Dogs reject ‘divided’ claim

PREMIERSHIP captain Easton Wood could be flung back to defence against West Coast this week in an effort to boost the Bulldogs star’s flagging confidence.

But coach Luke Beveridge has not permanently closed the door on using Wood as an experimental forward.

It comes as Bulldogs president Peter Gordon labelled the side’s 82-point Round 1 loss to GWS as “embarrassing”, but vehemently denied speculation there were divisions within the club. Beveridge acknowledged it had been a “brutal” start to the season, but felt “a little frustrated and disappointed ... at times, and that’s what the players felt”, more than embarrassment.

He admitted Wood, an All-Australian defender in 2016, was battling for confidence, having had two modest JLT games in attack and limited impact alternating between the forward line, the wing and the back line against the Giants last Sunday. But Beveridge said the club wouldn’t be stubborn enough not to implement changes if they needed to be made.

“Is he playing his best footy, he is probably not, and I will wear that responsibility as much as anyone,” Beveridge said of Wood.

“I think when you are not having an impact directly, it affects any player’s confidence. We want to draw out Easton’s best and at the moment we are probably not getting that forward of the ball. There’s a chance he might start down back this week, but we will assess that in selection.”

He said Liam Picken was a long way from making a return to football because of concussion issues.