Entering the 2019 AFLW season as reigning premiers holds no fears for the Western Bulldogs, according to coach Paul Groves. 

Speaking at the club’s season launch at Crown Towers on Thursday night, the premiership coach believes his squad is well prepared to defend its title.

“It’s what you strive for playing any competitive sport (a premiership),” Groves said.

“As we spoke to the girls (about) at the start of the year heading into our campaign, sport and footy is about renewal, and celebrating it and acknowledging it. We certainly don’t dismiss it at all, we remember the great times.

“But we have eight or nine new players in our squad, so we renew, we go again and we want to be able to celebrate another one at the end of this season.”

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A major focus for the Bulldogs over the pre-season has been on footy fundamentals, and building on the kicking and marking skills that evolved in 2018 and contributed to on-field success.

“It’s probably the biggest challenge in this program that you face… 30 per cent of your squad are new players,” Groves said.

“To get them up to speed with game plan, what you want… Essentially what we try to do – it’s what we did last year – is just the fundamental skills and get as many of them into them as possible.

“The rest of our game plan sort of flows from that. It’s nothing scientific or really elaborate, but we think our fundamentals really hold up well.”

There have been “a few little tweaks” to last season’s game plan – and Groves is confident his side is ready to hit the ground running.

While there’s an element of the unknown with two new teams joining the competition, there’s definitely a point to prove against Adelaide in Round 1 in a little over a week’s time.

AFLW COACH PAUL GROVES PREVIEWS THE 2019 SEASON

“We’re pretty bullish about where we sit, but we’re obviously understanding there’s a lot of work (ahead),” Groves said.

“We finished sixth the first year and then won it the next year, so I’m loathe to say someone’s going to be ordinary based on what they did last year and potentially personnel.

“Our focus has been Adelaide.

“We’ve made a few adjustments because Norwood’s a tiny little ground, and it probably caught us out a little bit last year when we played there.

“Adelaide’s the only team we haven’t beaten yet in the competition – bar the two new teams. We’re pretty determined just to get off to a really good start over there and take the win.”