The key talking points from senior coach Luke Beveridge’s weekly presser ahead of Saturday’s clash against Gold Coast in Ballarat.

Gold Coast

They’ve had a couple of good scalps over the last few weeks against Sydney and Fremantle. I think their track record in Ballarat is pretty good too – they had a good game against GWS there. They’ve got some momentum too now, so it will be a challenge.

This week, for the first time in a long while, we were able to pick three key defenders in Alex Keath, Ryan Gardner and Tim O’Brien. They’ll give each other the requisite help in the air. We’ll be well equipped (against Mabior Chol and Levi Casboult) in the air and on the ground, so hopefully we can nullify their threats.

10:18

Luke Beveridge | 'They've got some momentum, so they'll be a challenge'

Hear from Senior Coach, Luke Beveridge, ahead of round 10.

Ballarat

The game against Adelaide a few weeks ago; the weather was perfect. Ballarat really turned it on for us. The forecast tomorrow is almost the same – the timing of both games is right, and important. It’s good to get them played in Autumn. We’re looking forward to it. We’ll head down the road this afternoon and stay down there tonight, and then will turn up early tomorrow and be ready for a big contest against the Suns.

 

02:07

Stay Close, Go Further | Bont in Ballarat

Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli takes a trip to Ballarat to sample what the region has to offer.

Player availability

Taylor Duryea has been ill – he’s another one of our players who has gone down with the flu and won’t be able to play. We thought JJ would be available for selection this week, but he’s been ill as well.

Tim English trained the full session on Wednesday and got through no worries. Hopefully next week, he continues to train on and might be available.

The flu has sort of been drip-feeding its way through the Club – which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it means you’re not losing six all at once. You just deal with it – it provides an opportunity for someone else to come in and impact which was pleasing to see last week.

 

02:17

Kirby Bentley's Indigenous boot designs

Kirby Bentley discusses the creation of her newly-formed art business Gnalla, as well as the designs of the boots she has painted for some of our men's players.

Adam Treloar’s 200th game

What an amazing journey. He’s got strong connections through all three clubs he’s played at – to think of the boys who graduated from his draft and went to GWS as inaugural players, he’s the first one to play 200 games. It’s a huge milestone. He’s given such strong performances and contributions on and off the field here at the Bulldogs, so we feel really fortunate to have him.

He speaks from the heart, he plays with passion and lives his life with passion. He’ll also have Kim and Georgie in Ballarat, which is going to be really emotional for him and a real highlight as he said. It’s going to be a special occasion for him.