{"id":643349,"date":"2026-05-01T19:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/643349\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T19:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T19:21:24","slug":"afl-round-eight-2026-scores-results-odds-stats-and-start-time-from-adelaide-oval-in-adelaide-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/643349\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL round eight 2026, scores, results, odds, stats and start time from Adelaide Oval in Adelaide"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Luke Beveridge will contemplate resting beaten-up skipper Marcus Bontempelli after their 12-point loss to Fremantle despite the Bulldogs midfield being severely depleted by injuries.<\/p>\n

Bontempelli was huge against the Dockers at Marvel Stadium, dominating the opening term with 15 possessions and finishing the night with 33 disposals and two goals.<\/p>\n

\"WearingWearing some blows: Western Bulldogs champion Marcus Bontempelli.AFL Photos<\/p>\n

But the brave skipper had his right knee heavily bandaged and looked to be hobbling at stages of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cPositionally, our depth through that area is strained,\u201d Beveridge said.<\/p>\n

Tom Liberatore is expected to have minor knee surgery as he also deals with a concussion, while the injury-plagued Adam Treloar has suffered another setback and his availability is \u201ctenuous\u201d.<\/p>\n

It would be nice to be able to do that (rest Bontempelli), but we\u2019re not in a position to \u2013 look, I think quite simply with Marcus we might need to arrest him this week. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we won\u2019t take any risk if we think he\u2019s going to get sore, or he\u2019s going to re-injure something. I mean, he was quite outstanding for most of the game tonight \u2026 I saw him limp a bit as a game went on, and don\u2019t like to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur depth through that midfield area is pretty thin right now, even with Riley Garcia still some weeks away, and Cody Weightman can play some minutes there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice to be able to do that (rest Bontempelli), but we\u2019re not in a position to \u2013 look, I think quite simply with Marcus we might need to arrest him this week. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we won\u2019t take any risk if we think he\u2019s going to get sore, or he\u2019s going to re-injure something. I mean, he was quite outstanding for most of the game tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw him limp a bit as a game went on, and don\u2019t like to see that. So we\u2019ll work through it during the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beveridge said the Bulldogs would lose Laitham Vandermeer with a hamstring complaint, and they were working through Treloar\u2019s latest setback after he returned for last week\u2019s clash against Sydney only to miss this week.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs\u2019 team selection said Treloar had been managed for the Dockers clash.<\/p>\n

\"MarcusMarcus Bontempelli.AFL Photos<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just given him a few days,\u201d Beveridge said. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating for him. His body\u2019s letting him down a little bit. And I can\u2019t really give you much more than that at the moment.<\/p>\n

Beveridge was pleased by the Bulldogs\u2019 ability to take it up to the more fancied Dockers, but said his side could not gain enough momentum in the second half.<\/p>\n

They led by 26 points at quarter time and 14 points at half-time, but lost by two goals after rallying again late in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came through us a few times and kicked a few too many from forward 50,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t afford to give them 63 inside 50s tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir gave his players a spray at quarter-time to rouse them into action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis felt like a danger game to me,\u201d Longmuir said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of talk about the Bulldogs, how many injuries they\u2019ve got, their form, they were wounded and early in the week [Tim] English not playing, [Aaron] Naughton not playing, it just felt like a danger game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to make them really aware of the intensity and the desperation that the Dogs were going to play at and we weren\u2019t up for the fight. We were sloppy as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AFL review system came under fire during the third term when the umpires looked to incorrectly award a last-touch free kick to the wrong team.<\/p>\n

The ball appeared to come off the boot of Bulldog Lachie McNeil before crossing the boundary line, but the free kick was paid against Fremantle\u2019s Andrew Brayshaw. It resulted in a Bulldog goal.<\/p>\n

Lately the ARC system was being used to overturn these decisions<\/a>. That has now been changed.<\/p>\n

Brayshaw was again in the spotlight when he went to high five teammate Josh Treacy after kicking a last-quarter goal, but poked his teammate in the eye, and he had to leave the field for 10 minutes.
At the time, Fremantle were 28 points up and the Dogs kicked the next three goals.<\/p>\n

The highlight of the night came from Docker Hayden Young who kicked a goal-of-the-year contender with a brilliant 35m left-foot banana from the boundary line.<\/p>\n

Young kicked three second-half goal and along with Shai Bolton and Luke Jackson sparked the Fremantle comeback. They have now won seven straight and face Hawthorn on Thursday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luke Beveridge will contemplate resting beaten-up skipper Marcus Bontempelli after their 12-point loss to Fremantle despite the Bulldogs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-643349","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\/643349","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=643349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}