Josh Dunkley aims to kick more goals, wants to reach ‘absolute extreme limits’ of potential

Western Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley has set his sights on kicking more goals this season as he looks to reach the “absolute extreme limits” of his capabilities.

Western Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley has set his sights on kicking more goals this season as he looks to reach the “absolute extreme limits” of his capabilities.

A 2016 premiership player, Dunkley kicked 11 goals from 19 games last year mixing his time between midfield and attack.

While he does not expect a significant change to that mix, the 22-year-old said he was determined to make himself a more dangerous option in the forward line, having “put on a fair bit of size” over the off-season.

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“I think you’ll see a few of us midfielders get down forward a little bit because there is that versatility side of the game,” Dunkley said.

“I’ve always loved contested marking and things like that so to continue to improve that part of my game is to be able to continue to push forward, take marks and kick goals.”

Dunkley said while the Bulldogs’ forward line did not work as it would have liked in their first JLT Series match against Gold Coast on Sunday night he was confident it would have a new-and-improved look this year.

Josh Dunkley takes a strong contested mark. Picture: Michael Klein

Josh Dunkley wants to be a dangerous goalkicking midfielder

The Bulldogs ranked 15th for scores for last season, averaging just 71.6 points a game, and managed just 72 points in their five-point loss to the Suns in Mackay on Sunday.

“Avenues to goal and being able to score has been a big priority for us,” Dunkley said.

“We’ve looked at that pretty heavily and throughout the pre-season we’ve been really good at it. The conditions didn’t really help us up north but really looking forward to this week and seeing how we go.”

Dunkley and teammate Marcus Bontempelli travelled to the United States during their off-season break, spending a week at Nike headquarters in Portland and another week training with Olympic coach Dr Matt Kritz in San Diego.

“I think the States stuff was knowing the sky’s the limit,” Dunkley said when asked what he had learnt from the trip.

“Not knowing your boundaries and being able to push yourself to your absolute extreme limits. We really learnt that we thought we had it covered but we’re nowhere near it really. So to be able to go to that next level is pretty promising and exciting.”

The Bulldogs meet St Kilda in their second and final pre-season match at Ballarat’s MARS Stadium on Sunday.