Toast Luke Beveridge ... take a bow!

[dogwatch]

Hard to believe we haven't got a general thread about this bloke yet.

He walked into the place in November with morale at a low ebb, the rebuild not only stalled but threatening to go into reverse and the media pumping out stories with headlines like "Crisis at the Kennel". We were universally written off for 2015, and understandably so. We didn't even have a first round draft pick to brighten up our off season. The only bright spot was that we'd landed the big one, Tom Boyd, when we lost our Captain and 200 gamer (Ryley somebody-or-other).

What Bev has achieved in that time is simply astounding. I'll try to keep it to bullet points and welcome others to expatiate on what he has done and - perhaps more interestingly - how he has done it. In short, he has:

• Turned around morale massively. A dispirited list is now playing with expression, joy and great camaraderie.
• Turned around belief, not least among the players. We have landed nearly all the key re-signings much earlier than anyone expected (credit to JMac there as well, of course). You don't re-sign for the long term if you know you're hot property unless you really believe in where your club is heading.
• Turned around our playing style from boring, unimaginative, negative, unproductive to fast, breathtaking, watchable, inventive and - most importantly - effective.
• He has trumped his predecessor in player development. BMac came to the club with a reputation as a first class developer of individual players. He had some modest successes as well as some abject failures. However four weeks into Bev's first season there is hardly a player who hasn't stepped up and is starting to realise his true ability. (Minson might be one, but I'd argue he is still a work in progress.) I'm not saying he has worked one-on-one with all 44 players. It doesn't matter how he has done it - the fact remains they have nearly all maintained or improved on their 2014 form.
• He has introduced game plans and strategies that cover over our weaknesses and make use of our strengths. This is not simply a matter of choosing a few new items from a picklist in the coaching textbook. He has been creative and thoughtful. More importantly he has been able to get a young and inexperienced list executing this game style (which could easily come unstuck) within a few months and with only a few practice games.
• He has been modest (but resolute), plain-speaking and understated. Perhaps not the greatest of his achievements but, by gee, it comes as a welcome change from some of the lines we were regularly served up in 2014.
• He has the WB being talked about as serious contenders for the finals in 2015 when even our one-eyed supporters were realistically saying we might start to push up in 2016 and be a real chance in 2017-2018. Neutral commentators are seeing us as an emerging force for the years ahead. The bandwagon has hardly any seats left.

It's early days I know but he must surely be the outstanding AFL coach for April.

Luke Beveridge ... take a bow!

 

[Unknown Caller]

I said it another thread and I'll say it again.

Brendan McCartney = Matthew Primus
Luke Beveridge = Ken Hinkley

 

[Zeno The Great]

Great post and completely well warranted.

I've always been a little bit of a believer that the coach takes too much heat for the performance of the team, i mean if you don't have the cattle there is not much even the best coach can do, but Bev has really changed my mind and shown me what type of an influence the coach can and should have on a football club.

It is staggering to think where we are today compared to where we were in those 2 days when we lost our captain and coach. Full credit to him and the whole club who have made us all believe again that the sky is truly the limit

 

[dogwatch]

Oh dear (not having a go at you Unknown Caller).

One request: can we PLEASE make this thread about Luke Beveridge and not get into another I-was-right-all-along-about-Macca thread?

I will gladly ask the mods to lock this thread if we go there.

 

[Dogs 13]

I'm wondering if it's not only the players that he's freed up and shown belief in. Has he got the rest of the coaching panel up and firing too instead of being stifled as they may have been in the past.

 

[dogwatch]

I'm wondering if it's not only the players that he's freed up and shown belief in. Has he got the rest of the coaching panel up and firing too instead of being stifled as they may have been in the past.

Good point about the coaching panel. We seldom get a good insight into that.
(But he has them eating whiteboard markers so I guess they will follow him anywhere.)

 

[bresker]

I was a supporter of Bmac but not playing Talia just seems weird now

 

[Dogs 13]

Good point about the coaching panel. We seldom get a good insight into that.
(But he has them eating whiteboard markers so I guess they will follow him anywhere.)

Sniffing them I can understand, but eating not so much.

Hawks 2 and 2 so I guess no Beveridge, no Hawks

 

[Optimistic Dog]

I think from now on I will call him "Red Bull" he is the beverage that as energised the bulldogs

 

[ErnieSigley]

I was a supporter of Bmac but not playing Talia just seems weird now

It's not just Talia.
Johannison is another. Boyd was dropped and starring off hb. Wood the same.
Murphy 3 years back was assigned a lockdown role.
We were playing spuds like Austin and Young.
Our defence looks 10x better.
I understand Roughead is fitter but the difference is night and day.

 

[David Schwarz]

I was a supporter of Bmac but not playing Talia just seems weird now

Same

I'm really wondering just how bad and why it was so regarding the morale of the place last year

Yesterday I was fist pumping around the house for about 5 hours after, Stringer is playing out of his mind!!

 

[womble54]

Went back to mums place to have Sunday dinner last night. Was watching Bev's presso on her computer and she was listening in to it. Her comment: "Geeze, he's a real Aussie isn't he."

Yes mum, yes he is. A real Aussie, a blokes bloke and I'm hells happy he's at the helm of the Dogs

 

[womble54]

I think from now on I will call him "Red Bull" he is the beverage that as energised the bulldogs

Huge username to first 4 rounds correlation. You can stay

 

[Clay]

The team is setting up beautifully around the ground. Who knew you could teach an entitely new game system successfully to a side in one preseason?

 

[boydsno1]

I just love how you can tell he has already fallen in love with the boys. Is quick to defend them and take a swipe at the media. Great start Bevo. His also shown his not afraid to take risks and thinks outside of the box(re-Minson).

 

[Yojimbo]

Great coach, great coaching philosophy and also a
wizard with those tricky income tax questions.

Keep it up Luke, not much difference between
Toast and Toasted. Your'e doing Ayce things
and i'm Boyd by your performance.

 

[Mofra]

His also shown his not afraid to take risks and thinks outside of the box(re-Minson).

Boyd to the HB line is a masterstroke, and he has been brave enough to play Webb off the HB line as well.

 

[boydsno1]

Yep the Boyd moved has worked a treat. His in AA form atm Boyd after many of us thought his time was up last season. Both he and Murphy look like they could easily go on next year.

 

[Chicago1]

"I like the boy."

 

[JJHunter]

A player once told me re McCartney "He has just sucks the fun out of footy".
If he sucked the fun out of footy - Beveridge has got a rocket launcher, piled it with fun and freedom and launched it back into the players, the staff and the members.

He has coached the group according to the talent and skills the players had, rather than trying to turn some guys into the types of players they would never have become.

 

[dogwatch]

He has coached the group according to the talent and skills the players had, rather than trying to turn some guys into the types of players they would never have become.[/QUOTE]

Correct. This is a massive part of how he has done it.

 

[_Mike_]

I think its a matter of Bev understanding the positions suited to the players we have, not like the case with BMac who hoped the players could play in the position he wanted them to play in.

The performance of this team vs the team last year is chalk and cheese.. Remember we were up against Adelaide at qtr time and pissed the game away?

 

[Growlin woof]

So do we thank griffen then? If he said nothing and thought "meh I'll just leave when my contract ends next year" we would still have mcartney, possibly for 3 years! Imagine the exodus that would have been at the end of this year. I despise what he did and how he did it, but really had he done nothing, Macca would be our coach and we would be s**t

 

[Libba39]

Can't heap enough praise on Beveridge.

1. Revamped game style which actually suits our home ground
2. Several players having career best games in the first four rounds
3. Seems like a decent bloke too!

 

[King Harold]

Might seem a silly thing to say , but Bev is a far better age demographic for where we are at.
That plastic nose they used to look at every morning must have been a source of amusement among the younger blokes. ( sorry if not politically correct )

What a job he is doing , I thought he had really lost it at selection with Cordy / Minson , but what would I know ?
Cordy may have been smashed in the ruck , as expected by all , but we win by 9 goals.
it make you feel great to be a Bulldog at the moment .
Time the Church of Beverage got off the ground Vital