Luke Beveridge has praised the impact of skipper Marcus Bontempelli ahead of his 250th game at the SCG on Friday.
The 29-year-old brought up win number 77 as Bulldogs captain last weekend against the Tigers, surpassing the great Ted Whitten Sr in the process as the most successful captain in red, white and blue.
Beveridge couldn’t speak more highly of the impact the number 4 has had at Mission Whitten Oval.
"The games that he missed at the start of this year have been an outlier on his journey," Beveridge said of the "durable" Bontempelli.
"An incredible leader. I don't usually use the word incredible too often, but he's just been such a significant figure, player, dignitary, character in our football club for such a long period of time.
"How fortunate are we to have him?"
The Bulldogs will travel to the NSW capital without Adam Treloar after the All-Australian midfielder again broke down with a calf injury.
Treloar's body has let him down three times already this year, with this setback ruling him out until at least late in the home and away season.
"We'll worry about that later on," Beveridge said.
"His future beyond this year is something that'll take care of itself in deliberations as we get towards the end of the year.
"I always hope so with a player as influential as Adam, but I haven't actually sat down and spoken to him about the emotional toll his injuries have had on him this year."
“Maybe that’s the case, he’s processing that; there’s no black and white answer to it because beyond recovering from this one he might be OK.
“Hopefully, he continues to go to the line and rehabs this injury like he has every other one … it remains to be seen how long our season goes for.”
