Bulldog skipper Marcus Bontempelli drives his side forward last week against Hawthorn at Whitten Oval. Photo: AFL MEDIA

Little is as galling for a footy pundit as abandoning premiership hopes for a team with whom you’ve kept the faith for years only to see things click for them seemingly the moment you’ve “jumped off”.

I did it with Geelong in 2022, finally succumbing to the seemingly annual “era over” obituaries for the Cats and tipping them to slide. Result? A premiership cakewalk. I’ve done it with Sydney a couple of times over the years when they’ve reached summit. And right now, I’m a little anxious about a side which didn’t even reach finals last year doing it to me again.

Yes, I’m talking about the perennial tease which is the Western Bulldogs. I’ve “stuck fat” with them for years now. Not in 2026, though. I have them somewhere in that middle-of-the-ladder mass, perhaps just scraping into September.

It’s a popular view, too. Just about every set of season forecasts I’ve seen seems to have the Doggies around seventh or eighth at best. And that’s totally justified, because last year, superficially, the Dogs were the definition of middle of the road.

They finished ninth of 18 teams. All but two of their wins came against sides which finished beneath them on the ladder, and every defeat was against a team which finished higher. And yet the “buts” about that result are considerable.

Their 14 wins was a record for a non-finalist. But perhaps it’s those defeats which are just as significant. Of their nine losses, not one came by any more than 22 points. With some big wins racked up along the way, no wonder the Dogs ended up with a percentage of 137, incredible for a non-finalist and the third-highest in the competition.

Much of that came off the back of a potent offence, the Bulldogs No.1 for scoring, with Aaron Naughton, Same Darcy and Rhylee West sharing just on 150 goals between them. A high-quality midfield (the Dogs top three for both clearance and contested possession differentials) ensures that those targets get more than their share of opportunities, too.

The doubts, and they’ve become perennial with Luke Beveridge’s side, are all about the defensive aspects.

They were only eighth for fewest points conceded last season, conceded scores too easily from opposition forward entries, and to be frank, if a little cruel, lacked quality of personnel. With all due respect to Rory Lobb, the fact so much of the Dogs’ defensive hopes have rested with him says plenty.

Defence, clearly, needs to be addressed, which is why the Dogs’ failure to land a “big name” defender to supplement existing stocks has left so many sceptical about their hopes in 2026. But to that end, their practice hit-outs against Sydney then Hawthorn last week I thought gave some cause for a rethink.

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Exhibit A on that rethink for me was the efforts of Buku Khamis, who has played only a tick over 40 games in five years in a variety of roles without ever looking like locking down any of them. Perhaps, though, that might be able to change.

Khamis has worn plenty of criticism for being an athlete and not a natural footballer, but his efforts in a key defensive role against the Hawks were terrific, looking composed as well as lithe. He was good against the Swans the week before, too.

Connor Budarick was arguably one of the lowest-profile senior players to switch clubs over summer, but the former Gold Coast Sun shapes as another potential point of difference with his capacity to make the right decisions and mind the increasingly large numbers of opposition small forwards.

That pair don’t sound like a huge difference. But maybe still just enough to, along with the continued development of James O’Donnell, offer more structure and solidity, which in turn might allow the likes of Bailey Dale off the chain a little more.

Yes, it all sounds nice in theory. But the point here is that we’re not talking re-writing an entire modus operandi, just some minor tweaks. And as the numbers show, the Bulldogs don’t need much change at all in real terms to make them a significantly bigger threat.

And that’s without even touching on the vast potential for improvement out of the likes of Joel Freijah and Ryley Sanders, another potential star who looked ominously sharp against Hawthorn at Whitten Oval.

Sure, potential is a dirty word when it comes to teams who’ve let their backers down too many times previously. But it does seem to have more substance than mere hope attached in the case of this list. And another reason jumping off the Bulldog bandwagon is potentially problematic.

Saturday night’s season opener against the reigning premier Brisbane at the Gabba is as stern a test as is possible, of course. It wouldn’t be a great shock if the Bulldogs got thumped. But you wouldn’t bat an eyelid if they won, either.

And if that were the start of a year when all the elements finally do come together, you can expect more than the odd eye roll from me, perhaps along with a refrain from an old and not-particularly-loved American pop song: “Oops!… I Did It Again”.

This article first appeared at ESPN.