Turvey Park's fruitful recruitment drive for 2021 has continued with the signing of Canberra-based ruckman Shaun Allan.
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A former premiership player at Ainslie, Allan isn't unknown in the region after a standout season with Farrer League club Barellan in 2019.
He joins the Bulldogs on the recommendation of fellow recruit, and former The Rock-Yerong Creek premiership player, Mitch Ward.
New coach Mick Mazzocchi said securing a ruckman was a key piece in the puzzle for the Bulldogs.
"When Turvey interviewed me to be coach and asked what do you think we need, straight away I said a ruckman," Mazzocchi said.
"Nath Byrne played the role in 2019 but he's not actually a ruckman. It's just that he's a great player who could do a job there.
"So that was one big target of ours, to get a big bloke on board that can service our mids and give our mids a good, competitive look at it."
Allan made a massive difference to Barellan's midfield last year and impressed most rival coaches. He was in their best in 10 of his 14 appearances, and shared the club best-and-fairest honour with Sean Ellis.
"I've talked to a few people and I've been and met him. He's fit, he takes pride in his football and from everything I've heard about him, he's just a real competitor which is exactly what we want," Mazzocchi said.
"If your ruckman can be fit, get around the ground and give you a contest, that just ticks all the boxes for us. And he seems like a ripping bloke, he's just a really, really nice fella.
"So we're really excited to get Shaun on board, it's going to set us up structurally and make us really competitive out of the midfield."
Mazzocchi said they're still in discussions about bringing the Melbourne-based Byrne back as a centre-half-back but it might depend on the ongoing COVID-19 situation.
But Turvey Park are thrilled with the start to their 2021 preparation after locking in Allan, Ward and former The Rock-Yerong Creek premiership star Andrew Saddler.
"Rapt, absolutely rapt with the support I've got from the recruits that have come on board," Mazzocchi said.
"It's exactly in the spots we needed. It's not just recruiting for the sake of getting numbers on board. That's not what we need, we've been targeting that specific ruckman, key forward and on-baller.
"We're filling the spots we really need so I'm really excited and quietly confident with the list we're putting together that we're going to be extremely competitive in 2021."
Mazzocchi hasn't ruled out adding to their list if the right players present.
Turvey Park will formally kick off their pre-season in the new year but the new coach said there might be a few Bulldogs keen to hit the ground running.
"People these days just like to keep fit and healthy anyway and there's already some guys talking to me saying they're keen to catch up and do some running. So there'll be some unofficial runs and things happening but officially our pre-season will kick off on the 11th of January," he said.
