Defender Matt Suckling is expecting a faster-paced game in 2019, which he believes the Western Bulldogs can use to their advantage.

The 31-year-old, who has overcome the Achilles injury which hampered him last season, is anticipating the new kick-in rule will have a big impact.

“Especially with the kick-in rule, it’s going to be a lot quicker, so it’s going to be interesting to see how that goes,” he told media at VU Whitten Oval today.

“You definitely can get a lot more metres with the new kick-in rule, and the ball will be over halfway before you know it in many games, which is going to be exciting for the crowd as well.

“It’s a bit like basketball, once there’s a point scored at one end, the ball’s going to be up the other end pretty quickly.”

Suckling’s raking left-foot is already a lethal weapon for the Dogs, and with the ability to play-on immediately from the goal-square after a behind, it may have even more impact this season.

But he acknowledged there’s been plenty of competition for kick-in duties this pre-season.

“I know there’s a lot of guys that are going and grabbing the ball and trying to get a quick stat from there, so I’ve probably got to beat a few guys back there,” Suckling joked.

“But if you can get an advantage from there, we’ll try to exploit it.”

Another kick-in expert, Jason Johannisen, has been sidelined with an ankle injury in recent weeks.

“He’s still in good spirits, he’s still joking around – he’s happy to have a couple of weeks off training I think,” Suckling said.

“He’s the sort of player who won’t miss a beat when he gets back.”