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Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge could be set to make two bombshell selection statements, with stars Jack Macrae and Caleb Daniel both in the mix to play VFL this weekend amid claims of favouritism towards new recruits.
Macrae, who was dumped from the club’s leadership group in the off-season, has had a disrupted pre-season due to a hamstring injury, but got through two VFL practice matches unscathed. Meanwhile Daniel played only the second half of the Dogs’ AAMI Community Series game against Hawthorn in a final tune up for Round 1.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle, Herald Sun journalist Sam Landsberger reported Macrae, a three-time All-Australian and 230-gamer, is unlikely to feature at AFL level in the Dogs’ season opener against Melbourne this Sunday and that Daniel is also on the outer.
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“Jack Macrae was dropped from the leadership group over summer, and I can tell you tonight, he won’t play on Sunday,” Landsberger told Fox Footy.
“He’s played two full VFL games, my read is he’s ready to go, but he won’t be there.
“Caleb Daniel, massive question mark over him too. He’s been a question mark all pre-season, only played a half against Hawthorn (in the AAMI Community Series).”
Macrae, 29, once a mainstay star in the Dogs midfield and a 2016 premiership player, has been gradually pushed out of the centre square in recent years due to the club’s plethora of starpower and depth.
It’s seen Macrae’s numbers steadily decrease including averaging 25.3 disposals per game in 2023 – his lowest return since his first AFL season.
However Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph believes Macrae has enough runs on the board to demand senior selection.
“If I’ve played two games back off a minor hamstring injury, I’m a triple All-Australian and my coach is already effectively saying, as Luke Beveridge did today: ‘We’re not gong to play him.’ … I could understand why he’s so disgruntled,” Ralph told the Midweek Tackle.
“Clayton Oliver did five weeks of a pre-season and all of a sudden he’s straight in. There are so many players of that calibre who would say: ‘No, I deserve to play in this side’.”
As for Daniel, an All-Australian, best and fairest winner and premiership player, Landsberger noted the 176-gamer is more likely to face the Demons, though potentially as the sub.
“There’s a chance he does hang on – I think the sub might be an option for him on Sunday,” Landsberger said of Daniel.
“But we saw he’s on the fringe, he did not play in the first half in the dress rehearsal against Hawthorn. So it is not a stretch to say that Lachie Bramble and Nick Coffield have gone ahead of him.”
Macrae and Daniel are contracted at Whitten Oval until 2027 and 2026 respectively.
It comes after the Dogs were busy on the recruiting front in the off-season in a pivotal year for the club where it’ll hope to bounce back from missing finals.
It included trading for Nick Coffield and James Harmes as well as the No. 4 draft pick (moved back to Pick 6), which it used to select Ryley Sanders, as well as picking up Lachie Bramble via the pre-season supplemental selection period. It’s already been confirmed Coffield, Harmes and Bramble will play against Melbourne.
And according to Landsberger, there’s talk among Bulldogs players that new recruits have been favoured at selection under Beveridge.
“There is a section of the locker room down at Whitten Oval that has a belief that players Luke Beveridge recruits, they get a golden ticket at the start of their career at the Kennel,” he added.
“There is a little bit of a precedence here – Jackson Trengrove played 38 games in his first two years, Rory Lobb, indifferent form last year, played 20 games. Robbie McComb and Billy Gowers, they got great runs off the bat.
“I don’t mind it from Luke Beveridge. If he has gone out of his ways to make a pitch to players: ‘I want you at my football club, I will back you in’. I think it’s absolutely fair enough he gives them a go straight off the bat.
“But there are certainly players at the club that have noted that the newbies have gone straight past them.”
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