Vice-captain Marcus Bontempelli says there is plenty to be optimistic about, as the Western Bulldogs target an improved second half of the season.
The team sits 15th on the ladder coming out of their bye, but the star Dog insists that can change quickly.
“The essence is, although there are things we haven’t done perfectly so far throughout the season, the opportunity for growth and ability to win more games and really make something of the season can start now,” Bontempelli said on SEN’s Time On on Wednesday.
“We look at it as a bit of a clean slate and say, ‘well these are the things we did well, these are the things we know we need to be better at’, and you embrace that possibility of ‘what if?’ and ‘who knows?’
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“That’s the thing that everyone takes a bit of energy from is the mystique and magic of who knows what we could do or what could happen.”
The Bulldogs’ best in 2019 has seen them challenge some of the competition’s top teams, but the challenge has been finding it week-to-week, or for long enough in matches.”
Bontempelli believes the Dogs can build on the positives.
“You ride that wave a little bit when you get to a position like we’re in where we haven’t won as many games as we would have liked to,” he said.
“The other thing is you look at the things we’ve done well and the teams we’ve played well against, they tend to be some of the better teams, so we’ve got to try and embrace that as well.
“Hopefully we can nail down some of those things we need to work on and it can have a good impact for us.”
