After spending a number of years cooling his heels as an assistant coach, Pay is now enjoying the role as top dog at Belmore.

The 50-year-old has already learned a thing or two about coaching in the National Rugby League as he prepares for his third season in charge.

"While you're an assistant coach you don't see a lot of things," he told the Port News.

"There are all different parts of the job you need to control and at the moment we've got through a couple of tough periods and come out the other side."

After a year that ended with six wins from their final seven matches, Pay was "looking to keep moving forward" in 2020.

A number of the 'Dogs young brigade are now a year older and have 12 months more experience.

"The group we've built here has involved bringing some of our younger guys through," he said.

"Some of those are up to 30 and 40 games now so they're starting to get into the groove of the week in, week out rigours of NRL footy."

He hasn't quite achieved the finished product, but Pay would have taken plenty of notice of Luke Thompson during St Helens' clash with Sydney Roosters in last weekend's World Club Challenge.

The English front-rower will join the Bulldogs in 2021.

"He's going to be a huge player for us moving forward," Pay said.

"He's doing some good things over there still so we're all excited at the club and all our fans should be too."

Pay believes Thompson will add another dimension to their forward pack.

"He plays at a high level each week, he works hard on his game and looks after himself so he's everything we're looking for," he said.

The immediate focus, however, was on 2020 and how the boys from Belmore could continue to climb up the ladder.

A strong performance in their final trial at Regional Stadium on Saturday will provide a confidence boost ahead of their season opener against Parramatta at Bankwest Stadium in a fortnight.

But Pay knows Canberra will ask plenty of questions.

"We want to try and build some momentum for ourselves and make sure we keep ourselves in the game," Pay said.

"Defensively we want to be really strong; that's our main focus."

Question marks surround the makeup of the Bulldogs halves for round one with Lachlan Lewis, Jack Cogger and Brandon Wakeham all pressing for selection.

Pay, however, remained tight-lipped on who might have the inside running.

"They've all contributed really well, so we'll have a better idea after Saturday and we'll make a decision after that," he said.

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