Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge speaks on his coaching future, what Jamarra Ugle-Hagan must do to return to senior team and 2024 elimination final loss to Hawthorn Hawks

“In a team sense, when you’ve been doing your hard yards together, we need to make sure the integrity in those connections and what they’ve been building together on a footy and spiritual level, [that] it’s nurtured, it’s not compromised through a decision based on a player who might be considered a potential marquee-type influencer.

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“We have got to honour what everyone else is doing and including our staff, too. So now we’re hoping he’s going to be able to get some continuity, and we’ve just got to see how the weeks unfold,” Beveridge said.

There was a debate over Ugle-Hagan’s place in the Dogs’ team for last year’s elimination final, when the star forward eventually lined up on the bench. He ended the match with four disposals.

Despite winning eight of their final 10 home-and-away games – including wins over Carlton, Geelong, Sydney and the Giants after round 19 – the Bulldogs were soundly beaten by the Hawks in that final.

“We were terrible in the elimination final, no one steered clear of that,” Beveridge said.

“We totally owned up to it in our own way, but we go into this year understanding, I suppose, what the make-up of our team looks like when it can be at its best.

“There’s nothing within our mix that concerns me that we can’t execute like we were doing again, even with a few different players in there.”

Beveridge said the club had to move on from any “agitation or frustration” surrounding the elimination final.

“It’s that long ago now I think it’s hard for people to rediscover and recollect what it was [that caused the performance].

“The expectations this year, what we aim to do, is to be consistent.

“There were, if we count them, seven games last year we felt like ‘that that’s not our identity, who’s that?’ – the elimination final being one of them. And so we need to eradicate that and mitigate against it happening.

“Moving into the future, I didn’t want to drag everyone through [that match] again. So I haven’t done that. We’ve referenced a couple of things in an educational way.”

Making the tough calls

Getting to an elimination final required hard selection decisions. Premiership players Caleb Daniel and Jack Macrae played less football than usual and eventually joined other clubs during the trade period.

Beveridge admitted the change had been difficult, but the pair always understood that making such decisions was the job of the match committee and the senior coach, regardless of whether the players agreed.

He understood the external talk: “what’s Beveridge going to do and the Super Coach coaches can’t trust him and that sort of stuff”.

But he said, “internally, that’s what we do. We maximise our opportunity, and even last year we don’t get to that profile if we don’t make difficult decisions.”

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He said he is charged with the responsibility of giving the Bulldogs the best chance of success while knowing that is sometimes difficult for people he regards as special.

“I can’t let that get in the way of what’s right for the team, and there are always tough decisions.

“The most important thing is transparency, that I’m talking to the players directly and that we’re messaging the group at large so they get it. Everyone understands why and that’s never been challenged yet.”

An uncertain future

The senior coach is without a contract beyond 2025. It’s the first time he has been in this position as coach, although it’s little known that Beveridge survived for 11 seasons as a player on one-year contracts.

“It’s not unusual for it to happen, but it’s unusual for me,” Beveridge said.

“The critical thing [is] that the players aren’t affected by the uncertainty. And the only way you can influence that and take control of it is if they don’t see any change in me, and I’m in a really good place.

“It’s probably become a little bit more difficult, a lot more difficult I think for clubs to manage these situations because I think they are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”

He and the club are of the same view – any decision can wait.

“You’ve got to have a level of selflessness about it as well. In the end, whatever happens, it’s got to be right for everyone,” Beveridge said of his contract status.

He said his level of preparation had not wavered.

“Each year is just a brand new project for me,” Beveridge said.

“I really enjoy the challenges, I love what it does to you. And I love how you build up layers of resilience when you come out the other side. I really enjoyed that aspect of it.”

Missing stars

The Bulldogs’ first assignment this season is the rapidly improving North Melbourne, before they play Collingwood in a game to celebrate the club’s 100-year milestone.

The Dogs’ round one team will be missing a cavalcade of stars, including Bontempelli, Liam Jones, Cody Weightman, Adam Treloar, Jason Johannisen and Ugle-Hagan. In total, seven players from last year’s elimination final side will not be there for the first bounce against the Roos.

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Beveridge understands why the Bulldogs’ injuries have supporters worried, particularly at the news Bontempelli was out for six weeks with a calf injury, given the matchwinner has only missed one game in four years.

He said the Bulldogs were always reviewing their program and interrogating their processes, but apart from Bontempelli, many of the players affected had battled soft-tissue injuries previously. They have found nothing to “set off alarm bells”.

Despite the key absences, the Bulldogs coach expects Ed Richards, Bailey Dale and Rhylee West to be available for round one.

“There are always critical players in your make-up but not by any big margins will we be out of kilter if we lose one or two players here and there,” he said.

Beveridge saw the positives in the enforced absences of some of his biggest players.

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“You might lose a fraction, but the young fellow [who comes in for the injured player] might really grow and you get something different.

“We won’t tip it on its head, but particularly with Marcus who, traditionally, year-on-year influences outcomes, you think ‘OK, with him out of the team, who are the players who will be picked who can now push the game in our direction even more if we tweak what they’re doing?’ It could be a defender who plays higher. It could be a midfielder who’s one of our best runners goes more inside than outside.”

That unpredictability should be an advantage in the innovative Beveridge’s hands, and he was at pains to emphasise it should only be new to the opposition.

“You’ve got to make sure that anything you do isn’t confusing for your group,” Beveridge said.

“The old cliche is there is opportunity for others, and there definitely is. I definitely look at it through rose-coloured glasses in [relation to] the capability of the players who are going to pick up those roles,” Beveridge said.

“We’ve got some young, really young kids who have had good pre-seasons and we might – we don’t know yet – pick a couple of those in round one.”

The next generation

Beveridge is bullish about young players such as Sam Darcy, Ryley Sanders and Jordan Croft, who have been at the club for a short time and who will eventually have the experience and maturity to affect results.

“Sam’s doing a bit of that now, isn’t he? The time’s really now. We’re really rapt that he was able to have some kind of continuity last year because he did have a spluttering start to his AFL career purely because he’s a young foal; very tall, very light, had a few injuries and some illness,” Beveridge said.

“Now he’s definitely coping. He’s grown, he’s put on weight, he’s actually running a hell of a lot better and is just a totally different athlete. I think he started to blossom last year, so who knows this year what he can achieve.”

Sanders, Croft and Jedd Busslinger are still developing, but the signs are promising. Beveridge was also rapt with the recent crop of draftees – Sam Davidson has himself in the mix for round one.

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“Ryley will really improve again. We’ve seen some good signs over the pre-season. We want to play him, we want to hasten his development, and [although] I don’t think he’s going to get it right all the time there’ll be a tolerance for it because he’s got the right intentions and is just a great young character.

“Last year was a really steep learning curve for him, more in regards to where to be when he’s not directly involved in the game. He’s got a better handle on that now.”

In their 100th anniversary year, the Bulldogs are in a much better place on and off the field than when Beveridge was appointed senior coach in 2015.

“We all just feel a bit lucky now and a bit fortunate that everyone fought the good fight for so long and the club’s still here. My message when I talk to people is how grateful the current custodians are for everyone who fought so hard when the [future] looked pretty dire,” he said.

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