Luke Beveridge addressed the media following his team's win over Carlton on Friday night, and westernbulldogs.com.au lists the five key takeaways from his press conference.
The Sacrifices
We all see the marks and goals, but what often goes unnoticed are the sacrificial roles players play that can have just as big an impact on the win.
“It was a pretty even contribution. I was really happy with one or two of the boys in the sacrifices they made for the team.
“Caleb was quite good at trying to negate Simpson, who’s a very good player, although he still got a bit of the ball, and Bonti and Jongy did a really good job on Patrick Cripps after quarter time.
“They were important roles for the team.”
-
Coaching from the boundary
In a throwback to yesteryear, Beveridge made his way to the boundary during the third term to give some direct instruction to his players.
“There was just a bit of confusion around the numbers game.
“At different stages they took a seventh defender and at times we were one down in our backline and there was just a little bit of confusion between the mids and our defenders so I just went down to sort that out and it worked out ok.
“It doesn’t happen very often.”
-
Handball happy
The Dogs had 21 more handballs than kicks on Friday night and moved the ball by hand 58 times more than their opponents. Beveridge explained the change.
“It was an even numbers game tonight.
“When they took their extra behind the ball we equalized it so we played with seven forwards for a fair bit of the night. That allows you to go fast, and go into overdrive and use your hands.
“The uncontested marking side of it, which has happened previously, we didn’t play in that mode at all tonight.
“It was a different game and I was really proud of our players to be able to adapt and apply themselves and really press tonight. It was good effort.”
-
Bont vs Bont
Every coach would like to have a few Marcus Bontempelli’s, and Luke Beverdige’s weekly challenge is to decide where he’s deployed at different points of the game.
“I think we’ve got (the balance between forward and midfield) about right. Up until tonight he was about 40% forward, and he’s kicked a few.
“He probably didn’t make the most of his opportunities at times tonight (but) that’s important for us, that he can have an impact forward and around the footy.
“We need to keep our energy up through that midfield area, (so) we can’t leave him in there too long and as I said he played a really team-based, sacrificial game, albeit a powerful game the way he accumulated and affected the result.”
-
Caleb’s helmet
It became one of the main talking points of the game when the Dogs’ midfielder emerged from the bench in the third term sans helmet, the same one he’s worn since his junior days.
“I didn’t realise he didn’t have it on until right at the end, there.
“Obviously I’ve got other things on my mind but I didn’t identify that it’d come off. I think Gia said he’s had it since he was 10, so we might have to have a burial, or a service, during the week. “
