Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says his workforce must kick extra targets to boost its premiership credentials and scoffed at a suggestion star ahead Aaron Naughton must be despatched to defence.
The Bulldogs have received seven video games in 2023 and are in equal fourth spot on the ladder however have solely kicked greater than 100 factors as soon as thus far this season, in opposition to Fremantle in spherical 6.
Their complete factors haul of 857 is the bottom of any workforce within the prime eight.
But Beveridge rolled his eyes at a suggestion from one main analyst that, with tall ahead choices Jamarra Ugle-Hagan and Rory Lobb, Naughton may return to bolster his workforce’s defence.
Ugle-Hagan and Lobb mixed have kicked simply 24 targets this season to Naughton’s 21, and Beveridge is aware of he’d be robbing himself of the prospect to handle the true challenge with any transfer.
“So he’s (Naughton) kicked (more than) 100 goals over the last three years, and he’s probably been our most instrumental key forward,” Beveridge mentioned on Friday, chuckling as he gave a couple of the reason why it was a foul name.
“The thing is that we‘ve got a lot of depth with our key backs and we’ve been pretty happy.
“Aaron’s been an amazing player for us, and he usually gets the opposition’s best defender, so we’ve got to do our best to help him play his best footy.
“Even now when we need to put one behind the ball in a save-the-game situation, we’ve stopped using Aaron.
“He’s not going behind the ball any time soon.”
Despite boasting a plethora of tall forwards, Beveridge is aware of scoring stays an issue and conceded it wasn’t a fast repair.
“We’re just scoring enough,” Beveridge lamented.
“Our intent is to score more, but we can‘t turn our mind away from the fundamentals that are going to get us there and we’ve still got a fair bit of work to do.”
Beveridge mentioned the backline didn’t want bolstering anyway given the All-Australian type of fullback Liam Jones, who had delivered “more than we hoped for” in his AFL return after lacking two seasons.
“It’s time for All-Australian nominations, that email has gone to clubs, and Liam is having an incredibly year,” he mentioned.
“In the past we haven’t had a dominant key back … to make the impression on games he’s been having has been really important for us.
“What we have loved is his maturity and leadership and what he’s brought in terms of stability.”
The Bulldogs face Geelong at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night time with the reigning premiers on a three-game dropping streak.
Adam Treloar returns to bolster a midfield group that already consists of Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Liberatore, Bailey Smith, Jack Macrae and Caleb Daniel.
Beveridge mentioned it was as much as him to work out easy methods to maximise their output as a gaggle.
“All six of them will play this week and then that’s our challenge to manage their impact on the game,” he mentioned.
“We can‘t fit them all into that inside midfield brigade all the time, so they’ll need to share some responsibilities here and there.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
