YOUTH is no longer an excuse at the Western Bulldogs as the club seeks to make a definitive climb up the AFL ladder in 2014.
The Bulldogs finished with eight wins and 14 losses for a 15th place finish in 2013. However, the club has already set its sights on significant improvement this season.
Mitch Wallis is one member of the Bulldogs' young brigade who believes it's essential the young pups shed the comfort of their training wheels in 2014.
"We're a young team but we've been together for three or four years now. We're at that stage where being young can't be an excuse any more," Wallis told AFL.com.au at the club's community camp in Bacchus Marsh on Tuesday.
"We've had the guidance and the tutelage from guys like Matthew Boyd, Daniel Cross and Ryan Griffen.
"So it's been great to learn off them, but it's about time we take some of the responsibility – like 'Libba' (Tom Liberatore) did last year – and start playing really good footy ourselves."
The 21-year-old Liberatore had a phenomenal 2013 season, leading the League in centre clearances and placing second in overall clearances.
Wallis watched on in admiration as his best mate rose from a young player with potential to a budding star of the competition.
Wallis has worked hard on his endurance base and speed this pre-season, while he has ghosted Liberatore throughout the clearance-specific drills at training.
"He's a very unique player," Wallis said of Liberatore.
"I'm not sure there's one better in the game than he is with his clean hands around stoppages.
"I've played a lot on him in the stoppage drills, just to see where he runs and how he reads the play ... I'm so glad he's on our team because he's an absolute star."
As the Bulldogs' tagger in 2013, Wallis ran with some of the competition's gun midfielders and gained an insight into the work-rate required to become an elite player.
He admits he became "lost" at certain stages in his 18 games last year, but believes the experience will be beneficial as he continues to add different elements to his game.
"I'm still learning the fundamentals. That was more of a learning curve for me," he said.
"I love the responsibility of what a tagger brings to the game. But eventually I want to break into a midfielder's role and away from being a tagger to help out the team that way."
Steady development has been the order of the day under coach Brendan McCartney, but Wallis said there was a belief among the team that success was not too far away.
"We've never really spoken about finals, but it's in our minds now," he said. "We want to be a side that can beat the really good teams."
