‘Lacks dignity’: AFL world turns on Luke Beveridge after ‘nasty’ attack

After heavy criticism of Adam Treloar, Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge hit back only for his strong words to be thrown in his face.

A war of words has turned nasty.

Luke Beveridge has come under fire after the Western Bulldogs coach’s post-match comments over criticism of Adam Treloar sparked a storm.

The Bulldogs dominated Port Adelaide in a 71-point win to book a spot in the club’s fourth Grand Final but post-match, Beveridge took a massive swipe at those in the media who had been critical of Treloar, who had a poor game in the one-point semi-final win over the Brisbane Lions the previous week.

Treloar had just 10 disposals in the Lions game, but bounced back with a goal and two behinds to go with 23 touches as the Bulldogs thumped Port Adelaide.

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Having been a high profile recruit who signed a five-year, $4.5m deal with the Bulldogs after the Collingwood debacle before the season started, Beveridge said Treloar wasn’t fully fit after he struggled against the Lions.

It led to criticism, with Fox Footy’s Jonathan Brown saying Treloar would be “horrified” with vision of him struggling to get involved, while Saints legend Nick Riewoldt said “he didn’t look himself”.

Port Adelaide 300-gamer Kane Cornes said it looked like Treloar “spat the dummy a little because he’s not playing midfield”, while Eddie McGuire revealed that Collingwood had set it up for Treloar to go to the Gold Coast Suns “but he decided not to go”.

On SEN, Essendon legend Tim Watson said Treloar “lacks spark” after his injury, while Kangaroos icon David King said “he’s going at 80 per cent”, arguing the 28-year-old “does not trust his body one bit”.

Despite having answered the critics on the field, Beveridge unloaded in an extraordinary press conference.

“If you’re going to fail in life, fail at something that is noble. Fail at something you can dust yourself off and be proud that you had a go,” Beveridge said. “If you’re failing at trying to pull people apart and bring people down like two or three journalists did this week, I don’t know how people around you can live with you, how they can lie in bed with you, how they can look at themselves in the mirror.

“For a guy like Adam, people know he’s had some challenges over the journey. It was just really poor and vindictive stuff and it was really distasteful. So I was just so happy for him tonight.”

While Cornes responded to his share of the criticism on the Sunday Footy Show, calling it “strange if he would bring my wife into those comments after a game”, the AFL magazine shows had their say on the comments on Monday night.

Treloar hugs Beveridge after the prelim win. Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

‘Nasty, vindictive and distasteful’: Coach’s words used against him

On Footy Classified, Caroline Wilson said the comments were “a little bit over the top”, but that coaches don’t do it “to be popular with journos, they’re doing it for their players to be fired up by them and know they’re in their corner”.

Cornes also had another chance to respond.

“Wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t highlight those efforts there,” Cornes said. “Adam would be horrified by those, I’m sure he would be. We all want Adam Treloar to win a premiership and succeed, but we’re not doing out job if we don’t call that out.

“I’m not sure what Luke Beveridge was saying, the people who failed, talking about Jonathan Brown, Nick Riewoldt and Eddie McGuire — they’re pretty successful people.

“They were really strange comments from Luke Beveridge and I hope if he had his time again, he wouldn’t say that. I appreciate he was standing up for his team, but to bring people’s partner’s into it, their wives and tell people they’ve failed when they haven’t was a strange level of commentary after such a famous victory.”

Craig Hutchison said he believed Beveridge’s swipe was aimed at Cornes, but Wilson said he was “creating a headline out of nothing”.

“That’s how I interpreted it,” Hutchison replied. “I thought it was totally unreasonable the reaction after the game. I know that’s the Luke Beveridge ‘he against the rest of the world’ mantra that’s served him well but he didn’t need to get personal.

“Whoever it was directed at, I didn’t think it was becoming of the moment when we’re all celebrating what he has become as a coach. I thought it lacked a bit of dignity.”

Luke Beveridge was standing up for his players. (Photo by James Elsby/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

On Monday’s AFL Daily podcast, Damien Barrett took aim at Beveridge and said words like “nasty, vindictive and distasteful” could be thrown back at the Bulldogs coach himself.

“I don’t know why he needs to go down this path,| Barrett said. “He’s got a history of it.

“The commentary around Adam Treloar that came out of the semi-final performance … was absolutely valid, it was justifiable, it was actually necessary.

“If you’re a football commentator in that critical commentary space, you have to look at what happened there. It was a poor performance. But I don’t think anyone questioned Adam Treloar’s character.

“I don’t think I saw anything that required that type of response. Why and how his mind goes to that zone within minutes of that most famous win (is puzzling).

“I don’t have an issue with how he carries himself but if he wants to start throwing those words around, we can throw them back at him. I just don’t think he needs to go down that path.”

Barrett said he thought it was “weak” of Beveridge not to name names, saying the coach “went a step too far”.

‘Takes a lot of character’: Treloar praised

Adam Treloar gave the best possible response. Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

On Fox Footy’s On the Couch, Riewoldt took time to praise Treloar’s performance against Port after his disappointing showing against Brisbane.

“We, and I certainly, whacked Adam Treloar last week, rightfully so based on his effort and output,” Riewoldt said on Monday night. “It takes a lot of character to respond and he absolutely did that.

“He would have felt the nerves all week Adam, we’ve seen on our own programs, AFL 360 that he’s a sensitive guy, to weather it, to overcome it and to put in a really strong performance off the back of some fair criticism, some criticism that was probably overstepping, was a great effort.”

Treloar responded to the furore on Monday, saying he used the criticism as motivation heading into the grand final qualifier, as well as thanking those who supported him from within the football club.

“It was obviously a really challenging week for me personally. It was quite challenging to be honest,” he said.

“You always hold (criticism) with you. You’d be lying to say as an athlete that you wouldn’t be extra motivated (by criticism).

“To be honest I didn’t really read anything about it. I kind of knew what had been spoken about early on and I kind of just left it and only worried about what I could control and that was my training standards throughout the week and the way that I prepare my body and go about it and putting myself in a really good frame of mind.”