Western Bulldogs professor Luke Beveridge says more youthful gamers added layers to their person video games in a dominant 91-point win over Richmond he concept used to be “full of heart”.
The professor praised his gamers for “keeping their heads” following a time of intense scrutiny within the wake of the injury spherical 8 loss to Hawthorn, as he mentioned he used to be rapt via the contributions of younger gamers together with debutant Joel Freijah.
The Incorrect. 45 pick out in extreme future’s draft had a nervy begin to the sport at halfback however sooner or later settled to bundle 17 disposals, together with 5 intercepts, at 82 in keeping with cent potency.
“I won’t say we weren’t worried about Joel early in the game, but we just thought he steadied,” Beveridge mentioned with a grin.
“He showed a really mature head for such a young fella. When we put him back into the backline where he has been playing at state league level, I thought he was tremendous … really encouraging for him and us to see that.
“Throughout the course of the night, the boys didn’t waver, and it was good to see some of the growth in some of the boys who probably added layers to the outcomes in their games, whether it be offensive or defensive involvements.
“That’s important for the club, to see some of the younger guys who haven’t played a lot of games do that, and our experienced (players) were really influential.”
Upcoming he mentioned on Thursday he used to be “blind’ to the criticism of his coaching that swirled following the Hawks loss, Beveridge said there had also been no pointed attempt to prove that the Bulldogs were playing for each other following criticism of the players’ body language.
Four-time Hawthorn premiership player Jordan Lewis told AFL360 that Bulldogs players were guilty of being too focused on their own individual games.
“I don’t see that with the Bulldogs. I don’t see them celebrate together, I don’t see them pick players up off the ground, I don’t see them block for each other on a regular basis,” he mentioned sooner than the Tigers strike.
The Bulldogs celebrated targets vigorously all evening and mobbed James Harmes when he kicked his first for the membership in the second one time period, however Beveridge denied it used to be in line with the grievance.
“Not specifically, no – it’s not something that I talked about. It might be perceived as a week within the football club where the cauldron’s pretty hot, and how do you get through it? We knew exactly what we left out there the week before … everyone kept their heads, really composed, there were some great signs of leadership from some of the players,” he mentioned.
“I just thought that everyone really kept their heads. There’s a lot of heart in tonight, and that might be what you’re talking about.
“The spirit among the players was strong, and now the maintenance of that and the progression of it going into a really challenging game against GWS will be really important.”.
