Coach denies Dogs are in a ‘rebuild’
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says his bid to create more selection pressure for his senior players should not be confused with an attempt at a rebuild.
Beveridge said he did not intend to send “mixed” messages with his coaching during the Bulldogs’ 2-3 start to the season and rebuilding was no longer possible in the AFL.
The coach said the club had “no regrets” over its handling of Tom Liberatore’s on-field collapse following a head knock during Friday night’s loss to Essendon that was now believed to have been a “concussive episode”. In his postmatch media conference, Beveridge had initially repeated Liberatore’s claim that his fall was due to an ankle tweak, but it is understood the coach had not seen the camera angle that suggested the incident was medical-related.
“We’re ultra conservative … the interesting thing about Tom’s situation, to come in and pass the concussion test, totally lucid – everything was saying that he was OK, but ultimately there was an episode,” Beveridge said on Tuesday.
“If we missed it, (the AFL) would alert us to it. Thankfully, he seems like he’s OK, but we’re ultra-conservative and our medical staff will make sure we put him through the ringer to ensure other than the head side of things that everything else is in working order.”
Beveridge linked the move to rest Liberatore from the St Kilda game on Thursday to his aim to create more midfield depth and ease the burden on the veteran and captain Marcus Bontempelli.
“We can’t expect Tom to do what he does week-in, weekout, and leverage totally off his influence in the game. Our better performances this year have been really even,” he said.
“We didn’t anticipate that Bailey Smith would miss a year with injury, Josh Dunkley moved to Brisbane a couple of years ago, we lost Paddy Lipinski to Collingwood, so the depth of our inside mid brigade has changed.”
He said there was no rebuild under way at Whitten Oval.
“The ‘rebuilding’ term is a myth – you cannot rebuild in our code and our competition with the constraints that exist with the draft and the salary cap,” he said.