Four-time premiership forward full of praise for former coach Mackie

The star forward and the rest of his premiership teammates will face Mackie for the first time on Saturday when the Tigers host Jindera in a match expected to shed further light on the Hume league pecking order.

Alexander is a huge fan of Mackie and couldn't speak highly enough of the two-time Morris medallist.

"I've got the utmost respect for Joel and personally for me, he taught me a lot during his time as coach," Alexander said.

"His training methods and dedication to getting the best out of the playing group was next level.

"Playing against him for the first time, it will be something different I guess but I'm looking forward to the contest.

"As a playing group we haven't really discussed playing against Joel and are treating it as just another game really.

"We just try and get the win each week, no matter who it's against."

Mackie has missed the opening two rounds with a calf strain but has declared he is right to play providing he gets through training on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs' coach is expected to rotate through the midfield and up forward.

Alexander was unsure who would get the match-up on their former coach.

"I don't think there will be a specific match-up for Joel, we rotate heavily through the midfield and it will be just a case of whoever is in there at the time," he said.

"Izaac 'Tikettek' McDonnell might put his hand up because he likes the challenge of playing on the big name players.

"Tikettek also likes to niggle his opponent so it could be interesting if he plays on Mackie because he can sometimes have a short-fuse which Izaac found out in an intra-club match when he played on Joel.

"I don't think any of the boys will be trying to sledge Joel because there aren't any massive sledgers in the playing group.

"We just go about our business and let our footy do the talking."

Alexander has been in terrific touch in the early rounds after missing a large chunk of last season with a knee injury which sidelined him for two months.

The four time premiership forward (Osborne 2017,19,23 and GGGM 2022) has been playing a lot deeper after the off-season departures of Tiger spearhead Hayden Armstrong and Ryan Collins.

He has booted 12 goals in the opening two rounds with coach Myles Aalbers also proving his undoubted class with 10.

"I've been playing deep because Myles and Hugh Schmetzer can cover the ground further up the field better than I can these days," he said.

"So I don't venture far from the goal square.

"Myles has really impressed me with his playing ability, his workrate up the ground and he doesn't waste a disposal and is a classy finisher."

Ed O'Connell took a Mark of the Year contender in the goal square for the Tigers last week against CDHBU where Alexander had a front row seat.

"I don't like to pump up Ed's tyres too much because he already has got a healthy ego," Alexander said.

"But it was an impressive grab and I was right underneath him and he got some decent hang time.

"It was certainly one of the better hangers that I've seen out in the Hume league for quite a while."