected from within in rookie decisions, including Anthony Scott, Ryan Gardner, Robbie McComb and Caleb Poulter as either pre-season or mid-season pick-ups.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Harmes on Tuesday informed Bulldogs teammates he would be retiring from the AFL after 174 games with Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, including the Demons&#8217; premiership win in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Lewis is set to get a chance for a train-on opportunity with the Bulldogs Will Lewis celebrates&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-473695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473695","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=473695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}