AFL Finals 2024: Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge flat after elimination final defeat to Hawthorn

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AFL Finals 2024: Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge flat after elimination final defeat to Hawthorn

A flat Luke Beveridge has lamented the Bulldogs’ midfield’s inability to win territory as his side was booted out of the finals race by Hawthorn.

In their first final inside the AFL’s heartland since the epic 2016 grand final fairytale, the Bulldogs were completely outplayed by a young and stylish Hawthorn side after quarter-time of the second elimination final.

They had 20 fewer inside 50s and were beaten in the disposal count by 84, with star Marcus Bontempelli all but irrelevant with just 18 disposals, half of those coming in the last quarter when the contest was already decided.

Adam Treloar was the best of the Dogs mids with 28 disposals and six clearances, but Beveridge knows it was a bad time for his engine room to have a bad day.

“You ask yourself the question, how much of it is Hawthorn and how much of it is us, and I’d say a bit of both (tonight),” he said post-match.

“With their transition and movement up the ground, we had to make an adjustment ourselves and had to take a number away from the stoppage. We needed to counter-balance all of that, but unfortunately, with about eight or nine minutes to go in the last quarter, I think we only had 35 forward entries.

“We picked a night against a really good side to not be able to see it through after the first quarter, and it told. It’s not a great way to finish the year.

“We didn’t have any great influence through (the middle), and from the rucks through to that brigade, it didn’t happen for us.

“We couldn’t get any consistent territory. Everything we’d been pretty good at (all year), they went away from us.

“Credit to (Hawthorn), they looked slick across the ground, and they put us under enormous pressure; we didn’t cope with it, and they rightly won the game.”

Beveridge faced intense pressure on his position as head coach during the season but alleviated that by guiding the Dogs back to September.

But after a meek 37-point loss, his role could come back under the microscope again.

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