Western Bulldogs midfielder Tom Liberatore is having a career season in 2023.
While the 30-year-old is a premiership player and best and fairest winner, the on-baller is thriving with a bigger role this campaign.
Liberatore’s best game of the season so far might have been against Carlton in Round 9 as he was best afield with 26 disposals, nine tackles, 13 clearances and a critical last-quarter goal in the tight win.
Looking at Champion Data player ratings, SEN’s David King revealed that Liberatore is the highest-rated player across the last month and the second-highest-rated player so far this season, just behind his captain Marcus Bontempelli.
“It (the highest-rated player last month) is Libba (Liberatore) which is terrific,” King told SEN Whateley.
“You look across the course of the season, Bont (Marcus Bontempelli) is number one (with a 19.89 rating), Libba is number two (with an 18.09 rating) and Tim English is number five (with a 16.12 rating) in the competition (in terms of player ratings).
“So that sort of snuck up on me a little bit, I knew that English was having a good year, he does it in different ways.
“But for Libba to be back and this player (is impressive).”
While the Bulldogs were disappointed to lose star midfielder Josh Dunkley to Brisbane in the off-season, King pondered whether his absence has made the Dogs a better side with Bontempelli and Liberatore having increased roles.
“I keep looking at the Dogs and asking the question, ‘Are they better after Dunkley's exit?’, you can have a win-win, we’re not denigrating the fact that he's not there,” King explained.
“But what it's done has challenged Bont to be a better clearance player and it's given Libba opportunity.
“Last year he was playing half-forward at the start of the season, so he’s regenerated.
“He's a killer, I would love to play with Libba, on and off field because I just think he brings an energy, and he brings a passion that's all consuming and drags others along.
“Like you got Arthur Jones trying to match Libba's intensity and that's because you see it, you’ve got to match it.
“So, what he's doing is quite brilliant.”
SEN’s Gerard Whateley agreed with King that Bulldogs players are beginning to match their star leaders in terms of output.
With Bontempelli a dominant force all season, Whateley is seeing younger teammates follow in his and Liberatore’s lead.
“So, I thought the see it, match it, was there,” Whateley said.
“Bontempelli has had those games this season where, ‘Hey, we're not walking off this field without victory’, then in the last 10 minutes, he didn't have to do it this time.
“They embodied the almost that mantra that he'd given them, they'd watched him do it and other players rose to meet (his performances).
“We would have totally forgiven the Bulldogs if they'd got overrun at the end there, they'd been on the road three out of four (games).
“They'd played some really gruelling footy in tough conditions.
“They were playing against the team with that heightened emotional charge and they'd led for most of the night.
“If they'd got rolled over by a goal or two at the end, we would have gone, ‘Yeah, that's the price of doing business’.
“But no, they got headed twice, they stood against it.
“It was a different set of players (that won the game).
“I just think that tells you everything you need to know about the Bulldogs this year.”
The Bulldogs will hope to win their fifth consecutive game when they host Adelaide in a huge clash at Mars Stadium in Ballarat on Saturday.