Bulldogs brace for fiery Dockers after derby flop

Western Bulldogs head coach Luke Beveridge has warned his players ahead of the Fremantle match.

Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has warned his players Fremantle will be “breathing fire” when the two finals contenders meet at Optus Stadium on Saturday night.

The Dockers are on a three-match losing streak and are still digesting last week’s shock 37-point loss to arch-rivals West Coast.

That defeat marked Fremantle’s worst performance of the year to date.

Fremantle would have been 5-0 if they hadn’t given up late leads against Carlton and Port Adelaide.

They now find themselves at 3-3 and in a dogfight to make the finals.

Beveridge is wary of a strong Fremantle rebound – especially after being on the receiving end of Essendon’s own rebound a fortnight ago.

The Bombers were left smarting following a 69-point hammering at the hands of Port Adelaide in round four.

A week later, Essendon beat the Bulldogs by 29 points.

Beveridge hopes his players learnt lessons from that match and will be ready to confront a hungry Fremantle outfit.

“We expect Fremantle to be similar to Essendon coming off their week when they didn’t have the best second half against Port Adelaide,” Beveridge said.

“We confronted that and didn’t go too well against (Essendon) a couple of weeks ago.

“The circumstances aren’t dissimilar (for the Dockers) with the scrutiny in WA.

“After the loss in the derby, Fremantle will be coming out breathing fire. We’ve got to expect that and be at our best.”

The Bulldogs are set to be without Jamarra Ugle-Hagan (personal reasons) for another week, but midfielder Tom Liberatore (concussion) is on track to return.

Fremantle will be without spearhead Jye Amiss (concussion), but could welcome back Heath Chapman, Sam Switkowski (concussion) and Michael Frederick (hamstring).

The Dockers were outplayed by West Coast in most facets of the derby with coach Justin Longmuir conceding his team got smoked at the contest.

But Longmuir isn’t panicking, believing the poor display was just a one-off.

“It wasn’t long ago we were in front of Port with four minutes to go on their home deck,” Longmuir said.

“I believe the weekend was an aberration.

“We’ve got to be better than that, we’ve got to be able to move on and play our best footy every week.”