Coming off a pre-season interrupted by injury, Keath should improve with match practice, but the clock is ticking.
The Dogs are far from settled for their second tall back, with Ryan Gardner and Zaine Cordy filling the role at stages. Cordy has also spent time in the ruck while Gardner, dropped for last year’s grand final, is yet to show he is a long-term defender in his 23 games.
Beveridge is protective of his defenders, apportioning fault elsewhere. He is of the view his backs were opened up by contests lost higher up the ground.
“If you have a look at how those goals were kicked, all the ones last week, they weren’t contested marks,” Beveridge said. “They were all in space leads, McKay may have taken one contested mark.”
McKay clunked five, though Beveridge’s broader point still applies.
“It’s sort of a bit of a moot point when it comes to that one v one,” Beveridge said. “Ultimately what happened last week was we let ball through some contests that they kicked to easily, got through and they just saw an open forward line.
“It’s very, very difficult to defend those circumstances. We’re going to minimise that.
“I’m not overly concerned. I back our boys in there, they’ll do a better job if they get pressure on the ball.”
The key then rests with their vaunted midfield, which is stacked with blue ribbon rather than blue collar and can leave their backs open when they do not win possession.
“There was some centre-bounce stuff that we didn’t get right that they had some really good looks,” Beveridge said.
“In open field, it’s very, very hard to stop those again. So we tidy up the centre bounce a bit. We halve or win some more of those defensive longer balls and it will help our key defenders out enormously, and we’ll aim to achieve that this week.”
Dogs backs exposed as Buddy test awaits
Source: Philippines Alive
