Luke Beveridge concedes internal pressure building at Western Bulldogs ahead of crucial season
A behind-the-scenes video has revealed Luke Beveridge’s thoughts on the “internal pressure” building at Western Bulldogs ahead of a crucial season in his coaching career.
Out-of-contract Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has urged his troops to make a fast start in the face of a difficult draw to begin the new season.
The club faces key talks on the senior coach’s future before the start of the season and, in particular, whether to recommit to an early extension or hold off to assess the team’s performance first about mid-year.
The Dogs, who recently farewelled football director Chris Grant, have their bye in Round 12, while Port Adelaide waited until August to make a call on Ken Hinkley’s contract last year.
It is a huge decision for the club on the man who led the Dogs to an excellent finish to last season, racking up six wins from their last eight games.
The hot streak including victories over top-weights Carlton, Geelong, Sydney and GWS Giants before another elimination final loss to Hawthorn (by 37 points) ended their season in disappointing fashion.
The senior coach also pulled two of the best positional switches of the season — injecting defender Ed Richards into the midfield, while moving forward Rory Lobb into defence with great impact.
But the midfield brigade has undergone significant change for next year with ex-Blues’ hard nut Matthew Kennedy and potentially VFL star Dom Brew stepping in for traded premiership stars Bailey Smith (Geelong), Caleb Daniel (North Melbourne) and Jack Macrae (St Kilda).
Premiership players Josh Dunkley (Brisbane) and Lachie Hunter (Melbourne) were also traded out in recent years.
The coaching market will be a major source of intrigue next year with two premiership coaches, John Longmire and Adam Simpson, available. It means the microscope will be on the Dogs from early in the season when they face North Melbourne (Marvel), Collingwood (MCG), Carlton (Marvel), Fremantle (Perth) and Brisbane (Norwood) in the first five rounds.
It means the Dogs have to hit the ground running after starting slow out of the blocks in recent years, losing three of their first five games to start the season in each of the past three campaigns.
The senior coach highlighted the slow starts in a recent players’ meeting, saying the club must look to start the 2025 season strong.
“We have got to start off a hell of a lot better than we have the last few years, and that is what we are gearing up to,” Beveridge said.
The Dogs are in good shape to start the pre-season, although stars Aaron Naughton and Adam Treloar have been on a modified program as part of their pre-Christmas management.
Naughton will again play forward next season despite conjecture about his best position.
Beveridge, who led the club to the 2016 premiership and the 2021 Grand Final, reminded his Dogs they have the capacity to compete against the top sides.
In a behind-the-scenes video on the club’s website, he said the Bulldogs would “double down” on their strategy in a bid to maintain the form from late last season and become a more consistent outfit.
“You don’t come out of a season defending better than anyone else in the competition and hitting the scoreboard the second most (and it) should have been first with the amount of points we kicked …” Beveridge said.
“You don’t come out of a season with that team profile (and not) double down on it over a pre-season as you go into the next one. We put internal pressure on ourselves to come up to a standard again. All that does is create something that is healthy, but it is a challenge.
“We have got to help each other get to where we know where we may be able to.”
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