Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge isn’t “paranoid” about taking his Ferrari off road.
The tweak to the centre ball-up rules and prospect of PCL knee-on-knee injuries won’t deviate the Bulldogs from using ace big man Sam Darcy in the ruck.
Darcy pulled up lame from the State of Origin game and did not train on Thursday before the Dogs’ Opening Round blockbuster with Brisbane Lions.
Beveridge says throwing Darcy in the ruck isn’t a concern but says his players are wrestling with the pros and cons of protective measures.
“I am not paranoid about PCL injuries and these sorts of things, but one of the practical challenges is the lads who are going in there are weighing up whether or not they put a shin pad on,” he said.
“When you’re playing key forward, or even as a key defender because we used Lobby a bit last year as a ruckman as well, you don’t really want to be running around in your areas with a shin pad if you don’t need to.
“That’s probably the only headache it’s caused as far as preparation goes. I am not concerned about the other stuff (Darcy getting hurt).
“I have said it about the AFL before, I think they’ve flinched too often in the past where something’s happened and they just change it.
“You need a pattern of things to happen for a consideration of change, again, we just started with it. Players will get injured, but they will get injured all around the ground.
“It takes a lot of courage for ruckman to do what they do, but if you ask Simon Madden, ask Steve O’Dwyer, ask the great jumpers of yesteryear and they’ll just say ‘toughen up’, won’t they? I am not worried about it.”
Darcy is widely expected to take the competition by storm this year and some even consider him a chance to nudge a century of goals.
The dynamic tall kicked 48 goals across 17 games in a breakout 2025 season.
The ever-honest Beveridge disagrees with certain parts of the Darcy hype, saying the idea of his forward reaching triple figures is “fantasy land”.
“(Darcy) was having a strong pre-season until (State of Origin), we looked after him to make sure he could play full noise in the rep game,” he said.
“He came out of that game a bit sore, so he’s had some interruption and hasn’t played since then and he’s missed some training.
“His last month has been a spluttering month, so that’s not ideal … the outcomes as far as goals go, Aaron (Naughton) kicked 60 last year and no one’s really talking about him.
“Aaron created a lot of opportunities for players and Sam will as well; our push is just that he’s just a huge threat that creates huge headaches for the opposition.
“I think the talk around 100 goals, how many goals he will kick, I think it’s a bit fanciful.
“Twenty-three games and Sam, I’d predict he won’t play 23 games before you might be able to talk about a finals series if you earn the right.
“One-hundred goals is fantasy land for me … he’ll kick a lot but a bit like our backs and pressure, the supply routes are critical.”
Originally published as AFL: Luke Beveridge dismisses Sam Darcy 100-goal talk as ‘fantasy land’