Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge insists the decision to manage Cody Weightman and Aaron Naughton for Friday night's loss to Fremantle wasn't a conservative move, saying his team came to Perth with the intent to win.
Weightman has played just six games this season in his return from a rare congenital knee defect, while Naughton's absence against the Dockers was the first game he had missed in 2026.
The duo's absence against Fremantle was heavily felt with the Bulldogs scoring a season-low 41 points in a 37-point loss in Perth.
Beveridge denied he had effectively raised the white flag by managing the duo in the 11.12 (78) to 5.11 (41) defeat.
"Both have been a bit sore, and off the shorter turnarounds it's a difficult thing," Beveridge said.
"But it definitely wasn't a conservative thing where you're looking after them because you're worried about the next week.
"Like, why would you do that against the top team? And we definitely didn't want to concede.
"We came here to win the game. I know it was first versus seventh at the start of the round, but we came here based off last time we played them being in the game sniffing out a victory.
"So we definitely didn't rest them because we felt it was any sort of free hit where we give someone else a chance. We didn't do that."
"We didn't plan to play like that... it wasn't by design that we had saturation of numbers behind the ball."
— AFL (@AFL) July 31, 2026
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge discusses his side's loss to Fremantle.#AFLFreoDogs pic.twitter.com/FRuSylhSav
Beveridge isn't sure whether the duo will be available for next Thursday's crunch clash with North Melbourne.
"Cody's still a bit sore," Beveridge said.
"He's dealing with significant discomfort and we just felt like he's too impeded, and we needed to give him (a week) off.
"And Naughts has just been dealing with some sort of (quad) stuff over the last few weeks, so it won't do him any harm. But we'll see how he goes."
Beveridge also denied he had employed flooding tactics, saying his players were simply forced to defend for long periods due to Fremantle's territorial dominance.
The defeat to Fremantle left the Bulldogs with a 12-8 record, meaning Beveridge's men may need to beat North, Carlton and Melbourne if they are to snare a top-six berth instead of going through the AFL's new wildcard round.
