Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge remains in the dark over the extent of a last quarter injury to star Ed Richards, before conceding his side “lowered their colours” in their 40-point loss to Hawthorn on Saturday night.
The 26-year-old midfielder was aided off the ground by trainers with just over eight minutes to play in the Gather Round contest, visibly grimacing on his way to the interchange after a nasty ankle roll.
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Richards’ injury comes just six days after he was a late out against Essendon on Easter Sunday with a different complaint regarding his knee tendon, and on top of Tim English’s MCL injury in the same fixture last weekend.
“We don’t know the extent of it yet. We’ll have a look at it through the imaging and get back to you,” Beveridge told journalists post-game.
“We’re just hoping that it’s not too bad, but I can’t give you anything until the medical staff give us something definitive.”
It leaves Beveridge almost certainly without two of his starting four midfield stars against Geelong in six days time at GMHBA Stadium, with English’s absence forcing a brutal debut for 19-year-old Louis Emmett.
The pick No.27 from last year’s draft did his best to combat the physical presence of Hawthorn’s Lloyd Meek and Ned Reeves, but by full time the Bulldogs only registered three hitouts to advantage — all of which came in the second half.
Richards OFF! Superstar leaves injured | 00:39
“We knew that (ruck) was going to be our most serious challenge. It’s where they’ve beaten us in the past. Obviously the ruck situation was tenterhooks,” Beveridge continued.
“I thought we did reasonably well to influence their stuff out of centre bounce. We kicked 1.5 or 1.6 out of centre bounce, and we didn’t give up any scores — that was a real focus before the game to at least make sure we weren’t under too much duress there.
“But, to give up six goals from our defensive 50 stoppages is unheard of for us; it’s really poor. You’d have to say it was the most significant aspect of the scoring for either team. Regardless of whether or not Tim’s in the ruck week-to-week, we shouldn’t be giving up that kind of score.
“It didn’t matter whether it was Louie Emmett, Jordan Croft or Rory Lobb in there; those two lads (Reeves and Meek) had 21 hitouts to advantage to our three.
“I thought the (midfield) boys did reasonably well when you consider how many hitouts to advantage they had. It highlights the importance of that part of the game at times if you’ve got ruckmen who have some dominance — I know our midfielders crave it.
“On a night, as I said, we lowered our colours at the contest at most stages, you’d think the scoreline would be even worse with that going on.”
The Bulldogs at one stage trailed by 44 points in the third term, before kicking three goals in quick succession to hint at a miraculous second-half comeback.
Ultimately though, the Dogs’ inaccuracy in front of goal and work at centre clearance cost them any real chance of maintaining their undefeated win-loss record heading into Round 6.
“I was really pleased in the third quarter that, under significant duress, that our players dug in and just gave us a chance for about 15 minutes … that was a really good sign for the boys, and then we just couldn’t sustain that unfortunately,” Beveridge said.
“We probably missed a couple that we should’ve kicked, just to get within a couple goals … credit to Hawthorn.
“It’s a work in progress to stay consistent week-to-week, and tonight we definitely lowered our colours.”
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