westernbulldogs.com.au identifies the key takeaways from Senior Coach Luke Beveridge's press conference ahead of Saturday's clash with Richmond at the MCG.
What’s to gain from Rd 23?
With the Dogs out of the finals race, they face the ladder-leading Tigers on Saturday at the MCG, but Luke Beveridge says there’s plenty to be gained for his boys before they head into the off-season.
“I think what we’ve focused on this period where we knew that we were well out of the finals race was a sole focus on improving in the phases of the game and playing together and establishing some kind of foothold on the way we want to play in the future.
“There's some promise around that in recent times. What we'll get out of this one is seeing some outcomes against the benchmark in the competition at the moment and seeing how we stack up against that.
“Over the journey and into next year the team that runs out tomorrow won't be the same one that runs out in Round 1, 2019, so things will change again but it's just reinforcement and probably a little bit of bedding down our understanding and belief in what we do in our program and how we can get it right if things start to align for us.”
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Reasons for optimism
How different will the team look next season?
“It'll be different. Some of our young fellas have done an enormous job in being able to play the most of the year. Ed Richards and Aaron Naughton, they've just been outstanding for two first year players to get through the work and perform to the level they have in their first year has been unbelievable.
“Billy Gowers is in that boat, albeit a couple of years older, Josh Schache is with Billy in that age group.
“I think last week and the weeks before that, that sort of core of experience that has been involved in our recent success, they've really glued the team together.
“We've had some outstanding performances through our midfield and through our backline, and now it's just trying to filter our performance down into our front end and capitalise a little bit more scoring wise, which is still going to take some time.
“That core is there and we'll build again on the youth on our list.”
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A final word on Biggsy
Shane Biggs announced his retirement on Thursday, and the Beveridge reflected on the 27-year-old has achieved in his four years at the club.
“Shane's just a great person, and he's obviously a really creative, and in some ways a very different individual as far as exploring his balance in life.
“Shane will always be remembered for his key performances, his outstanding performances for our club and particularly the '16 year and that's the way we'd all like to remember him.
“Post that year there's been a handful of that group who's still trying to establish themselves and find themselves and find their best performance but ultimately Shane has decided his time is up at AFL level and he wants to move on and either focus on other things or just free himself up and go on an adventure that I'm sure he will love and enjoy.
“He's much adored and loved here and by our supporters and he'll always be remembered for his achievements.”
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Picken rides again
After missing the 2018 season due to concussion, Picken will play on in 2019. Beveridge outlined what his expectations are for the 32-year-old.
“We hope Picko will be back and we can get him somewhere near the levels he's played in the past and he'll be an enormous inclusion if that can happen.
“He'll still have his challenges. He's been out of the game for a long time now and even in the previous year, in '17 he got a head knock or two early and it took him a while to find his feet in that year.
“It's promising but our expectations there are that we'll get him back and we'll nurture him through that early part and hopefully he can get his confidence back.”
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Bailey’s back
Bailey Williams returns for the final round of the season after battling a footy injury.
“Bailey's been out for a long time with a bit of a different injury but he was playing extremely well for us when we lost him and it just makes sense to get him involved again. He was going to play at either level so play him at AFL level and it's going to be a big occasion.
“There's going to be a reasonable crowd there with all of the Tigers supporters, it's a replacement game for our supporters as well, so hopefully some of the youngest players in the team for the first time experience 60 or 70 thousand at the 'G, that'd be nice.”
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Bonti’s good to go
The vice-captain looked in doubt after aggravating a back injury against Carlton last week but he’s had a good week and will play.
“He's actually better. He trained fully yesterday and he's actually better this week than he was the previous week, which surprised me a little bit.
“I thought after last week's game that he might be in a little bit more doubt, but he's come through well and he's really keen to play.”
