Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge spoke to the media on Friday ahead of his side’s match against North Melbourne on Friday night. Here, westernbulldogs.com.au take a look at some of the key takeaways.
1. Dale Morris
The popular backman has again defied external expectations and will return to field against North on the weekend after some minor knee surgery.
“His reputation continues to grow as the iron man. We thought he might be another week but he's recovery has been astronomical.
“(His professionalism) is definitely part of it and his physical preparation week to week is second to none, and that helps you recover quickly. Even some of the things around diet, which is going the extra yard, really helps him.
“It's brilliant we can have him back because he played pretty well in his first one back and we expected to have him a bit longer than that, so hopefully he picks up where he left off.”
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2. Bontempelli will play
Dogs fans everywhere held their collective breath when Marcus Bontempelli went down clutching at this knee last Thursday night, but Beveridge has confirmed it was no more than a hyperextension.
“He'll definitely play. We won’t' do much today.
“He's got through all his work. I think we all got a bit of a shock when we saw him hyperextend that knee over in Adelaide.
“All sorts of talk about black cats and ladders, all sorts of stuff. But he's fine and he's recovered really well.”
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3. On North Melbourne
The coach runs his eye over the opposition ahead of Saturday night’s clash.
“They are a different team in the way that they are playing.
“I think their defensive system has changed, the way the way they move the ball at times is not too dissimilar, but they're not quite as tall as they used to be, so they've needed to make some adjustments.
“But what they’ve done with some of their change and some of their personnel is obviously been able to gain them some territory on the ladder, so contextually were both teams are at, we'll need to bring our best to challenge them.”
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4. Easton Wood’s role
With the skipper sidelined for a while with a serious hamstring injury, Beveridge outlines what his role will be off field.
“Quite naturally as our captain he'll be involved in the day to day and the meetings, not just in the lines, more the backline.
“He'll help all the players out with their own games, he's just in the back line meeting with Kingy there providing his open input, so that's tremendous.
“He'll stay involved. Obviously physically we won't have him but he'll be there as a significant support.”
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5. Marcus Adams
Adams will play his first AFL game since round 12 last season.
“Obviously we haven't been able to rely too much on Marcus' inclusion in the team but he's been pretty solid, in his last game he was, we played him a bit back and a bit forward.
“We know what he can do at AFL level as a defender, so hopefully we can get his very best on Saturday night.
“He's played against North Melbourne a couple of times over his short journey, so there is some familiarity there with one or two of the North Melbourne forwards.”
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6. A $4,000 coffee
Winners of the third prize in the Bulldogs 2018 raffle is a coffee with the coach, valued at $4,000. Beveridge has a laugh about what else he can bring to add value.
“That's for the beans, not for me. What is 4,000 divided by five?
“I need some cash to cash to buy some tickets to the raffle myself just to win that X-Class Mercedes Ute, there you go, there's a plug from one of our major sponsors. I think they're obliged to put a figure on that. I thought it was a bit extreme.
“What I can do is drive the X-Class around with the winner if they want me to. This raffle, I've spent so much time on it in the last month or two organising what that price tag looks like that I'll be there when the tickets are drawn, don't worry about that.”
Click here if you’d like to buy a ticket.
