When you’re thrown in the deep end, you have to learn to swim, and that’s exactly what Luke Beveridge’s young pups did in 2018.

20-year-old Patrick Lipinski continued his steady development this season, playing 17 games after making his debut for the Dogs against Hawthorn in Round 23 the previous year.

“With a lot of the senior players being injured, it was a good opportunity for people like myself and other first and second year players to get a lot of games under our belt,” Lipinski told westernbulldogs.com.au.

“It’s been great for us to get a chance to play at AFL level.  We’ll definitely be better for it in the coming years.”

Lipinski said he thrived on the responsibility handed to the young side, being able to learn on the job, and improve week by week.

“Because of the injuries the younger guys were asked to take on a greater role than we probably would have otherwise,” he said.

“You look at blokes like Josh Dunkley and how far he has come this year.  He’s really proven to be a great player and he’s had to take a bit more of a role than he probably would have at the start of the year.

“We’re all still pretty young, we’ve got a very young list and I think most of the season we were probably fielding the youngest team each week.  To be able to get some wins in the back end of the year has been awesome for the morale.”

Lipinski had standout games against Geelong (posting a career high 25 disposals) and St Kilda (where he took 10 marks).

“You can get some great experience playing at AFL level, taking something out of each game and trying to build towards the next one,” he said.

“I’ve been able to work from week to week, improving little things and taking them into the next game. 

“It’s been a good confidence booster being able to keep my spot for most of the season.  I missed one game which was a bit disappointing, but came back in and worked on a few things over that week that I needed to improve on.  I tried to take them into the last four or five weeks and tried to bring them out in my game.”

Lipinski will enter his third season in 2019, with further improvement in his sights.

“I think my tank is probably my main asset, so I’ll probably try to build on that, but I also need to get stronger.  That will be one of my main focuses, building strength in the gym so I can be more impactful in games and stronger in the contest.”