Senior Coach Brendan McCartney says although the Western Bulldogs’ recent losses are not ideal, they are feeding his players with a fierce competitive spirit for the future.

As the Bulldogs mature and gain experience, McCartney said their capacity to handle difficult game situations will help them become resilient and uncompromising both on and off the field.

“We’ve had some tough initiations in the last 18 months, we’ve been touched up by some strong clubs, we’ve struggled in some games where we probably should have gotten a better result,” McCartney said.

“That has a way of moulding people and toughening them up.”

McCartney said he was already witnessing a team that does not like to be beaten, with the competitive fire acting as a motivator each week.

“I am seeing a group, in particular our younger guys, starting to get pretty grumpy when they lose a game of footy, especially when they do a lot right and they still don’t get the four points,” he said.

“We are really confident we will get a good result out of that.”

The Bulldogs have shown they can push top four sides, evident by its recent performance against the Bombers, but McCartney is now focused on replicating that high-intensity performance consistently. 

“I think being competitive for longer is the next challenge for us and that comes with having a brand of footy that is fiercely competitive and being able to do it more often than not,” he said.

“The biggest challenge we’ve had is we’ve had to throw young people in positions that are really tough to play.

“They draw a lot of heat, they draw a lot of scrutiny and that might, actually, it will pay us dividends in the near future.”