Injuries, selection, recruits, match-ups… senior coach Luke Beveridge answered all the important questions at his pre-match press conference on Thursday ahead of Sunday's clash with the Hawks at the MCG.
Confidence after a win…
“It’s important to get those wins on the board early, because there’s a little bit of change that’s swept through our team, to be able to establish a winning formula at the start of the year becomes reasonably critical. You’d imagine they’re really buoyant and pretty pleased with themselves, albeit we faded – Sydney really came at us. So there’s something to address this week as far as playing four quarters, but some really encouraging signs.”
Matt Suckling…
“He’s got to train today, but we think he’ll be okay. We’re playing Sunday this week, so he’s got a little bit more time. He’s going to train today and we’re optimistic he’ll be fine… We expect him to play on Sunday.”
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The Hawks…
“As we know, they’re extremely well coached, and it’s a big challenge for us. A pretty mature team who have gone over to Adelaide again and been able to establish a foothold on that dominance that they’ve had over there for a little while. We haven’t beaten them very often in recent times, so it’s a big challenge for us.”
Has Sam Lloyd exceeded your expectations?
We were hoping and we had an expectation that he’d fit in well and that he’d be influential, and the early signs are really good for us. He’s obviously an experienced head, and right at the back of the game last week in those last few minutes he was really important in some of those plays, being able to provide some composure... He’s made a big impression early.
Bailey Smith…
“Bails was working hard and it wasn’t falling his way in the first half, but to his credit he really persevered and started to come into the game, particularly in the third quarter. He’ll learn a lot from it. He hasn’t played a lot on the wing in his junior career, he’s mainly been that inside mid. So we’ve got to work with him to enable him to make his best contribution. He’ll definitely play, and he’ll be better for the run.”
Selection…
“The boys that played for Footscray against Werribee played pretty well. I’d imagine we’ll probably go in unchanged. As we’ve been discussing, whether or not ‘Piglet’ (Suckling) comes up… there may be an adjustment there if we need”
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Taylor Duryea against his former side…
“It’s probably good to get it out of the way early in his tenure with us. He was very, very good for us last week, Doc. I did have a conversation with him about just that the other day, and he had a little bit of a grin on his face. Obviously he’s got some really strong friendships and great relationships with everyone at the Hawks – he was best clubman there last year. That’s part of the attraction with Taylor, he’s such a good character. He’ll maybe be a bit more nervous playing against his old club, but round two, as good a time as any to get it out of the way.”
Jason Johannisen…
He’s progressing really well. Just talking to (medical boss) Chris Bell before, there’s a slim chance that he may be available over the next week or two. He’s got an important session today, he’s got to cover some ground and get some speed, and out of that we’ll have more certainty on whether or not he’s available for the following Friday night. I’d expect it’s probably the week after that at the moment.
A rare Bulldog appearance at the MCG…
“I think all the players enjoy playing at the MCG, and that’s the main thing. It can’t be something that you tiptoe into with any trepidation, you’ve got to enjoy the coliseum and probably the bigger crowd that can turn up based on the capacity there. There will be a number of players who’ve never played there before… I don’t think Tim English has played there, I don’t think Bailey Smith’s played there… that’s got to be exciting. More than anything, we just look forward to it.”
Can you play Easton Wood as a key defender?
“We can – we haven’t played him as a key defender often. He played on Lance (Franklin) most of the game, but we’re probably more of a defence that works together – it’s not essential that we match-up, so to speak. We support each other and there’s a big reliance on pressure as you know. He does it pretty well, and he’s so athletic. His aerial game’s really strong. He can do that and this week they’ve got some talls up there that we’ll need to defend really well. The expectation will be that Easton’s best aerial game will come out again.”
