LUKE Beveridge has offered his full support to Jake Stringer after the Western Bulldogs forward felt compelled to rubbish rumours on his private life with a social media post earlier this week.
Angered by gossip involving teammate Jason Johannisen and former partner Abbie Gilmour, Stringer took to Instagram on Wednesday to set the record straight.
"Let's all get one thing straight!!! Abby is the best mum to my little girls and has not done one thing WRONG EVER," Stringer wrote.
"Second of all Jason is a brother to ME. So if you wanna talk crap leave my family and mates alone go (somewhere) else cause it's all bulls--t!!"
Beveridge said on Friday while Stringer's actions may have frustrated the club, he understood the 23-year-old's need to get the truth out there.
"Ordinarily we don't encourage our players to go out and make statements or react to rumour, but I can understand why he did," Beveridge said.
"If I put myself in the same position I would probably want to react or respond to get the facts out there.
"I think it's really difficult when there's rumours out there that obviously aren’t true, and you want to set the record straight.
"I totally understand why he did it, I don't think (the club) was over the moon, but I support him."
Beveridge conceded the Dogs have been well below their best recently, but said rumours that fractures in the playing group were the reason for an underwhelming premiership defence were troubling and untrue.
"For it to be beat up into a big issue is disappointing, because it just shows someone with an agenda trying to pull us apart, and I think that's concerning," he said.
"We know we're not playing the best footy, but let's just stick to (on-field matters), rather than trying to find other things that aren't there."
Asked if the off-distractions were having an impact on-field, Beveridge said a united playing group wouldn't let that affect them.
"It's up to us whether we let it in," he said.
"That's why we've got to take care of things we can control to influence good performance. Because in our memory banks in recent times we know what works, we've just got to really delve into that."
