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Sport
Anna Harrington

Bulldogs to stay on the road for Power, Freo clashes

Bailey Smith (centre) will miss the Bulldogs' next two away trips against the Power and Dockers. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

The Western Bulldogs will travel directly from facing Port Adelaide in Adelaide to Perth for their following clash against Fremantle, but injured midfielder Bailey Smith will be left at home and miss both games.

Coach Luke Beveridge revealed the Bulldogs' plans to hit the road for more than a week on Friday.

A squad of 25, including returning forward Cody Weightman, will travel to Adelaide on Friday, play on Saturday before taking part in community activities on Sunday as part of the 'Gather Round'.

The Bulldogs then fly to Perth on Monday and remain in Western Australia until after next Friday's clash with the Dockers - in a potential blueprint for other teams if the 'Gather Round' is repeated in future seasons as expected.

"(Smith's) got a calf injury and he'll be out for a couple of weeks. Beyond that, I'm not sure," Beveridge told reporters.

"Bit ginger after training so he had a scan. Little bit up. So no risk.

"We've got a squad of 25 on the road, Fremantle in Perth the following Friday, we're going to stay away. So it's a quirk of the schedule.

"We've asked everyone to come away for a week and it's too much risk with Bailey. So he'll stay back, miss a couple and we'll work it out from there."

Beveridge said between the six-day turnaround, time differences and the Sunday community requirements, returning to Melbourne wasn't worth it.

"We'd really only have a chance to breathe for about a day and a bit before we flew back out to Perth," he said.

"So we just figured we might as well stay away. So we've got a great challenge on our hands next couple of weeks."

The Bulldogs' road trip has shades of their charge to the 2021 grand final, when they beat Port Adelaide in a preliminary final at Adelaide Oval before losing to Melbourne in Perth.

"Without going over the top in a theming or a quirky sense, we'll all be there together supporting each other," Beveridge said.

"We recognise probably our frailty over the first couple of rounds and make sure that we're siliconing up the gaps a little bit.

"We leaked a bit too much in the second quarter last week and that's on field - but you only get it right on-field if the cohesion and the connection and spirituality off-field is in the right place."

Beveridge said Tom Liberatore, playing his 200th game, would play a crucial role against Port's engine room.

The game is a big opportunity for talls Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, Aaron Naughton and Rory Lobb against Port's undersized backline, with Tom Jonas (knee) out.

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