Western Bulldogs midfield coach Brendon Lade says next Saturday’s match simulation against Essendon will provide a good opportunity to test the team’s pre-season work.

Lade said a number of things had been addressed since the Bulldogs’ disappointing finals exit last season, and is hopeful some of the changes will be visible in early hit-outs.

“There’s been a few things we’ve gone after. We had seven losses last year – pretty bad losses – and we obviously looked at them as a coaching group and went through a few factors why that was,” he told Jimmy Bartel on 3AW this week.

“We tried to identify and change them, and not make them as glaring. Daniel Pratt’s worked really hard on our team defence: at times we were one of the hardest, I think best or second best for scores against last year.

“We’re doing a lot of things right; it’s just doing them for longer.

“The mental piece is really big for us and something we’ll continue to go after because it’s a big part of the game now.”

Speaking from the Club’s pre-season camp in Noosa, Lade indicated there could be a few players that play different roles in 2025; some of which may be trialled in next weekend’s match simulation.

“The game has changed a fair bit. You have to be quite flexible with the amount of roles you can play, especially through the midfield,” he said.

“We’re really excited that we’ve got some players to play in different positions. Matt Kennedy will play in a few different positions; Riley Garcia; Ryley Sanders is learning different positions; Bont obviously goes forward. We’ve got some real depth in our flexibility which is great.

“We’ll be doing what we do for the full time (in the match simulation). There might be a few adjustments in the third quarter, maybe with personnel or a few things we might try, but at this stage we’ll be going full ball in what we do.

“The intra-clubs are great for getting match fitness and whatever else, but it’s hard to try stuff against yourself because you can just counter it straight away.

“We’re excited about playing different opposition. They’re going to give us different looks and it will be interesting to see how we adjust to them.

“It’s also good for the players and good for the coaches to get our eyes in and be ready for preparing for Round 1.”