The Western Bulldogs escape injury catastrophe against Charlie Curnow and the Sydney Swans after a horrifying fall by Aaron Naughton, but the nightmare isn’t over for Luke Beveridge and his men yet
Western Bulldogs optimist Aaron Naughton avoided serious neck injury after a sickening fall in their 11-goal match against Sydney, but the club’s injury crisis has only gotten worse.
Naughton will have a scan on his neck on Friday and although he showed no signs of concussion immediately after the Dogs’ final knock at Marvel Stadium, he is a doubt to face Fremantle next week.
The Dogs suffered yet another setback with key defender Rory Lobb suffering a worse hamstring injury than initially thought, which would keep him out of action for a month. Meanwhile, outcast Tim English is expected to miss at least one more match.
The Dogs, who were at the top of the standings about two weeks ago and are struggling with injuries, are a shadow of the team that was the last team to taste defeat this season and have now lost their last three games by a total of 181 points.
The Swans took advantage of the huge gaps created by the Bulldogs’ injuries. A week after Geelong star Jeremy Cameron kicked 10 goals against inadequate defence, he missed Lobb and James O’Donnell, while Charlie Curnow and Joel Amartey kicked seven and three goals respectively.
This duo was way too good for the undersized Buku Khamis and Ryan Gardner; Ryan Gardner was playing just his second senior game since late 2023.
Ruckman Brodie Grundy took advantage of English’s absence with 35 appearances, 18 caps and two goals.
Naughton fell on his head and neck after tumbling in the air while trying to pass a high point to Jai Serong deep in the Bulldogs’ forward line in the third quarter. He was tended to by medical staff who fitted a neck brace before he was taken from the race to rooms below on a motorized stretcher.
He was walking around the rooms after the game without wearing a brace, but was expected to spend Thursday night with his family.
“He will go home now and his neck will be checked tomorrow. [we’ll] “We’ll get back to you on that,” Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said. “He looks tight on that side of his neck from the incident.
“On the bright side, there are no signs of concussion, but we’ll have to report back once we get a more definitive result from the scan.”
Naughton’s injury comes a week after Sam Darcy suffered a season-ending ACL tear. Without their twin towers in attack, the Dogs finished the game with a pair of third players in Will Lewis and Louis Emmett filling the key forward positions.
The Dogs had held out hope that Lobb would be ready to face the Swans, but during training during the week he felt pain elsewhere in his hamstring and was sent for further scans, which revealed a more serious injury.
“Something has come up that is a bit risky and so we will have to be cautious with it,” Beveridge said.
“The first signs were that he was knocking on the door, [and] He’s bleeding a little, probably from that. But then he felt some discomfort at another spot, so we went out to look and discovered something that could have turned into something worse. “He will also be away from the field for a month.”
Beveridge said English had not progressed well in training, “so I don’t think he will be available next week.”
The Bulldogs got off to a flying start with the first three goals of the match and trailed by just 13 points at the long break but suffered a major slump in the second half.
Captain Marcus Bontempelli addressed the players in the rooms for approximately five minutes after the match; It’s the night he and his 2016 premiership team-mates will celebrate the 10th anniversary of victory over Sydney that year. He became visibly frustrated during Thursday night’s game, having a heated argument with Matt Kennedy on the field after the half-time siren and also raising his voice as he led his players off the field for the break.
Kennedy (15 disposals) and Ed Richards (18) were among the senior Dogs with nights off.
“He is an influencer, an authority, a strong character and he wants to take people along,” Beveridge said of his captain. “Whoever plays him has high expectations.
“He wants something now and he’s trying to get it. We all need to understand what we can influence and control, and he’s working on that in his leadership capacity.”
“He is always tremendously supportive of his teammates, but on nights like this there would always be an element of frustration with everything and everyone, and he probably feels some of that too.”
Injuries to his stars have exposed the depth of the Dogs’ list, forcing Beveridge to play with eight players with less than 15 games of experience.
Jedd Busslinger has the difficult task of convincing young cubs like Lewis and Emmett that they can contribute to the Bulldogs’ victories, but he knows full well that his team has been significantly weakened by a long injury list.
“I think it comes down to two key words: capacity and talent,” Beveridge said. “We have a lot of kids who haven’t played a lot of football yet and they’re just learning what AFL football is all about.
“Form eventually becomes connected to these things.
“And sometimes that comes down to inexperience. You still need your more experienced players to give you a little bit more of a chance and we didn’t have enough of an impact there tonight.”
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