A pretty good afternoon is how senior coach Luke Beveridge described Aaron Naughton’s performance against the Adelaide Crows. 

The 20-year-old is one of the competition’s brightest talents. 

He’s played just six AFL games in an injury-interrupted 2020 campaign, but in his second game back from an ankle injury, he slammed home six goals to lead the Western Bulldogs to a 57-point win on Sunday afternoon.

“He showed his strength and his agility and his speed,” Beveridge said post-game.

“We got him good supply I think, at times. We didn’t hesitate to kick it to him.

“He’s going to be really important for us in the future, but it’s still early days.

“Against an All Australian player like Daniel Talia, for him to kick six goals is a pretty good afternoon.”

Naughton was at times the lone tall forward for the Bulldogs, and at times had housemate and resting ruckman Tim English for company close to goal.

He clunked six marks – three of those contested – and his seven kicks resulted in 6.1.

A pair of crafty small forwards – Rhylee West and Ben Cavarra – returned this week to give the Bulldogs’ front half a different look.

“To be able to come out today and perform the way I wanted to was really good, to hopefully set up this back half of the year for myself,” Naughton said.

“Having those small guys was really good, we worked really well together creating a bit of chaos.

“It allowed me to get a run and a jump at a few. 

“Full credit to all the smalls down there that really helped me out today.”