The Western Bulldogs are primed to attack the AFL’s upcoming festival of football, according to coach Luke Beveridge.
The Bulldogs climbed inside the top eight on Thursday night with their fifth win of the season – a grinding, nail-biting victory over the Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium.
They now face a daunting four-round stretch against some of the most highly-fancied teams in the competition in a compressed period of the season, including Richmond, Port Adelaide and Brisbane.
“We’re ready. We’re looking forward to it,” Beveridge said.
“Boys will come in and out of the team depending on the toll as far as fatigue, and who needs a spell, and whether or not there are any injuries.
“We haven’t got any four-dayers in this batch. We’re playing a lot of teams who are in the eight, which is good.
“We’ve got the Tigers on Wednesday, and it’s another opportunity to play a really good side and see where we’re at.
“By the end of this sequence we’re hoping to be entrenched up a bit higher than what we have been. We’ll see what happens.”
In assessing the win over Gold Coast, Beveridge heaped praised on the Bulldogs’ defenders, especially for their efforts in stifling the dominant Suns in the second quarter, and for limiting their surge in the frantic final few minutes of the last quarter.
“We thought our backmen did an outstanding job just repelling those entries, especially in that second quarter, just holding back the tide,” he said.
“It gave us an opportunity to stay in the game.
“It was a night of perseverance. It was really pleasing just to find something at the end there.
“It’s an important victory. Even the mix and our team, our make-up, the boys haven’t played in some of these close wins together. We’ll take a lot from it.”
