Dogs’ young gun ruled out, skipper still a chance for Port prelim

Western Bulldogs forward Cody Weightman has been ruled out of Saturday's preliminary final against Port Adelaide through the AFL's concussion protocols.

A collision with Lions defender Marcus Adams during the Dogs' thrilling semi-final win sidelined the 20-year-old with what was initially reported as a head knock.

The Bulldogs have now confirmed that Weightman will be sidelined for at least 12 days from Saturday's win, which will open up a spot in Luke Beveridge's forward-line for this the penultimate match of the 2021 season.

“During the half time break we made the decision to remove him from the game,” Bulldogs head of sports medicine Chris Bell said, via the club's announcement.

“Subsequent testing has confirmed he does have some low-level concussion symptoms.

“He won’t play this week, but we’ll monitor Cody in the next couple of days to determine his availability.”

Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli is set to face further tests on his knee injury, with a more defined call set to be made closer to this weekend.

“In the last minutes of the game, Marcus landed and had his knee twisted,” Bell added.

“Scans have cleared him of any serious structural damage, but he does have some symptoms related to the injury.

“We’ll work with Marcus through the back end of this week to determine his availability.”

The Bulldogs will face Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday at 7:40pm.