ESSENDON great Matthew Lloyd says a change of personnel up forward won't turn the Western Bulldogs' fortunes around unless its midfield group is also willing to take more risks after a sluggish start to the season.
The Bulldogs have scored just 106 points in the opening two rounds of 2023, the second-fewest in the competition behind Hawthorn, and face a pivotal clash against a resurgent Brisbane on Thursday night.
The Dogs will have a new look in attack against the Lions, will small forward Arthur Jones to debut and tall Rory Lobb a chance to return from injury.
The likely return of defender Ryan Gardner could also lead to a structural shake-up, with Lloyd calling for Sam Darcy - who was subbed off against St Kilda in round two - to be moved into defence at the expense of Josh Bruce.
But ultimately, Lloyd says the Bulldogs forward line - one of the most potent in the League on paper - needs better service from its midfielders.
"I think (coach) Luke Beveridge has to have his team take more risks because you wouldn't want to be a forward in that forward line," Lloyd told Access All Areas on Monday.
"They just did not know how to move the footy (against St Kilda). You see all the good sides who are playing good football, like Collingwood, and they have blistering ball movement. They were spooked by St Kilda and were forced into error.
"We knew the Western Bulldogs as a beautiful ball movement side, but they are lost. Last year they were lost, and this year ... it's boring, dull football.
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"Ross Lyon's defensive methods just didn't allow them to move the footy. And as a result, Bailey Smith is off, Caleb Daniel is off, Bailey Dale, even (Marcus) Bontempelli, they're not playing great football because there's a lack of spark."
The Dogs will be hoping Lobb and midfielder Adam Treloar got through a training session on Tuesday ahead of the Thursday night clash, with the short turnaround possibly counting against the pair as they look to prove their fitness.
While Lloyd says the Dogs' problems start in the middle, Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes believes Beveridge has issues all over the park.
Among them, Cornes says, if the Dogs’ inability to stop multiple goals being kicked against them in a rush; they conceded five majors in less than 10 minutes against Melbourne in the opening round, while the Saints kicked nine of the last 10 goals of the game in round two.
"I think you have to be questioning Luke Beveridge's coaching, and he'd be doing that at the moment," Cornes told The Round So Far.
"He'd be questioning everything; fitness because of the fade outs they've had in big games recently, he'll be questioning the effectiveness of the midfield, he'll be questioning the forward line structure that he's gone with because for the second week in a row that's been ineffective, Sam Darcy was subbed out.
"And he'll be questioning his defensive action because for far too long, Western Bulldogs sides under Luke Beveridge have been really poor defensively and they concede multiple goals in a row far too often. As we saw in the biggest game of all, the Grand Final (in 2021) and it happened last year in the finals against Fremantle, and it happened against St Kilda."
