Western Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade is fighting an uphill battle to dispel two popular theories surrounding his club and the approaching AFL season.

The first is that the lack of a dominant power forward was what stood between the Bulldogs and a grand final over the past two seasons – and that problem has been solved by the recruitment of Barry Hall.

The second is that with five important players aged more than 30 – captain Brad Johnson, Hall, Jason Akermanis, Nathan Eagleton and Ben Hudson – they need to break their 56-year premiership drought this year.

Eade believes both theories have surface appeal, but do not stand up to scrutiny.

While he has nothing but praise for sometimes-combustible former Sydney captain Hall, who has starred in two pre-season games, he dismisses the view that he completes the premiership jigsaw.

Instead, he insists Hall is just another cog in an already potent scoring machine.

“We’re not going to rely on Barry, because we were the highest scoring team last year until round 22, so we don’t see him coming in to be a panacea or (needing) to be a goal-kicker for us,” Eade said.

“… From a playing output, it’s just him being able to fit into the team ethos more than anything.”

Eade acknowledges Hall’s contested marking power could net the team a valuable extra goal or two in big matches, such as last year’s agonising seven-point preliminary final loss to St Kilda, when they kicked their lowest score of the season.

But even then, he maintains it was inaccurate kicking, rather than the lack of a marking target, that hurt.

“People get caught up in the history of football and `This is the way it’s supposed to be and this is what they’ve done for 100 years, so this is the way it’s got to be done,’” he said of the belief that power forwards are essential.

“Sometimes their arguments are a bit hollow because they don’t look at the facts.

“Having said that, certainly you’d like to have a tall power forward and they give a contest in that situation.”

While the Bulldogs rate themselves as premiership contenders, Eade says they will do so for several more years.

“It’s interesting people look at age of players. It depends if you rely on those players and I don’t think we rely on our older players,” he said.

“If they’re not there, I think we’ll be able to replace them.

“I think we’ve shown with (recently retired players) (Luke) Darcy, (Rohan) Smith, (Chris) Grant, (Scott) West, that we’ve been able to replace them and have a seamless transition.

“I’ve got no doubt when those old players leave, and I’m confident they won’t all leave in the same year, that we’ll have players to replace them.

“People can say we need to strike now, I don’t think that’s the case. We’re obviously going flat out, but we think we can still be flat out in 2011, 2012 and beyond.”

There is much more than Hall’s addition that gives Eade an expectation of improvement.

An increased pre-season workload have raised the squad’s fitness to a new level.

The full pre-seasons of star players Adam Cooney and Robert Murphy, something missing last year, should also help.

The coach is also counting on a group of players who have so far been fringe team members to step up, in the vein of Liam Picken, Callan Ward and Jarrod Harbrow last season.

This year’s group includes injury-prone tall defender Tom Williams and tall utility Andrejs Everitt, who was the subject of off-season trade talks, but who Eade says has responded positively with a strong pre-season.

Brennan Stack, Jarrad Grant, Sam Reid, Easton Wood and Jordan Roughead are others, while Eade says established players Ryan Griffen, Ward and Shaun Higgins are also capable of reaching a new level.

But it is the experience and resolve gained from the narrow exits on the penultimate weekends of the past two finals series that should help as much as anything.

“The main thing will be the maturity, which means being able to execute strategies and plans under extreme pressure at the right time, I think that’s where the improvement will come.”

WESTERN BULLDOGS

Coach: Rodney Eade

Captain: Brad Johnson

Last five years: 9-6-13-3-3

Premierships: 1 (1954)

Star five: Adam Cooney, Brian Lake, Daniel Cross, Matthew Boyd, Robert Murphy.

One to watch: As the power forward the Bulldogs have lacked, Barry Hall could prove the missing piece in their premiership jigsaw. But one moment of uncontained anger has the potential to ruin his comeback.

Ins: Barry Hall (Sydney), Christian Howard (Glenelg SANFL), Lukas Markovic (Box Hill VFL), James Mulligan (rookie elevation), Liam Picken (rookie elevation), Shane Thorne (Wanderers NTFL), Jason Tutt (NSW-ACT U18)

Outs: Malcolm Lynch (delisted), Guy O’Keefe (delisted), Paul O’Shea (delisted) Wayde Skipper (Hawthorn rookie list), Scott Welsh (retired), Cameron Wight (delisted)

Best line-up:

B: Ryan Hargrave, Brian Lake, Lindsay Gilbee

HB: Ryan Griffen, Dale Morris, Jarrod Harbrow

C: Nathan Eagleton, Daniel Cross, Shaun Higgins

HF: Daniel Giansiracusa, Mitch Hahn, Robert Murphy

F: Jason Akermanis, Barry Hall, Brad Johnson

R: Ben Hudson, Adam Cooney, Matthew Boyd

I: Will Minson, Liam Picken, Callan Ward, Tom Williams

© AAP 2012

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