Tom Liberatore is one of the most underrated players in the league, according to fellow midfield gun Adam Treloar.

The 31-year-old father-son is enjoying a career-best season in 2023, averaging 27.6 disposals, 6.6 tackles and 8.1 clearances – all personal bests - which aren’t going unnoticed by Treloar.

“He has severely been underrated for a long time, in my opinion,” Treloar said of Liberatore on SEN on Wednesday. 

“That was both when versing him and now being here for three years – it just blows my mind how little talk he gets in terms of our success.

“The reality is, if he’s not playing the way he’s playing, we’re not winning games and we’re not putting ourselves in the position to win games.

“It’s all largely due to his ability to perform at a high level. That’s what he’s done week in and week out.

“I think the reason he doesn’t get recognised is because one - we’ve got Bonti in the side who is an absolute superstar and rightly so…but two - because Libba doesn’t take the bounces and go forward and take the grabs, he does all the real hard stuff that no-one really sees.

“He’s 31 I think now, so has got a few more years left in him. If he finishes without ever making an All Australian team it’d be an absolute shame.”

With the Bulldogs’ next challenge coming against the Giants at Mars Stadium this Saturday afternoon, Treloar said a full four-quarter effort will be required.

“It’s probably been a while since both teams have been in this sort of similar situation – we’re both in pretty good form,” he said.

“I believe the Giants are probably the in-form team of the competition, with Collingwood and the likes at the top. We’re fully anticipating they’ll bring their best – they’ve got some class across the field.

“We obviously won the game earlier this year, but there was a 20-minute period where they dominated and got within a kick of us – without Toby Greene.

“We have to bring our best because we know they are going to.”

Tickets to the Bulldogs-Giants clash are on sale now.