Every Word Luke Beveridge said on The Review, Ryley Sanders, Sam Darcy, and 2024 Objectives

As we begin the countdown for the start of the 2024, it looms as a massive year for the Western Bulldogs and their senior coach Luke Beveridge.

After a Grand Final appearance in 2021, the Bulldogs have underwhemled ever since, just scraping into finals in 2022, before missing out entirely last year.

It leaves Beveridge heading into this year as one of the most under-pressure coaches in the competition, and several pressing questions were put to him when he made an appearance on 1116 SEN's Whateley earlier this week. Here is every word that was exchanged between Beveridge and host Gerard Whateley:

Gerard Whateley: The coach, Luke Beveridge joins me now out at Whitten Oval. Luke, it's great to have you on the program. Welcome.

Luke Beveridge: Thanks for having me, Gerard.

GW: 12 days out, the rehearsing is done. Are you feeling the, I don't know, the requisite optimism that's required at this time of year?

LB: Yes, I am. It's one of those difficult periods on the journey where you haven't got too much perspective until you actually play someone and playing Hawthorn recently, obviously twice, I think Hawthorn will grow again this year and the thing about this time of year everyone's fit and strong and getting across the ground pretty well, so what we've done in recent times has been pretty encouraging and we usually build into a bit of a crescendo as far as our first big team goes and the team we put out in Launceston the Saturday just gone was a strong team as much as the first half was bit disconcerting to kick 15.5 in the second-half and finish the game with only playing the 22 and bringing Caleb (Daniel) on as a sub and sticking to the 75 interchange (rotations), which is a full rehearsal, was encouraging. You know, the end result.

GW: You’ll very soon pick that team. I wonder how intense is the competition for spots and how does it marry up with how you've picked the first teams over your time there? Is it more competitive than it's ever been?

LB: I believe it is, yes, and the players handled it extremely well last week. There's some flashpoints in the year for me as far as people and player management and one of them is that week before you pick up your first big team where what we've done in the first hit out against Hawthorn, we've taken seven players out who would ordinarily you know be in that team, and for a couple of reasons and one of them was to give the guys a chance who are probably on the edge to play against Hawthorn’s better side and strut their stuff against the better Hawthorn team, and we didn't feel like the seven who came out were gonna lose much from the experience and it's no easier sometimes to get a kick at state league level, and so that that's from a leadership point of view and growth opportunity was a good thing for us too. So to tell the boys who weren't going to Launceston that that was the case, it was a challenge. But they understand that these decisions are what's best for the team, the club and that they're not far away and they put their best foot forward back here in Melbourne as well. So that that competition for spots is really important for any club and over the journey I think last year we probably had half a dozen players who didn't play much at all who we were kind of relying on, I mean in their two grand final years we've played 40 and 39 players and last year we were a few less than that, but we just didn't have the availability that we'd normally have and with the list coming down by a couple of the previous couple years, everyone needs to deal with that. But I feel like we're really healthy and, yeah the opportunities are there for us to make a fist of it from the start.

GW: Is there a reality that there are players who probably for a long time have considered themselves first choice, players who are on the cusp or even being supplanted?

LB: Yeah that's the case with some and it should be like that every year. I mean, I'm not the type of manager or coach who stands up in front of the players and says “It's a clean slate, reputations don't mean much”. I'd never say that because reputations do mean something and many of our guys have been great contributors over the journey. But with what the game’s telling us at the moment, the challenges in it, and the profile of your team as far as your speed, endurance, space, your contested aspects, your skill and game sense, the blend that you need on the high end of all that to be, to aim to be the best in the competition, you strategizing and projecting as to where you need to be and sometimes that challenges a player or two. And that's happening. And so that that just means that we've got to support and help those players now rise to another level and that's gonna benefit all.

GW: I don’t want to pin the change on one player, but has Riley Sanders changed your dynamic before he's even debuted?

LB: Uh, he's definitely, you know, I think we've all got a sort of a twinkling in our eye around the promise of what he might do in the future. I mean the expectations around the first year player and the influence that you might have, we've gotta be careful with that and manage it. Especially when it comes to you know, the public messaging and the excitement levels around the player like Riley, but I have said recently that out of all the first few players that have come in, he's the most ready. You don't get many inside midfielder types that turn up who are 88 kilos, who can run an almost six-minute, 2km time trial has got the requisite pace who’s peripheral vision and awareness and skill and game-sense depth is quite extraordinary, and now to play against men and he hasn't really played senior football. To see the way he's played against our inside mid-brigade over the preseason has been extremely encouraging. So, yeah he’s shifted the paradigm a little bit. There's no doubt about that, and so there's a cascading effect as you're alluding to on the pressure for spots from the existing midfield brigade and we all think that's pretty healthy.

GW: The other youngster who I think we're all wondering how you'll manage and handle and juggle is Sam Darcy. Is just give us a little insight as you come into the season what your current thinking is?

LB: We see Sam as a…he’s got a significant level of brilliance in his game. He's an extraordinary player for a young man as tall as him. You know his ground level skills are almost as good as a you know as a rover, and what Sam has experienced with some of the obstacles in front of him with the injuries and some of the ailments that he's had is that he hasn't had any continuity to build his base to play for long periods in senior competition. So, he's got through his first preseason really, with this being his third one, which is encouraging, and now on the weekend he played. maybe he only played -10 minutes of the full game. So he almost played the whole game, and so we're trying to build him up so he's totally ready for the rigours of an AFL game, and Sam has still got a lot of physical development and growth in him, as you can imagine. He’s 209 centimeters or something close to that, and you can imagine now he'll, over the next two or three years, he'll be 10kgs heavier in a year or two’s time and that's gonna serve him well as well. So would we playing right now? Umm, the answer is ‘absolutely’. But we are mindful that the blend and the balance of our team, the progression of our small forwards in combination with our midfield brigade has advanced with Rylee West, Cody Weightman, Laitham Vandermeer, Lachie McNeil. These young fellows are kicking on and so Sam plays, that’s an interesting equation for us because it means something has to give and the balance of our side is going to be an ongoing discussion. You know obviously we've gotta get it right match committee level.

GW: The other ripple I reckon has been Tom Liberatore’s elevation to Vice Captain and I think the goodwill that that has sparked. Internally, what's that done to the dynamic of the group and to him as he approaches his new season?

LB: Well, there’s an intense desire on his behalf to be a leader. And as we know leadership takes on many forms, and ultimately in any, I suppose elite level sporting code the best leaders, they follow up their words with what they do performance-wise and he's consistently been quite outstanding for us, and he leads by example and I think the things that (are) integral to us are always evident in his game. He's contest and he's you know he's absolute vigour and attack on the football and the opposition is admired by his teammates and for him to now be in that space, you know he's grown over the years. He's now a father to his young boy Oscar and there were times over the journey, Gerard, where it  wasn't so certain to Tom about his future coming back from two knee reconstructions and he was a lad, you know, I mean he, you know when he was younger he's a great person and he's quirky he's you know and he's got a funny bone that we love. Umm, but that’s always challenging when you've got a long term injury like that. And to his credit he's been able to endure and now, we hope he can play for as long as he can. We modify them a little bit to look after the joints a bit but his team mates emphatically voted him in as our vice-captain, and it's a great result, and I think Marcus was probably as much as he carries a deep affection for all his teammates, I think he was hoping that Tom would get the nod and as you said it's been a good coup for us to quite democratically have that result.

GW: Yeah, that's lovely it's and it's a lovely insight. Luke you spoke at length with Glenn McFarlane, I don't propose to go over that for what's been over the summer. But just the one curious aspect I had is in the reviews that were conducted, did you feel like you're coaching was under examination?

LB: No, I didn't. No, not at all. I think the big part of the discussion was how to free me up to do. progress things in I suppose in the coaching and management space that should be the priorities and I think sometimes because we're looking culturally to be the best we could be and to ensure that our people feel valued and that our club is progressive. I mean historically coming from you know sort of an executive management space in the public service that my experiences around managing people and looking after different environments. And so quite naturally I turn my mind to that you know day by day. But it helps to have other people who are probably ahead of the curve or ahead of the day-by-day thinking on that just so you know you can free yourself up for all the layers that are associated with being a senior coach. So I think what happens with me and the vibrations within the club, I think people notice when I'm distracted and so the main message to me was the players know when you're at your best, they know who you are, the way you communicate when you're not preoccupied with things that aren’t essential as far as performance goes and so the main drive coming out of the review in regards to me was to support the operational environment in footy so that I didn't need to get caught up in things that other people can take care of it.

GW: So you made a change of mindset, a change of approach to certain areas. Is that fair to interpret from that?

LB: Well I think probably quite simply Gerard is Peter Jackson identified the fact that we just lacked the resources. We lacked a person in there at a managerial level to be the centerpiece of how to progress communications and trust to be better organised and pleasingly that's where Matty Egan has been able to take on that responsibility and everyone's feeling the positivity coming out of the role he's performing and that's now quite pivotal for all of us as we March into the future. And I think you know, over time it doesn't matter how we got to that point, whether it was, budget restrictions or the evolution of our operational environment or whether or not I was leaned on too heavily because I had that history of management experience, but it dawned on everyone that “hey, we need to change this” and Matt's role now is really quite crucial to greasing those wheels.

GW: So there are numerous examples where reviews have been so productive. And you could go Richmond, you could go Geelong, you could go Collingwood. And then there are others which are the accidentally or deliberately undermine the senior coach. So, did you feel unequivocally secure and supported through that and able to engage for the better rather than feeling any level of whether the walls were closing in?

LB: Yeah, I did. I actually felt at the time that the review was quite crucial because most of us who work in our environment knew that there was an opportunity if it was identified and we followed through on some remedial action to fix things that that needed to work better. And so I was absolutely confident that if the review had dug deep enough and spoke to the right people and there was honesty in the conversations that it wasn't going to be too difficult to identify the one or two things that we needed. And so I'm really grateful that that Peter Jackson was able to do that because I think if we didn't get it someone in independently to make those inquiries and it wouldn't have happened. So no, there's a courage in that for an organization to do it. I wasn't concerned. I mean I'm always quite regardless of the win-loss or the scrutiny, my self-assurance around what I'm capable of has never really wavered and I don't know how strong my relationships are with the playing group and so I was never concerned about my own space, but if something happened there and it was for the for the best or the good of the club and that was the decision, well obviously prepared to accept it but I was never concerned about it.

GW: Premiership, Grand Final, six of nine years in finals. At the one marker that you haven't yet achieved is to finish in the top four and historically we know how significant that is. Is that the necessary step that you need to take?

LB: Well history will say that ‘no’ to win the whole lot. But ultimately, you're aiming for top two and the top four every year. Remarkably, and I don't know you know if you really dig deep into what happened historically, in ‘21 we were actually on top of the ladder with I think three rounds to go, believe it or not, and we finished fifth by under a percentage point. That’s just crazy for something like that to happen and I'd hope that that you and probably many people across the media spectrum would appreciate that we've never been a club that has made excuses. There's always reasons for things, but there are little things that happen that we haven't been able to cope with. And one of the things at that point in time that was traumatic was Brucey (Josh Bruce) going downe now with his knee and we're uncertain, we were unstable a little bit in in that ruck area at the time and we just didn’t cope well enough with it. But our team, we should have been good enough to win at least one more and we didn't. So aspirationally, every year there’s not doubt that you think that all 18 clubs or well, most of them would be aspiring to finish in that top four, and it doesn't concern me, I mean the criticism towards me around not finishing the top four, it's not a factor for me it's. If we’re capable, we'll do it and obviously the aspirationally again this year that's where we we're aiming.

GW: The one practical aspect around a change so more use of the runner now, I if my memory serves you, you've been a real advocate on this, Luke. Is that the detail that you've been given, will it make a substantial difference to what you're able to do on game day?

LB: It’ll make a little bit of a difference but it's just counter-intuitive. The original decision to restrict the Rana was more born out of the frustration that one or two clubs runners were spending too long out on the ground. Now, if you take say three of the main sporting codes: the NFL in the states, the round ball game soccer or football right across the globe and basketball, the coaches stand on the sideline and they've got constant access to their players through messaging and microphones in the NFL, and the coach just, I suppose, stalked the sideline. I was fascinated (when) I went and watched Melbourne United play New Zealand Breakers; Nick Truelson is a CEO doing a magnificent job there at Melbourne United invited us in and just the iteration between the coach and the referee was astounding. I couldn't imagine that the AFL would, there would be a $25,000 fine every other week for a coach to do what happens there. But, what happened at that point in time all of a sudden, we can't access our players, we can't communicate with them. And the message was we want to dilute the influence of the coaching group. And that was just madness to all of us. Why would you want to do that? It was for most of us it was disrespectful. We couldn't see how there'd be any solid grounding for that. So now throwing us bone of a couple more opportunities for the runner to run out, it's helpful. But we're still on the biggest field, with the most players and it’s still a huge challenge to communicate that's not gonna go away. We’ll keep chipping away to have more access. For me as a coach and to be able to manipulate things when you need to, but also manage the 75 interchange as well, it’s quite crucial that the runner can get out there when you need them to.

GW: Luke it's always great to chat. Let me just finish where you're going to start. Are you edgy for the start of the season to get away, to get through the gates and not play catch up in the early phase of the season?

LB: Yeah, that's the objective, Gerard. I mean, let's not beat around the bushes. In the last two years we haven't won Round One and so I'm not edgy. I'm really looking forward to it. I believe we've prepared extremely well and I know we'll give a really strong account of ourselves against the Demons who are looking good. They were impressive the other the other night against the Blues. So more optimistic and enthusiastic towards that Round One opportunity and I know that our players have prepared well so it's gonna be a great game against a couple of clubs who have developed a little bit of rivalry now and we're really looking forward to it

GW: We all are. Luke, I really appreciate your time this morning. Good luck for the journey ahead; it's Bulldogs membership day so you're talking to your faithful right now and we look forward to seeing how the season unfolds.

LB: Thanks again, Gerard.