The Western Bulldogs have announced that defender Ryan Gardner and ruckman Jordon Sweet have singed one-year rookie contract extensions.

Gardner joined the Bulldogs via the 2019 Mid-Season Rookie Draft and went on to play 10 games with the club in 2020.

“Ryan started to establish himself at senior level throughout the 2020 season,” General Manager of List and Recruiting, Sam Power, said.

“The more games he played, the more his confidence grew. Over the last month of the year, he started to look at home in our back line and showed strong form against some of the competition’s best forwards.

“We know Ryan has more development in him and look forward to seeing him take another step forward in 2021.”

Sweet, who is yet to feature at AFL level, has been with the Bulldogs since joining the club with pick 23 in the 2018 AFL Rookie Draft.

“We’ve been pleased with Jordon’s continued development as a player over the past two years,” Power said.

“He has continued to work hard on his game, which we saw at scratch match level this year. We believe Jordon will again be pushing to play AFL football in 2021.”

The pair of signings follow the Bulldogs announcement of extending Lin Jong's contract for 2021.