Full match coverage and stats<\/a><\/p>\nWith just five rounds remaining it has left them in a precarious position, sitting in ninth on the ladder and a game \u2013 possibly two by the end of the round \u2013 outside of finals contention.<\/p>\n
Although the score was close against the Lions, even Beveridge conceded they were outplayed, conceding 64 inside 50s to 44, with some wayward Brisbane kicking keeping the contest close.<\/p>\n
But the Dogs\u2019 coach said his team had a \u201cglaring\u201d deficiency that continued to rear its head against the best teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came through the middle of the ground too often,\u201d Beveridge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey pulled kicks in there that we need to be able to defend, and that\u2019ll be the one that stands out for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team defence, we need to do it better. It\u2019s too hard to circumvent those scoring opportunities when they go in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs were valiant. They always are.<\/p>\n
Not one of their eight losses has been by more than four goals, and again against the Lions they were relentless, reducing the margin to four points with a minute remaining.<\/p>\n
But Beveridge said it wasn\u2019t enough. That team defence, starting from the contest, needed to be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need your group to be totally committed to certain aspects of the defensive contest and stoppages phases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t do that inconsistently against the better sides, and we\u2019ve done that inconsistently against the better sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ability to score when we\u2019ve got it in the right hands has been pretty good.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got to keep chipping away at the defensive aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liam Jones returned to his key defensive post for the first time in three months, with Beveridge reluctant to delve too deeply into his performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cJonesy had some good moments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t necessarily defuse some of those aerial situations like we needed to. The backs will look at that and Liam will be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
James O\u2019Donnell left the field early in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury, but returned, with Beveridge believing he would be fine to face Essendon next week, a game the Dogs simply must win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe play three (teams) below us and two above us. You\u2019d have to say we\u2019d need to win them all.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Brisbane coach Chris Fagan it was a pleasing result that kept his team in second place ahead of a trip south to face Gold Coast next Saturday.<\/p>\n
He said it would have been a \u201ctravesty\u201d if they lost, being particularly pleased with keeping the highest scoring team in the competition to just 16 scoring shots.<\/p>\n
It was a special night for the Lions, who not only celebrated Hugh McCluggage\u2019s 200th game and farewelled CEO Greg Swann, but also paid tribute to football manager Danny Daly who chalked up 250 games since joining the Lions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn my presentation before the game I had their pictures on it and talked a bit about the great contribution all three have made to our footy club in different ways and that it would be good tonight if we could win because we\u2019d like to give Swanny a Gatorade shower,\u201d Fagan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty important to win for a guy like Hughy, who is such a good team man, and Danny, who is as highly respected as anyone can be at a footy club.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used it, we always do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Bulldogs look dejected after a loss during round 18, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos LUKE Beveridge has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-3402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}