Consider the improbable event of Essendon or Carlton approaching Luke Beveridge and offering the 2016 premiership coach their senior coaching position on a contract of at least four years and more than $1 million per annum.
Normally, a coach in Beveridge’s situation could take the money and run, despite his contract for 2027.
When a coach has coached a club for a long time, and wants a fresh start elsewhere, the incumbent club rarely stands in his way; unlike some gun players, there is little point retaining the coach who wants out.
Beveridge is in his 12th season at Whitten Oval and one can mount a case that both parties would benefit from a “parting of ways” (the euphemism that clubs deploy even for mid-season removals of coaches), simply on the basis that coaches have limited life spans at clubs.
Did it benefit Hawthorn and Alastair Clarkson to stick together after 2017, when Jeff Kennett returned to helm the ship? No.
At the onset of 2025, the Dogs and Beveridge seemed headed for an amicable divorce. Then the Dogs surged early last year, on the back of the ascensions of Ed Richards and Sam Darcy.
The promised land beckoned. The indomitable Beveridge was given two more years to find a stairway to heaven. Surprisingly, they missed the finals.
Today, the plucky Bulldogs sit eighth on the ladder. Should the Saints beat them this Sunday, their position in the top 10 will be parlous, given their subpar percentage (90.7), and the fact of the Giants, Suns and even Magpies having a game in hand.
But if the Dogs aren’t contending for the premiership again in Beveridge’s 12th season (they’ve won finals only in 2016 and 2021 on his watch), there’s another factor, besides his 2027 contract – and the injury toll that the club has encountered – that might further entrench him at Whitten Oval, at least for next year and possibly beyond.
Zak Butters.
At clubland, there has been a view for some time that the Bulldogs are the clubhouse leader in the contest for Butters; some, indeed, believe that the “race” is already run and won, and that the Port champ will be starting in the centre square with Marcus Bontempelli next year.
This column does not pretend to know whether “they” are correct in predicting Butters in red, white and blue.
Assuming “they” are proven right – and the Dogs manage to navigate a costly trade with Port Adelaide (who have vowed to match any free-agent offer) – Beveridge will be coaching in 2027 with a midfield comprising “the Bont” and Butters (two of the game’s top half dozen players), plus Richards. That trinity would be kicking to Darcy and Aaron Naughton.
It’s the platform for a premiership, except the longstanding issue of iffy defensive personnel must be resolved.
The Bulldogs have no intention of jettisoning Beveridge at season’s end, no matter what unfolds. The Dogs may bark if they miss the top 10, or get belted in a wildcard final, but the Beveridge caravan won’t move on.
And why would he leave, even if Essendon offered half of Tullamarine, given the possibility of Butters and “the Bont”?
I’m aware neither Carlton nor Essendon are likely to pursue Beveridge. The Blues are running a process that will examine the ready ranks of assistant coaches, while the Bombers are putting together their own criteria and have some distance to run in that intriguing reality TV show.
The point is that Butters represents a game changer for the Bulldogs, that he would make Beveridge’s presence next year mandatory, irrespective of results.
Butters would not be choosing a club without knowing who’s coaching. It would be unusual, though not out of the question, for the coach to leave a season after a champion joins.
From what one can gather, Butters has three potential motivations for choosing the Dogs over the other suitors:
- Geography. His family resides in Bacchus Marsh.
- Affinity. He grew up a barking mad Dogs fan.
- The “Bont” factor. Bontempelli and Butters have developed a friendship, and shape as prospective allies, like Superman and Batman.
Beveridge impressed Matt Rowell in their meeting last year, when the 2025 Brownlow medallist did the rounds and met with Victorian clubs.
If Butters chooses his boyhood team, we can safely conclude that he is comfortable with the coach, whose prospects of success would be buttressed by Butters – provided the price, in dollars and draft, doesn’t make his recruitment a zero-sum game.
The downside for Beveridge? Only the heightened expectations that would accompany the arrival of Butters. The coach would have no excuse for failing to contend.
And the failure to defend that has stymied the Bulldogs lately would be indefensible.
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Jake Niall is a Walkley award-winning sports journalist and chief AFL writer for The Age.Connect via X or email.
