Post-match,both Liberatore and Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge downplayed the incident,saying Liberatore was not concussed,but had twisted an ankle and it could not bear his weight.
Liberatore’s surprising fall during the Bulldog’s defeat to Essendon. He later said he was fine.Channel Seven
But the situation changed on Saturday. While Liberatore passed a head injury assessment and reported no symptoms after the match or on Saturday morning,he will now miss Thursday night’s clash against St Kilda,after the Bulldogs decided that the footage caused enough concern to place their star on-baller into the league’s 12-day concussion protocols.
In a statement released on Saturday,the club said the decision had been made “with an abundance of caution,with Tom’s health and wellbeing the absolute priority”.
“Immediately following last night’s fixture against Essendon,Tom Liberatore reported to the Bulldogs’ medical team with no concussion symptoms and passed a head injury assessment,conducted as per AFL protocols,” the statement said.
“Tom remains without concussion symptoms this morning. However,given the concerning nature of in-game footage during the final minutes that show Tom falling to the ground,the club’s medical team has subsequently reached a decision to place him in concussion protocols.”
The Bulldogs are fighting legal action that premiership player Liam Picken lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court in relation to concussion which forced him into early retirement. The AFL also faces a concussion class action in the same court.
Momentarily,Liberatore’s operatic tumble had personified the Bulldogs. In a match they needed to win to authenticate their dodgy finals bona fides,they put in an increasingly ragged performance and in the last quarter fell away completely,wilting under the pressure of an Essendon team who also confounded expectations by growing stronger as the match went on before bundling it up with a run of five goals in 10 minutes in the last quarter.
The numbers don’t make for pretty reading. The Bulldogs have a vaunted midfield,headlined by Liberatore,captain Marcus Bontempelli and Adam Treloar,but were smashed at stoppages and clearances by Essendon’s lower profile on-ball division. Bontempelli had just five touches the second half.
The Bulldogs were wasteful,kicking nine behinds from set shots on the night and mustering just 3.7 in the second half,including two goals in junk time in the last quarter. Not for the first time,they threatened much more than they delivered. And they were undisciplined,giving away three 50-metre penalties.
But it was the midfield black hole that most vexed Beveridge. “The centre bounce situation,week to week,is such important territory and as a scoring avenue,” he said. “They came out a bit too clean at times. They only scored three goals from it,but it seemed like more as far as territory goes.
The Western Bulldogs look dejected after a loss during the round 5 match against the Essendon Bombers.Getty Images
“It is an area that,before this year,we have been measuring up pretty well in. We’ve probably been in the top two or three,regardless of ladder position,but it is something we go to work on pretty diligently. We couldn’t get the upper hand,they were pretty good in there.”
For all the quality in their list,the Bulldogs are now 2-3 and again looking more like pretenders than contenders. Beveridge said he understood that people were mystified by the Dogs. “It was a disappointing night. As it rolled on we didn’t get anything going,” he said.
If the Dogs were surprising in their meekness,Essendon were in their resolve. Smashed by Port Adelaide last week and reduced again by injury,they must have started to wonder if they had turned a corner under Brad Scott or again were marking time. But once they wrested control of this match away from the Dogs,they ran it.
“Clearly,the response to a poor performance last week was important,” said Scott. “When things are going well for you,get positive reinforcement of what’s working,but I’ve always been a believer that you learn the most from your losses. I think the real measure is how you respond.”
Scott was as chuffed about the midfield dominance as Beveridge was bemused. “We’ve got some good experienced players,but the big roles went to (Sam) Durham and (Jye) Caldwell,” he said. “You learn a lot from those opportunities,but I thought they stood up really well. They were really important for us,both of them.
“I feel like an under 12s coach,but it was a good team effort tonight.”
A feature of Essendon’s off-season was an influx of established players from other clubs. Two who excelled on Friday night were North Melbourne pair Todd Goldstein and Ben McKay.
Another was Xavier Duursma,who as the Bombers were overrun by his old team Port Adelaide last week must have wondered if he had made the right move. On Friday,he had all the right moves,including a long,telling goal at a crucial moment.
Xavier Duursma of the Bombers is congratulated by teammates after kicking a goal.Getty Images
“Sometimes when things don’t go your way,it can be really easy to give up and let the game go,but we really stuck at it,” he said. “Our transition defence is where it all started. We stopped a lot of the Bulldogs ball movement on our turnover. That was really pleasing.“
Duursma said it was an important win for the Dons,but not one upon which they could rest content. “There’s lots of positives we can take out of it,but the trap we can fall into is getting too excited and too happy with a good performance,” he said.
“What we need to do now is take that and go and apply the same things again next week in Adelaide. The trap we can fall into is getting too happy with ourselves and becoming complacent. Our best bet it to go back to our process and keep going from there.”
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