Luke Beveridge says Western Bulldogs are excited about the prospect of ending premiership drought
THE Western Bulldogs have embraced the hype of Grand Final week with coach Luke Beveridge saying there’s plenty of room in the cabinet for a second premiership cup.
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THE Western Bulldogs have embraced the hype of Grand Final week with coach Luke Beveridge saying there’s plenty of room in the cabinet for a second premiership cup.
Beveridge said there’s been excitement around the club rather than a weight of expectation as the Bulldogs strive to end their 62-year premiership drought.
The Bulldogs will play their first Grand Final since 1961 — and just the third in the club’s history — but Beveridge said that won’t stop his team from believing it can beat Sydney in tomorrow’s decider at the MCG.
“(There’s) not a weight (of expectation) — it’s exciting that we can possibly put the second cup in the cabinet. There’s a bit of room,” Beveridge said before the start of the Grand Final Parade.
“We’re looking forward to that challenge.
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“If anything we’ve got a couple of gorillas off our back, winning our first final together was a great milestone against the Eagles, then the last two finals have been significant, but this is just obviously extremely unique
“We’ve got to keep it on an even keel emotionally but can you not be excited about the prospect of taking that home.”
Bulldogs skipper Easton Wood said the build up to the Grand Final had been a “special” experience for the players.
“All the advice that we’ve got this week is to soak it in as much as you can without going over he top,” Wood said.
Beveridge said the Bulldogs would be ready for a Sydney onslaught in the first quarter but warned they were equally capable of landing an early knockout blow.
Much has been made of the Swans’ fast starts in big wins against Geelong and Adelaide, but Beveridge said the Dogs had been piling on the pressure themeselves in their three finals wins but squadered chances in front of goal.
The Bulldogs have kicked 7.12 in those first quarters against West Coast, Hawthorn and GWS.
“They get out of the gates quickly but we do too, we just don’t kick goals,” Beveridge said.
“We’re looking for a strong start, we’re looking to hit the scoreboard. Unfortunately we’ve been a bit wasteful the last three games.
“I think both teams start well, the Swans have had some really emphatic starts, so you’d be pretty disappointed if you ran out for a Grand Final and you weren’t ready for that first bounce.”
The Bulldogs have named an unchanged line-up with Beveridge conceding it would have been a risk playing Matthew Suckling despite the premiership player passing a fitness test on his achilles yesterday.
“It’s just really tough to omit anyone. Matty has had a sore achilles for a fair period of time now and we’ve had to manage his workloads and training quite differently to the rest of the group,” Beveridge said.
“We’ve still got him there (as an emergency) if we need him.
“It’s disappointing for Matty, but it was just too hard to omit one of his teammates.”
Beveridge revealed Dale Morris was troubled with an achilles complaint last week but his spot in the team wasn’t in doubt.
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