Congratulations to Luke Beveridge - longest serving Coach

[bornadog]

Bevo will break Ted Whitten's coaching record this week with his 239th game.

Can't believe the time has gone so quickly.

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Bevo will break Ted Whitten's coaching record this week with his 239th game.

Can't believe the time has gone so quickly.

Yeah that is crazy. It still feels like the other day he took over. Now he's our most tenured coach. It's incredible really.

[GVGjr]

I'm not 100% sure but Bevo's hair looked a bit different today.

[Grantysghost]

I'm not 100% sure but Bevo's hair looked a bit different today.

Yeah yeah?

[GVGjr]

Yeah yeah?

It could have been the sunlight but it looked a lighter shade of brown. I'll check again on Friday.

[josie]

Congrats Bevo. You’ve been marvellous for our club. Testimony to you is we now expect and demand success. Amazing IQ & EQ and ability to pick yourself and team up from canvas, including times when some woofers (me included) have thought it’s best to part ways.

Let’s hope the team can celebrate your tenure with a big win in Ballarat & go deep into finals.

[Axe Man]

'Records are made to be broken': Ted Whitten Jnr speaks on Luke Beveridge?s Bulldogs coaching record

Luke Beveridge will pass Ted Whitten Sr. this Sunday on the Dogs? all-time games coached list. And the son of the legend says Bevo deserves his place at the top of the Bulldog tree.

The son of legendary Bulldog Ted Whitten Sr. says Luke Beveridge deserves to be rated the most successful coach in the club?s history as he prepares to break a longstanding record.

Beveridge will coach his 229th match against Greater Western Sydney on Sunday, as the Bulldogs look to shore up a finals spot in Ballarat.

That will take him past Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend and club icon Whitten as the longest serving coach in Footscray/Western Bulldogs history.

Whitten?s son, Ted Jr., said his father would have happily handed over the coaching longevity mantle and would have been proud of what Beveridge had done for the club across the past decade.

?Dad used to always say ?records are meant to be broken?,? Ted Whitten Jr said this week.

?He would have been happy to hand it over, I?m sure.?

Beveridge was playing at the Bulldogs when Whitten Sr. died, aged 62, after a battle with prostate cancer, 29 years ago last week.

?I guess the longevity of Bevo?s coaching career will prove that in the long-term,? Ted Jr. said when asked if thought Beveridge had been the club?s most successful coach.

?Dad coached in the 1961 grand final, but he couldn?t get them over the line. The Hawks rolled them pretty easily.

?Dad was there in ?54 when Charlie Sutton coached them to a flag.

?I?m pretty sure Dad and Charlie would be rapt with what Bevo has done with the club, like all the supporters are.

?He has done a great job, the fact that he brought a premiership to the club (in 2016) was just unbelievable. He has had his detractors but he has proven them all wrong.

?He is hanging in there and the side is playing as well as it has for some time.?

Beveridge is the only Bulldogs coach to have taken the club to multiple grand finals ? a win in 2016 and runners-up in 2021.

He has coached the most finals for the club (12) and his 56.58% win/loss ledger is the highest for the Bulldogs for those who have coached 100 or more games.

Whitten Jr. said Beveridge, who started the year under external pressure despite having a contract for next year, could yet lead the Dogs deep into the second half of this decade as the club chases a third VFL-AFL premiership.

MOST GAMES AS COACH OF THE BULLDOGS
Luke Beveridge 229 games *on Sunday*, 12 finals, one flag, one runner-up
Ted Whitten Sr. 228 games, 3 finals, one runner-up
Charlie Sutton 162 games, 7 finals, one flag
Rodney Eade 162 games, 11 finals
Terry Wallace 148 games, 7 finals
Mick Malthouse 135 games, 3 finals
Arthur Olliver 131 games, 3 finals

?The way he has the team playing at the moment, who knows what the results might be come September,? Whitten Jr. said.

?Going forward, as long as he can keep bringing on the young kids and they are recruiting the right players, it looks like we can have some more success.

?This is a young man?s game and you can see that with what Hawthorn has been doing. They have come on leaps and bounds this year.

?The Bulldogs have got some great young players and the future looks pretty bright. Let?s go Bevo!?

Ted Whitten Jr. was also a star in his own right, playing 144 games for Footscray in the 1970s.

[whythelongface]

Bevo is a legend and still has loads to give. We are blessed to have him as our senior coach.

[Stevo]

Bevo hasn't lost his edge or his ability to reinvent himself as a coach. I'll be cheering him and the boys on Sunday.

[comrade]

Reckon he?s on the Bulldogs Mount Rushmore, along with EJ, Gordo and probably Bont once his career is finished.

[Mofra]

In October 2014 if you said we'd have one coach for the next decade, we'd win two Prelims in that time and lift the cup in one of them during that time, most fans would have called the cops on you.

Bevo's record is remarkable. The debate about our greatest ever player is open, but the debate about our greatest ever coach is not.

[kruder]

Just love to see Bevo and Bont lift a cup together, how fitting would that be? I'm 100% in the camp that they will.

[Uninformed]

Brilliant coach. When you got one, you gotta be grateful and appreciate all that he does for the boys and the club.

[merantau]

In Bevo We Trust. He has been great for us.

[Bullies]

One of the best - especially when you look at Bombers and Saints and see what they have. No thanks.

Credit to the club as well with the changes they made in the off season bringing in Egan and co and removing some of the roles Bevo had so he could concentrate on his coaching.