According to midfield coach Steven King, veteran ruckman Will Minson will get every opportunity to cement his spot in the senior side in 2016, as attention begins to turn to the Club’s first NAB Challenge game on 25 February in Canberra.
Just who was coach Luke Beveridge’s preferred big man sparked plenty of debate throughout last season and King says that there is now a healthy battle being fought amongst the ruck division this preseason for the coveted number one spot.
“Will’s got a wealth of experience, an All-Australian ruckman, we know that. Tommy Campbell is a big man who’s hungry and starting to enter his prime, and obviously Jordan Roughead is going to spend a bit of time there, as well as Tom Boyd,” he said.
“So those four… and we’ve drafted big Goetzy who’s going well. He’s pretty raw, but he can move and run – he’s got some attributes for sure, [but] competition can only be good for us as a group, and for those four or five as well.”
Minson by his own admission had a challenging 2015 season, but he finished the year on a high, playing his best game of the season against Adelaide’s Sam Jacobs in the Club’s Elimination Final in September.
According to King, the next step for the 189-game veteran is to trust his body and the rest will follow.
“I think for Will, it’s just a matter of having faith in his body and letting it go – intensity and training and then in games.
“When he was up last year – the game against Jacobs in the final was a really good game for Will and he towelled up [Shane] Mumford back in round nine.
“For him it’s just finding those triggers that get him up for those two hours a week. You’ve got to be at your competitive best.
“But with Will, we know his best is still very much still good enough and if he can get his body right and he has trust and faith in that, he’ll have a huge impact.”
Jordan Roughead is another member of the Bulldog big man brigade who has high hopes for this coming season, after a run of injury sidelined the vice-captain at various times throughout 2015.
King says that he expects the versatile 25-year-old to see plenty of time in the middle this coming season, but flagged some time across other areas of the ground.
“Obviously he’s coming back from foot and finger surgery but I think he’s got great attributes to contribute both with and without the ball and the way we want to play the game.
“Just his athleticism, the way he can jump and move, he’s done some really good jobs for us in the past as a ruckman, [but] I think if he focuses on his ruck/forward craft, which is a great attribute with the interchange coming down, I think it’s going to be really handy for us.
