'Been a traumatic night': Dogs reeling from injuries, Cats celebrate Jezza's bag

FRIDAY evening was one of the more "traumatic" matches in Luke Beveridge's coaching career.

Mercurial Western Bulldogs forward Sam Darcy was felled by a suspected ACL injury in the second quarter following a fast start from Geelong, and as the night wore on things went from bad to worse.

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Returning veteran Tom Liberatore was concussed on the eve of half-time, and wasn't seen again for the night, and key defenders James O'Donnell and Rory Lobb succumbed to respective hamstring injuries, leaving the visiting side with just one rotation on the bench.

"I think we're trying to process it on two fronts. The carnage that you're talking about, it's pretty traumatic, and in a sense I was pleased with the way the players for different patches in probably two, to two-and-a-half quarters were able to at least steady things a bit as they're losing teammates," Beveridge said following the 75-point loss.

Darcy, who suffered a hyperextension to his left knee in round six last year, went down without contact when leading up at the footy amidst the Geelong onslaught. His left knee buckled under him, and he hit the deck grabbing at the joint, visibly upset.

"Sam went down with what could be a serious knee injury," Beveridge said.

"I just gave him a pat as I came past, I haven't spoken to him. Until we know exactly what it is, you know, last time when he hyperextended his knee, we thought that was going to be a season-ending situation. It ended up being a lot less than that, so it's too early to actually know, to be too morbid about it.'

With a ladder-leading Sydney to come on Thursday, Beveridge identified the likes of Jed Busslinger and Ryan Gardner as potential inclusions down back, should both O'Donnell and Lobb miss off the six-day break, while Adam Treloar (41 disposals), Laitham Vandermeer (three goals), and Nick Coffield (24 disposals) did their chances no harm in the VFL win earlier in the day.

Relying on young players to carry more of the load, however, and finding the right mix of emotion and tactical improvement is a balance Beveridge will need to strike in the coming days.

"It's a balancing act. So, our more senior players have been terrific with their voice and some of their leadership, but even they're frustrated with their actions at times… I think the reality is we're playing – everyone's going to be difficult to knock over – but we play two pretty mature, physical sides coming up in the Swans and Fremantle, so we've got to embrace those challenges," Beveridge said.

"It'll be a balance of lightening up our scope mentally a little bit… there's a sensitivity and an emotion when you lose teammates to serious injuries, and not knowing how serious any of those are, the players will be concerned about it. So, we'll need to process that and accept that it's happened and spin ourselves out of it, totally really for the next game."

Geelong coach Christ Scott acknowledged the hardship his side's opposition faced in the clash, but was also able to appreciate the attacking style it brought from the off on Friday.

"We were much happier with the way that we played tonight, especially given it’s been hard to predict the opposition. I'm prepared to say that a couple of weeks ago, if (the Dogs) weren't the best team in the comp, I wasn't sure who was," Scott said.

"You need a bit of luck in this game, and you look at the draw at the start of the year and it's hard to tell how hard it is, because it's not who you play, it's when you get them. And we're obviously awake to the fact that they had their challenges tonight."

A shining light in the significant win was 2025 Coleman medallist Jeremy Cameron returning to his scintillating form of last year, with 10 goals for the game – seven of which came in the first half.

Just as significant was a rare goal from 200-gamer Jake Kolodjashnij.

"He's been a really important player for us, but it's difficult for those outside the club to understand just how challenging it’s been for him over the last 12 months," Scott said of Kolodjashnij.

"This was a situation where it was a bit unknown whether he was going to be able to force his way back into AFL football, but he just endured the difficult times… He spent basically a year in rehab by himself, so the 200 games is nice, but the fact that he's back makes me even happier."

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