Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has confirmed his skipper, Marcus Bontempelli, will be right to go for their preliminary final.
Bontempelli hurt his knee in the final minutes of the Bulldogs semi-final win over Brisbane. It seemed like a race against the clock was in order for the AFLPA MVP, but Beveridge says Bontempelli will be good to go.
โ(He may have) an ache or dull pain," said Beveridge.
โHe is playing, and he will move around like nothing happened."
Beveridge was asked whether he expected Port Adelaide to target the captain and his possibly tender knee.
The 2016 premiership coach said the Dogs wouldn't stand for such acts without response.
โYou have got to remember Marcus comes from a really strong Irish-Italian heritage," said Beveridge.
"Itโs a pretty formidable combination of mum and dad. If anything happens like that, there could be some retribution.
"But I am sure they [Power] wonโt do that."
The Bulldogs will be without lively forward Cody Weightman who has been ruled out with concussion.
Weightman went off at half time last week with a head knock which was later confirmed as concussion.
โDuring the half time break we made the decision to remove him from the game,โ Bulldogs head of sports medicine Chris Bell said, via the club's announcement.
โSubsequent testing has confirmed he does have some low-level concussion symptoms.
โHe wonโt play this week, but weโll monitor Cody in the next couple of days to determine his availability.โ
