Western Bulldogs 3.2 5.4 5.6 7.7.49
Fremantle 0.0 0.0 3.3 3.5.23
Goals
Western Bulldogs: Brennan 3, Blackburn, Lochland, Toogood, O’Connor
Fremantle: Lavell 2, Sharp
Alex Docherty’s Best
Western Bulldogs: Blackburn, Brennan, Kearney, Lochland, Utri, Spark, Conti
Fremantle: Lavell, Janz, Hooker, Miller, Green, O’Sullivan
The Western Bulldogs have started off season 2018 in winning fashion, accounting for Fremantle to the tune of 26 points at the Victoria University Whitten Oval on a warm, yet blustery Sunday afternoon.
In front of a crowd that exceeded just over 8,500 specatators, it was the Dogs putting on a clinic in the first half, with the majority of the Bulldogs fans at the game treated to the Katie Brennan show in the opening half. After a scrappy start, to which no side could get on the scoreboard after 10 minutes, the home team broke through with the captain Katie Brennan marking her return to footy in stunning fashion, slotting home her first AFLW goal since this time last year, goaling from long range against the wind.
From that moment, the floodgates opened up for the remainder of the opening quarter. Just minutes later, she would kick a second – this time it was beauty from the boundary, before the stand-in captain from last year, Ellie Blackburn, made wheeled around onto her right boot for a third major before quarter-time. Setting up a 20-0 lead at the first change.
It began to get ugly for the Dockers in the second quarter as the Dogs had dominated possession, and restricted Fremantle’s ball movement so much so, that the Doggies only conceded one inside 50 to the Dockers, whilst they went inside 50 12 times in that second quarter alone. Brennan made it three goals in the first half inside the opening 20 seconds. Brooke Lochland made it five goals to start the game at the five-minute mark of the second term and the score stood at 32-0 by the midway point of the second term.
It was as much the Dogs’ controlling the play, as it was Fremantle’s lack of accountability as most Dockers failed to run with their red, white and blue counterparts, with the uncontested possessions ridiculously lopsided at 62-21 in the opening half and as a result of that, the Bulldogs had a ton of inside 50s, leading the count 19-5 by the long break. The defensive set up that the Dogs created worked beautifully as they denied Fremantle any score heading into the second half.
Fremantle Kara Donnellan gathered her team mates before they went in to the half time break, and whatever it was that she said, must have inspired the Dockers as they took advantage of the breeze in the third quarter, kicking 3.3 to the Bulldogs’ two behinds, and just in the span of one quarter, we had a game that looked like it was going to be ugly, to a game that had Fremantle back in the running. Led by Amy Lavell’s pair of goals in the opening five minutes, the Dockers got the margin back to 13 points by three-quarter time as Ashley Sharp kicked a ripping goal from long-range.
The entire dynamic of the Fremantle side changed in that third term – they ran with their direct opponents, applied the pressure that was non-existent in the first half, forced them to turn the ball over and got their hands on the ball just as much as the Dogs did in this quarter. The Dockers were in with a big chance if they could duplicate that going into the wind in the final quarter. Unfortunately for Freo fans, they couldn’t stifle the Dogs run in the last quarter.
Rookie selection and debutant Bonnie Toogood came up with a moment in the game that would prove to be too good as she received a hand pass from Isabel Huntington and snapped truly for her first AFLW goal to give the Dogs a 20-point advantage, before Aasta O’Connor put the result beyond doubt with a booming kick from 45 metres out, ensuring the Bulldogs made it two wins from two meetings with the Dockers.
However, the Bulldogs did not come through with this win unscathed, as debutant Daria Bannister was stretchered off after what seemed to be an innocuous contest as she went to tackle a Fremantle defender. She was seen with a knee brace on after the game, and the replays may suggest that it could be a potential season-ending knee injury, which would be such a shame as not only it was her first game, but she showed a lot of promising signs through the off-season.
The injury was the only sour note to what was otherwise a very strong start to the year for a side that finished 6th in the AFLW last year.
Leading The Way
Katie Brennan’s opening half was indicative of how destructive she can be in the top flight. She struggled with an ankle injury in her opening two games last year and still managed to kick two goals on the Dockers last year in their season opener. This time around, a fully-fit Brennan was running up and down Whitten Oval and tore Fremantle apart with three goals in the first half. She would finish with 12 disposals, six marks and three marks. Vice captain Ellie Blackburn, who stood in for Brennan as captain last year, picked up where she left off in 2017, recording 23 disposals, seven marks and one goal in a stunning effort.
All eyes were on how number one draft pick Isabel Huntington would perform in her first official game in over 18 months, and whilst she displayed some attributes that can make her a destructive force throughout the game, she managed just eight disposals and four marks. There’s still a lot of work to be done in her development, but she looked very strong whenever she got tackled and displayed very good hands and was very composed when she did have the ball in hand. The best of the Dogs’ eight debutants would’ve been between rookie selection Aisling Utri (10 disposals and four marks) who looked at home in defence and Monique Conti (14 disposals and four marks) who showed extraordinary athleticism.
Others that featured well for the Bulldogs included Emma Kearney, who recovered from a slow start to finish with 18 disposals and six marks for the match, Brooke Lochland (13 disposals, six marks and a goal) and Lauren Spark who took a number of superb intercept marks in defence, recording five marks along with 11 disposals in a defence that looked almost impenetrable.
The Opposition
Whilst Fremantle improved a little bit after half time, the damage was already done in the first half. Injuries can only excuse so much in football, but it shouldn’t be an excuse when the opposition boots five goals in the opening half and you can barely register that total in inside 50s alone. There might be a heap of scrutiny place on both Michelle Cowan and her players throughout the week as they go back to WA to play at Optus Stadium for the first time in the club’s history to play Collingwood in front of a sold out crowd.
It was hard to highlight any good Fremantle player from this match. Captain Kara Donnellan didn’t look her best, despite finishing with an equal team-high 12 disposals and 12 of their 21 players only registered seven disposals or less. They were beaten in every almost statistic, only beating them in hit outs (26-24), tackles (66-60) and contested possessions (81-78). But the really alarming thing is that they can’t get beaten in marks and uncontested ball the way they did on Sunday. They were beaten 70-17 in marks and the Dogs had 123 uncontested possessions to Freo’s 64.
Amy Lavell’s two goals in the third term threatened to turn the game on it’s head, Gabby O’Sullivan (eight disposals) set both of them up and looked dangerous whenever she had the ball. Dana Hooker’s efforts in the middle (12 disposals) didn’t go unnoticed, whilst Alicia Janz battled on in the ruck (17 hitouts and seven tackles). Hayley Miller (eight disposals and seven tackles) and Brianna Green (seven disposals and nine tackles) also tried their best in what was a very disappointing performance from the Dockers.
Next Week
The Western Bulldogs travel up to Queensland to take on last year’s Grand Finalist in the Brisbane Lions, in what is already firming as the game of the round next weekend. This is a massive test for the Bulldogs as the Lions will be up there again this year after going through the home and away season undefeated last year. They took care of last year’s premiers Adelaide on Saturday night in their Grand Final rematch in Adelaide.
The last time these two sides met in 2017, the Bulldogs did serve it up to the Lions, but were unable to get the job done, going down by only seven points. But this looks like an vastly different and much improved Bulldogs side this year. Could a win against the Lions stamp their premiership credentials next week?