‘It’s risky now’: Holding-the-ball changes a threat to the ball carrier, says Beveridge

BRISBANE LIONS 17.12 (114) d WESTERN BULLDOGS 10.11 (71)

No Bont, no Bulldogs

The Western Bulldogs’ reliance on Marcus Bontempelli has never been more apparent than during their 43-point loss to the Brisbane Lions at Marvel Stadium on Friday night. Lions tagger Jarrod Berry harangued and harassed the Bont at the opening bounce and was immediately able to put him off his game.

While Berry collected 14 possessions across the first half, the Bulldogs skipper’s output was reduced to a meagre six disposals, drawing criticism from one of the game’s greatest players. “That’s about as bad a half of footy as you’ll see him have,” Leigh Matthews told 3AW.

The problem for the Bulldogs wasn’t just Bontempelli’s uncharacteristic returns, but the fact that few were able to step up in his place. Tom Liberatore tried valiantly to lift his side in the third term – having 23 possessions for the match – while Adam Treloar toiled away (30 disposals) but there were very few other contributors.

Like all champions, Bont fought hard, having a moment during the third term in which he kicked a banana goal, his second for the match, and setting up another for James O’Donnell. He even took a hangar in the goal square deep into the last quarter, to kick his third for the game. But, in the end, his 19 possessions were not nearly enough.

It seems the round 15 bye can’t come quick enough for him and the tired-looking Dogs, who play Fremantle at home next week and are now 6-7 for the year.

Lions bare their claws

Reports of the death of Brisbane’s season have been greatly exaggerated. To prove they still have a finals heartbeat, let’s dust off the season predictor.

The Lions are 5-6, and a draw, after 12 games and have the following month ahead: St Kilda at home (win), away to Port Adelaide who are starting to wobble (win), home to Melbourne who are also starting to stagger (win) and home to the battling Adelaide (win). That makes them 9-6, and a bye, and suddenly looming as a possible September threat.

Further boosting this hypothetical is the nature of their list. Against the Bulldogs, Lachie Neale was in Brownlow form, Eric Hipwood turned in his best game of the year with an equal career-best six goals on Liam Jones, Jarrod Berry should be used as a tagger on the opposition’s best midfielder every week after smothering The Bont, Harris Andrews continues to anchor a solid defence and they have unearthed a beauty in 19-year-old Logan Morris, who showed glimpses of brilliance in just his fifth game.

On top of all this, Charlie Cameron had a shocker – nine disposals and goalless – so they’ve got his return to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Welcome back, Libba

One of the positives on a bleak night for the Bulldogs was the return of Liberatore after a worrying spell out of the game with concussion concerns. Libba threw himself into the fray from the opening bounce, gathering an early possession and doing his best to unsettle the hard tag of Berry on Bontempelli.

In fact, the heart and soul of the Sons of the West might have thrown himself in a little too eagerly. He stepped in with a forceful jumper punch that almost clocked Berry on the chin. “Libba crossed the line and gave away a free kick,” Channel Seven commentator Luke Hodge said. He might also give away some coin if the action is looked upon unfavourably by the MRO. Regardless, it was heartening to see Libba play out the game.

KEY STATS

Luke Beveridge has warned the AFL to protect the ball carrier or risk changing the charter of the game as the league continues to implement tweaks to the holding-the-ball rule.

The Western Bulldogs players were penalised repeatedly during their 43-point loss and trailed the tackle free-kick count 7-2 at half-time.

“In the AFL’s charter, it talks about our game being a contested game,” Beveridge said in his post-match press conference.

“So, and in the charter, you have to protect the player who tries to win the ball, so we can’t move away from that. Otherwise, the game changes.

“What happened last week was a reaction to some feedback from some senior coaches, but they were talking about situations where players were standing up in tackles, and the request was for the whistle to be blown a bit earlier, whether they’ve had prior opportunity or not, just blow it earlier.

“But now that’s been taken into situations where players have been taken to ground.”

On a number of occasions the Bulldogs players were penalised inside the Lions’ 50m arc for holding the ball, resulting in shots on goal. The Lions finished the night ahead in the free-kick count 24-16, while finishing marginally ahead in tackles 50-49.

“When a player has not had prior opportunity, we’ve got to make sure that we protect the player,” Beveridge said.

“I’m not talking about tonight. I’m just talking about the game in essence. We need to protect the guy who wins the footy and gets tackled straight away. We need to make sure we get back to making sure we’re in sync with, as I said, the spirit of the game.”

He said he was not going to comment on umpiring from Friday night’s clash in which his side slipped to 6-7 for the season, while the Lions were able to breathe life into their season, coming off a bye and now sit 5-6, with a draw, after 13 rounds.

“What’s happened is now the game has evolved and changed within the space of two weeks, and it’s risky now and a concern if we’re not looking after the ball winner,” Beveridge said.

“I watched every game last week, and we’re only in the infancy of this round, but the priority should be now to make sure that whoever’s winning the footy is looked after. And people have said, get rid of the prior opportunity rule. But if you do, it’s a very different game.

“If you have got players who are hesitant to go and go and win it, we don’t want to be there. So yeah, the AFL has got a challenge on their hands.”

Beveridge was critical of his players lacking discipline, in particular returning midfielder Tom Liberatore who gave up a free kick in the opening minute of the game by jumper punching Lions tagger Jarrod Berry after teammate Adam Treloar had kicked the first goal.

“Just when we were looking, you know, that we might get a bit of momentum in the game, we just gave away free kicks,” Beveridge said. “There were free kicks, left, right and centre, just to halt the momentum, and we just couldn’t get any rhythm.

“You put that down to their source pressure game, they rushed us and we didn’t cope with it as well as we needed to.”

Thanks for joining us tonight everyone. That’s all we have for you but we will be back tomorrow afternoon with our AFL Saturday live blog. Please join us then.

Have a lovely evening and bye for now.

Lions coach Chris Fagan spoke to the media post game.

Pretty emphatic response to that, wasn’t it, after the bye?

Yeah. So, it was good to have the bye. We had a few sore boys playing that game against Hawthorn and a few out as well. Wouldn’t have minded Eric Hipwood against Hawthorn a few weeks ago if he was going to play like that. Yeah, it was a good response. Probably as good as we’ve played this year. Pretty complete performance. When you play the… Against the Bulldogs, you have to be able to match them at contested possession and clearances and we did that pretty well. We have the greatest of respect for the midfield. So, for our guys to win the clearance battle by 18, that’s a pretty significant number against the Dogs. I thought they all contributed particularly well. Lachie Neale had… Played a binder. Jarrod Berry did a great job on Bont, even though Bont went forward and did a little bit of damage. Josh Dunkley was his usual desperate self. Oscar McInerney did well in the ruck against Tim English. It was a great all round performance by our midfielders and they set the tone for the day, I guess.

You mentioned Hipwood earlier. Probably the best game of his career. How proud of him are you? You can be a bit of a whipping boy for Brisbane finance. To produce a performance like that, must be have been rapt?

Yeah. He cops a lot of unfair flack. He plays a really important for role. Tonight he got a scoreboard reward. We had the bye. He missed that week. Maybe I have to play him every third week and when he comes out fresh he’s good first-up, something like that. But, no. So pleased for him. He does cop a lot of flack. Most unfair. And he helped us achieve a great victory tonight.

Sounds like you had honest conversations during the bye. How important is it to play like that? Things you have been speaking out, put into practice?

The honest conversations were that… I don’t know how much you guys look at the… Analyse the statistics, but we were actually – our profile is healthy, other than accuracy. And what I pointed out to the players in the break was just that. “You’re doing a lot of thing right, boys”. Let’s keep working away at this aspect of our game and it will help us enormously. You know, the other thing probably in our profile is we weren’t scoring all what well from the defensive mid area. That was a strength last year. We did that tonight. No. I think we… Looking at the stats at the bye, we conceded the least numbers of goal. Number one for inside 50 differential. It isn’t the profile of a team that’s sitting 13th or 14th on the ladder. Anyway. Hopefully, we can build on tonight and keep going.

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge is concerned his side could be further weakened with key defender Alex Keath leaving the ground with a hamstring injury.

“He came off with a hamstring injury. It looks like we are likely to lose him,” Beveridge said.

“The attrition rate is not great at the moment but the boys are hanging in there. I think they are doing a mighty job.”

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge spoke to the media post game.

You generate momentum in the previous month. To produce a performance like that tonight, how disappointing is that in that contest?

Yeah. I had… When you say that, Ronny, obviously you have got your own take on it.

What aspects do you mean in?

Stoppages, would you agree stoppages were really bad aspect of the game?

A bit like the Fremantle game earlier in the year when we went to Perth. We were torched. At the source, numbers wise, territory game was too far in the opposition’s favour, and there was as efficiencies in the first quarter that allowed to us keep our head above water. Yeah, it was a bit of a challenge. Huge challenge actually, you know, with the make-up of our brigade in there. We just… We didn’t negate their influence for most of the game unfortunately. So, yeah, difficult to win with a landslide of clearance wins that they had. Yeah, a victim of some times what we provide to the opposition, you know, and we – sort of take our medicine.

There was a hard tag from Berry on Bontempelli. What was your take on that?

He did. His influence, as far as the quantities of involvement offensively were down a little bit. But as Marcus does, he perseveres and trying to bring us into the game. Looked at variations with some other players going inside at different times and Marcus going forward. But we just couldn’t get enough momentum around the whole ground. We didn’t have enough winners and they looked as experienced and as… With the resolve they have had coming off a break, they just had the weight of numbers in the end. When you look at the scoreboard, for us to score 70 points in the end, that’s the encouraging thing. We couldn’t have been beaten more convincingly and still be in the game.

BRISBANE LIONS 17.12 (114) d WESTERN BULLDOGS 10.11 (71)

No Bont, no Bulldogs

The Western Bulldogs’ reliance on Marcus Bontempelli has never been more apparent than during their 43-point loss to the Brisbane Lions at Marvel Stadium on Friday night. Lions tagger Jarrod Berry harangued and harassed the Bont at the opening bounce and was immediately able to put him off his game.

While Berry collected 14 possessions across the first half, the Bulldogs skipper’s output was reduced to a meagre six disposals, drawing criticism from one of the game’s greatest players. “That’s about as bad a half of footy as you’ll see him have,” Leigh Matthews told 3AW.

The problem for the Bulldogs wasn’t just Bontempelli’s uncharacteristic returns, but the fact that few were able to step up in his place. Tom Liberatore tried valiantly to lift his side in the third term – having 23 possessions for the match – while Adam Treloar toiled away (30 disposals) but there were very few other contributors.

Like all champions, Bont fought hard, having a moment during the third term in which he kicked a banana goal, his second for the match, and setting up another for James O’Donnell. He even took a hangar in the goal square deep into the last quarter, to kick his third for the game. But, in the end, his 19 possessions were not nearly enough.

It seems the round 15 bye can’t come quick enough for him and the tired-looking Dogs, who play Fremantle at home next week and are now 6-7 for the year.

Lions bare their claws

Reports of the death of Brisbane’s season have been greatly exaggerated. To prove they still have a finals heartbeat, let’s dust off the season predictor.

The Lions are 5-6, and a draw, after 12 games and have the following month ahead: St Kilda at home (win), away to Port Adelaide who are starting to wobble (win), home to Melbourne who are also starting to stagger (win) and home to the battling Adelaide (win). That makes them 9-6, and a bye, and suddenly looming as a possible September threat.

Further boosting this hypothetical is the nature of their list. Against the Bulldogs, Lachie Neale was in Brownlow form, Eric Hipwood turned in his best game of the year with an equal career-best six goals on Liam Jones, Jarrod Berry should be used as a tagger on the opposition’s best midfielder every week after smothering The Bont, Harris Andrews continues to anchor a solid defence and they have unearthed a beauty in 19-year-old Logan Morris, who showed glimpses of brilliance in just his fifth game.

On top of all this, Charlie Cameron had a shocker – nine disposals and goalless – so they’ve got his return to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Welcome back, Libba

One of the positives on a bleak night for the Bulldogs was the return of Liberatore after a worrying spell out of the game with concussion concerns. Libba threw himself into the fray from the opening bounce, gathering an early possession and doing his best to unsettle the hard tag of Berry on Bontempelli.

In fact, the heart and soul of the Sons of the West might have thrown himself in a little too eagerly. He stepped in with a forceful jumper punch that almost clocked Berry on the chin. “Libba crossed the line and gave away a free kick,” Channel Seven commentator Luke Hodge said. He might also give away some coin if the action is looked upon unfavourably by the MRO. Regardless, it was heartening to see Libba play out the game.

KEY STATS

Lachie Neale spoke to Channel Seven post game.

A big win. Much- needed win. You must be absolutely rapt with the effort down here tonight?

Yeah. I think in the last sort of four or five years after a bye we have been terrible. To come out and perform like we did tonight against a really good team, who’s in form on their home ground was awesome. So proud of the group and Hippy, he set the tone. Unbelievable game off a suspension. Loved his game off a suspension. Loved his game. Yeah. I thought even your young guys, Logan Morris, Bruce Reville, they are showing a lot those guys. It is awesome to be a part of.

I will talk about your midfield. You must be proud. Jarrod Berry’s role on Bontempelli. Five touches to half- time. Collectively, rapt?

Yeah. Absolutely. We have been challenged. I feel like we have set ourselves for the good midfields, some really good midfields like Gold Coast and Melbourne and the Bulldogs. We have got to do it more consistently now. We have let ourselves down in the midfield a few times and let the side down. To come out against who I think’s probably the most talented and best midfield in the comp and deliver is… Was special. Dunk, we know what we get from him. Bez, the last six weeks since he’s played inside has been unreal. His job on Bont was awesome around the middle. Always goes forward and kicks goal. Always goes forward and kicks goal. A superstar, Bont. He kicks three or something in the end. Never going to keep him down for the whole game. I thought Bez’s effort was superb.

Do you feel like the bye’s come at a good time?

Yeah. Fages has been so good throughout this season. After the bye we got together and he showed us some sort of KPI stats. We’re doing a lot of things right. Probably improved in a lot of areas on last year to this point of the year. The wins haven’t come. We have kicked inaccurately in some games. Other games we have just been really poor for a 30-minute match and the game got away from us. We feel like we’re doing a lot right. We have to stick fat. We know our process works when we nail it. It showed tonight. We can play unbelievable footy.

Expectations still to contend?

Yeah. Absolutely. I got full faith in this group we can go all the way. We are still a long way off. A long season.

The Lions season remains alive and they’ve shown plenty of life in the process with an impressive win over the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium.

Lachie Neale was everywhere with 38 touches and two goals while Eric Hipwood equalled a career-high with six goals.

Hipwood has capped off an excellent night by marking one 40m out and booting it home.

They have loved this win.

Lions 107, Dogs 69 with four mins to go.

Bontempelli has booted another goal after some good screening work from Khamis.

But it will matter not. The Lions have this one locked in.

Lions 101, Dogs 69 with six mins to go.