{"id":626622,"date":"2026-04-23T22:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626622\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:31:10","slug":"luke-beveridge-press-conference-video-western-bulldogs-vs-sydney-swans-aaron-naughton-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626622\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Beveridge press conference, video, Western Bulldogs vs Sydney Swans, Aaron Naughton injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luke Beveridge conceded that not enough senior players impacted the game on Thursday night, as his Western Bulldogs were subject to more injury pain<\/a> in the form of Aaron Naughton\u2019s sickening fall. <\/p>\n

The Dogs went down to Sydney by 66 points at Marvel Stadium after fading badly, coughing up 11 second-half goals as waning skill level and composure cost the home side. <\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the tone of the second half was set when spearhead forward Aaron Naughton suffered a neck injury in a scary-looking marking contest in the third quarter. <\/p>\n

The key forward\u2019s body was incidentally upended mid-air as he attempted to mark, and he was awkwardly twisted upon landing after coming down head-first. <\/p>\n

Promisingly, though, the high-marking left-footer has seemingly avoided serious injury and even concussion, but he\u2019s likely set for some time on the sidelines, one week after his forward-line running mate Sam Darcy ruptured his ACL. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to go home now, and he\u2019ll have his neck looked at tomorrow. We\u2019ll get back to you on that,\u201d Beveridge told reporters post-match of Naughton\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe appears to have strained down that side of his neck from the incident or occurrence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bright side is there\u2019s no sign of concussion, but we\u2019ll have to report in once we get something more definitive from a scan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked how his side rallied after a second draining injury in as many weeks, Beveridge told reporters: \u201cIt\u2019s been an interesting couple of weeks of that, hasn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Curnow’s fantastic four 1st half goals | 01:14<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a disparity in many things in the game tonight. We started off the game in good fashion, and the things we spoke about beforehand came to the fore.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as the night went on, we probably needed our more experienced players really influencing the game. Obviously, Marcus (Bontempelli) was; we didn\u2019t have enough elsewhere. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut they (the Swans) were just more vibrant. Their speed, their work across the ground, they pressured us into aspects of the game that you don\u2019t want to be accustomed to, and it just turned really, really ugly for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE AFL COVERAGE:<\/p>\n

FULL DOGS-SWANS FALLOUT: \u2018Sickening\u2019 fall shocks AFL as Swans stamp flag credentials with recruit\u2019s seventh heaven<\/a><\/p>\n

TIGER TROUBLES: What should be the AFL\u2019s perfect rebuild has stumbled. A \u2018promise\u2019 proves it can still pay off<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER\u2019: Veteran host stunned by \u2018gross overreach\u2019 in slur ban reduction<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dogs conceded 15 back-half turnovers in the last quarter alone, as the Swans piled on six more goals to round off the dominant victory. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s (about) skill, it\u2019s composure, it\u2019s fatigue, many things. We\u2019ve got to work through that together and remain optimistic,\u201d Beveridge said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just said to the players \u2014 I\u2019m not a coach who won\u2019t talk to their players after a difficult loss, because it is difficult to know what to say \u2014 but my message to them was \u2018we\u2019re here to support you, we\u2019re here to look for the best version of ourselves\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd whether that\u2019s next week or in six weeks\u2019 time, who knows? But we\u2019ve just got to deal with the injury toll, encourage and help the boys believe that they\u2019re good enough to be in a winning Western Bulldogs team. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last few weeks it hasn\u2019t been that, but who knows, it could be the following \u2026 there was a pride in what we were doing, but it fell apart, and that\u2019s concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blakey dishes out FIERY bump | 00:24<\/p>\n

Things aren\u2019t about to get any easier on the injury front, with Beveridge unable to provide optimism on the chances of Tim English (knee), Tom Liberatore (concussion) or Rory Lobb (hamstring) returning next week. <\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t really give you anything definitive on either (English nor Liberatore),\u201d Beveridge said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTim didn\u2019t move too well the other day, so I wouldn\u2019t think that he\u2019s available next week, and we\u2019ll tread really carefully with Tom. I\u2019m not sure whether he\u2019s available next week. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Lobb) will be out for a while, he\u2019ll be out for a month. He and James (O\u2019Donnell) will be out for a little while. <\/p>\n

\u201c(Lobb) got through a bit of training, felt OK, he felt it in another spot a bit lower down, so we scanned it again and something showed up that was a bit risky, so we\u2019ll need to be conservative with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

They all join Connor Budarick, Riley Garcia, Arty Jones and Cody Weightman on the sidelines, as the Dogs now prepare to play Fremantle in Round 8. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Beveridge conceded that not enough senior players impacted the game on Thursday night, as his Western Bulldogs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[19060,638,64,63,689,55,639,303611,303608,303613,303609,4490,3231,47573,663,17290,79834,673,677,668,19055,12105,303610,17989,303612,85,670,7200,19065,303614,698],"class_list":{"0":"post-626622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-aaron-naughton","9":"tag-afl","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-australian-football-league","14":"tag-australianfootballleague","15":"tag-bright-side","16":"tag-cody-weightman","17":"tag-draining-injury","18":"tag-forward-line-running-mate","19":"tag-injury-toll","20":"tag-jack-jovanovski","21":"tag-james","22":"tag-luke-beveridge","23":"tag-marking-contest","24":"tag-neck-injury","25":"tag-new-south-wales","26":"tag-oceania","27":"tag-press-conference","28":"tag-riley-garcia","29":"tag-sam-darcy","30":"tag-scary-looking-marking-contest","31":"tag-senior-players","32":"tag-sickening-fall","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-sydney","35":"tag-sydney-swans","36":"tag-tom-liberatore","37":"tag-waning-skill-level","38":"tag-western-bulldogs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626622","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=626622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}