{"id":622489,"date":"2026-04-22T00:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622489\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T00:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:47:13","slug":"that-was-then-this-is-now-bulldogs-famous-flag-wont-impact-fresh-tilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622489\/","title":{"rendered":"‘That was then, this is now’: Bulldogs’ famous flag won’t impact fresh tilt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Beveridge sees no point comparing his current Western Bulldogs outfit to celebrated teams of the past.<\/p>\n

Amid an injury crisis that threatens to derail his side’s premiership bid, the experienced coach has more pressing matters to deal with.<\/p>\n

But the 10-year anniversary of the Bulldogs’ drought-breaking 2016 flag is nevertheless cause for reflection for a club that has endured plenty of dark times in between successes.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

“When you create a memory like that for your supporter base and for each other, you’ve got to celebrate it when the time comes,” Beveridge said this week.<\/p>\n

“That’s the thing about the game; it’s togetherness and the relationships that underpin the best performances.<\/p>\n

“That’s what happened during that period of time.”<\/p>\n

The heroes of 2016 will come together for a premiership reunion when the Bulldogs host Sydney at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Only two of those players remain active with the Dogs, though a sore knee casts a shadow over Marcus Bontempelli’s availability and Tom Liberatore is sidelined under concussion protocols.<\/p>\n

They were part of a team that famously rose from seventh and won four cut-throat finals — a feat not achieved before or since — to snare their club’s second AFL\/VFL premiership.<\/p>\n

“It was a special group, a special team, that played for each other and played on the edge — no quarter given,” Beveridge said.<\/p>\n

“They inspired all of us and it’s just a great memory and it’s important for our people to celebrate that — definitely the players that played in it.<\/p>\n

“And I imagine that as time goes on they’ll probably celebrate it a bit harder if they’re not playing.”<\/p>\n

STAY IN THE KNOW WITH ESPN<\/p>\n

Stay across all the big sports news — sign up to our weekly newsletters here!<\/p>\n

SUBSCRIBE<\/p>\n

But that’s where Beveridge draws a line, with no tales of 2016 to be used as inspiration in his preparation for another battle with Sydney.<\/p>\n

Liam Picken, Easton Wood, Shane Biggs and co can recount their stories in another forum.<\/p>\n

“That was then, this is now. I don’t believe in trying to measure up to a team historically,” Beveridge said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never done it … it’s always looking internally and trying to authenticate what you’re doing together.”<\/p>\n

Sydney (5-1) sit on top of the ladder, while the undermanned Bulldogs (4-2) are on a two-match losing skid and were “flattened” last week by the loss of Sam Darcy to a season-ending knee injury.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had time, we’ve spun out of that, and by the time we get to the game we’ll be ready to play,” Beveridge said.<\/p>\n

“Sydney have been impressive, so it’s going to be no less a task than what we’ve been facing.<\/p>\n

“It won’t be any concerns around the valour that the players need to present to play against the Swans.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Beveridge sees no point comparing his current Western Bulldogs outfit to celebrated teams of the past. Amid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-622489","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"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622489","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=622489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}