DROPPING star spearhead Jake Stringer underlined just how uncompromising Luke Beveridge is as Western Bulldogs coach.
Omitting a player of Stringer's ability is something no coach would do lightly, but consider the circumstances in which Beveridge dropped the 2015 All Australian ahead of round 22.
The Bulldogs were coming off a trying month, having dropped two of their previous four matches - St Kilda in round 18 and Geelong in round 19 - to slip from third on the ladder after round 17 to seventh.
Their scoring had also dried up to an average 73.5 points a game during that stretch, down from their season average of 84.4, and they managed just 60 points in their loss to St Kilda and 61 points in their round 20 win over North Melbourne.
Worse still, the Bulldogs, who had already been hit hard by injury in 2016, suffered new - and significant - casualties.
First, tall forward Jack Redpath (right anterior cruciate ligament) and Mitch Wallis (broken leg) suffered season-ending injuries against St Kilda and a round later Tom Liberatore (ankle) and Jack Macrae (hamstring) were injured seriously enough to put their finals campaigns in doubt.
At the time of his injury, Redpath sat third on the Bulldogs' goalkicking list with 20 majors, behind Stringer (37) and Tory Dickson (24).
His absence and the Bulldogs' need to find their scoring mojo meant Stringer, in theory, became more indispensible than ever.
Beveridge would also have been entitled to cling to all the star power at his disposal given Liberatore, Macrae and Wallis were among his most influential players.
But Stringer had kicked only three goals and laid just five tackles in the three games since his return from a shoulder injury that sidelined him in round 18, and Beveridge wielded the selection axe.
One former AFL coach told AFL.com.au this week Beveridge's decision had been "pretty ballsy".
"Jake plays with such X-factor and at his best is an automatic selection, so Luke's decision showed real strength," he said.
"There's always the danger that a player might not respond well to being dropped and it would have backfired on the Bulldogs if that had happened with Jake as the finals were just around the corner.
"But Luke has shown right through his time as a coach he's prepared to make sacrifices for the good of the team."
A current AFL coach, however, noted Beveridge had dropped Stringer for a round 22 clash against Essendon that the Bulldogs "couldn't lose", and had left him in the VFL for the following round's clash against Fremantle knowing his team couldn't slip out of seventh spot if it lost.
"I don't think Stringer would have been dropped if it could have jeopardised the Bulldogs' run into September and I suspect he was never going to be left out of the finals."
However, veteran Bulldog Dale Morris and teammates Jack Macrae and Tory Dickson were in no doubt when they spoke to AFL.com.au this week that Beveridge had dropped Stringer on the same unflinching performance-based criteria he judges every Bulldog on.
"For his whole time here, 'Bevo' puts everyone on the same level. There's no one who's above anyone else, you get picked on performance," Morris said.
"If you're not performing, you're out of the team and it doesn't matter who you are."
Stringer told AFL.com.au being dropped to the VFL had been "difficult" but spending time in the midfield with Footscray had allowed him to "loosen the shackles a little bit" and find some touch.
He had received remarkably simple instructions on how to reclaim his senior spot too.
"'Bevo' just wanted me to improve my work rate really. Just making sure that I'm working up and down the ground, that was pretty much the main message behind it," Stringer said.
Since his recall for the second elimination final against West Coast, Stringer's offensive output has been solid rather than spectacular.
He kicked one goal against the Eagles, three in the semi-final win over Hawthorn and went goalless in Saturday night's preliminary final victory over Greater Western Sydney.
Stringer would like to have kicked a "couple more snags" but is confident the goals will come if he maintains the work rate Beveridge expects.
"You've just always got to have faith that at some stage the game will turn for you as long as you keep working hard," Stringer said.
And Stringer's work rate against the Giants impressed his teammates, particularly his season-high six tackles.
"We want all our players to have that intent to defend when we don't have the ball and that's what Jakey did and that's what we love to see," Morris said.
Macrae added: "I just want to see him playing his role. If he does that, you know he's also going to have his moments of freakish talent."
