WITH his team staring down a challenging start to their 2026 campaign, Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli believes his team can "bridge the gap" when it faces the competition’s elite this year.

The Bulldogs finished ninth with a 14-9 record last season with all of their losses and just two wins coming against finals-bound teams, in contrast to their 12-0 record against the bottom nine.

Of the Bulldogs’ first eight games in 2026, six will come against last year’s finalists starting with Brisbane at the Gabba in Opening Round.

Speaking to AFL.com.au at Captains Day this week, Bontempelli said finding their best against the best had been emphasised during the pre-season at Mission Whitten Oval.

“We’ve had another season of growth in a number of guys, some new faces who’ll feature early to mid-way through in our team that I think will be great for us,” he said.

“But it does come back to us being better at beating the best teams. I think we’ve proven the quality of football we can play, but when we come up against the best teams we’ve too often fallen short.

“It wasn’t by huge margins, which is the obvious positive, but you can’t win big finals and big games until you bridge that gap. So that’s our challenge, especially early when we play a number of the really strong teams from last season.”

After a round 19 loss to Brisbane last season, coach Luke Beveridge identified his team’s commitment to “aspects of the defensive contest” as the difference between them and the competition’s best.

Bontempelli, entering his seventh season as skipper, said the Dogs have emphasised being better prepared for those matchups.

“Ultimately you can train it and practice it as much as you want against yourselves, but it really comes to how those things and discussions stack up against those teams in those moments,” he said.

“For me particularly it’s to be really prepared in those games when the challenge comes and those teams find a different level of intensity and execution, and how we match and then surpass it.”

The Bulldogs went down to Sydney in their unofficial practice match on Friday, but had impressive performances from unfamiliar faces like athletic key forward Jordan Croft, who played a pair of games at the end of last season, versatile draftee Louis Emmett and former Gold Coast defender Connor Budarick.

Bontempelli saved his biggest preseason push for untried defender Lachie Jaques, with the No.29 pick from 2024 tipped by his skipper to “feature early, if not really early in (Opening Round)”.