Luke Beveridge says Western Bulldogs’ struggles due to even competition, not premiership hangover
WESTERN Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has rejected suggestions his side is nursing a premiership hangover and says his side’s form is a reflection of the evenness of the competition in 2017.
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LUKE Beveridge has rubbished speculation the Western Bulldogs are nursing a premiership hangover.
The Dogs’ disastrous 46-point drubbing at the hands of Sydney last week has given rise to accusations the 6-5 premier is living in the past.
But Beveridge, who did a U-turn after his press conference to give another on the need for runners, moved to set the record straight on the Dogs’ hunger.
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“I’m aware of some of the external commentary. It’s so far from reality it’s not funny,” Beveridge said.
“We have to live in the real world too. A club that wins a flag after 62 years and a pretty young group, they’re going to have their own challenges mentally.
“It’s definitely got nothing to do with application and any rumour about partying is just untrue. We really feel like we’re playing against an even competition who are bringing their best against us each week.”
The Dogs confront Melbourne on Sunday still searching for what Beveridge described as elusive continuity with injuries and form.
While acknowledging his side started training a month later than most rivals, he said that was offset by the fact they played a month longer into finals.
“I didn’t think that was going to be such a big issue and I still don’t. I’m hoping that everyone is doing their research,” Beveridge said.
“It’s been a combination all year really of injury and form. I don’t think you ever get the continuity that you want there, but ours has probably been a bit more extreme than other clubs over the last couple of years, but the boys are doing their absolute best to try and gain momentum and we haven’t quite been able to get it yet.
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“But we’re full of belief that we will. I don’t think our injury toll has been as extreme, numbers-wise, as last year. But it’s probably been to certain players who are pretty important in our make-up.”
Beveridge said Tom Liberatore’s long-awaited recall was on the back of a “really sound and influential” performance last week in the VFL.
“His second half was quite outstanding in the end ... he got a number of breakaway type clearances, he defended extremely well ... some of the things we’ve asked him to turn his attention to, he applied himself,” he said.
Beveridge then left, got to the end of the hallway at the Whitten Oval, before calling the media back to weigh into the debate on runners after GWS’ Nick Maxwell came under AFL investigation.
“When we think about our game on a very, very big arena and the game doesn’t stop for you to bring players in to talk to them,” he said.
“You need to get messages to your players. How do you get it if you haven’t got a runner? We have to have runners. For any coach to say that ‘I don’t mind’ or ‘I don’t care’ or ‘Let’s get them off the ground’; we’ve got to have runners.
“I’m worried about the vibration. I’m worried about the messaging coming from the coaching fraternity and the possibility the AFL are looking at it.”
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