Western Bulldogs star Bailey Smith to miss two-week road trip through injury

The Western Bulldogs will be without a star on-baller for a tough two-week road trip which begins in Adelaide this weekend.

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Injured Western Bulldogs star Bailey Smith will miss his team‘s two-week road trip with 25 players to travel directly from Adelaide to Perth following Sunday’s Gather Round clash with Port Adelaide.

Adjusting to what coach Luke Beveridge called a “quirk of the fixture” the Bulldogs could fly in other players but won’t risk midfield star Smith who injured his calf at training this week.

Beveridge said Smith was “ginger” and they’d put him in cotton wool in the hope he’ll be ready for a Round 7 clash with Hawthorn in Melbourne.

“(Smith‘s) got a calf injury and he’ll be out for a couple of weeks. Beyond that, I’m not sure,” Beveridge told reporters.

“Bit ginger after training so he had a scan. Little bit up. So no risk.

“We’ve got a squad of 25 on the road, Fremantle in Perth the following Friday, we’re going to stay away. So it’s a quirk of the schedule.

“We’ve asked everyone to come away for a week and it’s too much risk with Bailey. So he’ll stay back, miss a couple and we’ll work it out from there.”

Bailey Smith of the Bulldogs (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

In what could provide a blueprint for future teams, with Gather Round set to stay in Adelaide beyond this season, the Bulldogs will fly to Perth on Monday and remain in Western Australia until after next Friday‘s clash with Fremantle.

Beveridge said the time on the road together could help “silicone up the gaps” in his team which moved to a 2-2 record after last week’s five-point win over Richmond.

“Without going over the top in a theming or a quirky sense, we‘ll all be there together supporting each other,” Beveridge said of the lengthy time away

“We recognise probably our frailty over the first couple of rounds and make sure that we‘re siliconing up the gaps a little bit.

“We leaked a bit too much in the second quarter last week and that‘s on field - but you only get it right on-field if the cohesion and the connection and spirituality off-field is in the right place.”

After losing key defender Alex Keath to concussion following a collision with Richmond key forward Tom Lynch last week, Beveridge has chosen to go with Tim O‘Brien instead of Ryan Gardner as his replacement.

O’Brien hasn’t played a senior game since round 16 last year and endured a frustrating pre-season suffering several soft-tissue setbacks.

Premiership players and one of the club’s favourite sons, Tom Liberatore, will play his 200th game.

Originally published as Western Bulldogs star Bailey Smith to miss two-week road trip through injury