Brisbane ruckman Oscar McInerney has caught the eye of Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge forward of the AFL conflict at Marvel Stadium.
The Bulldogs are in an early-season droop, dropping their opening two video games, and the media warmth is on Beveridge earlier than Thursday evening’s contest.
The Lions against this are coming off an important win over Melbourne, the place they led by 40 factors earlier than play was suspended due to an influence outage.
Melbourne jumped Brisbane as soon as play resumed and diminished the margin to solely 11 factors, however it was nonetheless a formidable efficiency.
Demons captain Max Gawn stated they had been “mauled” on the stoppages and that will probably be a serious take a look at for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs misplaced to Melbourne in spherical one and had been upset final week by St Kilda.
Beveridge stated McInerney was an enormous a part of how the Lions did so properly towards a Melbourne midfield that includes stars comparable to Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney.
“We all rate Melbourne’s midfield and Viney was back in – they (Brisbane) have a number of guys going through there and a number of guys going through one of their wings, as well, who are essentially inside midfielders,” Beveridge stated.
“They have some depth through there, as much as the quality of the player, and I felt McInerney was really important in that.
“He actually cleared the world with a few of his hit-outs … a few of these centre bounces, he ‘spiked’ them a good distance and cleared the inside of influential sorts (like) Petracca, Oliver and Viney.
“That really helped Brisbane a lot, but they were really impressive.”
The Bulldogs have reacted to their sluggish begin to the season by dropping three gamers amongst 4 adjustments.
Sam Darcy, Rhylee West and Toby McLean are out, whereas Taylor Duryea is in poor health.
Adam Treloar (hamstring) and Rory Lobb (ankle) had been named to return and Arthur Jones will make his AFL debut as Jason Johannisen is also again within the seniors.
The Lions misplaced skilled defender Daniel Rich (quad) and Kaidean Coleman will take his place.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
