The pressure is on the Western Bulldogs heading into 2026.
For a long while, the club has seemed poised to make a charge into September, but the last few years have ended in disappointment. One fianls appearance – a loss – in that period is far beneath this club, and they know it.
The players, coaches, administration, and the supporters – they all know it.
The Dogs are the team that threatens, at the moment. I was always taught never to worry about the people who make threats – you worry about the people who take action.
And that is where we find the Western Bulldogs with the season ticking closer; needing to take action.
With a superstar forward line, a brilliant midfield, and a… well, a backline that could use some work if we’re being honest, this club is a finals-worthy team. More than that, they are a team that, on their day, can match it with the best in the business.
Then, why haven’t they?
It’s been ten long years since their last premiership, and all they’ve produced since then is one additional meaningful September push. No top-four finishes. No loud proclamations by action that they are the team to beat. A heap of bark, but little bite. It is a level of mediocrity that should not be accepted.
Not with what they have at their disposal.
They have the tools to rectify things. They have the talent to do anything. But possessing all you need and using it are two very different kettles of fish.
Are the 2026 Western Bulldogs up to their eyeballs in the new season? Or are they just going to make up the numbers? Again?
If you’re reading all our previews, you can skip ahead a little bit – It’s the standard intro.
We’re steaming toward a new season, and as we do, it is time to turn our attention away from the glory of last year and look at the possibilities of the new one.
The players have been on the track for a while now – the Christmas break is over, and as we work through January, the charge into the new season ramps right up.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. This is where the kids show if they’re serious or not, and young projects become the next group of stars. New faces, new colours, old heads with renewed passion… so much feeds into the making of a contender. And as the days tick down toward the intra-club clashes, practice games, and eventually the real stuff, questions are raised about each team and how they’re going to perform in this new season.
And that’s where HB and The Mongrel come in.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all in to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you want to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series will provide what you’re after.
The way it works is as follows.
Each club has a minimum of 15 questions asked about the upcoming season, their coaches, their players, and their expectations. The answers are not glossed over. We dive deep on each and every one of them – some singular answers would normally be long enough for an entire column. The first five questions/answers are free for you to consume. The next 10-14 for each club are for our members, including a special appearance from Mrs Mongrel to throw her two cents in the mix.
Isn’t it a bit early for a season preview? Well, I suppose, but do you know how long it takes to write seven-to-nine thousand words? That’s 18 x 8,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 144,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews; HB goes deeper than anyone else covering the game..
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview for any team, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a more comprehensive season preview than this – I guarantee it. This is where we start the run to the new season, and believe me – nobody does it better than The Mongrel.
Let’s jump into the season preview for the Western Bulldogs.
1 – IF SAM DARCY BECOMES JUST THE SIXTH PLAYER TO AMASS 70+ CONTESTED MARKS IN A SEASON, ARE THE DOGS FINALS BOUND?
Keeping in mind contested marks only started being recorded in 1999, here are the current members of the 70 Contested Marks in a season club.
Travis Cloke’s 2011 is the highest on record, with 95 contested grabs at an average of 3.80 per game.
Corey McKernan is next best in 1999, as he collected 86, at an average of 3.58.
Matthew Richardson makes the list twice, with 76 in 2001 (averaging 3.45) and 75 in 1999 (averaging 3.75).
Cloke appears again with 73 in 2012 at an average of 2.92.
Chris Grant makes his only appearance with 72 in 1999, at an average of 3.00 per game.
Matthew Lloyd chimes in with 72 in 1999 at an average of 3.27.
And finally, Buckets Loewe makes an appearance, with 71 in 2000, at an average of 3.94.
Nobody has topped 70 contested grabs in a season for 13 years. Charlie Curnow went close in 2023, notching 67, and Jesse Hogan’s 2024 saw him hit 65. But it is Sam Darcy that looms as the man capable of not only joining them, but perhaps topping the list one day.
It seems, to me anyway, that injury is the only thing that stop him.
Darcy played 17 games in 2025, dragging in 53 contested grabs at a rate of 3.12 per contest. In a world where he plays 23 games (with finals, he could play as many as 27 in 2026) it would see him notch just under 72 for the year. When we factor in that he is just 22 years of age, we are looking at a potentially dominant aerial player for the next decade.
How many times will his name grace the 70+ Club?
And if he starts dragging in those marks without spending time on the sidelines, what would it mean for the Western Bulldogs?
Of the players listed as part of the 70+ Club, only two missed the finals in a season where they were a dominant marking target. One was Richo… poor old Richo. The Tigers somehow managed to squander having a forward taking 75 contested marks in a season.
The other was Loewe, whose team fell in a heap in 2000, and finished on the bottom. I’m not sure about you, but part of me thinks it is maybe more impressive to achieve 70+ contested marks in a shitty team than it is a good one!
The rest… their teams all played finals.
That’s a 75% success rate of making finals.
With the league now expanding to a ten-team finals system, I would argue that if Sam Darcy joins this club, it is all but stamping the Dogs’ ticket to September.
However, I do worry about his body holding up. Those long limbs, flying at the footy and taking contact… because that’s the only real way a defender to hope to impede him, means awkward landings. I am sure Dogs fans need no reminding of the shockwaves that rippled through the club when Darcy jarred his knee in Round Seven against the Saints.
That he got away without requiring a knee reconstruction felt like a miracle. And miracles don’t come along often.
The Dogs have been blessed with tall forward talent. Not so much at the defensive end, but with Darcy, Aaron Naughton, and Jordan Croft waiting in the wings. Hell, they were able to farewell Jamarra without too much stress (other than the stress of having to deal with him) because they had so much to work with already at the club.
To have one who could arguably be the best of the bunch go to another level in 2026… you have to wonder how high they could climb.
Thilthorpe, Treacy, Georgiades… I love seeing young forwards take the game by the scruff of the neck. However, none of them can take a grab at the highest point quite like Sam Darcy.
If a healthy Darcy does this on a weekly basis, we could get ourselves a season to remember.
And finally, another long-awaited member of the 70+ Club.
2 – HOW DO THE DOGS FIX A LEAKY DEFENCE?
You know, there is this belief amongst some segment of footy fans that unless you have a dominant, stand-out couple of players in your back half, your defence flat out sucks.
Talk to anyone, and they’ll point you in the direction of GWS, with Sam Taylor running the show, or Brisbane with Harris Andrews, or even Collingwood with Darcy Moore. Big names reap big results, right?
I’m not so sure.
Whilst some will point to a single player standing up and the remainder of the defence stepping up around him, I am a firm believer that the value of the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
And that could be the case for the Dogs in 2026.
Last season, there were big question marks over the back six at Adelaide. I was looking at that team, exploring the skill sets of those earmarked as defenders for the season, and I came away impressed. None were stars, but together, they worked beautifully, each of them elevating the surrounding others with precise teamwork and an unselfish mindset.
Names like Worrell, Keane, and Milera all stood up, but coming into the season, there were not many outside the Crows who thought they were going to be a top-two defensive unit.
I see a touch of that about the Western Bulldogs in 2026.
There are no stars in the Dogs’ back half. You could argue that Bailey Dale fits that criteria, and a 49-disposal game during the 2025 season backs that claim up, but would he be a first picked defender in anyone’s current best-23 team?
I doubt it.
Rory Lobb is situated in the middle as the tall timber, and around him is a group that most footy fans would walk past in the street and have zero chance of recognising.
James O’Donnell? Didn’t his dad do something at one stage?
Lachie Bramble? He was at Hawthorn once upon a time.
Connor Budarick? Was on the Suns list for ages.
Ryan Gardner? Didn’t Dogs fans love using him as a whipping boy not all that long ago?
Buku Khamis? Wasn’t he off to Carlton?
Jedd Busslinger? It’d be nice if they allowed him to play a little bit.
Looking at the names above, they don’t exactly instil fear in the hearts of the opposition, do they?
And maybe that’s what makes them dangerous.
A group of no-name defenders are the exact type of players I want on my team. No flash, no showboating, no bullshit. Just heading out there, knuckling down, and getting the job done.
There were ten teams worse-off than the Dogs in terms of defence in 2025, and some of these had those big-name key defenders in their teams to carry the others (Weitering at Carlton, Taylor at GWS, May at Melbourne) but people have not criticised their defence, have they?
Nah, that seems to have been reserved for the Dogs because they don’t have the big name.
Perhaps they just don’t need one?
Despite some obvious errors along the way, James O’Donnell started to show some real signs in 2025. He ranked 39th in the league in one-percenters, and 64th in intercepts, but it was the little things he started doing that impressed me. Good positioning, using his body to protect the drop zone, going safety first and playing within himself… they’re all underrated qualities in a key defender. He is my pick for the player to jump out of the box this season, and really make a name for himself.
And yes, I know who his dad is. I was only joking before.
With Lobb reading the play, Gardner and O’Donnell holding down key positions, and the development of Busslinger offering an heir apparent (he is out of contract after 2026… is that a worry?), I can see this Dogs defence becoming the next “no name” defence to start rattling some cages in 2026.
If the situation demands, Khamis can remain in defence, but some are insisting he will be played forward. We’ll see about that.
The best thing a coach can do is turn a perceived weakness into a strength, and the Dogs have that challenge ahead of them this season.
I’m predicting them to finish in the top six defences in the game. There is a lot to be said for defences that don’t rely on one player to star. They become a good unit. And good units go a long way in an AFL season.
3 – AS A FOLLOW-UP, HOW LONG DOES THE CLUB LEAN ON RORY LOBB IN DEFENCE?
The story of Rory Lobb has had a really happy ending.
Actually, it’s not the end, but we are coming to the final chapters of his story.
People may not realise this, but he will be 33 by the time the season commences. It kind of snuck up on me, because he always strikes me as a young man. And I suppose, compared to me, he actually is.
That said, a key defender at 33 could spell a bit of trouble, particularly when that defender is a crucial component to the way the Dogs set up. Lobb’s transition from disgruntled forward to the best clubman/defender over the past couple of seasons has been one of the more impressive transformations since Dani Laidl… nah, I won’t go there.
I suppose the question here is, what happens if something goes wrong with Lobb this season?
The Dogs looked good (to my eyes) when they had Liam Jones as a gorilla-wrangler, and Lobb as the intercepting floater, but with Jones unable to impact in 2025, and departing the club, it left Lobb as the most potent defender on the list.
It still feels both wrong, and completely amazing, to write that, but here we are. He ranked seventh in the league in one-percenters, using his enormous reach to get a fist to the footy, and was 16th in contested marks. He also ranked second on the Dogs for intercepts, behind Bailey Dale.
It’s what makes me shudder when I picture the defence without him in 2026.
So, what are the options if that occurs?
You can see James O’Donnell and Ryan Gardner attempting to lift their game to fill the void, but who else steps up?
Is Busslinger ready for a more prominent role?
Will Buku Khamis be able to hold the role down?
Could the Dogs throw caution to the wind and throw Jordan Croft into defence? Or… the good, old chestnut… Aaron Naughton to defence? Now, that’s a hackneyed footy writer’s take, isn’t it?
I don’t like making grandiose statements as part of these previews. They have a real habit of coming back to bite, however, even with some of the massive talent in this Dogs team, I am not sure that anyone is more important than Rory Lobb this season.
And that is something I never, ever thought I would be writing just a couple of years ago.
4 – IS THERE A WAY JORDAN CROFT FORCES HIS WAY INTO THIS SIDE?
You know, I was going to do a section in this preview about how losing Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was a case of addition via subtraction, but I figured that Dogs fans would have had it up to their eyeballs with articles about him.
So screw him… see ya later, ‘Mara.
One of the reasons the Dogs were able to move along so quickly and put this failed experiment behind them, was because the club has been absolutely blessed with young talls, and on any other team, Jordan Croft would be kicking the door down and demanding a place in the senior side.
But at the Dogs, he has Aaron Naughton, Sam Darcy, and even a resting Marcus Bontempelli in front of him. And maybe throw Buku Khamis in the mix, as well – he averaged 1.4 goals per game over his last nine outings.
It’s a pretty nice problem to have.
The advantage here is two-fold. The Dogs are covered for talls – clubs all over the league would kill for the Dogs’ tall forward stocks. And two, it has permitted Croft to do his apprenticeship in the VFL, without the scrutiny he would have copped in the big league.
But he whet his appetite in late stages of the 2025 season, playing two games and averaging two contested grabs and two goals in those contests. He can play – we all know it. Now, he just has to push and shove his way into the team.
Does a forward setup of Naughton, Darcy, and Croft work in 2026?
Is he strong enough to hold down that third forward role, and step up as a second forward when Darcy spells Tim English in the ruck?
At just 20, it is a big ask, but other 20-year-old forwards are making their mark in the league – why not Croft, as well? Logan Morris last year, Aaron Cadman a couple of years back… they had big impacts. Is it time that Croft does the same?
The preseason hit outs will be a must-watch this year. Seeing whether Croft is able to hold his own, and whether Khamis plays forward or back, will largely determine whether Croft makes his mark early, or has to wait his turn.
I get the feeling, given what we saw at the conclusion of 2025, he may not have to wait too long.
Jamarra Who?
5 – CAN THE DOGS STILL RELY ON ADAM TRELOAR? DO THEY EVEN HAVE TO?
The answer to both questions is no, and it is not a bad thing.
Having Adam Treloar available provides the Dogs with legspeed and power running, but he is no longer crucial to their success. A nice addition, yes, but not an absolute when it comes to this team playing finals.
The move of Ed Richards into the middle has mitigated the loss of Treloar, and given the Dogs a little more muscle at the contest, as well. Other than as a relief mid, I am not sure Treloar plays a prominent role in the midfield in 2026.
But that doesn’t mean he plays a non-vital role overall.
I’d like to see Treloar occupy a wing. Not just for periods of a game to fill in for someone else, but to absolutely own the role. His game is perfectly-suited to the role, but we have never seen him have, or want to be fair, the role of an outside runner.
The two highest-rated wingmen at the Dogs in 2025 were Bailey Williams and Sam Davidson, with James Harmes also getting a run. Davidson finished fourth in our Robert Flower Wingman of the Year Award, with Williams and Harmes finishing 17th and 20th, respectively.
The Dogs need more from that role opposite Davidson, and with Harmes now taking time away from the club, it is the perfect opportunity to slot a proven Treloar into the position and allow him to go to work, whilst looking at Williams as a possibility to work with Bailey Dale at half-back.
What does a good season on the wing mean to Treloar?
It would mean hovering around 20 touches, with a great combination of inside 50s and rebound 50s as he runs hard both ways.
Know who else did that?
The 2025 winner, Jarrod Berry.
Would you say that Treloar, on balance, is a better player on the outside than Berry? Maybe at one stage, but now? I think he could still hold his own.
Move him to the wing, let him run unencumbered, and give the Dogs some genuine power on the outside. Williams, Davidson, and Harmes were… okay. Davidson and Treloar, with a dose of Williams into the mix… they could cause some real issues.
The remainder of this article, and the next 15 questions are for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. We’re on the march to the 2026 AFL season and it all begins here. The Mongrel’s Big Questions Season Previews are THE best in the business. If you know, you know… if not, maybe it’s time to find out. Pre-Season, Practice Games… we’re all in. Dump the mainstream lip service and dive into articles like this – you will never look back. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. You’re welcome to re-read the first five questions again, but if you do… there is a heap more below.
