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Ben Collins
INJURY-PRONE Western Bulldogs defender Tom Williams is closing in on a long-awaited return after training strongly at Whitten Oval on Tuesday.
Williams was placed on the Bulldogs' long-term injury list after undergoing yet another shoulder reconstruction in early March.
The 25-year-old has benefited from a tortuous running program, which has included a lot of gut-busting work over 400m.
In a heartening sight for Bulldogs fans, Williams moved freely at training on Tuesday and at one stage felt so confident in his reconstructed shoulder that he slid to mark a low ball.
With injuries restricting him to just 73 AFL games in seven seasons, Williams seems certain to make his return via the club's VFL affiliate Williamstown.
"He's going all right," said Bulldogs captain Matthew Boyd when asked about Williams.
"I'm not sure how far away he is but he trained strongly today and he's been doing a hell of a lot of work to get his injuries right.
"He's a very resilient guy. He's had a rough trot and I think he's one of the most operated-on players in the comp. But he's got a really strong mindset and I'm sure he won’t be too far away."
The Bulldogs were shaken by a 92-point loss to Sydney at the SCG in round nine, but they will go into Sunday's twilight fixture against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium fresh after having a bye, which Boyd admitted could be a good or bad thing.
"We would have liked to have got straight back out and played again after a pretty disappointing weekend for us against Sydney," he said. "But it gives guys a great chance to freshen up and get bodies right.
"We reviewed the game and have gone through the areas (we needed to) and then got out of the place for a couple of days, and that was probably a good thing as well."
Despite the magnitude of the loss, Boyd said the players had been through a 'typical' game review.
"You can't get too carried away with big wins and big losses, and (coach) Brendan (McCartney) has been fantastic in the consistent message he's put across," he said.
He was bemused by talk of Sunday's game being a must-win contest.
"People say if we can't win this we can't play finals, but we're not even looking at finals at this stage. I mean, we've had four wins in 10 weeks," he said.
The clash will be a memorial for club legend Charlie Sutton, who died last week.
"We all loved Charlie. And we all loved what he did for this footy club, and the person he was around the place," Boyd said.
"Whether it changes the way you play, I don’t know. It shouldn’t really change the way you play. We just want to play really competitive and a consistent brand of footy.
"We obviously want to make Charlie proud with the way we play, but we want to do that every week as well. Hopefully we can honour him with a win."
INJURY-PRONE Western Bulldogs defender Tom Williams is closing in on a long-awaited return after training strongly at Whitten Oval on Tuesday.
Williams was placed on the Bulldogs' long-term injury list after undergoing yet another shoulder reconstruction in early March.
The 25-year-old has benefited from a tortuous running program, which has included a lot of gut-busting work over 400m.
In a heartening sight for Bulldogs fans, Williams moved freely at training on Tuesday and at one stage felt so confident in his reconstructed shoulder that he slid to mark a low ball.
With injuries restricting him to just 73 AFL games in seven seasons, Williams seems certain to make his return via the club's VFL affiliate Williamstown.
"He's going all right," said Bulldogs captain Matthew Boyd when asked about Williams.
"I'm not sure how far away he is but he trained strongly today and he's been doing a hell of a lot of work to get his injuries right.
"He's a very resilient guy. He's had a rough trot and I think he's one of the most operated-on players in the comp. But he's got a really strong mindset and I'm sure he won’t be too far away."
The Bulldogs were shaken by a 92-point loss to Sydney at the SCG in round nine, but they will go into Sunday's twilight fixture against Port Adelaide at Etihad Stadium fresh after having a bye, which Boyd admitted could be a good or bad thing.
"We would have liked to have got straight back out and played again after a pretty disappointing weekend for us against Sydney," he said. "But it gives guys a great chance to freshen up and get bodies right.
"We reviewed the game and have gone through the areas (we needed to) and then got out of the place for a couple of days, and that was probably a good thing as well."
Despite the magnitude of the loss, Boyd said the players had been through a 'typical' game review.
"You can't get too carried away with big wins and big losses, and (coach) Brendan (McCartney) has been fantastic in the consistent message he's put across," he said.
He was bemused by talk of Sunday's game being a must-win contest.
"People say if we can't win this we can't play finals, but we're not even looking at finals at this stage. I mean, we've had four wins in 10 weeks," he said.
The clash will be a memorial for club legend Charlie Sutton, who died last week.
"We all loved Charlie. And we all loved what he did for this footy club, and the person he was around the place," Boyd said.
"Whether it changes the way you play, I don’t know. It shouldn’t really change the way you play. We just want to play really competitive and a consistent brand of footy.
"We obviously want to make Charlie proud with the way we play, but we want to do that every week as well. Hopefully we can honour him with a win."
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