A MORE potent forward-line following the arrival of Andrew McCarrey and a host of potential guns who have now served an apprenticeship has South Fremantle coach John Dimmer happy with how the reigning premiers have shaped up ahead of the 2010 season.
South Fremantle claimed both the league and reserves premierships in 2009 to show incredible depth and that's why Dimmer is confident they can replace retired trio Peter Bell, Ray Smithers and Jeff Farmer, and the departed Daniel Gilmore.
McCarrey arrives from East Fremantle to bolster the forward-line, but is only part of the reason why Dimmer feels his team has improvement left in after winning the premiership in 2009.
Youngsters Joel Palumbo (pictured), Toby Bairstow and Adam Guglielmana look capable of stepping up to be quality league players after receiving some opportunities in 2009, but missing out on the premiership.
114-game veteran Hayden North will also have a point to prove after missing the premiership but being best on ground in the reserves' triumph. With Anthony Collica and Mitchell Carter also up from the colts, Dimmer is happy with how his team is shaping up ahead of the season-opener against East Perth this Friday night at Fremantle Oval.
"I would like to think things are looking quite good. I think we've actually got a slightly better forward-line with Andrew McCarrey coming into the side and a couple of young talented players like Collica and Carter, who have come up from the colts and are very good," Dimmer said.
"Then we've got a Palumbo, who has been playing very well over the pre-season, and all in all we are pretty happy where we're at."
McCarrey played 111 games with the Sharks for 111 goals, and spread his time evenly between forward and back winning two Lynn Medals as club fairest and best.
Ever since the retirement of Evan Hewitt and Ryan Webb, Dimmer has been crying out for a key forward that isn’t AFL-listed like Callum Wilson and Ryan Murphy.
Now he hopes McCarrey can consolidate the full-forward spot, and with Paul Mugambwa also down there and the likelihood that Murphy and Wilson will be for most of the season, it's a forward-line for Bulldogs fans to salivate over.
"That's the aim and that's why we recruited him. We could use him in the back-line if we had to and we got a few injuries and that, but hopefully he's full-forward and will stay there permanently. If Ryan comes back it certainly does look good and that would give us three quality forwards, so that would be good," he said.
"We were probably fortunate last year that Callum was available to play finals for us and came into the finals in very good form. If we didn’t have him, we really would have struggled for a key focal point so it was fortunate. Hopefully this year we have our own in McCarrey, and we'll still have him if Callum or Ryan are playing AFL."
As for the young players, Dimmer sees a host of them who he expects to stand up to serve notice that they deserve to be regular league players and he's more than willing to give those that have worked hard an opportunity.
"Toby Bairstow should be able to stand up there, Hayden North will obviously come into calculations after missing out last year and then there's the likes of Collica, Carter, (Cory) Dell'Olio and Guglielmana who we'll use through the midfield. We've had a lot of blokes who have served an apprenticeship, they are getting towards the end of that now and it's time to step up," he said.
"Guglielmana is a classic example. He's played about 15 games, but he's never been able to hold a spot regularly yet and that's all part of the learning process. He has been pretty good in pre-season, has done everything right, is pretty fit at the moment and that's the sort of player we do want to step up."
The Bulldogs aren’t lacking in leadership with Toby McGrath, Jaymie Graham, Kris Miller, Sam Hunt, Chris Bossong, Theo Adams, Andrew Siegert, North and Josh Head all still around, so Dimmer is confident the quality players lost won't leave a gaping hole.
"Obviously if you lose people like Peter Bell, who is just an outstanding player and person, Jeff Farmer, who was electrifying at times, Ray Smithers, who was fantastic, and Daniel Gilmore, it means four quality players have dropped out of the league side," he said.
"They are hard to replace, but when you've got players like Toby McGrath and Jaymie Graham leading the ship I think we've got sufficient players there to play a major role again."
The Bulldogs will also welcome in four players from the Northern Territory, including Shannon Rioli, but Dimmer will let them settle before getting too excited about what they could offer at league level.
"It's a bit early days to say, but we've got four of them coming down and one of them played ressies on Saturday and the others had their Northern Territory grand finals on the weekend," he said.
"They will initially play in the reserves and we'll just see how they go and assess them from there."
