CAMERON Mooney has urged the Western Bulldogs to show captain Ryan Griffen the door after he sensationally requested a trade to Greater Western Sydney on Thursday.

 

Griffen released a statement, via his management Elite Sports Properties, stating he was seeking a "fresh start" at the Giants.

 

But Mooney, a development coach at the Bulldogs, slammed Griffen's position and advised the Dogs to be aggressive in seeking adequate compensation in any trade.

 

"If our captain wants to leave and he doesn't want to be part of what we're trying to build here then he has to go," Mooney told NAB AFL Trade Radio.

 

"It's a huge call for the captain of your football club, someone you've put so much time and interest into, to then (get) up and leave.

 

"If he doesn't want to be around for the long run and long journey (then) don't talk him around into spending one more year there, if your captain says he wants out you show him the door."

 

It is Mooney's understanding a deal from the Giants may have been on the table up to six months ago.

 

There have been rumblings about player discontent and in particular disagreements between the Dogs' senior players and coach Brendan McCartney.

 

Mooney said the situation had been "blown out of proportion" but made it clear the senior players needed to toughen up.

 

"If you don't like it then you knuckle down and stick with it or you leave," Mooney said.

 

"If you can get something out of these guys who don't want to be there for the long haul then you cut your losses."

Mooney was part of a trade that involved then Geelong captain Leigh Colbert, who quit the club to join North Melbourne before the start of the 2000 season.

 

Mooney was joined by star defender Corey Enright, whom the Cats drafted with one of the picks (pick 47) that sent Colbert to the Roos.

 

The pair played more than 500 games together and tasted premiership success in 2007 and 2009.

 

"Things can actually come out of this in a positive way and I think the Dogs need to be unbelievably aggressively towards the Giants and say, 'If you want him, then we want something back for him'," Mooney said.

 

"Then they can keep building on what they've been doing over the last couple of years, with the great young kids that they've got down there."