LUKE Beveridge must lick his lips when he sees Essendon on the AFL fixture.
Since taking over as the Western Bulldogs coach in 2015, Beveridge has seen his team win eight of nine times against the Bombers.
It's comfortably his best record against any club. For context, the Dogs are 8-2 over struggling Gold Coast in that period and 10-3 against North Melbourne.
Ahead of Friday night's match at Marvel Stadium – which pits the seventh- and eighth-placed teams against one another – the Bombers have rarely troubled his teams in the past eight years.
The only time they've got the better of Beveridge was late in 2021, when Peter Wright ran riot, kicking seven goals.
On that Sunday afternoon at Marvel Stadium, Josh Bruce also ruptured his ACL on a dirty day for Beveridge, in which the Bombers upset his top-placed team and started the Bulldogs' late season spiral out of the top four (they of course arrested that to make the Grand Final).
But that's been the exception, rather than the norm.
Among the carnage for Essendon fans was one of the more remarkable games this century in 2019.
On that occasion, Dylan Shiel kicked the game's opening goal inside 20 seconds, before the Dogs kicked the next 21.
Yep, 21 goals in succession. Essendon went 108 minutes between majors and the Dogs cantered to a 104-point victory.
The contests have been generally one-sided. In their eight wins, the Bulldogs have never been run closer than 21 points, while the average margin of victory has been 51 points.
They've met once in finals during that period.
Just weeks after that 2021 upset, the teams met in an elimination final in Tasmania during the second COVID-19 affected season, with the Dogs using a powerful second half to storm home and start a march to the decider.
Perhaps things will be different on Friday night, or perhaps Beveridge will enhance his record against a club that has posed his teams little threat since becoming a senior coach.
