Senior Coach Brendan McCartney is known for his level approach, so it’s no surprise that his recent contract extension has not distracted him from the task at hand.

Two years into the top job, the Western Bulldogs have seen gains both individually and as a group but McCartney is still very conscious of the improvement ahead.

“Consistency I think will be the measuring stick,” McCartney said.

“There comes a time in the team’s life or a player’s life where you actually have to knuckle down and live every day of your life like you want to be a great team and a team that is consistently around the mark.

“We feel we are getting closer to that - where more and more of our young people are actually just really honing in on what it takes to be a very good player.”

McCartney said the team’s progression is reliant on a daily, weekly and monthly commitment to improve from each of the players.

“Sometimes it can come quicker than you realise, sometimes it takes a bit longer,” he said.

“The key thing as a footy club is just to keep daily and weekly and monthly assessing what you are doing well and what you need to do better at.

“We know we made some good inroads last year but I looked at the ladder from 2013 again the other day and we hadn’t moved from 15^th, we are still there so we still have a fair way to go.”

With over two thirds of the Bulldogs list currently under 25 years of age, McCartney envisions another solid summer program to best prepare the emerging young pups for another demanding year of senior football.

“Our age profile is still young, our AFL age profile of games they’ve played and years in the system,” he said.

“So [we have] a lot of development to go and a lot of hard work.

“We think we are building something that will be good to be a part of.”