Luke Beveridge addressed the media ahead of the team's clash with Carlton on Friday night, and westernbulldogs.com.au lists the five key takeaways from his press conference.
New week, new opportunity
Beveridge said there's been some good signs from the team at different times this season, and they're looking to recapture some of that form on Friday night against the Blues.
"There's always a sense of anticipation, and any new opponent coming up.
"We've had a fluctuating year. There were some bright enough signs a fortnight ago and that's our intent to establish some consistency around that.
"Obviously coming off the back of last week it was a disappointing night over there in Perth and we're looking to make amends."
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The likely inclusions
Two changes have been confirmed, with Hunter and Williams returning from suspension and injury respectively, and possibly more.
"Lachie Hunter and Bailey Williams will definitely come back in, (they've) probably been our two best players the previous two weeks, so we missed them a little bit, and Hayden Crozier's available.
“We'll finalise that today (Thursday), and there will be a few boys that'll make way.
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Dissecting the Blues
Brendan Bolton's Blues have used a couple of different set-ups already across the 2018 season and Beveridge said he's planning for both.
"The way they set up against West Coast was actually different to what they'd done previously in that they'd dropped a number back and tried to use that as an outlet when they won the footy back.
"West Coast had 30 forward half turnovers of their own that they didn't necessarily capitalise on.
"Everyone likes to play the game that way, it's just weather or not you can execute your entry and your finish as well as anything. So, we're not sure what we'll get.
"We're not sure if they'll want to drop someone back or they want to take someone up to the stoppage if a forward goes up, so we'll play for both."
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On the tackling numbers
The Dogs currently sit at the bottom of the tackling ladder statistically, but Beveridge said though it's something they are working on, the numbers don't necessarily tell the whole story.
"I think our games have been low tackling games as well, so we need to improve in that area. It's not necessarily the volume, it's the ones that we miss, or the ones that are ineffective where teams are able to get the ball off.
"So, even some of those tackles that are recognised aren't effective so it's an area we need to improve.
"You can only do so much work on it but it's an intent thing as well so we hope our players have that desire on Friday night."
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The age-old question
Despite playing the youngest team in the League for the past five weeks, Beveridge says there's no conscious decision to play younger players ahead over more experienced players.
"We're not necessarily playing the younger ones over the older ones, there's only so many roles that are available to players and the way that they're built.
"We started off the year with Roughy and Jackson Trengove and Tim English in the big stocks and we've only gone with two of those in recent times.
“Our bigger guys have been injured, in Roughy and Jackson and now Red (Jack Redpath), and so there's some movement in the way that we set up, but we've got no definite intent to play young guys over our more experienced (players).
“Unfortunately, Clay (Smith), Tory (Dickson), Picko (Liam Picken), all the mainstays in our team that have got a little bit more experience are just not available. Dale Morris, Marcus Adams.. they'll come back into the fold over the course of the next month or two and hopefully put their name up in lights.“
