THE WESTERN Bulldogs are determined to play attractive and 'manly' football, Dogs Coach Brendan McCartney says.
The Bulldogs players have already learnt a lot from McCartney and his new coaching panel, but the coach revealed he has also learnt plenty from his players in his first pre-season with the club.
"I've learnt they want to improve, and they want to play a certain brand of footy that is good to watch but is also quite manly," he said at Whitten Oval on Monday.
"They want to be better in the contest, but they also don’t want to be playing a brand where people walk away and go, 'Well there's no flair' or "There's no attacking element to it'."
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McCartney was confident the Dogs were stronger around the ball and better defensively, although they still had much work to do offensively.
In the lead up to his official AFL coaching debut against West Coast at Etihad Stadium on Sunday, McCartney insisted he wasn't nervous, saying he was more excited for his club and players.
"No game of footy is about a coach or a group of coaches," he said.
"It's about the players, and it's something special for Members and Fans and supporters to go and watch, and that's what we love about the game."
The 51-year-old former Richmond, Geelong and Essendon assistant coach revealed he hadn't set a target in terms of wins or ladder position.
But he agreed the Bulldogs' style would face a stern test against a strong Eagles side that belted the Dogs by 123 points at Patersons Stadium in round nine last year, and then won a round 19 shootout by eight points at Etihad Stadium.
"It was almost 12 months ago," he said of the earlier flogging.
"They set the ground up pretty well that day, West Coast, which they do brilliantly at Subiaco … long time ago.
"We've just had a good summer and we feel confident we'll be better prepared around the ball. But we've still got to get it done, too."
Meanwhile, skipper Matthew Boyd described last season's results as irrelevant.
Boyd said the new game plan had been "a steep learning curve" for the players, "but it saying that, we've done a lot of good things at this footy club over past years.
"You don’t get to three prelims in a row without having done something right. So it hasn’t been a total revamp; it's been a few tweaks and it's been really good to learn those little ways."
The coach said he had learnt a few other things as well.
"I've learnt that every player is important - how they’re feeling and how they're training and what they’re contributing is really important, not just letting people drift along," McCartney said.
"And just appreciating … that you can only do so much in a day, and then what you do do, you do as best you can; and then what you can’t do, you pick it up the next day."
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