Travelling emergency Murphy no AFL mystery

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says he's playing a game of selection 'Jenga' ahead of his trip to face AFL opponents Brisbane.

Robert Murphy

Bob Murphy is a 'travelling emergency' for the Western Bulldogs in their AFL clash with Brisbane. (AAP)

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge admits he's invented a new AFL phrase by declaring Bob Murphy a "travelling emergency" for Saturday's clash with Brisbane.

Murphy's odd listing as one of the two outs, alongside Tory Dickson (quad), turned heads.

But it's no linguistic trick. Beveridge meant exactly what he said.

Sore bodies in the 22, two six-day breaks and a VFL bye mean Murphy is on standby to face the Lions.

Beveridge doesn't want to use his captain, but will leave a call right up to the first bounce.

"The 22 will warm up together and, if we need him, he'll play.

" He was very, very good last week ... he's definitely not omitted but we've decided we might as well give him this week off and go into next Friday feeling fresh.

"This is a really important game for us so we'll definitely take him up and he (might) play. We went with what his status is, not why . We've probably invented some terminology."

Beveridge might have strayed into even more-confusing territory, equating the challenge of picking an injury-hit team - and playing opponents - to a board game.

"It's almost like playing Jenga," he said.

"You've got to stack the blocks up again and play the whole game again. Pull the blocks out, take your risks and have a steady hand when you need it.

"The Jenga blocks only stack up so high, don't they? Every week, clubs try and pull each other apart like the Jenga tower.

"Brisbane will be trying to do that with us."

Jack Redpath and Clay Smith - both suspended last week - come into the Bulldogs' side who beat Essendon by 30 points on Sunday to fire up their premiership defence.

The big games keep coming for the ninth-placed Bulldogs.

Home matches with GWS, Port Adelaide and Hawthorn follow their Brisbane trip.

But the Bulldogs know not to underestimate Chris Fagan's bottom-placed Lions at the Gabba.

"They've made some real inroads with Fages," Beveridge said.

"We were 38 points down against them when we played earlier in the year and we needed a big swing to win that game. We'll endeavour to make sure we won't be down by that much again."

Beveridge said forward Tom Boyd, who hadn't played since round 13, was back in full-time training and could return "in the next couple of weeks".


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Source: AAP



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