The ‘blight’ on Western Bulldogs as Luke Beveridge backs Sam Darcy to beat goalkicking yips

Sam Darcy and the Western Bulldogs couldn’t find the middle of the big sticks against Adelaide, and it could well have cost them a top four chance.

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - AUG 11: Sam Darcy of the Bulldogs lines up for goal during the 2024 AFL Round 22 match between the Adelaide Crows and the Western Bulldogs at Adelaide Oval on August 11, 2024 in Adelaide, Australia. (Photo by Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge backed young star Sam Darcy to find his groove in front of goal after the wayward Dogs kicked away a chance to edge closer to a top-four berth with a wasteful loss to Adelaide.

Darcy finished with 19 possessions and five marks in an eye-catching display, but let himself down with errant kicking to finish with 1.5 and one out of bounds on the full as the Dogs slipped to a 39-point loss at Adelaide Oval on Sunday.

“I would rather look at Sam’s really good stuff, the encouraging parts, and over the journey he’s been a pretty good set shot for goal,” Beveridge said.

“That will come.

“We’ll just be optimistic and bank on him improving this week.

“It’s got to be a balance with what you do with the set shots because you can get in a groove then you don’t need to practice that much.

Sam Darcy of the Bulldogs lines up for goal. Picture: Sarah Reed/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Having won six of their past seven games going into the clash, the seventh-placed Dogs had the opportunity to move up to six with a win against a 15th-placed Adelaide side that is well out of finals contention.

But Beveridge’s charges conceded an early five-goal burst and trailed from start to finish at their Adelaide Oval graveyard where they have won just five games in 16 attempts, with three of those losses coming this season.

“We weren’t ready for Adelaide’s best football, which is a blight on us when there is a fair bit at stake,” the coach said.

“As a collective, there is a blend of youth and experience in our team, a really healthy blend, but everyone is searching for their stability and how they approach games to do their best … so we’ve got to help them because we didn’t get it right today.

“Adelaide might have played the best game of any team this weekend, we don’t know.

“We thought their pressure was red hot, we had no time and space, in the end we had seven rushed behinds that makes our score line look even worse as far as the ratio of goals to behinds.

“That’s a credit to them because of their pressure.

“They won nearly every position on the ground, but that’s what we’ve got to be prepared for.

“In the lead up to this game, we have been prepared for that, we’ve been playing against teams that are higher than us on the ladder, we know we need to win to give ourselves a sniff.

“But the Crows just had an edge, a physical edge, in the game that we had coming in.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily Adelaide Oval, it’s not, it’s purely that we haven’t played anywhere near our better footy in Adelaide this year and we come away with three losses.”

Aaron Naughton was subbed out of the game in the third quarter, with Beveridge confirming he was managing a niggling knee injury that hindered his ability to cover the ground well.