Western Bulldogs head coach Nathan Burke says his side has no intentions of relinquishing the Hampson-Hardeman Cup when they face Melbourne in Saturday night’s season opener.

The Bulldogs are currently in possession of the cup – named after women’s footy pioneers Barb Hampson and Lisa Hardeman – following a 13-point win over the Dees last season.

“The Demons were good last year, so it will be a really good test for us first up,” Burke told SEN Drive on Monday afternoon.

“We’re holders of the Hampson-Hardeman cup and don’t intend to give that up.

“It’s a bit of a traditional rivalry – before the league even started we had the exhibition games which were between Melbourne and the Bulldogs, so even from right back then there’s been an intense rivalry between the two inaugural clubs.”

The Bulldogs have put in the hard yards this pre-season, as they strive to achieve their goal of 2x25 – two premierships by the year 2025.

Burke said the focus this year has been on doing whatever it takes to become a great team.

“We’re still a young, developing team – a couple of years ago (our focus) was all about building confidence and letting them know that they’re good enough to play at this level, and then last year was about increasing standards,” Burke explained.

“We did that and improved our win-loss ratio, but now it’s about saying ‘well okay, we can just be part of this league and play each week, or we can be up at the pointy end’ - and that means even better standards than what we had last year.

“It’s about teaching them what it takes to be great at the game – everything from the mental side, to the physical side to the skills side, and just really increasing our standards.

“We only get one preseason to do that – and the season is pretty short – so we’ve been working really, really hard on what a great team looks like, and (how we can) build ourselves in that matter.”

The Bulldogs and Dees will face off at VU Whitten Oval from 7pm on Saturday night.

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