Refreshed Dogs to go on attack
THE Western Bulldogs aren’t quite wiping the slate clean as they emerge from their bye to take on Port Adelaide.
But Luke Beveridge certainly isn’t interested in dwelling on the negative aspects of his side’s disappointing 4-7 season as they embark on the second half of their campaign.
The 14th-placed Dogs took a three-game losing slide into their bye week and face a resurgent Power side at Adelaide Oval tonight.
“We tried not to look at the numbers too much because they don’t paint a great picture,” a frank Beveridge said of his mid-season review.
“The bye was more of a chance to refresh and come into Round 13 with a spring in our step and an opportunity to come home hard.”
Beveridge’s main focus will be to turn around an alarming drop off in scoring, with the team posting the third least amount of points in the competition.
The Bulldogs averaged just 44 points across their past three outings, including a season-low 2.14 in a loss to Adelaide in Round 9.
It rained heavily in Adel- aide that Friday night and a similar forecast is in place for the clash against Port, who sit in eighth spot with a 7-4 record.
“We’ve learnt a bit from the Adelaide Crows experience in that we probably did a few things wrong,” Beveridge said.
“And one of the quite basic things was … just handling the ball cleanly, being able to possess it straight away and play the territory game.
“If you don’t handle it cleanly, you spend enough time with it, then whatever you want to do with the footy goes out the window because you miss your chance.
“So we’ll need to be better than that.”
Veteran defender Dale Morris will be missing from the side defeated by 49 points by Melbourne.