Coach Luke Beveridge & the Dogs - is his time up? Where are they at?

[Purple7x08_24]

Bevo embarrassed himself tonight

At least he didn't start the most exciting x-factor and game winning player on the bench.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Hard for me to see their season as a failure, exactly.

Ran into the competition's in-form team in an Elimination Final and just didn't produce their best footy.

Can happen, unfortunately.

Lots of angst at the Kennel this season; at times it has felt like one step forward, two steps back.

And Beveridge has been at his opaque, obtuse best/worst, with well-established players falling out favour and a generally beleaguered demeanour further fueling fan frustrations.

I don't think Beveridge is going anywhere, but he has a lot to consider if he is going to take the bulk of this list into 2025.

They're saddled with English so they really need to work out how best to utilize him asap. He is not in any way shape or form a vigorous player. He doesn't often even actually get first hands to the ball in the ruck duels. But he is capable of playing good football; he killed Geelong in the final H&A game of 2023.
He can play, but he has some weaknesses that need to be minimized. Beveridge needs to get creative with English; I think the coach is capable of devising something a bit different, and he needs to do just that.

Their forward line always looks threatening, but Beveridge needs to decide whether 3 KFs into 1 F50 really checks out.

He has been consistently opposed to the prospect of Aaron Naughton going back, but with Alex Keath on the outer and Liam Jones turning 34 before the '25 season commences (and Naughton himself on a long term contract - he ain't going anywhere either) then the Coach might need to concede for once that it is an experiment worth exploring, at least for a block of games.

Their midfield has been a strength for a while now, but this year they looked a little thin when Tom Liberatore was struggling with concussions and other assorted maladies.
Adam Treloar had a stellar season, but Jack Macrae dropped off.
Marcus Bontempelli unfurled his trademark class and versatility, but he needs at least one other player to really share the load with him. Liberatore has filled that role admirably in recent years, but they need another genuine leader or two to step up.

Club champion Jason Johannisen should weigh up his options imo.
He'll only be 32 by the time the '25 season rolls around, but he's been on the periphery of this team for ages. Norm Smith medal ensure his footballing immortality though.
Taylor Durea will be 34 at the start of the '25 season, if he decides to go on again.

Liam Jones, Alex Keath; they're not getting any younger. I'm a little shocked to see Ryan Gardner still on an AFL list.

Moving forward, Ed Richards took another step forward and should continue to have a slow-burn career. I reckon he'd walk into any team in the comp. Got a bit of prime Mitch Duncan about him.

Rory Lobb's last-ditch revival salvaged a contractual committment that had at times looked questionable.

I thought Rhylee West gave their F50 a different dimension at times.

Personally I think stability would be preferable for the Bulldogs for now. People ask how much grace Luke Beveridge gets for the 2016 Flag; I reckon it's a pretty long tenure.

At their best they can match it with anyone.

Isn't that exactly what people have been saying for 5 years?

 

[deflated]

Ran into the competition's in-form team in an Elimination Final and just didn't produce their best footy.

Can happen, unfortunately.

The problem is that with that list, and the flashes of form they showed in the back half of the season, they shouldn't be playing an Elimination Final. They've never finished higher than 5th with Bevo; in hindsight that's horribly inconsistent performance.

Bevo seems to be able to put together some solid single game coaching performances, but appears incapable of delivering a consistently good team. That's going to hurt when you repeatedly miss out on the double chance and have to run the gauntlet.

 

[mumblingpie]

This is all sniffs fault

 

[joe444]

I wasn't impressed. Macrae can come to my club any time he wants; he's pointless as a bench player to bring on in dire circumstances, though. Bont was either injured or unforgivably misused. And, regardless of his clangers, Darcy had been ineffective and should have been subbed off.

To my mind, both losing teams have gone in too tall. Finals are usually won at ground level.

 

[janty]

Made a post in the game thread pre-match that Naughton gets more credit for “almost marks” than any other player in the comp. Got hit with a couple of “he’s the number 1 rated forward in the comp” replies. Sure enough he dropped pretty much every contested marking opportunity.

In the 3rd quarter when the game was getting out of hand they had the overrated Naughton up forward with JUH who did absolutely nothing all game. Inexplicably, Bontempelli was up forward waving his hands around while English was losing the ruck battle 2 to 1 and Darcy was behind the ball. Great coaching.

Another player that I don’t get is Cody Weightman

3

Cody Weightman

Age

23

Ht

179cm

Wt

75kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

6.5

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

2.5

2star

M

2.0

2star

T

1.0

3star

G

1.0

4star

D

6.5

1star

K

4.0

1star

HB

2.5

2star

M

2.0

2star

T

1.0

2star

G

1.0

4star

D

6.5

2star

K

4.0

2star

HB

2.5

3star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.0

3star

G

1.0

4star

. He kinda just exists for the sake of existing in the team. You’ve got the aforementioned 3 tall forwards and then Weightman is a guy who is slow, short, not a threat with ground balls and offers no defensive pressure. I’m sure some Dogs fan will tell me kicked 5 goals against North once and that will prove me wrong

 

[Redline]

I knew it.

View attachment 2103331

Imagine dominating the second half of the year with your triple threat forward line ripping teams apart and going into a cutthroat elimination final with one on the bench.

Also playing the player in the comp at CHF when your team cannot for their life win it out of the middle.

They were far from dominating thr comp. Port and the Crows beat them comfortably towards the end of the season.

 

[cherrypie]

Another player that I don’t get is Cody Weightman. He kinda just exists for the sake of existing in the team. You’ve got the aforementioned 3 tall forwards and then Weightman is a guy who is slow, short, not a threat with ground balls and offers no defensive pressure

Think that’s a bit harsh on Cody. He was poor last night and he’s been struggling since his elbow injury but even last night his defensive pressure was still decent. 6 tackles (2nd most on the ground) and 20 pressure acts (2nd for us) - compare that to Vandermeer with just 3 tackles and 6 pressure acts despite being in the team solely for his running.

i wouldn’t be surprised if Weightman gets surgery in the next couple of weeks and starts next season in much better health.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Think that’s a bit harsh on Cody. He was poor last night and he’s been struggling since his elbow injury...

Honestly, I think the reality is that he's struggled since the umpires stopped falling for his pathetic staging for Free Kicks.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Made a post in the game thread pre-match that Naughton gets more credit for “almost marks” than any other player in the comp. Got hit with a couple of “he’s the number 1 rated forward in the comp” replies. Sure enough he dropped pretty much every contested marking opportunity.

Fair call on Naughton.

My opinion is that he's another of these 'athletes not footballers' that just doesn't instinctively know how to play.

It's literally like he's been told 'contest as many marking contests as you can and make sure you bring it to ground' so that's exactly what he does.

To his credit, he does make a lot of contests, but it will cut his career short. He's basically a battering ram.

The problem is that actually sticking the mark seems to be an afterthought - which is a shame because he's actually very good at it.

 

[Lavender Bushranger]

Bont was either injured or unforgivably misused.

I don't think we should underestimate how good and influential Meek is this year.

I don't think Bont was injured. I just think Hawthorn brained them in the midfield - and I think it's underestimated how much of that is due to Meek.

 

[MisterMarcus]

As an outsider, I see there's two possible issues with the Doggies' list:

1) They seem to me to have a bit of a "Saints in the 2000s" vibe to them, where they have elite top end talent (on paper) but it starts falling away quite dramatically after that. People look at the star players and assume this must be an awesome flag-winning list, but most of the heavy lifting is left to too few, and if you can keep them quiet then others don't necessarily step up. If you work on the theory that Big Games are won by your bottom 6 and not your top 6, you can see why the Dogs have been frustratingly inconsistent over the journey.

2) They seem to have fallen into the trap some middle-of-the-road teams do, especially ageing ones...sticking with their current list and thinking they "just need one more player" to be a contender. They've brought in blokes like Harmes, Coffield, Lobb, re-drafted Liam Jones

19

Liam Jones

Age

33

Ht

199cm

Wt

98kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

9.4

2star

K

6.5

3star

HB

2.9

3star

M

4.3

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

134.5

2star

D

7.6

2star

K

6.1

3star

HB

1.4

1star

M

4.1

4star

T

1.4

2star

MG

116.3

2star

D

9.4

3star

K

7.4

3star

HB

2.0

2star

M

4.0

4star

T

2.2

4star

, etc over the last few off seasons to top up and fill holes. Maybe in hindsight it might have been better to do a mini-rebuild for a couple of years - keep those draft picks, trade out one or two of the ageing guys while they had value, and so on.

Admittedly there's a bunch of Hindsight Harry to all this, but you do look at their list and wonder whether bringing 30 year old blokes in for several seasons in a row was really the right way to go.

 

[Johnny_Dogg4]

 

[Lach72]

IMO English should be playing as a forward/ruck.

They could actually use a Sean Darcy

4

Sean Darcy

Age

26

Ht

203cm

Wt

111kg

Pos.

Ruck

Career

Season

Last 5

D

10.1

3star

K

3.4

1star

HB

6.6

4star

CL

2.4

4star

HO

28.8

5star

D

6.8

1star

K

2.0

1star

HB

4.8

3star

CL

1.8

4star

HO

20.3

5star

D

11.4

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

6.8

5star

CL

2.6

5star

HO

32.0

5star

type.

Let Sam Darcy be a full time full Forward, and punt Jones…put Naughton at full back

 

[T2B_]

As an outsider, I see there's two possible issues with the Doggies' list:

1) They seem to me to have a bit of a "Saints in the 2000s" vibe to them, where they have elite top end talent (on paper) but it starts falling away quite dramatically after that. People look at the star players and assume this must be an awesome flag-winning list, but most of the heavy lifting is left to too few, and if you can keep them quiet then others don't necessarily step up. If you work on the theory that Big Games are won by your bottom 6 and not your top 6, you can see why the Dogs have been frustratingly inconsistent over the journey.

2) They seem to have fallen into the trap some middle-of-the-road teams do, especially ageing ones...sticking with their current list and thinking they "just need one more player" to be a contender. They've brought in blokes like Harmes, Coffield, Lobb, re-drafted Liam Jones, etc over the last few off seasons to top up and fill holes. Maybe in hindsight it might have been better to do a mini-rebuild for a couple of years - keep those draft picks, trade out one or two of the ageing guys while they had value, and so on.

Admittedly there's a bunch of Hindsight Harry to all this, but you do look at their list and wonder whether bringing 30 year old blokes in for several seasons in a row was really the right way to go.

Also sounds like Carlton of the 2010s.

Good reminder that flags are won by champion teams not a team of champions.

 

[Cursed Cat]

The problem is that with that list, and the flashes of form they showed in the back half of the season, they shouldn't be playing an Elimination Final. They've never finished higher than 5th with Bevo; in hindsight that's horribly inconsistent performance.

Bevo seems to be able to put together some solid single game coaching performances, but appears incapable of delivering a consistently good team. That's going to hurt when you repeatedly miss out on the double chance and have to run the gauntlet.

I don't think the list is quite as strong as it is generally assessed.

Like others have suggested; some elite top end talent, but their bottom 4-5 drop away.

 

[fnerd]

Honestly, I think the reality is that he's struggled since the umpires stopped falling for his pathetic staging for Free Kicks.

Now if they could only start applying that same treatment to the entire hawthorn team we might see that scourge disappear from the game

 

[fnerd]

Fair call on Naughton.

My opinion is that he's another of these 'athletes not footballers' that just doesn't instinctively know how to play.

It's literally like he's been told 'contest as many marking contests as you can and make sure you bring it to ground' so that's exactly what he does.

To his credit, he does make a lot of contests, but it will cut his career short. He's basically a battering ram.

The problem is that actually sticking the mark seems to be an afterthought - which is a shame because he's actually very good at it.

Good assessment of the naughton situation

Made note of it previously ,his contract could really blow up in the dogs faces for the exact reasons you stated (the bolded)

To me it’s almost a no brainer ,given naughtons strengths and weaknesses along with Darcy and JUH as good kpf pairing you could ask for (and Croft in the sheds )that he starts 2025 at CHB and stays there

For a coach whos addicted to throwing the magnets around ,his steadfast refusal to make this move only further highlights bevos aloofness

 

[MagpieJo]

Hopefully he gets a 5 year extension!

 

[jackster83]

Fair call on Naughton.

My opinion is that he's another of these 'athletes not footballers' that just doesn't instinctively know how to play.

It's literally like he's been told 'contest as many marking contests as you can and make sure you bring it to ground' so that's exactly what he does.

To his credit, he does make a lot of contests, but it will cut his career short. He's basically a battering ram.

The problem is that actually sticking the mark seems to be an afterthought - which is a shame because he's actually very good at it.

They really should trade him. Some idiot club will be fooled by looking at his minnow bashing highlights and cough up a good pick for him.

 

[Broar]

I never really got why people like David King were hyping them up so much. He was carrying like they had finally turned a corner in regards to their consistency. But I felt like they were the same side from the last few years.

 

[CarnTheScray]

Fair call on Naughton.

My opinion is that he's another of these 'athletes not footballers' that just doesn't instinctively know how to play.

It's literally like he's been told 'contest as many marking contests as you can and make sure you bring it to ground' so that's exactly what he does.

To his credit, he does make a lot of contests, but it will cut his career short. He's basically a battering ram.

The problem is that actually sticking the mark seems to be an afterthought - which is a shame because he's actually very good at it.

I think he would be a great back man, would play into a lot of his strengths, but it’s impossible apparently. Must persist with him forward and English in the ruck .

 

[HTPunter]

I wasn't impressed. Macrae can come to my club any time he wants; he's pointless as a bench player to bring on in dire circumstances, though. Bont was either injured or unforgivably misused. And, regardless of his clangers, Darcy had been ineffective and should have been subbed off.

To my mind, both losing teams have gone in too tall. Finals are usually won at ground level.

You’d sub Darcy, instead of one of the vanilla D grade smalls (Gallagher, Vandemeer, Harmes, McNeil) even though Darcy in the ruck was the best the Dogs looked, he took more marks than English and he had an aerial presence around the ground? You’d sub him off instead of Jamarra?

And finally, you’d admit to this?

lol

 

[Dazb86]

A lot of our issues stem from English putting in timid efforts in ruck contests.

 

[danster168]

he's gotta go. with the amount of gifts they've got from the afl in Ugle-hagan and Sam Darcy literally anyone could coach them to at least a prelim.