Kane Cornes believes Luke Beveridge is under as much pressure as anybody as we head into the AFL finals series.
The Western Bulldogs coach expressed frustrations in his press conference on Wednesday with the Tom Liberatore hamstring injury news leaking before team selection.
Cornes wonders why Beveridge allows himself to consistently get frustrated by things like this.
“Why does he worry about that? What advantage does he have holding that information for 24 hours? It’s not going to change anything that Fremantle do,” Cornes told SEN’s Whateley.
“I think this year (Beveridge) has been distracted by things that he doesn’t need to worry about.
“I don’t understand why he would be upset about that or if he was upset about it, why he would put that on the public record.”
Cornes believes Beveridge should be under enormous pressure this September, given the talent on the Dogs’ list and their drop off in 2022.
“I think of anyone in this finals series, you can look at Brisbane and you can look at Chris Fagan and their record in finals, I think Dayne Zorko is under significant pressure, Beveridge is probably one for me,” he added.
“The figure under the most pressure this finals series. Eight points up at half-time of the Grand Final last year and lose by 74 points. Fall into the finals on pure luck and on the back of Carlton not being able to get it done in the last month.
“They’ve conceded the 11th most scores in the whole of the competition. They haven’t had a defensive structure that holds up, conceding 82 points per game.
“If you look at their line-up, it is so much stronger on paper than what Fremantle’s is. Pound for pound talent wise, they want for nothing really in this side.
“If they cannot get it done against Fremantle, I think it’s going to be a significant talking point heading into next season and Luke Beveridge’s future. Then you get all the off-field stuff and that’s just another example of the bizarre behaviour he has produced this year.
“He’s under pressure, he’s clearly feeling it and I think they need to perform strongly on Saturday night against Fremantle.”
Given the unavailability of Nathan Fyfe and Matt Taberner, Cornes believes the Dockers lack firepower inside 50 and believes the Dogs simply should be winning this Elimination Final.
“Fremantle’s forward six on paper with Nathan Fyfe and Matt Taberner out, it’s the least talented forward line of the eight teams playing finals,” he said.
“They’re going to win this game off the back of their defensive structures and their ability to get after the opposition with their small forwards and turn it over in their front half, but it’s not going to be on the back of someone kicking a bag.
“It’s going to be Rory Lobb or bust and then you surround him with smalls.
“The Western Bulldogs should be winning this game of footy. The only reason Fremantle will win it is because they have a sounder coaching group that has implemented a better defensive structure that makes them really difficult to score against – the third least scored against in the competition this year.
“It’s going to be a dour affair, I think it is going to be a low scoring game, and with the talent the Bulldogs have in their line-up there’s really no excuse not to beat Fremantle with the players they’ve got out.”
