Many pundits have been surprised by the Bulldogs’ strong season to date, but the area that has surprised Luke Beveridge most is not the ladder position of his team, but the durability of his players, namely the young brigade.
 
Beveridge said the health and vibrancy of his list was a major positive for the Club heading into the latter part of the season.
 
“Has it surprised me that we’ve been able to perform as well as we have at different times? Not really, but we are a young group and the fact that we’ve got to this point in the year and we’ve been able to sustain our run and we seem pretty healthy, maybe that’s a bit of a surprise,” Beveridge said.
 
“So it’s a credit to all our coaches.”
 
The Bulldogs head into the game against the Melbourne, with an opportunity to jump back into the four — at the same time last year the Bulldogs were sitting 14th.
 
Beveridge said in any given season, there would inevitably be teams that rise from the bottom, and the reasons for the improvements were not clear cut.
 
“The biggest unknown going into any season, regardless of whether we are playing district or community level or AFL level, is you don’t know what the opposition are going to throw at you,” Beveridge said.
 
“You don’t know what they’re going to be like, the improvements that are going to come out of some of the lower sides like us last year.”
 
“All of those unknowns create a lot of uncertainty and in that, there are obviously a few surprises, and we’re probably a surprise [to the outside] as far as our ladder position.”