Western Bulldogs key defender Jordan Roughead believes the club has the depth to cover the loss of veteran Dale Morris, who has had surgery to repair a damaged pectoral muscle and is set to miss two months of football.
Morris suffered the injury in the first quarter of the Dogs’ 70-point loss to Hawthorn in Tasmania on Sunday, and will be a massive loss for coach Luke Beveridge and his young side, who’ll take on ladder-leaders Adelaide at Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
While Roughead admits that covering the absence of the 2008 All Australian backman will be difficult, it does give an opportunity to a couple of Doggies’ youngsters.
“He (Morris) has been a central figure to our defence for more than a decade now, so it’s a tough loss for us, but we feel like we’ve got the depth with guys like Fletcher Roberts and Joel Hamling, who are playing some great footy at VFL level,” Roughead told SEN on Thursday.
“Hopefully they can slide back into the team, and hopefully we can get Matthew Boyd (calf) and Easton Wood (hamstring) back as well, and get a defensive six or seven that’s really strong.”
Crows captain Taylor Walker looms as the assignment for Roughead in Round Four, although the Bulldogs’ vice-captain said he was no certainty to take the Adelaide spearhead.
“It’ll be Michael Talia or myself; we’re not really going with direct match-ups at the moment,” Roughead revealed.
“We’re using a defensive mindset that we play on anyone, whoever comes to us. Josh Jenkins is a big boy as well, so we’re going to have to share a bit of time on both of them.”
Midfield star Patrick Dangerfield will be the other man targeted by the Dogs, who are well aware of the rough-arm tactics employed successfully by Melbourne stopper Bernie Vince last week.
A back injury will force Mitch Wallis to miss the clash with the Crows, so the job of blanketing Dangerfield may again fall to the Bulldogs’ regular tagger.
“Any time a team uses a tactic that works, you have to certainly look at it and consider it. Liam Picken is the sort of guy that, anyone from any other club hates him, but he’s one of our most loved teammates, so he might get in there and get the chance (on Dangerfield),” Roughead said.
