Luke Beveridge was completely satisfied sufficient to label Marcus Bontempelli “incredibly influential” and “unique” on the eve his star captain’s two hundredth sport.
But the Western Bulldogs coach stopped wanting declaring Bontempelli the perfect participant within the AFL, and even enjoying the perfect soccer of his profession, regardless of a blistering begin to the 2023 season that has him second favorite for the Brownlow, behind solely Collingwood’s Nick Daicos.
Beveridge wasn’t enjoying down how good Bontempelli has been, and even in contrast his influence to that of former Carlton celebrity Anthony Koutoufides, who raised the bar for taller, athletic midfielders within the late Nineties and early 2000s.
It’s simply that Bontempelli has “played some exceptional games” all through his profession and the coach mentioned not solely was it exhausting to match how good he was now, he didn’t must, and as a substitute simply marvelled at his captain’s brilliance.
“He‘s playing some very influential footy, but as you know he’s played some exceptional games in the past and it’s hard to compare them all because there’s been so many special ones,” Beveridge mentioned on Friday.
“We use the term matchwinner sparingly, and it’s a label that he can definitely have in brackets after his name because he’s that kind of player.
“He’s played too many good ones just to really know right at this point in time whether it’s better than he has in the past.
“Marcus’ frame and his stature … he and Patrick Cripps being six-foot four or five, it’s quite unusual for players like those to be able to do what they do with their agility, and there’s a lot of courage in that, there’s a lot of power in it. He’s definitely a unique player.
“I mean, we all can remember a guy named Anthony Koutoufides and what sort of a midfielder he was. He was originally a key position player and then transformed into just an amazing, influential midfielder. Marcus is kind of similar, I think.”
The Bulldogs get midfield gun Bailey Smith again this week from a calf harm as a alternative for concussed star Tom Liberatore.
Beveridge wasn’t certain if Liberatore would miss simply the one sport, such is the curious nature of how concussion impacts totally different gamers.
“It‘s hard to give a definitive yes or no on that because we treat so seriously the concussion side of it,” he mentioned.
“I mean, if you look at history, he probably wouldn’t have even missed this week based on how we used to manage players 10 or 20 years ago.
“But definitely now there’s some impediments to a player coming back to play, particularly what we need to put them through to make sure they’re OK. It’s just still a maybe.”
Originally revealed as Marcus Bontempelli’s midfield affect in comparison with Anthony Koutoufides
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
