Hasleby in no doubt Bulldogs on the right track

SOUTH Fremantle entered last week's bye in winning form after more youngsters continued to stand up while veteran Kris Miller was in top form and Ben Saunders was back kicking goals, and now coach Paul Hasleby hopes it continues.

The Bulldogs won their fourth game for the 2013 season by beating Subiaco on the back of six goals to two in the final quarter at Leederville's Medibank Stadium ahead of this Sunday's clash against the bottom-placed Peel Thunder at Mandurah's Bendigo Bank Stadium.

South Fremantle did win two of its last three games before the bye with a terrific 39-point win over the second-placed West Perth in Round 18. However, the derby loss the next week was terrible but the Bulldogs rebounded to then down the Lions by eight points.

Hasleby certainly sees enough signs that the Bulldogs are finishing the season off with enough positives to look forward towards 2014 with buoyancy but it's now crucial to finish the year off strongly against Peel, East Perth and Perth with just one of those games at Fremantle Oval.

"No doubt we are on the right track. Over the last six weeks we have played the top teams and beaten one of them, we lost to the top team by four points and lost to Perth who were third at the time by nine and we beat Subiaco as well," Hasleby said.

"We are showing that when we do apply ourselves for four quarters we can win games of footy. When we don’t, we get smashed like we did against East Fremantle. We are getting confidence in the way we are trying to play the game plan and the results are starting to come. The whole focus throughout the year has been on winning every game and the development of players.

"That just comes naturally I guess by giving guys opportunities but we want to finish on a high and go into the pre-season with some confidence about the way we are trying to play. Then we will certainly look to recruit over the off-season and bring guys into positions where we feel we are a little bit weak in. We will obviously now be aiming to win the last three games as well."

Hasleby was pleased to see his South Fremantle players bounce back from the loss to East Fremantle to beat Subiaco prior to the bye, but it took a big last quarter to come away with the win after the Bulldogs again let a strong position midway through the third term slip.

"The boys were always going to bounce back after our worst loss of the year against the Sharks. We've had some good games against Subi, they play a pretty tough, one-on-one accountable style of footy so they are really hard to break away from," he said.

"For the first two and-a-half quarters we felt like we were playing well, but we couldn’t get that advantage. To then give it away in the third quarter was disappointing but I was really proud of the way the boys stood up in the last quarter and showed some good leadership to get over the line."

Hasleby had seen the Bulldogs blow too many strong positions this season during the second half only to lose for him to let it happen again so he let his team know exactly what he thought of their efforts late in the third quarter to let Subiaco get back on top.

He pointed out that Kris Miller and Brendan Verrier were pulling their weight but few others were, and to the Bulldogs' credit they put in a terrific last quarter to kick six goals to two.

"It was one of the bigger ones I have given in my career, but it was just borne out of a bit of frustration. We have probably been in that situation 10 times across the year and we again gave up easy goals in a short period of the game, and I just wanted to stamp it out," Hasleby said.

"At the end of the day, it's all based on on-field leadership and I set the challenge for the guys, and they responded in really good fashion. I just felt like Millsy at that point in time as our oldest player on the list was having a terrific day and leadership is about winning those contests.

"He was certainly doing that and Brendan Verrier is one of our youngest guys and he was winning key contests as well and running really hard. It was pleasing what those two guys were doing, but we showed in the last quarter when we get 18 guys weighing in in that fashion we can be a very dangerous side."

Bulldogs veteran Miller was still playing outstanding football in the midfield through the first half of the year but over the past two months Hasleby has moved him to play more across half-forward and it's paying off for a number of reasons.

Not only is it giving Jacob Martinez, Tim Kelly and Brendan Verrier more time and responsibility on the ball, but Miller is playing superb football as a forward and he was brilliant against Subiaco finishing with 20 possessions and three goals, but he also had a direct hand in most of South Fremantle's goals for the day.

"No doubt he could still do it in the midfield but the benefit of him going forward is that he has developed another area of his game which has been really good for us. He has not only been kicking goals, but he's been a very high goal assist player for us," Hasleby said.

"The most pleasing thing, though, is that Tim Kelly has been able to step into the midfield and have a big impact. Brendan Verrier is another one who we've been able to give a lot more midfield time to because Millsy has gone forward."

A big part of the reason for Hasleby's buoyancy about South Fremantle's future is because of the young players to have stepped up this season including Dylan Ross and Nick Borovac in defence, and Kelly, Martinez and Verrier through the middle.

"There has been a deliberate ploy to give these guys an opportunity to show what they can do and you don’t find out about a player in two or three games, you find out over 20 and 30. Dylan Ross has been terrific down back for us all year and so has Borovac," he said.

"Tim Kelly is a star in the midfield, Martinez has been doing it for two years now and they are going to be really valuable players for us going forward. To have that next tier coming up now like Laurino, Verrier and guys like that the club is in a good position. We just have to maintain the playing list and continue to develop some of those guys and add other blokes around them."

Another youngster who received a chance against Subiaco was James Laurino who made his debut and was giving the job of shutting down Lions' wingman Jarrod Kayler-Thomson, and he did a terrific job and Hasleby is now confident he can keep that up over the last three weeks.

"It was a big step for him going into that game. We had given him a few jobs in the reserves and he'd done a terrific job, so we had the confidence that he could do it on one of the best play makers in the competition who has been dominant against us the first two times we played them," Hasleby said.

"To keep him to just 15 was a really disciplined effort from James and he needs to continually improve, and maintain that intensity and attitude now in every game he plays."

By Chris Pike