Western Bulldogs vice-captain Marcus Bontempelli says togetherness is the key as the Dogs get to dissecting Friday night’s 35 point loss to Collingwood at Etihad Stadium.
Coach Luke Beveridge said post-match that there’ll be some soul searching down at the kennel after the Dogs went goalless after half-time, and Bontempelli has told 3AW it will be the collective which will find ways to improve on that performance.
“We’re all searching together,” he said on Saturday.
“We had a discussion in the post-match about where we felt like things went wrong, because of our first half of football went so well.
“It’s going to take time for us to understand fully how we get through four quarters of football without having different lapses.”
The Dogs added just four behinds in the second half after taking a 25-point lead into the first change, an advantage built on winning the clearance battle, efficient ball movement, and ultimately conversion in front of goal.
But as the intensity of the game lifted, the Dogs were left behind, and the Magpies stormed home to kick eight unanswered goals to close out the game.
They key going forward, according to Bontempelli, is working together to find the answers.
“The one thing I’m sure about is tightness of this group, and Bevo is at the forefront of that, of how we work through this together,” he said.
“In situations like this, it’s all you can rely on, the collective effort and collective change of where we need to get to and how we need to get there.
“We’ll be looking through that over the rest of the season but no more so than the following week, the next one. “
The Bulldogs face Melbourne next Saturday at Etihad Stadium, their final game ahead of the bye.
