Ayce Cordy has been rewarded for a best-on-ground performance in the VFL last week, named in the Western Bulldogs line-up to play Richmond on Saturday afternoon.

Both sides are coming off round one wins, with the round two match-up to be only one of two games the Bulldogs will play at the MCG in the home and away season.

Cordy kicked two goals in Footscray’s practice match last weekend and will provide a key forward option for coach Luke Beveridge, in addition to being a secondary ruckman to share duties with Will Minson against Ivan Maric and the Richmond big men.

Bulldogs senior assistant coach Brett Montgomery said Cordy’s inclusion was well-deserved.

“He’s shown a lot in the ruck and a lot forward, he’s really mobile, he gives us another option both in attack and team defence and he’s a great contributor when we don’t have the ball.”

Jack Redpath has been omitted from the side, the straight swap for Cordy the only change to a Bulldogs line up who defeated West Coast by ten points in round one.

While the Bulldogs have seldom visited the MCG in recent years, Brett Montgomery says his side were looking forward to the challenge of playing on the venue’s open expanses. 

“The MCG’s certainly a different venue for us, we don’t get to go there often so we’ll have our challenges there.

“It really just tests your team defence out, it just shows that you’ve got a little bit more width to defend, the open air seems to compensate a little bit for that as well and even it up so not a lot of changes (to the game plan), guys are excited about getting there.”

While Richmond are known for their speed through the midfield, Montgomery said the Dogs’ engine room would be well equipped to combat their opposition with their own strengths.

“We think that we’ve added enough depth to our midfield so it shouldn’t matter who is in there at any given time.

“Whilst speed’s been one of it, speed of ball’s been another, our decisions that we make in attack are happening a little bit quicker, so it’s not just necessarily leg speed, so we think we’ve made the adjustments with one game in, we liked what we saw, but we’d like to see it sustainable.”

ROUND 2 – Richmond v Western Bulldogs
Saturday 11 April 2015, 1:45pm
Venue: MCG
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