An ability to dig deep when it mattered most and stand up in the absence of key experience across the ground.
Assistant coach Daniel Pratt praised the team for their 11-point win over Hawthorn in the AAMI Community Series game on Thursday night in Tasmania.
Here's what Pratt had to say following the game.
On key learnings from the pre-season games:
“We played a number of players last week against Essendon.
"We probably didn’t get the look exactly that we wanted, so it was good today to come down and sharpen it up a bit with the team and play a normal bench.
“We got a really good look in the first half with the game we wanted to play. Hawthorn put some pressure on us in the third and the game looked a bit different after that.
“It was good to end up winning it.
"It was good to see some positive signs.”
On Sam Davidson:
“We were really pleased with ‘Davo’. He held down his wing for the day.
“He’s played a bit of senior footy and, obviously, we saw the talent in him in the VFL last year. We’ve been really pleased with him.
“Today really represented his pre-season.”
On Ryley Sanders:
“He’s been working really hard on his game with Jarryn Geary and Brendon Lade - the midfield coaches.
"The pressure he can apply can help us immensely. We saw a lot of that in the first half.
“He’ll continue to develop. He’s a high talent and we expect him to keep getting better."
On Bulldogs' depth and youth:
“We also had (Josh) Dolan play his first proper hit out and he looked sharp at times.
“Then (Jordan) Croft was able to play forward, wing and back. We got a good look at the younger guys coming through and the new guys we picked up.
“There are a number of guys who came through who played midfield time today: (Riley) Garcia, (Harvey) Gallagher has played in there, Joel Freijah got a run in the last quarter in the midfield and 'Sando'.
"It’s really important to have depth in your midfield.
“When 'Bont' goes out early, it’s giving those guys more time to stand up. It’s important at this time of the year as well.”
