2023 GNFL season: Wins not the measure for Towns success as Dale Baynes looks to build on youth

As the GNFL season fast approaches, Towns’ coach Dale Baynes is under no illusions of the challenges facing the Bulldogs as they look to build themselves back up from the bottom of the table.

Towns were well off the pace last season, finishing with just one win, which came over Mullewa in round four as they struggled to find ways to score finishing with the worst offensive record by some margin.

But to say it is all doom and gloom before the season has started would be a disservice to the promising youth Towns have built.

They are back-to-back colts champions, including a 94-point Mullewa mauling in last year’s grand final, but the key issue for Towns and Baynes is retaining that youth.

“We’ve lost seven of our best colts kids to the WAFL or to Perth for university, some of them are just too good or smart for us,” he joked.

“We saw last year in bits and pieces we were more than competitive but we were lacking that firepower to stay in games on the scoreboard.”

Towns have not been able to make major moves in the off-season so far and Baynes said he understood another difficult season might lay ahead in terms of generating wins.

“We are going in with a lot of the same guys from last season but we are always on the hunt for guys that can complement our system,” he said

“We are definitely not going to count up our success on wins, it’s going to be about bringing some of the young guys through and making sure we are putting in that effort.”

Baynes said he wanted his side to be daring and what they might lack in top-end talent he wanted to make up in effort around the ball.

“Our success for this year will be around how we play, competing from the first bounce and staying hard at the contest,” he said.

“I want our guys to take the game on and not get frustrated if it doesn’t always come off if we can remain positive I’ll be happy with that.”

Towns begin the 2023 season against Mullewa on April 29 at their home ground.