Why Jake Stringer and Marcus Bontempelli make the Dogs premiership contenders

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BULLDOGS fans must be licking their lips.
Not just because their team defeated Brisbane by 53 points on Saturday night, and not only due to the fact that Luke Beveridge appears to have moulded his team into a premiership contender in the space of just 28 games as coach.

Rather, it’s two players that have the capacity to lift the Dogs to rare heights — Jake Stringer and Marcus Bontempelli.
This was strikingly evident late in the second term, when Bomtempelli took a towering mark and promptly goaled like he was Wayne Carey reincarnated.
After slotting it, the 20-year-old did not run off — as has become the trend in recent years — nor did he strut back to the goal square, a la Carey.

Instead, Bontempelli went straight into the middle for the next centre bounce and played a role in the Bulldogs winning yet another clearance. In the space of two plays he went from imitating Carey to Cunnington — North Melbourne’s clearance king.
From this takeaway, a ground ball filtered down to the forward pocket. Like a tenpin bowling ball through helpless pins, Stringer picked up the Sherrin and crashed through a pride of Lions, before turning onto his right and snapping through his second goal for the evening.
The velocity at which Stringer’s mostly black right boot — the plain colour a refreshing rarity in today’s game — hit the ball, was enormous.

The finish was emphatic and the message was clear: with Bontempelli and Stringer at their versatile best, the Dogs’ bite can quite easily match their bark.

In back-to-back plays, two players shut Brisbane out of the game. The result was all academic from then on.
Injuries to Bob Murphy, Jason Johannisen and Matt Suckling (right knee) may hurt the Dogs long-term, but Stringer and Bontempelli are doubtless their most indispensable players.
Just as Patrick Cripps is for Carlton, the prototype player is the most difficult man on the ground to man up on. Caleb Daniel and Brent Harvey’s are important, as are ruckmen and certainly key forwards.

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/8...cf6f?width=700Marcus Bontempelli is the prototype for the modern-day midfielder. Photo: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

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But nothing beats a player who can do just about everything. It’s precisely why the 2005 Ashes is known as Flintoff’s Ashes. But all-rounders are not limited to cricket.

Stringer and Bontempelli’s talents are well-documented, but it’s how Luke Beveridge utilises their rare assets that should receive more credit.

Both are 192cm, with Stringer marginally heavier — a byproduct of one more summer in the Whitten Oval gym.
Critically, both are agile, allowing them to pick the ball up below their knees just as cleanly as they mark high above their heads.
Given the latter quality, it would be easy for Beveridge to use the duo in an athletically gifted twin tower operation in the front half. Indeed as permanent forwards, both could kick 60-plus goals per season at a minimum.
Fox Footy’s Jonathan Brown even believes Stringer, who spends more time at home than Bontempelli, has the potential to kick 100 goals in a season.

But Beveridge is not content with this perfectly plausible arrangement. Time after time, a glancing look across the Etihad turf would see one of the duo deep forward with the other flying as a third man up in the engine room.
“Both those boys play critical roles as midfielders and as forwards,” Beveridge said post-game.
“Jake will come under some physical and verbal barrages from opposition teams. We need to continue to help because he is a talented and explosive player. I felt he was really good tonight.

“He, like some of his teammates, perhaps could have made a little bit more of a few opportunities. He was very good forward and really important in the midfield – as was Bonty. They both share different loads.”
Their presence in the engine room is despite an on-ball brigade that already boasts Tom Liberatore, Mitch Wallis, Jackson Macrae, Koby Stevens, Liam Picken and Luke Dahlhaus.

Bontempelli attended 15 centre bounces against Brisbane, Stringer six. Not once did they inhabit the centre square together.
Midway through the third term, Stringer was coming off the bench. Teammate Lachie Hunter was jogging back into the centre square after yet another Dogs major. Stringer, who debuted just seven weeks before Hunter, gestured for his teammate to retreat to the wing.

Hunter did as he was told and Stringer aptly won the clearance. Not unlike James Hird exemplified in his pomp, a license to roam is a license to dominate.
Stringer and Bontempelli most certainly have Beveridge’s blessing to do just that.
But Bontempelli nor Stringer were overly dominant on Saturday evening. Admittedly neither has reached the consistent heights they are capable of thus far in 2016.

Stringer’s bag of five in Round 1 was followed by two majors against St Kilda, just one versus Hawthorn and none last week. He was inaccurate against the Lions, finishing with three goals and three behinds from 17 disposals.

Similarly, Bontempelli has been solid this season without shredding a contest as he did at times last year. The left-footer had 20 disposals and booted two majors on Saturday evening.
But what they have in ample quantity is tantalising x-factor. Like all future stars, it’s what they can do at their best, rather than what they have done, that makes the pair such electrifying prospects.

Most clubs would love one of these prototype sized players, the Dogs have two.
This alone means it would be foolish to discount Beveridge’s men in 2016. Not yet anyway.