Luke Beveridge faced the media following the Bulldogs 35-point loss to Collingwood on Friday and westernbulldogs.com.au breaks down the key takeaways.
1. What went wrong
The Dogs jumped out of the box, kicking five first quarter goals, but added just four behinds after half-time. Luke Beveridge reflects on the turnaround.
“Two completely different sides playing against each other after quarter time than what we saw in that first period. Theirs is probably easy to explain, they lifted their intensity in that period, they challenged us on a number of fronts and we came up short.
“Put that down to Collingwood’s ferocity around the ball, our lack of scope to maintain it in our front half, and the ball came out of our forward half way too easy. “
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2. Zaine Cordy’s injury
Cordy held Magpie match-winner Jordan De Goey to five possessions and zero goals before leaving the field with delayed concussion symptoms at half-time. The Club will provide a full update on Monday.
“I couldn’t tell you when it happened, the incident, but it came to my attention during the second quarter, so we had to keep him off and it was confirmed at half-time that he wasn’t able to take the field again.
“I haven’t got anything for you on the delayed side of it, I haven’t been able to speak to our medicos.”
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3. The positives
Everything clicked in the first term, where the Dogs took a 25-point lead into the first break, but after that, Beveridge said his sides’ defenders where the best performers.
“I thought some of our younger players played pretty consistent games.
“I thought Ed Richards, Roarke Smith and Bailey Williams at times, all our backmen really. And Jackson Trengove was pretty solid and Matty Suckling was good for large parts of the game.
“But other than those lads we didn’t’ have any consistency forward of centre and through the arcs so their divisions in those areas got well on top. We made some adjustments late, when they got a goal or two up but it was to no vail and didn’t arrest the slide.”
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4. Final term fadeouts
The Bulldogs have won just one final quarter for the year, something the coach puts down to a number of factors.
“I don’t want to make excuses for youth, but it’s partly down to that, especially tonight, but it’s partly because of that, there’s no doubt. Fatigue - four quarters at AFL level, it happens.
“Maybe partly we’ve had some change, movement in personnel, players playing together for the first time getting used to each other. Maybe some of the teams we’ve played have had a bit more continuity, I’m not sure if that’s had anything to do with it.
“But as I said, I still feel that some of our younger guys still finished off the game pretty well, just the collective fell away. We seem like our numbers in our training are pretty solid comparatively, when you think of history, nothing’s telling us we’re not fit enough.
“Obviously we’ve had some injury, some lads coming back who haven’t got the necessary match fitness but we should be winning more than one of those last quarters.”
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5. On Josh Schache’s debut
The debutant had nine touches, six contested, and a goal in his first game in Dogs colours.
“He showed some good signs. He’s highly skilled, Josh and if we can get the ball in his hands, he’ll help us score over time.
“But his game was symptomatic of the small-to-mediums around there where our ball movement was stifled, we gave them the open side of the ground coming out of our forward 50 too easy and we couldn’t contain it.
“He obviously hasn’t played senior footy for a while and it’s disappointing for him to play in a game like that in his first one for us but I felt like he showed some good signs.”
