In the start, there wasn’t even a coach.
For the first half-century or so of Australian football, the notion of coach was either informal or non-existent. Carlton’s Jack Worrall is considered the VFL’s first coach, creating his post in 1902.
As the game developed, the coach acted as almost the entire football department — expected to manage the list, formulate the strategy, analyse the opposition and motivate the players — all while holding down a full-time job.
Footy is now an “industry”, not just a paid or unpaid weekend hobby, with fully staffed footy departments to boot. The coach might not have an all-encompassing role as they used to, but their celebrity has never been greater.
Most go by mononyms, like pop stars, celebrities or legendary athletes. There’s Clarko and Goody, Horse and Fages. JL and Simmo in the west, and in Adelaide “Ken” only refers to one man.
Perhaps the most oversized of these is Bevo — or Luke Beveridge, the coach of the Western Bulldogs.
Bevo is the most successful coach in the Dogs’ long history, bringing the club success that it only dreamed of for more than a century.
Outside the club, Bevo remains a somewhat polarising figure, especially if you follow the caricature presented by certain members of the media.
This season has presented him with some of his biggest on-field challenges yet. In a league where ideologies are usually set during the off-season, Bevo has had to adjust on the fly to adversity.
The journey of a journeyman
Each off-season, AFL clubs tend to experience the past, present and future all at once. List managers and recruiters look to acquire the next wave of talent. They also help to decide which players aren’t returning.
Analysts and assistant coaches break down what went right and wrong on-field last year, and plan for the coming year.
The senior coach has an eye across all these domains and a club’s direction tends to emerge by the end of summer.
Luke Beveridge was basically born for this role. Bevo was born into a footy world. His grandad Jack was a triple-premiership player for the Pies and his dad John was a legendary recruiter for the Saints.
Beveridge’s coaching journey started as his playing days wound up, in C grade of the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) with St Bede’s/Mentone. He prepared individual video packages in the preseason — unheard of in the VAFA.
Success soon followed. Beveridge and the Tigers won the flag in his first year, a day on which he claimed: “This is the best win I’ve ever been involved with.”
Beveridge became the first VAFA coach in history to coach a club to premierships in C, B and A grades consecutively.
After the third flag, Bevo was nabbed by Collingwood, who ended up winning an AFL premiership in 2010 while he was their development coach. Flags at Hawthorn and, most famously, the Dogs followed.
Regardless of the surrounds, Bevo just kept winning.
Changing tack
The Dogs’ summer strategic thinking set the club on a clear course.
Up forward, a plethora of tall forwards were battling for spots, including Aaron Naughton, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Rory Lobb, Sam Darcy and Josh Bruce.
They decided to start the year with Naughton, Ugle-Hagan, Lobb and Darcy after promising preseason returns.
“We came off the North Melbourne practice match, kicked a really high score — almost 150 points. But we allowed them to kick about 80. We felt that our defensive connection wasn’t where it needed to be. But there was enough in it to go into the season with that template.” Beveridge told the ABC last week.
Going tall presents sides with a clear advantage — usually a mismatch of a tall up forward against a smaller forward — but there’s a clear disadvantage as well.
“Sometimes, depending on the agility and the make-up of your forward line, it’s more difficult once that ball hits the ground to keep it there,” Beveridge said.
Early on, the balance didn’t seem right. The Dogs were leaching points from turnovers in their front half. Teams were able to go the length of the field with ease against the side.
The ability to generate turnovers from short-field intercepts is key in modern footy.
In past years, the Dogs excelled in generating turnovers in the front third of the field, but in the first two rounds that ability had left the side.
“We’ve changed our approach since round two — and it’s working better for us,” Beveridge said.
The Dogs have swarmed opposition sides when the ball has hit the deck, and have effectively set up numbers behind the ball on the turnover.
In general play, the Dogs tend to spread their taller targets horizontally across the field, spacing out the defence.
At times, their three tall forwards become two or even just one, pressing opposition sides for speed.
Going smaller also helps to juice their forward-pressure game, and to create those valuable repeat inside 50s.
It also helps their defensive game, which struggled to start the year.
Down back
The Dogs also made plans during the off-season to shore up a potential weakness — their taller defence.
The Dogs decided to shift Bruce down back to play alongside Liam Jones and ex-Crow Alex Keath as taller defenders.
Over the past two seasons, the Dogs were the worst side for defending one-on-ones, and struggled to prevent opposition marks inside 50 last year.
The Dogs responded by going taller down back. Early on, that helped prevent losing one-on-one battles, but hurt their ability to rebound from defence.
Winning the ball is one thing, but a key driver of their fortunes improving over the last month has been their ability to turn the defence into attack.
“Ultimately you need a really good blend of playing quick and knowing when to build the ball up in a bit of a systematic way,” Beveridge said.
“I think we’re striking a pretty good balance with that.”
The Dogs have increasingly been able to get backline intercepts into the hands of damaging users faster.
Jason Johannisen and Adam Treloar, with their incisive, attacking runs, have been increasingly targeted by teammates to improve transition ball use.
At the same time, the Dogs have been unafraid to slow the pace and revert to the kick-uncontested mark game where required.
“Our intercept game through Liam [Jones], Ed Richards in particular, Alex Keath — I think we are playing a bit better off that,” Beveridge added.
By contrast, some of the more defensive players are doing less post-intercept ball handling.
Injuries to Bruce and Tim O’Brien have helped force the Dogs to play smaller down back, shifting the balance.
This change of focus hasn’t come at the cost of any of their defensive metrics, which are better than years prior.
Under pressure from the press
Like all celebrities, there are tabloids obsessed with the lives of coaches.
Media figures breathlessly report on the circumstances around their lives, relationships and private conversations.
The more sensationalist elements of the footy media have had run-ins with Bevo in the past.
One reporter challenged why Tom Boyd wasn’t playing a year prior to his retirement. Bevo constantly defended his player.
Beveridge has also admittedly overstepped the mark, most notably in his comments to a former Fox Footy journalist.
Beveridge’s father John sums up his biggest strength pretty simply: “I think he makes people feel important, has a good way with people,” John Beveridge told SEN in 2016.
That devotion to his players sometimes sees him clash with others.
Six weeks ago, current colleagues of that former Fox Footy journalist stated that Bevo should no longer be employed as coach of the Dogs.
Since those statements, made on national television, the Dogs have won five of their six games, including wins against three 2022 finalists.
There are still tweaks to be made for the Dogs. While the side wins a lot of ball at stoppages, they have often struggled to score from those opportunities.
One can question the value of football’s hot-take culture and the commentary that surrounds the game without adding value.
Few can question the Dogs’ place among the contenders to play finals footy.
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