Fremantle is looking to hire Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge if things go wrong and Justin Longmuir is fired during the 2024 season, according to The West.
According to reports, the Dockers will not extend Longmuir’s contract if his team does not appear to have a genuine finals chance early this year, with Beveridge leading the list of replacement possibilities.
Beveridge is under contract until the end of 2025, and while the Bulldogs have won a final in only two seasons under his guidance, a pair of Grand Final appearances have given him tremendous currency.
St Kilda was rumoured to be interested in the 2016 premiership coach before hiring Ross Lyon, and this leverage enabled Beveridge to sign a new deal in December 2022.
Longmuir, meanwhile, led the Dockers to their first finals triumph in over a decade in 2022, before his young team dropped to the bottom six in 2023.
It puts the out-of-contract coach under tremendous scrutiny in the West.
The Dockers have several ties to the Bulldogs, with chief executive Simon Garlick playing 137 games for the club and having the same position there in the early 2010s, which helped employ Beveridge.
They’ve also brought in Bulldogs champs Bob Murphy and Matthew Boyd as assistant coaches.
The Bulldogs conducted an internal assessment this week in an attempt to resolve a complicated behind-the-scenes scenario in which reporting lines were confused. Beveridge acquired significant power in recent years as assistants were poached, but he was rebuffed when the club fired favourite son Rohan Smith last August.
The sole significant change made in the evaluation was the appointment of Matthew Egan to the new position of GM of Football Operations, reporting to Executive Director of Football Chris Grant.
Stephen Laybutt, a former Socceroos star, wrote a one-word note the day before his death, which upset pals.
After going missing earlier this month, the 46-year-old reportedly committed suicide.
On January 14, authorities discovered Laybutt’s body in woodland. He’d been visiting friends in Casuarina, northern New South Wales.
More information about his final days have emerged, with one friend speaking out about the “chilling” final message he sent before pals filed a missing persons report on January 13 after being unable to contact him.
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