Western Bulldogs defender Bailey Dale says playing against opposition in Saturday’s practice match has made the group even more excited for the fast-approaching season proper. 

The Bulldogs impressed with a 58-point win over North Melbourne in their only competitive hit-out this pre-season, now turning their attention to an opening round clash against Melbourne next Saturday.

Despite the 58-point win at IKON Park, Dale revealed there are some areas of the game they’ll look to adjust.

“The hit-out on the weekend was really good and really exciting,” Dale told RSN on Monday morning. 

“It was obviously a pretty pleasing performance – we got a bit out of the game, but there’s a few things we needed to work on which we’ll look at over the next couple of weeks before we play Melbourne on Saturday night.

“There’s just a few defensive things I think – they transitioned the ball from our back-half pretty quickly a couple of times, which sort of cost us a little bit last year.

“We’re hoping to tidy up a few of those little things, that we think we can do a little bit better.”

Dale said the group has placed high expectations on themselves this campaign, and isn’t shying away from their aspirations.

“Obviously we’re expecting to make finals and really contend for a premiership," he said.

“I think we’re in that real sweet spot at the moment, and have got a really strong list. I think we’re the second-eldest in the AFL now, so there’s a bit more experience there which we haven’t really had in the past.

“We’ve got some high expectations on ourselves and are really looking to push forward this year.”

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