Winning coach Luke Beveridge described Thursday night’s 60-point victory over St Kilda as a promising rebound following a challenging week, following their loss to Essendon in round five.
“Obviously (we were) on the canvas a bit during the week after what happened last Friday night, so to start so emphatically was encouraging,” Beveridge said in his post-match press conference.
The key focus throughout the week was rallying the group to function as a cohesive unit.
“After last week we had a good chat after the game and there’s a real closeness within our football club and the theme, really, from the players was stick together,” he said.
Aaron Naughton showcased dominance in attack, securing six goals for the game, with three in the opening quarter.
“We’re all pleased for him. He doesn’t covet necessarily kicking half a dozen like he did. He does all the team things, he competes like there’s no tomorrow and I love the fact that he’s able to get some reward for himself,” Beveridge said.
“He’s such an important player for us.”
While Jamarra Ugle-Hagan’s return remains uncertain due to personal reasons, Beveridge expressed optimism about Tom Liberatore’s availability for the next week’s game against Fremantle in Perth.
“I think Tom’s fine,” Beveridge said.
“The thing about post-game last week, and this is the challenging thing with delayed effects (of concussion) … you hesitate to comment really, because at the time even though he’s sort of been cleared, if something’s happened you’re probably better off saying ‘oh, let’s give it a couple of days and report back to you’.”
Regarding Laitham Vandermeer, who was subbed out of the game in the third quarter after sustaining a head knock, Beveridge suggested a similar cautious approach.
“We thought he was fine, he thought he was fine. He got hit pretty hard but he bounced up pretty quickly, so they just wanted to check him out,” Beveridge said.
“They needed to test him and that’s why we subbed him out because it was going to take 15 minutes … as it stands, he passed the test, but Tom passed the test last week. So all I’ll say is he’s passed the test.”