Always Right Match Committee - Round 15 Vs West Coast Eagles 2021

[Axe Man]

Naughton to face Eagles

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has confirmed key forward Aaron Naughton will play against West Coast, having overcome a rib injury.

Naughton was subbed out of the Dogs' heartbreaking loss to Geelong after colliding with Jed Bews when contesting a ball on the half-time siren.

"He's good, he recovered really well," Beveridge said.

"He had a scan quickly after the game and thankfully that came up all clear. He's trained and he'll play on Sunday, he'll be fine."

Josh Schache is on standby as the sole tall emergency, with the Dogs having only taken an additional three players (Ed Richards and Riley Garcia the others) to the 23 who took on the Cats.

The team has been staying in Joondalup this week, able to leave only for training at WAFL club West Perth and Optus Stadium, as well as the game itself. They'll return to Melbourne immediately after the match against the Eagles on Sunday.

Beveridge said the Bulldogs were wary of the impact in-form ruck Nic Naitanui could have on the match, considering his strong finish to the match against Richmond and the fact the Dogs only have one recognised ruck in Tim English.

Stef Martin did not make the trip to Perth, finishing his recovery from a shoulder issue, but Beveridge said has since picked up a groin complaint at training.

"We've just got to be smart about it from a coaching point of view. You don't concede, but you understand where the vulnerability might be. We've watched him tear apart other really experienced ruckmen, so you expect Nic will have a big influence on the game at the stoppages," Beveridge said.

"I thought he finished off his game as well as he has all year against Richmond, and he played more game time in that last quarter than perhaps what we've seen.

"So, we understand what we're coming up against, we'll need to organise ourselves and be ready for the stoppage aspect, then away from that, we need to work out where we'll get our advantages and how we support Tim in the ruck.

"We saw what Max Gawn did to us against Melbourne with young 'Sweety' (Jordon Sweet), who's still learning the caper, we've got to make some decisions around that position at selection and see where we can get some advantages elsewhere.

"So unfortunately, we're probably where we were last year with all that, at the moment, not ideal, but we just have to tackle it."

[Rocco Jones]

It's not so much Sweet would dominate in the ruck and give us great looks, it means English can stay forward, it means Bruce isn't taken out of the forward line, Macrae isn't getting bashed the 4 or 5 times he has to take one for the team.

Yep. I guess issue is around the ground stuff. I definitely agree having English forward is an advantage.

I think Bevo doesn't want this scenario but really doesn't trust Sweet. Maybe next week against North we can give him another go. Really, really want a decent mature ruck who can play more than 8 games next year...

[comrade]

Yep. I guess issue is around the ground stuff. I definitely agree having English forward is an advantage.

I think Bevo doesn't want this scenario but really doesn't trust Sweet. Maybe next week against North we can give him another go. Really, really want a decent mature ruck who can play more than 8 games next year...

I think we've seen the last of Sweet this year.

[Rocco Jones]

I think we've seen the last of Sweet this year.

I agree that Bevo can lean on the one game/affirmation bias thing. Thing is though, I thought Sweet was poor in the VFL last week. I hope Bevo keeps an open mind but also, Sweet has to be performing at VFL level.

[comrade]

I agree that Bevo can lean on the one game/affirmation bias thing. Thing is though, I thought Sweet was poor in the VFL last week. I hope Bevo keeps an open mind but also, Sweet has to be performing at VFL level.

He was pretty much rucking one out against Stanley and Fort, 2 mature guys. He's not offering a heap around the ground, but it's the structure he helps provide that helps the most. We're not winning a flag with English and Bruce/Hannan/Macrae as our rucks.

[Rocco Jones]

He was pretty much rucking one out against Stanley and Fort, 2 mature guys. He's not offering a heap around the ground, but it's the structure he helps provide that helps the most. We're not winning a flag with English and Bruce/Hannan/Macrae as our rucks.

Yeah, I think our ceiling with Sweet in is higher.

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Martin is surely done after this year.

Badly need to find another ruck (and key defender) going into 2022.

[Mofra]

Yeah, I agree with that. Sweet did struggle vs Stanley though...

Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree with you. I hated having Dunks and co. in the ruck last year and have wanted English forward for ages. I just see the ruck selection this week as understandable.

Ditto.

And I think a mature ruck is priority at the trade table no 1.

[Mantis]

He was pretty much rucking one out against Stanley and Fort, 2 mature guys. He's not offering a heap around the ground, but it's the structure he helps provide that helps the most. We're not winning a flag with English and Bruce/Hannan/Macrae as our rucks.

We should've beaten the most inform team at their own ''unique'' ground using this model and whilst it's probably not the ideal set-up I think we are effectively playing 1 short with Sweet playing ruck against the very best teams given what we've seen thus far.

[comrade]

We should've been the most inform team at their own ''unique'' ground using this model and whilst it's probably not the ideal set-up I think we are effectively playing 1 short with Sweet playing ruck against the very best teams given what we've seen thus far.

We should have won in spite of it, not because of it.

[Mantis]

We should have won in spite of it, not because of it.

Maybe, but no use carrying a ruck just to help other areas when those other areas might not actually be better with the structure you end up with.... and the ruck doesn't really help you play any better.

English has had 1 really good game as a pure forward and been a mixture of poor and ok at other times so I'm not yet convinced that our team looks best with English as forward/ruck... but given the injuries to all it hasn't been used as often as we would've liked.

[Happy Days]

Sweet wasn’t just bad against Melbourne; his performances beforehand were really uninspiring and he looked totally lost much of the time between ruck contests. Of course I’d prefer that we had a stronger ruck division but I get why we aren’t picking him.

[comrade]

Sweet wasn’t just bad against Melbourne; his performances beforehand were really uninspiring and he looked totally lost much of the time between ruck contests. Of course I’d prefer that we had a stronger ruck division but I get why we aren’t picking him.

He didn't look totally lost in any game besides the Melbourne game, against the best in the business. English has had a handful of genuinely good games as a stand alone ruckman in 5 years.

[Happy Days]

He didn't look totally lost in any game besides the Melbourne game, against the best in the business. English has had a handful of genuinely good games as a stand alone ruckman in 5 years.

Nothing was as outrightly bad as the Dees game, but I thought he was soundly beaten and struggled to get involved against the Saints, and generally lacks seasoning to get involved between stoppages where he can use his pretty nice skills. The only game he contributed positively for mine was the Suns game up against a couple of carpentry apprentices.

[comrade]

Nothing was as outrightly bad as the Dees game, but I thought he was soundly beaten and struggled to get involved against the Saints, and generally lacks seasoning to get involved between stoppages where he can use his pretty nice skills. The only game he contributed positively for mine was the Suns game up against a couple of carpentry apprentices.

He was fine against Port on the road, neutralised Ryder against the Saints who brutalised English the year before and had a stinker against the Demons along with about 20 of his mates.

If English plays as our solo ruck for the remainder of the year, it's over.