Robbo: Which Bulldogs Luke Beveridge sees as priorties to keep at the kennel

The Bulldogs have splashed cash on long-term contracts in the past two years, but MARK ROBINSON looks at which ones may be torn up and who Luke Beveridge wants to focus on instead.

Bailey Dale signed a long-term deal at the Bulldogs, but after being relegated to the starting sub last week, his future at the Dogs is looking far more shaky.

Luke Beveridge is coaching for his career.

Which might be an odd statement, seeing as the Western Bulldogs are 2-3 and the season, in racing terms, has just left the Flemington straight the first time round.

Whether it’s a media storm – which includes Beveridge doubters wanting him to fail – or supporter angst, or even if there’s a smidgen of concern from within the club, the reality is the Bulldogs coach and his team are at the crossroads and in the crosshairs.

It won’t faze him, though.

He’s been accused of being stubborn and all-powerful, of being confusing with his player selection and double so with his player positioning, and despite all of this, Beveridge is an outstanding coach.

Mysterious, combative and unpredictable, but brilliant all the same.

Luke Beveridge has been spinning the magnets this season at team selection. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

That doesn’t mean he, like some of his veteran players have found out this season, has a job for life.

He is contracted until the end of 2025 and, if circumstances rail against him, he could be gone before the end of 2024.

It depends on many things. Results clearly count, but it’s also whether the club wants to embark on a reset with Beveridge that clearly was not in the plans 18 months ago, and perhaps not six months ago.

Previously, the Dogs were in it to win it. They went close in 2021, and in 2023, chief executive Ameet Bains said he thought they had a top-four list, a comment that created more headlines later than it did at the time.

Now that team is being pulled apart. And the list management decisions to put Caleb Daniel and Jack Macrae on long-term deals now look foolish and Bailey Dale’s long-term future suddenly is shaky.

Still, the Dogs gave up their first-round selection this year to secure Ryley Sanders, which suggests the Dogs were in for the now. Unless Tim English or Bailey Smith are traded – and it’s possible – they won’t be present on day one of the draft.

Two first-rounders in return for English and Smith would mean a reset becomes a rebuild. We wait and see.

This is Beveridge’s 10th year as coach. He led the team to finals in 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. The group was mid-table in 2022 and 2023, so the decision had to be made: Go again and hope, or make change?

They made changes. There’s conjecture when that was first implemented, but the fact is Macrae was already on the outer last year and Daniel was on the outer before Round 1 this year. Dale as the sub in Round 5 was the surprise.

But the players knew. Colleague Sam Landsberger was the first to put on the agenda that recruits such as Lachie Bramble, James Harmes and Nick Coffield were, in the pre-season, favoured over some established players.

The major cock-up is the salaries and long-term deals. Macrae, Lobb, Daniel and Harmes are on a collective $2.5 million and they’ve all played VFL.

Bulldog Caleb Daniel playing in the reserves for Footscray at Marvel Stadium. Picture: Michael Klein

Clearly, the Dogs are in transition. The veterans have been shelved for youth and despite Beveridge explaining why several times, he’s being painted as a bumbling idiot.

Listening to Beveridge over many years, he’s a deep thinker and storyteller and sometimes his messaging can get lost when his narrative is dotted with adjuncts. That’s not him bumbling, that’s him trying to add depth to his answers.

Anyway, that’s people nitpicking.

The fact is Beveridge and his coaching team know the players, the game plan and what’s required individually and collectively. The rest of us just surmise.

The scrutiny on Beveridge comes after three decent games (Gold Coast, West Coast and Geelong), an average game against Melbourne, and one terrible quarter against the Bombers. In that regard the scrutiny is a little out of whack.

But, in the wake of the Bombers capitulation, it’s safe to say the next two games are pivotal. They play St Kilda on Thursday night and then Fremantle in the west in Round 7.

Their draw overall looks problematic. One stretch before the bye has them playing the Giants, Sydney, Collingwood and Brisbane. A stretch after the bye is Port Adelaide, Carlton, Geelong, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in Adelaide.

Beveridge has stared down problem periods previously.

Luke Beverdige looks on as Bob Murphy and Easton Wood hold up the premiership cup in 2016. Picture: Michel Klein

In 2022, the Dogs lost their first two matches and four of their first six and still played finals.

In 2021, they lost rounds 21-23 and made the grand final.

In 2020, they lost their first two matches and played finals.

In 2019, they lost four of their first six matches and then lost four of five matches through rounds 9-14 and still made finals.

We watch with intrigue to see if he can marshall the troops again in 2024.

‘’We’re one of the handful of clubs that’s been able to have some success (in the last 10 years),’’ Beveridge said on Tuesday.

‘’We’ve then we’ve had a dip, then we’ve come again and we didn’t quite pull it off in ’21, so we had another dip and now we’re in the process of doing everything we can to re-emerge.’’

To the suggestion there was disharmony in the group, he said: ‘’Total fiction.’’

So, that’s Beveridge’s lot. The team’s in a dip and regenerating on the run, veteran players are being replaced – and are probably frustrated – and at this point in time the Bulldogs hierarchy is in his corner.

But for how long? The next fortnight is massive. And it might get even tougher after that.

Originally published as Robbo: Which Bulldogs Luke Beveridge sees as priorties to keep at the kennel