What’s working, and what’s not
For the second week in a row there’s been a close game at half time has ended in a big loss. Luke Beveridge gives his view on where it fell apart.
“We pride ourselves on certain things that keep us together in a systematic way. 57-52 inside 50s tells us that on balance we created enough in our half.
“We had a lot of forward half turnovers today. If you get that many and score as frequently as we did you get pretty close to winning most of those games.
“What we couldn’t do throughout the course of the afternoon was to contain their rebound from some of those 57 entries, and the way we anticipated turnover after we went forward with the ball (and) left ourselves unable to defend was disappointing and concerning.
“We know what it is, fixing it seems easy but there’s a physical and a mental aspect which revolves around concentration, willingness to stay out of your comfort zone.
“These areas are the things we need to improve on.”
Josh Schache
The developing key forward kicked two goals, had 15 disposals and took eight marks, his most ever as a Bulldog and one off his career high.
“I think his game epitomised how the team went. He looked like he was influential in the first half and as the game went on we didn’t get enough out of our 22 and Josh was one of those. It only takes a handful of players to be down on output to influence the rest.
“Sitting here it’s hard to have a clear view of all the detail, we’ll go through the tape and review it, and we’ll know more about it half way through tomorrow. There’s been some good things in Josh’s game from week to week, and we saw some good in the first half.
“Josh is one as we move into the future will be a player who will influence the game for longer and obviously we’re impatient and we’d like that now.”
Jack Macrae
Macrae returned in a big way in the first half, but saw less of the ball in the second half. He finished with 33 disposals in his first game since round 13.
“It’s not all about possession, obviously they sat Harmes on him in the second half and he curtailed the possession side of it.
“Jack did some good things, but (his) inside50 stuff was inefficient at times and Max Gawn marked a number of balls inside there.
“We talked about that before the game and we weren’t able to wake up to that enough during the course of the game. But a good step for him because he’s been out for a little while and hopefully he’ll build on that next week.”
An update on Bontempelli
The vice-captain is expected to miss time after having his appendix removed and Beveridge provided an update on his condition.
“He’s pretty good. He’ll probably miss another week I’d say and then we’ll see after that. Hopefully he might be available after the West Coast game.
“He trained strongly and then came in and had that pain that you do when you’ve got appendicitis. We didn’t think there was time for an ambulance so we quickly rushed him off and just got there in time I think.
“A little bit of a worry but he’s fine now, just in recovery mode. He shouldn’t miss too much of the program from here on in, it’s just whether or not he’s capable after the keyhole cuts that they do, but I’d say he may miss another one. We’ll see.”
