Josh Dunkley aims to kick more goals, wants to reach ‘absolute extreme limits’ of potential

Josh Dunkley aims to kick more goals, wants to reach ‘absolute extreme limits’ of potential
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Western Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley has set his sights on kicking more goals this season as he looks to reach the “absolute extreme limits” of his capabilities.

A 2016 premiership player, Dunkley kicked 11 goals from 19 games last year mixing his time between midfield and attack.

While he does not expect a significant change to that mix, the 22-year-old said he was determined to make himself a more dangerous option in the forward line, having “put on a fair bit of size” over the off-season.

“I think you’ll see a few of us midfielders get down forward a little bit because there is that versatility side of the game,” Dunkley said.

“I’ve always loved contested marking and things like that so to continue to improve that part of my game is to be able to continue to push forward, take marks and kick goals.”

Dunkley said while the Bulldogs’ forward line did not work as it would have liked in their first JLT Series match against Gold Coast on Sunday night he was confident it would have a new-and-improved look this year.

The Bulldogs ranked 15th for scores for last season, averaging just 71.6 points a game, and managed just 72 points in their five-point loss to the Suns in Mackay on Sunday.

“Avenues to goal and being able to score has been a big priority for us,” Dunkley said.

“We’ve looked at that pretty heavily and throughout the pre-season we’ve been really good at it. The conditions didn’t really help us up north but really looking forward to this week and seeing how we go.”

Dunkley and teammate Marcus Bontempelli travelled to the United States during their off-season break, spending a week at Nike headquarters in Portland and another week training with Olympic coach Dr Matt Kritz in San Diego.

“I think the States stuff was knowing the sky’s the limit,” Dunkley said when asked what he had learnt from the trip.

“Not knowing your boundaries and being able to push yourself to your absolute extreme limits. We really learnt that we thought we had it covered but we’re nowhere near it really. So to be able to go to that next level is pretty promising and exciting.”

The Bulldogs meet St Kilda in their second and final pre-season match at Ballarat’s MARS Stadium on Sunday.

I'm not sure I like this so much, he has the capacity to be a beast inside mid or a mediocre forward.

Dunno though if the takeaway here is that he'll be sacrificing too many midfield minutes for forward duties -- more so that it's been put on the mid brigade as a whole to contribute scoring given our forward line has the consistency of a half-cooked omelette.

Then again we did trial Wood forward so who the hell knows what we'll be open to trying in our many hours of need.

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Originally Posted by Mofra

I'm not sure I like this so much, he has the capacity to be a beast inside mid or a mediocre forward.

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Are you sure he cant contribute in both - he's good overhead and has often been able to generate shots on goal when playing forward - albeit his set shot goalkicking needs work

He's talking contested marking so it sounds like there's a plan he'll spend time forward RS - if that is the plan, I'm leaning towards some of the negativity expressed after the weekend.

He plays inside mid or not at all for mine - he's too slow to play forward. Have wondered if Libba returning complicates the midfield mix a bit....good problem to have, until they potentially make decisions like this.

I'm not a huge fan of this - he was fantastic last year when "swapped" with McLean and directly contributed to our strong finish to the season.

I guess it comes down to thinking Dunkley can be a better forward than Libba, and that they're about the same in the middle. Still don't think it's the best way to help Josh realise his long-term potential.

Really not excited by this talk.

He's an ok forward which when combined with his terrible goal kicking means he's a below average player when playing forward. When he played in the midfield he looked an above average player. I guess playing him in his likely best position would make him "inflexible".

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Originally Posted by Greystache

Really not excited by this talk.

He's an ok forward which when combined with his terrible goal kicking means he's a below average player when playing forward. When he played in the midfield he looked an above average player. I guess playing him in his likely best position would make him "inflexible".

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Would you play him in the middle ahead of Libba? Would you play them both together?

I don't know if there's room for him and Libba together in the middle or for him and Wallis in the forward line together, and I agree that his kicking really mitigates his effectiveness up forward.

He's too good to play in the seconds but not better than either of the above guys in their respective positions (although I could be convinced he's a better mid than Libba). It's a real headache and one I think we're going to have to watch play out on field.

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Originally Posted by Happy Days

Would you play him in the middle ahead of Libba? Would you play them both together?

I don't know if there's room for him and Libba together in the middle or for him and Wallis in the forward line together, and I agree that his kicking really mitigates his effectiveness up forward.

He's too good to play in the seconds but not better than either of the above guys in their respective positions (although I could be convinced he's a better mid than Libba). It's a real headache and one I think we're going to have to watch play out on field.

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It doesn't need to be him or Libba. I would have him in centre clearances ahead of Macrae or McLean for example. They can be be effective outside and balance would be fine.

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Originally Posted by Greystache

It doesn't need to be him or Libba. I would have him in centre clearances ahead of Macrae or McLean for example. They can be be effective outside and balance would be fine.

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Agree with the call on Macrae, but McLean is very effective inside the centre square and we should be utlilizing his skills in that part of the ground.

He's said he doesn't expect a huge change to the mix of attack and midfield than he's played last year, but he just wants to use his ability to take contested marks and kick more goals.

Not sure what the issue is really. All he's saying is he wants to be dangerous when playing forward.

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Originally Posted by jeemak

He's said he doesn't expect a huge change to the mix of attack and midfield than he's played last year, but he just wants to use his ability to take contested marks and kick more goals.

Not sure what the issue is really. All he's saying is he wants to be dangerous when playing forward.

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Agreed. Dunkley, Bont and McLean are all midfielders that are also capable forwards that will spend not insignificant amounts of time there.

As a midfielder that spends time forward I would hope he can kick +20 goals this year. It's important that we have a good spread of goal kickers as it's unlikely we have anyone currently capable of kicking +50 a season.

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Originally Posted by Axe Man

As a midfielder that spends time forward I would hope he can kick +20 goals this year. It's important that we have a good spread of goal kickers as it's unlikely we have anyone currently capable of kicking +50 a season.

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Given only 6-8 players kick 50+ goals a season across the league it's a massive stretch to think that we can produce one in 2019.

Agree that we will need to share the load and improve on our conversion rates.

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Originally Posted by Mantis

Agree with the call on Macrae, but McLean is very effective inside the centre square and we should be utlilizing his skills in that part of the ground.

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McLean is great in the centre, but when he is streaming out with the ball he needs to improve his kicking

Reckon he'll take turns forward when Libba is in the middle and swing back into a midfield roll when Libba is rested which may happen a fair bit in the first half of the season. It's more Wallis / Dunkley I have an issue with in the same side re. the forward line.

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Originally Posted by bornadog

McLean is great in the centre, but when he is streaming out with the ball he needs to improve his kicking

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There aren't many in our team that aren't in the same category (dodgy kicks)... although they might not as effective as Toby in getting the ball in contested situations.

First takeaway - he wants to kick more goals. All our midfielders need to kick more goals for us to be competitive.
Second takeaway - he wants to keep improving. Great attitude, now get someone from VU biomechanics to look at his technique and improve that (along with a couple of other mids).
Third takeaway - he has built himself up and believes he is a good contested overhead mark. Again great, we need a couple of bulls in the midfield and a mid sized marking option up forward at time .
Fourth takeaway - he went o/s with Bont and I think Crozier on a mission to improve themselves in all areas. Fantastic dedication and I fully support their motivation. Should be promoted to leadership group asap.

To my reading, this is a great story of a young man willing to make the absolute best of his abilities; the same thing we thought was so positive about drafting Smith. I'll take that any day rather than have a super talented, but unreliable, lazy player wasting his abilities, and frustrating supporters and coaches. How the coaching staff see him rotating may be revealed this weekend.

Watching the interview he basically said that all mids who rotate forward will contribute and we'll take a share the load approach. Don't see any change in his role off the back of it. He'll spend 70%+ time in the midfield.

Great to hear he's made some gains with his strength (and presumably, Bont has too). These guys are already bulls but if they are stronger and more powerful than last year, teams that don't have the 6'3 midfielders are going to get bullied.