THE WESTERN Bulldogs' gallant effort to get within nine points of reigning premier Geelong in Saturday's NAB Cup clash at Simonds Stadium was a major step forward for the club, Dogs star Shaun Higgins said.
The Bulldogs appeared set to cause an upset against the virtually full-strength Cats when they led by 19 points just after half-time. And when Geelong flexed its muscles with the next five goals, the Dogs came back again to fall just short.
The plucky visitors won most of the statistical categories, including the contested possession count (149-129) and clearances (40-23) - further evidence of the merits of coach Brendan McCartney's contested-ball mantra.
Higgins, one of the Bulldogs' better players with 24 disposals and a goal, believes his team is starting to make genuine inroads under McCartney's new game-plan.
"To match up against the benchmark [of the AFL] over the past four or five years, and to see what we've implemented over four months of pre-season … was a massive step forward," Higgins said at Whitten Oval on Tuesday.
"That's showed in the way we've been playing."
Higgins, who recently turned 24, made headlines last month when he declared it was time he delivered after several injury-plagued seasons. The 87-game forward/midfielder feels he is making "good" progress towards that goal.
"In pre-season you hope to be flying and fit and feeling good, and the last couple of weeks I've been able to get some good game time in and the body's feeling good," Higgins said.
"As long as I can play my role this year I'll be happy."
That role might change slightly, with the likes of Higgins and Giansiracusa (who joined his teammate at today's press conference) set to become more dangerous options forward of centre.
The experienced pair is expected to produce big seasons, but perhaps won't be required to carry as much of the midfield load given the development of the Bulldogs' young band of hard-at-it onballers.
"There's obviously a number of roles we need to play, and myself and Danny are in that forward role and hopefully work into the midfield," Higgins said.
"But … we've drafted some good inside players and if they get the job done inside, hopefully we've got the work to do on the outside."
Asked about McCartney's constant barking of instructions and demands for strong physical contests during Tuesday's session, Giansiracusa explained: "The VFL guys have got a game this week so he wants them to be up and about for that first game on Saturday night. If you come to very training session, you'll hear 'Macca' talk like that. I'm tipping we'll get that [at training] on Friday as well.
"The message throughout the whole pre-season is: 'When you come to training, you come to training to improve.' We've tried to drive that as a leadership group … That's all we're trying to do."
The Bulldogs will have further solid training sessions on Thursday and Friday before having the weekend off to rest up before finalising preparations for their round one clash with West Coast at Etihad Stadium on Sunday April 1.
