Fremantle v Western Bulldogs: Luke Beveridge has moved the magnets again in a bid to address his side’s issues
After questions were asked about the Bulldogs’ defence, Luke Beveridge made some key changes. But it’s the latest midfield shake-up that has really caught the eye.
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Western Bulldogs have deliberately overloaded their backline in preparation for Geelong and West Coast’s conga line of power forwards and turned to their smallest player to help fill Adam Treloar and Josh Dunkley’s big midfield shoes.
The magnet moves by creative coach Luke Beveridge helped power Sunday night’s win against Fremantle and provided a window into the second half of the season for the premiership contenders.
Just days after coaching legend Mick Malthouse voiced his concerns about the Bulldogs’ defence, They unleashed Alex Keath (197cm), Zaine Cordy (193cm) and Ryan Gardner (197cm) in the same backline for the first time this season, despite Fremantle missing key target Matthew Taberner.
The Dogs will confront the monstrous Tom Hawkins-Jeremy Cameron one-two punch next Friday night, before a rematch against Jack Darling, Oscar Allen and, if fit, Josh Kennedy back in Perth.
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The Eagles trio booted 9.2 in a Round 2 thriller at Marvel Stadium that was clinched by Marcus Bontempelli.
Easton Wood (hamstring) is also targeting a return in those games.
Rock-solid full-back Keath manned both Hawkins and Cameron (GWS) last year, conceding just two goals in a combined 148 minutes against the 2021 teammates.
Beveridge said Gardner was “rusty” in his first game since Good Friday, but backed the underrated defender to come good after the bye.
He was thrilled with Keath and Cordy’s aerial work against Fremantle.
However, it was the introduction of All-Australian halfback Caleb Daniel to the engine room which caught the eye in the west.
The quick-thinking Bulldog had not previously attended a centre bounce this season, but lined up in 10 against the Dockers.
“In that last quarter, like the little engine that could, he just kept going and going and going,” Beveridge said.
Daniel’s lightning hands were mesmerising in the first quarter, although Beveridge said at times the brilliant ball user should’ve held possession and backed his agility to get out of trouble.
Rival clubs have started copying the Matrix-style handballs, which were the Dogs’ not-so-secret weapon in their 2016 triumph.
New Essendon assistant coach Daniel Giansiracusa has brought across the heavy handball focus from Whitten Oval.
“A couple of teams are starting to challenge some of the things we do,” Beveridge said.
“We’ve taken note of how good Clayton Oliver’s hands are.”
But the Dogs – who famously introduced a ‘Handball Club’ in 2016 where they spent 90 minutes each week practising how to absorb tackles, free the arms and execute overhead or underground handballs – remain the No.1 team at exiting a stoppage this year.
Tom Liberatore has suddenly become the club’s most targeted midfielder, although ‘Libba’ worked through Caleb Serong’s tag to bury Fremantle with a pair of miraculous goals in the third quarter.
Liberatore has been the other key player to help fill the void of Dunkley and Treloar.
The clearance king attended only 57 per cent of centre bounces when they were both fit.
But on Sunday night he was at 22 – which was the most for the Dogs, even more than Brownlow contenders Jack Macrae (21) and Bontempelli (20).
Bailey Smith appears to have returned to his outside role as a powerful runner after he was trialled in the engine room after Dunkley went down.
Liberatore gave away an undisciplined off-the-ball free kick in the second term when Serong got under his skin. The pair tangled through the first half.
Liberatore had the last laugh when he slotted a set-shot from the boundary and a right-foot snap in a four-minute burst.
“He let himself down in that second quarter,” Beveridge said.
“But he composed himself and I thought he had an extremely influential game.
“I think he managed the run-with better this week and we were able to help him here and there – but he helped himself.”
Dogs’ grand plan to outrun Covid
Western Bulldogs will train through their designated AFL bye this week before engineering their own artificial break in a bid to outrun Victoria’s statewide lockdown.
The 10-2 Bulldogs jetted home from Perth on Sunday night’s red-eye flight after recording their maiden win at Optus Stadium to consolidate second place on the AFL ladder.
The 28-point win against a wounded Fremantle was set up by Marcus Bontempelli’s golden first half and unlikely goalkicker Tom Liberatore’s double-strike in the third quarter.
Aerial king Aaron Naughton dominated with 13 marks (five contested), although the usually-reliable set-shot finished with 1.5.
The Dogs were expected to have the AFL Players’ Association-mandated four days off this week, and intended on instead giving their players five days off between Monday and Friday.
But instead they will train at Whitten Oval throughout the lockdown and next week in the lead-up to Friday week’s game against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium, which is the next AFL match scheduled in Victoria.
Ruckman Stefan Martin (shoulder) was substituted out against the Dockers, but is likely to be fit to take on the Cats.
Pending the lifting of lockdown restrictions, the Dogs will then take their four-day holiday directly following that Cats clash.
They will then return to work on June 23, which is four days before they are due to meet West Coast
“We’ve recalibrated our next couple of weeks,” coach Luke Beveridge said from Perth.
“With the (lockdown) in Victoria it wasn’t ideal that our players were going to have time off and have to sit at home when previously everyone had organised to go away for a few days or chill and come back refreshed.
“Hopefully by then the conditions and the situation in Victoria has changed and the buys might have an opportunity to go and have a hit of golf or spend a day or two away.
“Obviously we play elite level football (but) it is a workplace.”
Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was unfazed at his players spending their breaks in lockdown.
“We’re being a little bit precious if we think that we all deserve a holiday,” Clarkson said before his club’s bye.
The Dogs ran their own 12-player reserves scrimmage on Friday because their plans to partake in a four-club session fell over at the last minute.
Richmond, Essendon and the Dogs were going to put together two teams to play each other before the Tigers pulled out.
The Dogs and Essendon then tried to fit in with Melbourne, Carlton and Collingwood, but because they were late to planning it didn’t eventuate.
No.1 pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and returning premiership player Toby McLean have now missed out on much-needed match practice against other clubs for the past two weeks.
FYFE HURT AS DOGS TOPPLE INJURY-RIDDLED DOCKERS
- Brad Elborough
The Western Bulldogs took advantage of a banged up Fremantle on Sunday night to became the first visiting side to beat the Dockers at Optus Stadium this season.
Before Sunday, only West Coast had beaten the Dockers at Optus Stadium this season.
Going into the final term, the home side looked up for the fight again, before losing three players in the space of two minutes.
The Dockers limped to the final siren, only one fit player left on the bench for most of the final term.
The Dogs took advantage, turning an eight-point three-quarter-time lead into a 13.15 (93) to 9.11 (65) win.
It wasn’t the most convincing response after losing to Melbourne last week, but it was enough to keep them at least one game clear in second spot on the ladder.
If it wasn’t for Aaron Naughton’s troubles in front of goal, the Dogs would have won more convincingly.
Naughton took eight marks inside the Dogs forward 50m and 13 for the game. But he finished with an inaccurate 1.5.
Those misses didn’t hurt though, like inaccuracies cost other teams this round, with eight of his teammates hitting the scoreboard throughout the game.
The mark he took to earn his third behind will be shown a few times on TV replays this week.
FREMANTLE HOSPITAL
Those two minutes at the start of the fourth term stopped all momentum Fremantle took into the quarter. Having trailed by 22 points earlier in the game, the margin was only seven points when disaster hit.
The Dockers lost three players to injury, ending their run for victory.
Nat Fyfe came off second best from a collision with Taylor Duryea and limped off with a shoulder injury. It was hanging very low.
Cox limped off with what looked a bad hamstring injury, while ruckman Sean Darcy was already on the bench getting a similar issue looked at.
On top of that, another key defender, Griffin Logue, was subbed out of the game with concussion late in the third term after a marking contest with Naughton.
The Dogs main concern is with ruckman Stefan Martin, who was subbed out of the game in the third term with a shoulder injury of his own. Martin was playing his first game since being sidelined with an Achilles issue after Round 7.
DOGS OFF THE LEASH
The travel west had no impact on the Bulldogs preparation. They hit the ground running from the first bounce.
They’d had two shots at goal inside the first minute of the game, Marcus Bontempelli involved in both.
It was a clear indication of what was to come, for him and his side.
The Doggies looked set for a big night, having scored from all five of their first five entries inside of their attacking 50m area.
But they missed their chances, putting only 2.3 on the board with those chances.
They should have led by more than seven points at the first break after having six set shots at goal for the term.
Cox took six marks in defence for the Dockers in that first quarter, a great reply after being well beaten by Charlie Dixon a week earlier.
DOCKERS’ FORWARD WOES
When David Mundy and Andrew Brayshaw got the Dockers going, they had little in attack to make the most of their work.
Fremantle had one more foray into attack than the Dogs in the first half, but trailed by 16 points at the main break.
Having leading goal kicker Matt Taberner pulled from the selected team before the game because of his ankle injury didn’t help.
A lot of responsibility fell on to key forwards Josh Treacy and Rory Lobb.
The more experience of the two, Lobb, struggled early.
Marked closely by Alex Keath and Ryan Gardner, he had only one possession in the first half.
The Dockers sub, Tobe Watson, had more metres gained than Lobb in the first half and he hadn’t been called into the game by that stage.
Bontempelli was the difference in the first half, his two goals on the run from outside 50 in the second quarter keeping his Dogs comfortably in front.
Lobb did kick the first goal of second half, a great snap from the pocket, to get the margin back to just 10 points.
He should have had the second goal of the third term also; and should have pulled the margin back to just four points, but missed a set shot from just 20m out.
The Dockers could have been much closer than eight points behind at the last break if not for back-to-back opportune goals from the boot of Tom Liberatore late in the quarter.
SCOREBOARD
FREMANTLE 2.2 4.4 7.8 9.11 (65)
def by
WESTERN BULLDOGS 3.3 6.8 8.10 13.15 (93)
GOALS
Dockers: Treacy 3, Serong, Brayshaw, Crowden, Henry, Lobb, Walters
Bulldogs: Bontempelli 2, Hannan 2, Liberatore 2, Weightman 2; English, Hunter, Scott, Naughton, Bruce
BRAD ELBOROUGH’S BEST
Dockers: Mundy, Brayshaw, Darcy, Ryan, Treacy, Ryan
Bulldogs: Bontempelli, Macrae, Liberatore, Naughton, Hunter, Keath
BRAD ELBOROUGH’S VOTES
3 — M.Bontempelli (Bulldogs)
2 — J.Macrae (Bulldogs)
3 — D.Mundy (Dockers)
INJURIES
Dockers: Fyfe (shoulder), Darcy (leg), Cox (hamstring), Logue (concussion) replaced by Watson, Taberner (ankle) replaced in selected side by Blakely
Bulldogs: Martin (shoulder), replaced by West.
Umpires: Chamberlain, Meredith, Williamson.
Venue: Optus Stadium
DOGS LEGEND BAFFLED BY FREE AGENT SNUB
Footscray legend Doug Hawkins has implored his old club to restore vice-captain Mitch Wallis to a midfield that has lost Josh Dunkley and Adam Treloar for several months.
The Bulldogs instead turned to debutant Riley Garcia and substitute Louis Butler after Treloar broke down, with free agent Wallis left on the outer and increasingly likely to break his family’s 40-year bond with Whitten Oval.
Hawkins was “baffled” that Wallis was left in Melbourne’s lockdown when the Dogs jetted 27 players out of Victoria last week.
“If he’s not in our 27, I must be on another planet,” Hawkins said.
“He’s been totally dismissed after Round 2. A lot of Bulldog supporters would be saying, ‘Where is Mitch Wallis? Is he still at the club?’
“You can’t dismiss your vice-captain after two games.”
Coach Luke Beveridge said his match committee was only likely to consider the 185cm player as a forward.
But Hawkins said: “I wouldn’t be kicking it to him”, given the potency of Aaron Naughton (195cm) and an improved Josh Bruce (197cm).
Hawkins said Cody Weightman “had more tricks than Magic (Michael) McLean” and there was no way Wallis would be preferred to the rising star, Jason Johannisen or Lachie Hunter in attack.
Premiership forward Toby McLean has also returned to full fitness, while No.1 draft pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan will eventually break into the 22.
“I don’t think he fits into that forward line structure. He’s not Eddie Betts crumbing-type player,” Hawkins said.
“He came to the club as midfielder and we’ve had two departures in Dunkley and Treloar.
“Because of his vice-captaincy and his record over the journey he should be given a chance. He’s 28, not 48.”
Hawkins also said that Wallis, a natural inside midfielder, could give Tom Liberatore a “chop out” if rivals copied Melbourne’s decision to tag the clearance king.
Wallis has averaged 105 SuperCoach points (23.4 disposals) in five VFL games this season.
He has played in Footscray’s midfield — but only so he doesn’t have to rely on others to impact games — and Beveridge said more was needed to return to his line-up.
“Mitch is just aiming to be that influential player at state-league level and that will be rewarded. We just haven’t quite seen that yet, and he understands that,” Beveridge said.
“Mitchy and I have had some good walks and chats in recent times.”
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