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Chapter 1: What key events shaped Round 6 of the AFL?
Our Tuesdays with the Leadership Portfolio with Luke Hodge. Luke, welcome. Good morning, Gerard. It's been an interesting week, to say the least. It's been a little bit since I've spoken. I hope you enjoyed your sleep-ins over the last week. But it's good to catch up because you look at different teams through injuries, through the struggles of Carlton, through...
some freak behaviour of Nick Dacos. It's been a fair week of football.
And a lot of it has been based around Thursday night. I thought we'd cast an eye forward before we go backwards. The Bulldogs on Thursday night are before us. Luke Beveridge speaks this morning. Their scenario has changed so drastically. They were the last team unbeaten.
Chapter 2: How did injuries impact the Western Bulldogs' performance?
They stride into gather round atop the table. And two games later, they're in the grip of injury crisis. What's your view of the challenge for the Dogs?
Well, I think this is where, for football clubbers, what you preach really comes to a reality. Because you hear all coaches throughout the season, it's a long season, it's a marathon, not a sprint. And it's a group or a squad that wins a premiership, not just the team that's out in the field.
And I can tell you what, Luke Beveridge is sitting back at Western Bulldogs right now, hoping that that's true and hoping that they've got...
depth in that football club because you look back at some of the people that we know Darcy's gone Waitman who he was a key pillar for him prior to getting injured his leadership out there and he hasn't been there for a couple of seasons but other blokes have been able to step up in the forward line but it's when you start to get a couple in all your lines you look at Libba and
We're concerned with Libra, what he's football for the future, obviously with the head knocks and how he plays his football. But the reliance on Tim English, and then you look at the defence. No Liam Jones now. They got rid of him because he wasn't quite fitting what they needed as a defender. But now they've got a couple of main key defenders that are down.
So you're sitting back going, who's the next person to come up? Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Sam Darcy's ACL injury?
you look through a midfield point of view adam treloar had 41 last week so you sit back you know he's probably serviceable he's nothing in his footy career to be able to step up um lockheed mcneil is another one who had a bit a bit of the footy last week in the seconds but i guess as a as a glass half full mindset for the doggies just sort of look back and go oh there's a will darcy sitting across playing in the seconds and and i know he's raw he's young kicked the goal last week but
Are these opportunities where you do look as a glass half full and give some of these younger guys an opportunity or some of the guys who have been playing seconds, good footy in the seconds, an opportunity to come up and see if they can play a part of your game style, a part of your plans moving forward just until some of the guys get back?
So they were feeling it on Friday night, and how could you not with that suite of events that befall them? And Luke Beveridge used the word traumatic on three different occasions. So it was a lot to absorb. How do you go about putting that back together in the days that really lead us to now?
Now, football clubs are so good at understanding what happens on game day and then moving on to the next week. If I was them, I'd be sitting back going, look, it was an idea. We had a lot of injuries.
But if you look at the Cats and what the Cats have been able to do down at GMHBA over the last 15 years, you sit back and go, if you're not on your A game, even with a full list of players, Geelong can still do that to you. I've seen Jeremy Cameron do that to teams for the last 10 years. So you sit back and sort of, put things in place and sort of say, look, yes, Geelong were outstanding.
We weren't up to scratch, but we had some injuries. Let's regroup and focus on the next week.
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Chapter 4: How did Nick Daicos perform against the Blues?
All teams have weeks where they don't play great football. And unfortunately for them, Geelong got a hold of them. But the mindset, the maturity and understanding that it is a marathon, not a sprint. is the fact that you regroup and sit back and they'll be at the football club pointing at some of the positives they did on the weekend.
But it's also, as I said before, it's the who can come up, who really wants to show that they're an AFL player, they can step up when the club really needs them because we've seen players get made of getting an opportunity like this.
So there's a degree of holding the fort for Sam. Darcy won't be back. If we just isolate it to that, what do they miss? How devastating is that, not to have the talisman up front?
Well, they played without him for a number of weeks last year. So you sort of look back and you look at folks like Aaron Norton and say, hey, mate, this is your time to shine. You've been able to play some really good football with Darcy beside him. But as we've expected, and we've seen you do it by yourself a few years ago, it's your time to step up. It's now your forward line.
The responsibility comes on you.
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Chapter 5: What challenges are the Bulldogs facing with their current roster?
And that's not the responsibility you've got to go and kick 10 goals to make up for Darcy and his goals. It's a responsibility of leading, making sure whoever you bring into that forward line, Norton has to be the person who can teach them and guide them and just make sure that they don't have to do anything extraordinary for the guys that come up.
But as leaders, you've got to make sure that they're comfortable playing their role and they don't get overruled. So unfortunately for the... For the doggies, you've got blokes that are stepping up in the forwards, in the backs, in the mids. It's a lot to cover over and just make sure that the players that do step up aren't too overawed and it just will flow into the style of the doggies.
Have they proven overly reliant on Tim English?
Well, I think a lot of clubs have been really reliant on their ruckman because of the ruck rules that you could go through and play a percentage. Look at Max Gorn. Melbourne, overly reliant on Max Gorn. I'd sit back and say, yes, they are. Max is one of the best rucks. We raided Tim English up there with Max Gorn two or three years ago.
I think what they do need is to... And I think Cain will have a smile on his face. So they don't have to fall back of starting Sam Darcy in the ruck.
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Chapter 6: How do injuries affect team dynamics and leadership?
They do need to go and find someone who is a backup for him. And if you look at their fifth person on the bench... A lot of clubs have had success with that, and it might not be a 50-50 split with English. It might be a 70-30, but you do have that flexibility to rotate a ruckman on the bench, or if they can play forward and they've got that craft, then that's handy.
But it's probably something they're going to look at over the next 12 months just to make sure that if English does go down and Sam's coming back from his knee, that they aren't bottomed out in that area.
And how concerned for Tom Liberatore do you feel?
Yeah, well, I think from what we've seen over the last few years on how serious the head knocks are and what Lib has gone through himself, missing multiple games over the last couple of years because of how hard he goes about the footy. Like there was the instance last year, I think it was, where...
The camera behind the goals caught him stumbling and falling over and you could sort of see how concerned the opposition players were. So I guess the welfare of Libba is the priority of the doggies. But knowing Libba, he loves footy, he lives for footy. He wants to play this game as long as he possibly can because if you speak to...
any former player that once you're done and once you're retired, you're finished. But obviously the priorities is on his health. He's got young kids there as well.
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Chapter 7: What strategies can teams adopt during injury crises?
So the doggies will make the right decision. They've got experts in this area right now. So they'll sit back and they won't rush into a decision with him either way.
All right. You've made the case around leadership and around what happens within a club. Do you still believe in them?
In the Bulldogs?
No.
Yeah, it's hard. You sort of sit back and go, the style that they played early on with their full list, the flair that they had, the forward line that were dangerous, the back line was a bit of a question, but they were holding on strong. As soon as you have gaps in this side, in any side to the names that we've already read out, you do have some question marks.
But I guess the big part about it is it's the development side of things that they've been doing over the last couple of years. Can these guys that have been listening and watching the game review and training with these guys over the last 12, 18, 24 months, can they step up and fill a void until some of them get back? So I think the jury's still out.
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Chapter 8: What lessons can be learned from the Bulldogs' current situation?
You need to sit back and just watch what they can do. Unfortunately for them, the game on Thursday night, they're coming up against a team similar to what they did last week. Like the Cats, as we said before, how ruthless they are at home. I don't think I've seen a team with Sydney, once they get on a roll, good luck stopping them.
And if you've got flaws through your midfield and you can't win the contested ball and then you've got flaws down your back line because of the injuries, they will hunt you and they will really hurt you. And that's the mindset that Coxie's taken into this year. It's like, move the ball fast, get it down. Look at the star-studded forward line that we have.
Let's get the ball in as fast as we possibly can and really challenge that defensive line. When you've got two, three, four of your best defenders out... It's going to be scary sights on Thursday if Sydney play the way that they want to play.
It is the designated game to mark the 10th anniversary of one of the finest premierships that we've seen. One in all manner of adversity against the Swans. If ever there was a storyline that Luke Beveridge could draw on, that would be it.
Without a doubt. You look through 2016 and everyone rocked up the MCG thinking that, well, the Swannies have got this.
and that that doggies culture that ruthless grit that stood out on the day and I think everyone walked away happy because they were glad this team who hadn't won a premiership in in our lifetime was able to salute so coaches are so good these days that are drawing back on on it might be a few of the players that played on the day like a bont who might be able to come and talk but there's also other strengths there that some of the former players who some of these guys looked up to playing they might be able to get them back in to really draw something from but
At the end of the day, it's a celebration for what they celebrated 10 years ago, but I don't think the Swannies care about that. They're going to be out there with the same ruthless mindset that we've seen. I'm picturing them attacking like they did the opening round against Carlton in the third quarter.
They're going to go throw everything at them, just seeing how this undermanned Western Bulldogs team can really stand up, even though it's such a great time for the Bulldogs past players.
That's Thursday coming. Thursday passed, and a lot has happened since this Carlton-Collingwood game. As you've contemplated the Blues' handling of Elijah Hollands and what we've learnt and what we still don't know, where has your mind been drawn?
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