Panmure has been struggling with its outside game for the last two decades, according to new senior football coach Chris Bant.
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The Bulldogs won just a single game in the 2018 Warrnambool District league season.
But now, faced with the "good problem" of having to stress over the last few cuts to the final team, Bant said fixing this lingering deficiency would go a long way to making Panmure a competitive outfit once more.
"We've really been working on our run and spread from the contest," he told The Standard.
"We're pretty good on the inside, but just struggle to use the ball well and make teams pay on the outside. It's been a traditionally bad thing for Panmure for 20 years.
"So I've made some structural changes and done a bit of video work to show blokes where they need to be to receive the footy from the inside, rather than everyone trying to grab it themselves."
Bant, 28, was at Hampden league club Terang Mortlake last season. He notched up more than 100 games with the Bloods in two stints, including the 2011 season and then a five-year run from 2014 to 2018.
He last played for Panmure in 2013, when he booted 108 goals for the Bulldogs and won his second flag in a row with the club.
Panmure plays 2018 semi-finalist Timboon Demons in the opening round this weekend.
Bant, who will miss the first three games of the WDFNL season as he serves a suspension carried over from his time with the Bloods, said his side is relishing the chance to take on the Demons.
"Last year we struggled for numbers," he said. "But now everyone is keen and we've been looking forward to this week for about four or five months."
Bant said the Demons' on-ball brigade of Marcus Hickey, Ben Newey and Andrew Hargreaves would need to be contained at all cost.
"It should be a good contest," he said.
The dairy farmer said while he didn't expect Panmure to go from being stone-cold last in 2018 to premiership-contenders in 2019, he was still very optimistic about the side's potential.
"I think we've got a really good mix of youth and experience," Bant said.
He said four youngsters in particular had grabbed his attention during the off-season - Jacob Moloney, Michael McKenzie, Brad Gedye and Lachie McLeod - and would be more than ready to make the jump from the under 17.5s to the senior side.
"They've really taken on all the advice and have hardly missed a session," Bant said.
"Those guys are all really fit and use the ball well."
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