Luke Beveridge speaks on Willie Rioli’s threatening messages to Bailey Dale

Luke Beveridge says Willie Rioli has “made a mistake”, speaking for the first time about how defender Bailey Dale is faring after the threatening message. See what he had to say.

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says his club is happy to “move on” in the wake of Willie Rioli’s alleged threatening messages to Dog Bailey Dale, saying it is a scenario that should never happen again.

Rioli apologised on Monday after it was revealed by this masthead that he had sent a message directed at Dale to another Bulldogs playing, intimating that the defender should be wary of leaving the team’s Darwin hotel when they travel to the Top End this weekend.

Ollie Wines and Willie Rioli collide in Ballarat. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images.

Beveridge said Dale was “OK” but wanted to move on.

“He’s OK, but he just wants to move past it. I think it’s just one of those things where you wake up and you’re part of a storyline that you didn’t think you would be,” he said.

“The sooner it’s in the rear-vision mirror, the better for him (it is).”

The AFL announced late on Monday that it would not to seek to punish Rioli.

“Not surprised (by that), obviously Willie’s made a mistake,” Beveridge said.

“He’ll learn from it, and we’re all OK with that.

“The discretion there is important, and I think that’s how both clubs are treating it. Learn from it and move on and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

He said he had no sense of any aggression between the two sides during the Ballarat game, which was resoundingly claimed by the Dogs.

“No, not at the time. And I don’t think it was anything over the top,” Beveridge said.

“It was just obviously Willie becoming a bit agitated for one reason or another.

“But there wasn’t anything over the top from us. We didn’t have any plans to rough anyone up or anything like that. Maybe there was just a frustration with him, and that boiled over and boiled over the day after. But we’ll move on.”

The coach remains without a contract beyond the end of this season, but is adamant he won’t be on any path to “sell myself” to the Bulldogs as the year wears on.

Beveridge — who is meeting with club chiefs including CEO Ameet Bains and football boss Sam Power on a monthly basis — said on Sunday that he did want to coach on beyond this season, but maintained on Tuesday that he was “not anxious about it”.

“It’s not going to be a job interview, as far as me trying to sell myself,” he said.

“I’ve done that before, and ultimately, I think the decision will be made based on the sustainability factor.

“I only turned 55 this year, so I’m young in relative terms, but we’ll just wait and see how it unfolds because we know there are twists and turns in a season.”