As the AFL finals race reaches a fever pitch, the Western Bulldogs have delivered a major boost to their premiership hopes, confirming star big men Aaron Naughton and Tim English are on track to take the field against Collingwood in Friday night’s do-or-die blockbuster clash. The announcement comes amid swirling off-season speculation linking English to an interstate move, but Bulldogs head coach Luke Beveridge has moved to ease fan fears, insisting the club is confident the ruckman will see out his contract and remain at the Whitten Oval beyond this campaign.
English has been sidelined since sustaining a knee injury in round 22 of the regular season, while Naughton was forced to cut short his round 24 outing against Melbourne after an existing ankle injury flared up. Both stars completed a full training session this week, and Beveridge confirmed their fitness has progressed far better than expected ahead of the high-stakes encounter.
The coach noted that the club will carefully manage English’s game time to avoid aggravating his still-healing knee, but the outfit is targeting 70 percent game time for the key ruckman. “They both got through training yesterday, and all signs point to them being available to play,” Beveridge told reporters ahead of the clash. “We’re already short on tall personnel down the spine, so losing either of these two would have forced us to get creative with our line-up, like we had to do last week. Ryan Gardner stepped up really well in that fill-in role, even with limited minutes, and that was a great outcome for the whole group.”
Beveridge added that Collingwood’s relatively undersized forward line and midfield eases some of the immediate pressure on the Bulldogs’ ruck division, even with English coming off a layoff. “Collingwood aren’t a side stacked with elite height across the park, so that takes some of the sting out of any potential disadvantage,” he said. “That said, the ruck contest is always a critical battle every week. Tim has had a few weeks off to recover, so there’s no question he’ll be a little underdone coming into this game. We’ll work through his minutes step by step, but right now it looks like he’ll get through, and we’re hoping he can spend at least 70 percent of the match on the field.”
Beyond the immediate on-field preparation, Beveridge addressed rampant off-season speculation that English could request a trade to GWS at the end of the 2024 season, following his partner Rudi Ellis’s recent signing with Sydney-based Super Netball club the NSW Swifts. The coach pushed back on the rumours, saying the club has not received any internal indication that English wants to leave.
“We’re pretty secure in the fact that Tim will be here next year, and for a fair bit longer beyond that,” Beveridge said. “We haven’t seen or heard anything internally that gives any of this speculation any credence. I fully expect him to see out his current contract. He hasn’t given any hint that he’s unhappy here, and he’s been an incredible servant of this club for a long time.”
Beveridge added that he has no interest in entertaining hypotheticals about player movement during the finals campaign, with the club’s full focus fixed on this week’s cutthroat clash. “It’s probably not a time to be dealing in hypotheticals, and I’d rather not speculate on what might happen after the season,” he said. “All this silly season talk is not something we want to get wrapped up in right now. We’ll deal with those questions when we have to, but right now every bit of our energy is going towards preparing for this game.”