Western Bulldogs forward Lachie McNeil says he is hopeful he can take momentum from the Dogs’ pre-season practice match into the season proper. 

McNeil booted four goals in the Dogs’ 11-point win over the Hawks in Launceston, and said a personal challenge for him this year was to consistently impact at AFL level. 

“Obviously this year, I want to be striving towards locking down that spot (in the forward line) and put my name forward as someone who is reliable and impacting games,” he told RSN on Thursday morning.

“Missing Bont, Cody and Jamarra in those early rounds – I think they kicked around 100 goals combined last year – so finding a way to sort of pick up the load there and try to score those goals is going to be important. Hopefully I can step up and be a part of that. 

“Obviously it’ll be a team effort and there’ll be some other players involved, but if I can step up and do a bit more as well it’ll go a long way to supporting our team.”

With 54 games to his name, McNeil found himself as one of the more experienced forwards in the practice match; a role he relished. 

“Obviously we were missing a few players, so it was a good opportunity for me to take some leadership on - being a bit more experienced than a lot of the lads we had down there (in the forward line),” he said.

“Trying to lead by (example) I managed to kick a few goals early which helped with that. Being a bit more vocal too and making myself come out of my own skin a little bit. 

“I feel like I’ve gotten to that stage (of comfortability) now. I want to prove, in AFL matches, that that’s the case. That’s the challenge for me. 

“I think consistency is probably my main thing at the moment – trying to put those efforts out regularly across four quarters and impact games; not just via goals but in other ways too.”

The Bulldogs will host the Kangaroos at Marvel Stadium this Saturday night in Round 1. 

McNeil said the team was ready to put their pre-season work to the real test. 

“As a group, we’ve been really committed to trying to improve as much as possible. I think that final was the driver behind it. I felt like we were in a really good spot coming into the game, but ultimately just put out a really poor performance at a really bad time. It was a really disappointing result, so I think it’s driven everyone.

“I know it’s driven me - being part of that losing side has driven my entire pre-season.”