Western Bulldogs 4.1 5.1 5.2 6.3.39
St. Kilda 1.0 1.1 1.1 2.2.14
Goals
Western Bulldogs: Toogood 2, Marshall, McCarthy, Hunt, Lamb
St. Kilda: McDonald, Sedunary
Alex Docherty’s Best
Western Bulldogs: Blackburn, Lamb, Rennie, Scott, Huntington, Toogood
St. Kilda: Patrikios, McDonald, Vesely, Watt, Phillips, Priest
The Western Bulldogs are on the board in season 2020.
As a matter of fact, as I was driving home from the game this afternoon, it kind of dawned on me that the Bulldogs have not lost a round one match since the AFLW came into existence. It wasn’t quite the thriller that Bulldogs fans were subjected to last year when they traveled to Adelaide.
In fact, they had control of the contest from the word go this time round. A four goal to one first quarter set the scene for what was a tough first-up encounter for St. Kilda in front of a packed-out crowd at Moorabbin’s RSEA Park. The final result was a 26-point win to the Bulldogs. The perfect start for new coach Nathan Burke, ironically at the ground and against the club he had trained and played with throughout his whole playing career.
On a day where blustery conditions would play a huge role, the Bulldogs were the ones who adapted the best early on. They didn’t waste no time getting themselves on the scoreboard through Bonnie Toogood. Once they adapted to the conditions, they made the most of them. Toogood’s first was followed on by a first kick, first goal by American Dani Marshall, assisted by Ellie Blackburn who sold some great candy further afield. As well as another beautiful set shot by Toogood, who used the breeze to her advantage.
In what was a history-making day for the Saints overall, they added in some more history as Molly McDonald etched her name into St. Kilda’s history books as the first woman to kick a goal for the red, white and black. It was a nice little passage of play as well, which saw her take a mark running back with the flight and then playing on to steady and kick a lovely six-pointer. On a day where overall, there weren’t many highlights, that was one St. Kilda highlight that stood out.
The highlight was then cancelled out as the Bulldogs added a fourth goal before quarter time, that coming from the boot of Aisling McCarthy, who kicked it out of a stoppage. The margin was pushed out to a 19-point lead and it was a case of getting out of hand quickly for the Saints. When they had their hands to the ball, they were lucky to get it past halfway without turning it over.
I thought at quarter time the Saints were going to have some form of bounceback phase in the second quarter, and well, they did of sorts. They completely reduced the Bulldogs’ running game to that of an absolute scrap, they used the footy a tad better than the first and had more inside 50s than the Dogs, which indicates they had more than their fair share.
Unfortunately, they could only put one behind on the board for all their effort, and to make matters worse, the Bulldogs on the other end, managed to build on that quarter time lead by adding a goal into the second, courtesy of Bailey Hunt. As much as the Saints made a meal forward of centre, the defensive unit of the Bulldogs was outstanding. More on Izzy Huntington a bit further down, but she was sensational, working in tandem with Lauren Spark and Ellyse Gamble. Angelica Gogos and Naomi Ferres need mentioning as well because when it was needed, they put their bodies on the line and rose to the occasion defensively.
The third quarter was about the Saints just hanging on to make sure that there was no more damage to the scoreboard. Down by 25 early in the third term, the Saints once again struggled to get the ball forward of centre as the ball was often in the Bulldogs’ forward 50. To the credit of St. Kilda, they only conceded the one behind in the third term, but the margin looked to be a steep hill to climb at that point.
Kirsty Lamb’s goal in the 9th minute of the last quarter put away the thinnest of possibilities of an unlikely St. Kilda comeback. Even though the Saints upped their physicality after quarter time, this Bulldogs team looked just a cut above their opposition and have set themselves up for a beauty on Friday night, when they take on Melbourne at Whitten Oval for their first home game of 2020.
Leading The Way
This player has led this team from the front from the start, basically since the inaugural season when Katie Brennan found herself absent with injury, but Ellie Blackburn showed how big she is for the Bulldogs in the middle. I was bloody worried a few weeks ago when she was clutching her arm in that practice match. But she put any worries to rest with a strong performance that read 17 disposals, five tackles and four marks.
She had plenty of help in the middle through Kirsty Lamb and Hannah Scott. Lamb (17 disposals, six tackles and a goal) has been critically underrated since the premiership year, and hopefully this will be the year that she can establish herself as an A-grade midfielder. Scott (17 disposals, four tackles) has played more midfield minutes thus far in 2020 and I absolutely love it. She’ll take any chance to hurt opposition players, whether it’s tackling or bumping someone when the ball is in dispute.
One player that deserves plaudits is Kim Rennie. Now admittedly, I’ve been sitting on the fence about her as a ruck since the end of 2019, hoping that she can improve her game this year. With Celine Moody injuring her ankle in the early stages of the contest, it meant that Rennie had to stand up and shoulder the ruck work for the most part on her own. To her credit, she was great. She would finish with 20 hitouts, 11 disposals and eight tackles and props to Dani Marshall who provided the chop-out throughout the game.
I will close off this section by saying that I am loving Izzy Huntington playing defence. Particularly in that second quarter when the Saints had the game predominantly on their terms, she was reading everything like a book and in term, it went a long way towards keeping the Saints goal-less in that quarter. I was holding my breath when I found her in the arms of the trainers and going towards the bench in the final term - knowing her history with knee injuries. Thankfully the injury is not knee-related, but given that she was treated for concussion, she could be unavailable for the Melbourne game.
The Opposition
With all four expansion sides losing out this weekend, one would assume that the difference between being in the league for a few seasons as opposed to starting out this year would play a big factor. I saw a bit of that in Richmond on Friday night and I saw it with St. Kilda on Sunday. At times, the Saints were just outclassed by a side that has been through the highs and the lows of this competition. But I think they’ve got a bright future and they’ve got the right person for the job.
The Saints’ best player came in the form of the highly-rated teenager Georgia Patrikios. The number five pick in last year’s AFLW Draft lead all Saints for disposals with 18 for the match to go along with five tackles. I think the one thing that stood out was how composed she was when she had the footy and how she hit her targets often. The Saints have a genuine star on their hands, and she’s going to be their number one mid for the next decade or so.
Speaking of players sticking around for the next decade or so, Molly McDonald (12 disposals, four marks and three tackles) and Olivia Vesely (14 disposals and four tackles) came to the club via the Southern Saints VFLW team. I thought both were also very solid contributors for St. Kilda and barring anymore expansion nonsense, I think they’ll be there for the long run. In terms of their senior players, I was very impressed with co-captains Rhiannon Watt floating between ruck and a defensive role (14 hitouts, nine disposals and three marks) and Cat Phillips’ running game (13 disposals).