Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has come under fire for denying Tom Liberatore suffered a concussion in the club’s loss to Essendon on Friday, despite the star player collapsing on the Marvel Stadium lawn.
Essendon bounced back from their AFL Gather Round horror show with a runaway 29-point win over the Western Bulldogs.
The loss was made worse by the incident involving Liberatore late in the match, which saw the veteran fall to the ground and remain prone for several seconds as a concerned Darcy Parish rushed to his aid.
In stunning scenes, Liberatore got back to his feet and finished the match.
Western Bulldogs star Tom Liberatore falls onto the Marvel Stadium lawn where he is joined by Essendon player Darcy Parish
Liberatore had been involved in a number of heavy collisions, including bumps from Todd Goldstein and Jake Stringer
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge played down the incident, saying Liberatore had tripped due to an ankle problem, not a concussion
Liberatore took some heavy blows during the match, including a collision with Todd Goldstein that resulted in a free kick for the Essendon Big.
He also took a bump from Essendon star Jake Stringer just before the fall and was clearly dazed when he got back to his feet.
‘To falter after such a match, that doesn’t look good. (Bulldogs doctor) Gary Zimmerman would take a good look at that. That’s worrying,” former Hawthorn Ben Dixon told Fox Footy Live.
After the match, Beveridge played down the incident, saying Liberatore had simply tripped.
‘He’s fine. For some reason he lost his balance and stumbled, but he’s fine. He is being treated and there is no concussion or anything like that,” he said.
But fans didn’t believe it and called for action against the Bulldogs coach.
Him really? This is negligence and very concerning for a senior coach to cover up for a guy who showed delayed concussion symptoms,” one fan posted on social media.
“You don’t have to be a doctor or even an Einstein to see clearly what happened, given the case studies we’ve seen recently.”
As the players stood on the pitch after the full-time siren, Liberatore still struggled to stay on his feet
All was forgiven at full time when Liberatore shared a hug with Stringer who delivered the heavy bump moments before collapsing
Channel 7’s chief football reporter Mitch Cleary spoke to Liberatore after the match and said the star player also played down any concerns about concussion.
“(Liberatore) said it was an ankle injury and he lost his balance,” Cleary said.
Liberatore also blamed the ankle and said he had no concussion symptoms.
“No, everything is fine,” he told ABC in a post-match interview.
‘I lost balance in the ankle. I tweaked the ankle at the beginning of the last quarter.
‘When I got up, I fell down again. It’s okay.
‘No symptoms [of concussion] and complete memory.’
However, fans said the nature of the fall showed there was more going on than a simple stumble or stumble.
“A totally normal way to fall if you don’t have a concussion,” one fan wrote.
“Finished with a blow to the head, collapses ten seconds later and runs around clearly dazed and confused for the rest of the match – ‘single’,” said another.
“A way to compensate for your doctors not going out to check on him.”
Other fans pointed out that Essendon’s Parish would not have waved to the bench for medics if the incident only caused Liberatore to lose his balance.
‘This response from Bevo deserves an explanation from the AFL, given that the head is sacred. There’s no way Parish would react this way if Libba simply ‘stumbled,'” someone posted on social media.
The AFL introduced a 12-day concussion policy in 2023 and maintained the policy for the 2024 season.
The league also released the Strategic Plan for Sports Related Concussion Management in Australian Football in 2023, which outlined its strategy through 2026.