AFL: Bailey Smith and Aaron Naughton set to play for Western Bulldogs against Sydney Swans

After a winless star to the 2022 AFL season, the Western Bulldogs have some good news ahead of a massive Thursday night clash.

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge is backing his team to bounce back against the Swans. Picture: Michael Klein

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge won’t divert from his one ruckman strategy and is prepared to “back the boys” in key defensive posts as his team searches for an opening win of the season against the Sydney Swans on Thursday night.

Beveridge confirmed star onballer Bailey Smith would return for the clash and key forward Aaron Naughton was also expected to play after overcoming a cork to his calf sustained in last week’s loss to Carlton.

But Hayden Crozier has been ruled out after needing treatment from paramedics at halftime against the Blues and despite passing testing this week that cleared him of any lingering medical issues. Crozier will, however, play in the VFL.

Naughton was the big watch at the Dogs after he suffered a deep cork in his calf during the third quarter of the loss to the Blues. He played out the game, trained lightly on Monday and Beveridge said he would be named to take on the Swans.

Smith returns after missing round 2 with a hip injury.

Bulldog Aaron Naughton heads to the bench in pain. Picture: Michael Klein

The Bulldogs are 0-2 after losses to Melbourne and Carlton in the opening two weeks and endured a nine-goal blitz from Blues forwards Charlie Curnow and Harry McKay last weekend.

But Beveridge said that was more a result of poor pressure up the field and was confident his trio of Alex Keath, Ryan Gardner and Zaine Cordy could blunt the Swans’ attack led by 1000-goal spearhead Lance Franklin.

“I‘m not overly concerned,” Beveridge said.

“I back our boys in and they’ll do a better job if they get pressure on the ball (further up the ground),” he said.

“There was some centre bounce stuff we didn’t get right. We tidy up the centre bounce, we halve or win more of those defensive longer balls and it will help our help defenders enormously.”

Bailey Smith is back for the Western Bulldogs after missing round 2. Picture: Mark Stewart

Beveridge also said his team would continue to go with just Tim English as their sole ruckman having used him in tandem with Stefan Martin in 2021, including in the grand final.

But that was more a matter of circumstance, with English needed to fill the void up forward left by injured goalkicker Josh Bruce.

Despite Bruce still being sidelined, Beveridge said the Bulldogs had opted for a different look up forward and wanted English to be their main man with a few “pinch-hitters”, which last week included Mitch Hannan, helping him out.,

“We feel Tim is really ready. He’s just searching for presence at the stoppage consistently,” Beveridge said.

“Last year when we lost Brucey we really needed Tim forward. This now enables us to play an extra medium to small in other areas to play the game in a different way than the second ruck would.”