‘We’ll come out of it’: Luke Beveridge confident Western Bulldogs will recover from goalkicking woes

The Western Bulldogs have won just one of their first four games this season but senior coach Luke Beveridge isn’t about to panic.

The Bulldogs are 1-3. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Luke Beveridge insists the Western Bulldogs have no need to panic despite their dismal accuracy in front of goal in recent weeks.

In their last three matches, the Bulldogs have kicked a combined total of 29.48 and slumped to a new low against the Tigers last week with figures of 7.19.

Eleven separate Bulldogs players contributed behinds against Richmond; Aaron Naughton and Marcus Bontempelli slotted three apiece.

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While Beveridge is confident the Bulldogs will rediscover their mojo, he admits the side hasn’t had a lot of time to practice between Saturday’s loss and Friday’s clash with North Melbourne.

“In a shorter week you can’t spend a lot of time on repetition – a lot of it is about recovery and preparing for the next game and challenge,” Beveridge said.

“We did enough yesterday to get ourselves in the right frame of mind.”

Beveridge led the Bulldogs to the 2016 Premiership and to last year’s grand final. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Beveridge put the Bulldogs’ yips down to the mental, not physical, challenges of goalkicking.

“A lot of it is psychological – that positive self-talk. Our players are all capable,” he said.

“There’s a mixture of things. There’s the set shots, and where you’re taking them from, and then I think there were four rushed behinds last week as well, which get caught up in the total.

“We feel like we haven’t drawn the benefits from the way we’ve defended as a team. We’ve had some periods where we’ve just frustrated ourselves enough, that unfortunately we’ve given really good opposition teams enough of a look for them to get momentum.”

The Bulldogs have won the inside 50 count in each of their last three games, which has given Beveridge hope.

“The positives with it all are the opportunities that we are creating,” Beveridge said.

“With all the inside 50s we’re getting, we can turn them into better-quality entries with more of the chance to kick the goal.

“We’ve got faith we’ll come out of it.”

This isn’t the start the Bulldogs were hoping for. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Last year’s runners-up are 1-3 to start the season but Beveridge rejected suggestions his side needed to go back to square one in order to recapture its stellar 2021 form.

“We don’t need to reset,” Beveridge said.

“We’ve played some pretty good sides that we just haven’t been good enough against.

“Our challenge is to shave off these loose ends that are costing us in-game, but understanding we’ve got our own challenges – whether it’s personnel or the teams that we’re playing are a little more powerful than us at the moment.

“We’ve just got to keep chipping away at the things that are really working for us, but just doing it for longer.”

Originally published as ‘We’ll come out of it’: Luke Beveridge confident Western Bulldogs will recover from goalkicking woes