Western Bulldogs big man Rory Lobb has spoken on the potential of returning to his ruck forward role in 2024, stating that his finish to his first season at Whitten Oval signalled the move as a success.

Lobb crossed from the Dockers at the trade deadline in 2022, setting himself to write his third footballing chapter on Barkly Street after previously calling Perth and Sydney's West home.

Yet, the now-30-year-old found himself outside of Luke Beveridge's senior side in Rounds 18 and 19 after being sent to the reserves to regain form.

While at VFL level, Lobb thrived, averaging 18 disposals, slotting seven goals and producing a helpful mean of 8.5 hitouts in his two starts against Sydney and the Northern Bullants.

"Through the middle part of the year, I wasn't playing up to my standards," Lobb admitted to 9 News.

https://twitter.com/9NewsMelb/status/1743904120329920521

Upon returning to the seniors for Round 20, the versatile big appeared reinvigorated, splitting his time between the ruck and forward line, waxing with fellow Western Australian Bulldog, Tim English.

Lobb saved his best form of the season for last, racking up 18 disposals, 15 hitouts and 3 telling goals in the Dogs' 25-point win over Geelong at Kardinia Park.ย 

"I obviously finished off the year pretty well, so it was a good move for me to go down and get a little bit of confidence," the big man admitted.

Though having no say in how Beveridge's magnets would move this season, Lobb pressed that having multiple chefs at centre bounces had not spoiled the Dogs' broth.

"With that Cats game, it, sort of, worked pretty well where I jumped in there (the ruck) for a little bit longer," Lobb added.

"It's just trying to find the right balance between me playing forward and Tim playing forward, and just trying to give them (the midfielders) different looks in the middle.

But whether the success of multiple bigs across the park will be enough to see Beveridge return to his quartet strikeforce of Aaron Naughton, Sam Darcy, English and Lobb, the ex-Docker and Giant said all options remained open.

"We did obviously try that in Round 1," Lobb offered through a wry smile. "It kind of didn't work, but maybe this year we can look to do it again."

Lobb remains contracted at the Whitten Oval until the cessation of the 2026 season.

The Bulldogs will open their 2024 campaign, the club's 10th under Beveridge, against Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday, March 17.