Luke Beveridge addressed the media on Tuesday afternoon at Victoria University Whitten Oval, and westernbulldogs.com.au lists the five key takeaways.
1. Review is done. Mood is good
The Bulldogs completed their review of Sunday’s loss to the Giants and the mood across the group is good according to Beveridge, with a clear understanding of where improvements are needed.
“The mood is good. We’ve just been through the first part of our review.
“The positive thing about dissecting the game is that you see all of the opportunities for improvement. We’ve come out of that meeting feeling pretty good about how we can grow this week and make a pretty good account of ourselves this Sunday.”
2. He’s comfortable being measured against 2016
Asked if the Club was being marked against the premiership year, Beveridge said he welcomed the pressure on his team to again become a side that is difficult to play against.
“I suppose in a way, we welcome that. We’ve created that expectation now that we can be a formidable side, if we don’t win the day we’ll be hard to beat. We weren’t hard to beat on Sunday.
“No matter where we are in the time frame and how we’re evolving, I think it is a good thing because we want to put ourselves under that sort of pressure where we are difficult to play against.
“I think the commentary around us, I haven’t been privy to all of it, I think it’s welcomed and we’re determined to be that side again.”
3. Caleb in contention
There’s at least two spots available this weekend with Caleb Daniel a possibility to fill one of them according to the coach. Strong VFL form from a handful of other players could also see them force their way into the side.
‘’Caleb will be in the mix. He had a bit of an interruption, that’s why he didn’t play in Moe unfortunately. He had a pretty solid training session yesterday and will be in calculations.”
“A handful of the boys played pretty well on the weekend against Geelong in a VFL trial game. We’ve obviously got two spots up for grabs and whether or not there’s any more, time will tell.”
4. English ready to step up
Beveridge said that English’s form was one of the bright spots of the weekend, and a looming battle with Eagles ruckman won’t phase the second year man..
“He looks like he’s ready to take on the challenge of being an AFL ruckman at the tender age of 20.
“We liked the way he contested the ball at ground level, and he uses the ball pretty well for a big fella, so there’s some really encouraging things.
“We’ll prepare him pretty well and he won’t go it alone (against Naitanui). It’ll be a big test, he’s a great athlete, Nick.
“He’s pretty level-headed. Even when he was on the lighter side last year, he played against some pretty big boys in the VFL, and he found a way to play to his strengths, (which was) his agility and his scope to cover ground, so he’ll play to those and we’ll try and work to those as well.”
5. The timeline of Liam Picken’s return is unclear
Beveridge is confident that Picken will return to the side at some point this season, but due to the nature of concussions, it’s difficult to provide an exact timeline.
“We’ve got him down as indefinite and that hasn’t changed. He’s still getting some headaches and training with the balls isn’t working out for him at the moment, so there’s some concerns there and how far away his return is, I just can’t tell you.
“(As I’ve said before) I just can’t see a time when Liam comes to us and says, and we’ll work to that point with him, and says ‘I’m ready’, so I think he’ll play footy before the year is out, I just don’t know when that will be.
“He’s seeing some specialist outside the Club to help him and give our staff some advice so we’re really hitting it head on in looking after his well-being and we’ll be really well advised by the time he comes to us and says ‘I want to play’, as to whether or not that’s a good idea.”
