Taking on an apprenticeship under the Western Bulldogs seasoned midfielders, draftee Josh Prudden has absorbed a lot since coming to Whitten Oval in November.

While the 18-year-old prides himself on winning the contested ball, Prudden said clearance work and football drills are fiercely competitive at the kennel.

“It’s a lot harder out there, a lot bigger bodies,” Prudden said.

“These guys like [Daniel] Crossy and [Matthew] Boydy are big guys, you’ve got to try to compete with [them].

“It’s a good learning curve, you can build on that.”

Posed with a big challenge to break into the senior squad of hardened midfielders, Prudden is taking the task in his stride.

“We’ve got individual development meetings, so we are going through what we need to work on individually and as a group,” he said.

“The individual ones are good - I need to work on areas as everyone else would - so I will be looking to get to those as soon as possible.”

“Body is feeling a lot fitter than it was four or five months ago, so I’m looking forward to the start of the season really.”

Prudden said the intensity at training has increased since returning from the Christmas break, as players sense that NAB Cup is just a few weeks away.

“Everyone is getting so much more excited, all the boys are up and about at training… you can really see the boys are driving the sessions a bit harder,” he said.

Brought to the Clubs’ attention by ex-Bulldog great Scott Wynd who coached his school football team at Assumption College, Prudden is a hard running midfielder who is accurate by foot.