Luke Beveridge spoke to the media on Friday morning at Victoria University Whitten Oval and westernbulldogs.com.au gives you the key takeaways ahead of Saturday’s clash with the Demons.
Walking taller with Moz in the side
Evergreen defender Dale Morris returns to the senior side for the first time this season after partially tearing his ACL in the pre-season. Beveridge here spoke of the positive impact that would have on his teammates.
“Hopefully (they’ll walk) a little bit taller, he's always had a physical presence the way he's played. I suppose in recent times our inconsistency around that real combative side of the game has left us a little bit vulnerable in different games.
“He'll definitely get some pep out of the boys in that regard, and it's just important that everyone else not only feeds off it, but brings their own form of attack on the footy and the opposition.”
-
On the Demons
Melbourne go into the weekend as one of the form teams of the competition having won five straight and sitting in third place on the ladder.
“When you win 18 quarters in a row, there's a lot of things going on in your team and your ranks that have established you as a team that's pretty hard to beat.
“They were obviously pretty impressive last week and they appear to be on the rise; they've got great depth and a really rounded approach to the game.
“They seem to defend extremely well and they're really potent offensively so, (it's a) big task for us.”
-
Rough and the ruck division
The Bulldogs big man brigade come up against Max Gawn, one of the best big men in the game. Beveridge talks Jordan Roughead and the challenge that awaits.
“Those boys at times come up against bigger opponents and sometimes more athletic or powerful, but last week was disappointing, but he's determined to play well.
“Between him and Tommy Boyd, and maybe even Jackson Trengove at times, we'll have a plan to hopefully get an edge and play the game on our terms a little bit.
“But they'll have their work cut out.”
-
Where’s Mitch?
Midfielder Mitch Wallis will line up for Footscray this weekend, but the coach has backed in the 25-year-old to fight his way back into the side.
“Our mix through our midfield has changed as the seasons’ gone on, and we expect our mids to establish some kind of ascendancy and a kind of grip on the game at different times. We were quite comprehensibly beaten in Adelaide and we've had some inconsistency through there and Mitch has been a part of that.
“Mitch is working his way back from that leg break. He hasn't exactly got back to his absolute best as yet, but I'm sure he will, and part of that journey and process is for him to find a little bit of it at the lower level.
“So the quantity as far as stats go, he'll accumulate, he'll be involved, we're looking for a qualitative sheen on his game that we need.”
-
Injury update
Marcus Adams: “He got a pretty deep cork in his calf last week and he went out yesterday and tried to get through training. He didn't reinjure it but didn't feel right so we've had to take a conservative approach and he won't play at all.
Zaine Cordy: “He did a little bit of training on Thursday and felt pretty good. Turning up yesterday I expected he'd probably be alright but he failed the cog-state test and we didn't train him, so we'll look after him and hopefully after the bye he'll be right.
Bailey Dale: “Bailey's one is an interesting one where he's had that going on for a while. He got tackled and his footy got stuck under him a little bit, it almost looked like one of those sindesmosis type situations.
“But that just must have opened it up or flared it up a bit more so the medicos scanned him, so we'll take a conservative approach with him to make sure that it doesn't end up as a long term thing.”
