Heading into his maiden season as a senior coach, Beveridge has worked assiduously behind the scenes to restore greater harmony among the playing group and club departments after a tumultuous end to 2014 when coach Brendan McCartney and captain Ryan Griffen left.

There will be a fierce spotlight on the teenaged Boyd, who was traded from Greater Western Sydney as part of a deal for Griffen on a seven-year contract worth more than $6 million. The power forward has played only nine senior matches but Beveridge could not be happier with his application through a pre-season where the Dogs have revamped their game plan.

However, with a string of tall young talent, including a revitalised Ayce Cordy, Jack Redpath, Tom Campbell and Jake Stringer, Beveridge has made it clear Boyd will need to earn his place, even in the NAB Challenge series.

"He has worked really hard. It's probably his first full pre-season. You probably always have a bit of an interrupted pre-season in your first year, when he was at the Giants," Beveridge told Fairfax Media.

"He has got through his work. It's going to take him a while to condition himself to the level of actually playing four quarters at an AFL level. But we couldn't be more pleased with his application. He is a mature head, a bit like Bonnie [Marcus Bontempelli]. Even his experience in the media, he talks like he has been involved for 10 years.

"He has had a couple of little collisions and has been opened up with cuts and broken fingers. He has soldiered on. He is preparing himself pretty well. Hopefully, we can get him involved pretty early and start to build what should be a pretty good career."

Boyd can also expect to be used in the ruck, a move which could free the 200-centimetre giant up if the opposition focus on him inside attacking 50 becomes too great.

"Boydy will have to play a bit in the ruck. He is not going to be able to survive as a key forward," Beveridge said. "We can't put him in cotton wool. He is actually quite a good stand-and-deliver ruckman. I haven't see him jump yet because we haven't had him doing that."

The Dogs won seven matches last season, one less than 2013, but hope to regain ground this year under new skipper Bob Murphy, despite losing more than 800 matches of experience and becoming the third-youngest side with 22 players having less than 25 senior games to their credit.

In order to do so, the Dogs are set, as Murphy said, to play more of an adventurous style, having focused on improving their grunt work under McCartney.

They have worked diligently on team defence and ball movement, particularly the last kick inside 50, and want to ramp up pressure on opponents, having let their rivals hit a target by foot 67.6 per cent of the time last year – the worst percentage of any side.

Beveridge has also wanted greater versatility and depth, with a focus on having more numbers through the midfield. He has dubbed the likes of Luke Dahlhaus and Nathan Hrovat his "mosquito fleet" – a name synonymous with the Carlton premiership sides of 1981-82.

"We have a pretty good 'mosquito fleet' – Dahlhaus, Hrovat, [Lachie] Hunter, [Mitch] Honeychurch and we, obviously have brought some new kids in, who I don't really want to talk about but you never know whether one of them is going to step up," Beveridge said. "Those boys will need to spend a little bit of time in the midfield, whether it's outside or in, I don't know."

He said key forward Stringer, who booted 26 goals last year, had enjoyed a strong pre-season, Cordy, out of contract at the end of the season, was challenging Will Minson for the No.1 ruck role, while Lin Jong continued to develop.

"Jongy seems like he is ready to go. There are still some areas of his game that will continue to improve but the signs are, he is powerful, quick, we think that he can make an impression," Beveridge said.

Rangy midfielder Bontempelli, last year's Rising Star runner-up who emerged as a future superstar, can expect to spend more time in the midfield, with Beveridge liking his "dimensions" to that of Fremantle match-winner, Nat Fyfe. Bontempelli has a slight edge in height and weight on his more experienced Docker.

"The possibility and probability that he is going to be one of the competition's best, I think it's right in our face, but we have got to manage that the right way and utilise that the right way, make sure we support him because he is the versatile type," Beveridge said.