Does it get any better than that for the first win of the season?
Many questions have been asked by supporters and media scribes alike leading into this game. What sort of response were the Western Bulldogs going to show following Sunday’s loss to the Saints? What sort of response were they going to show to the team that bullied them out of the last year’s Finals Series? Was there going to be any fightback? Any bite in these Bulldogs? Anything?
Well as I sit here on a Friday night typing away, I can happily tell you all that they responded in the best possible way. It wasn’t pretty by any stretch. As a matter of fact, the winning margin should’ve been a lot more than four goals, but a win is a win, and especially against the schmucks in orange and charcoal. We got the response everyone was asking for.
There were a lot of things that made me tear hair out and curse at the TV too many times that my old man had to tell me to shut up countless times. Just to name a few, Josh Bruce failing to cover a set-shot from 30 metres, Bailey Dale kicking the turf as he was trying to snap a goal in the last quarter and the consistent butchering of the football from one Matthew Suckling.
But, the positives in this match completely thump out the bad things in this game.
Let’s start with the coin toss shall we? The Giants thought it was a great idea to send Nick Haynes to do the toss against the man who fractured his larynx last year in the Bont and then proceed to stare him down as if he was going to murder him straight afterwards. What can be perceived as mind games, was just petty and pathetic BS. Kind of brings to mind Adelaide’s ‘power stance’ in the 2017 Finals Series: Completely unnecessary, but it's good to laugh at now once it was realised they weren't going to do much else.
It surprisingly shocked no one when everyone’s favourite midfield pest Matt De Boer started to rough up the Bont. But the boys were ready for whatever onslaught was coming their way. I couldn’t stress enough the importance of Tom Liberatore enough for this, but he was right in amongst it. He was one of three returns for the match and suffice to say, these inclusions all did their part. Toby McLean harassed and hounded the opposition with the ball in hand, and Zaine Cordy was a solid contributor in defence once again.
Whilst on the subject of enforcers, I also noticed Josh Bruce willing to get into any Giant that was going to have a crack at his new teammates. Whilst I haven’t been impressed about the impact that Bruce has had on the 2020 season, I can’t help but feel happy about how he stood up for the young boys up forward and around the ground. We needed some veteran heads in this team, I’m glad he was there to fight the good fight.
Back to the play, What was even more impressive was that the Bulldogs were equally up to it when the ball was needed to be won in the early stages. They were up in the face of every Giant possible and caused a lot of uncharacteristic turnovers and fumbles through this pressure, and whilst not a direct result, the Giants looked very slow as the game progressed, and you’d jot that down to the perceived pressure.
It was the Bulldogs that showed up in the second half of 2019 and it was the same outfit that pressured sides into submission in the 2016 Finals. It’s all about what happens from here. It’s hard to demand them play tough and uncompromising football for the next 14 weeks, but they should be doing it on a nearly consistent basis. This was great - it had the heart, the want and the will to play that the first two games sorely lacked.
That big all-in scuffle, brawl, melee - whatever the hell you want to call it on the three-quarter time siren. I don’t think you would’ve seen a bigger smile on my face then and there. It might be because I’m a bit old-fashioned, and it might be because I still love a bit of the biff in footy, but it was the fact that there must have been at least over a dozen blokes wearing the red, white and blue coming in to throw their weight around. Liberatore’s goal was perhaps the cream on that cake.
You can argue that the Giants lost Toby Greene on Thursday night at the selection table (another pathetic move to get him out of the firing line), Josh Kelly pulled out pre-game with a calf issue and Lachie Whitfield got concussed for being in the way of a full-steam ahead Aaron Naughton - that better not get a week or in the great words of Terry Wallace, I’ll spew up - and Tim Taranto didn’t play either. But there were still a number of Giants looked very ordinary.
Sam Jacobs may have recorded more hitouts than Tim English, but English had him well and truly beat around the ground. English was imposing up forward early and took strong intercept marks in defence as the game progressed. Had he converted even one of those two bad misses in the opening half, he would’ve been one of the best players on the ground. This is the reason why he has been in the team the past few weeks and therefore he needs to be in the team for the remainder of the season.
The forward trio of Jeremy Cameron, Jeremy Finlayson and Harry Himmelberg had 21 disposals and eight marks between them, winding back their wonderful Grand Final non-performances. Heath Shaw looked rattled by the Bulldogs players, and when he’s rattled, he loses his absolute marbles.which is always an amusing sight to me. Zac Williams saw very little of the footy and as much as I like Sam Taylor, he just had an out-and-out shocker. Also captain Stephen Coniglio worked hard for 24 disposals but he went at just over 54 percent efficiency - which tells you he didn’t exactly have a fantastic night in the office.
It was left to very few. Callan Ward tried hard, Jacob Hopper had a crack and Harry Perryman worked his backside off. I really liked the kids in Jackson Hately and Jye Caldwell. Lachie Ash on debut was targeted a little bit, but did enough to hold his own and if it wasn’t for Nick Haynes in defence, then maybe the Dogs would’ve had more scoring opportunities, he took some great intercept marks and had several great spoils that Danny Frawley would’ve been proud of.
Out of the Bulldogs that played well, Jack Macrae saw more time in the middle as opposed to last week, when Luke Beveridge sat him on a wing and half forward - thank god. He looked back to his best this week, winning disposals, clearances and tackling at will. Caleb Daniel was very prominent with his disposals and didn’t stop working hard. Hayden Crozier and Alex Keath were outstanding in defence. Keath in particular held last year’s Coleman Medallist Cameron to just one goal and eight touches, whilst picking up 14 disposals, five marks and a goal himself.
I want to highlight Jason Johannisen’s game. By quarter time, he looked like he was going to be in for another one of those games where everything he touched turned into complete crap. There was a moment in the opening quarter where a free kick was payed inside 50 for the Bulldogs, only for Johannisen to run and play advantage and mess it up completely. He got better as the game progressed and made a lot of positive contributions with the footy in his hand in the second half.
Also, big props to Marcus Bontempelli for putting up with De Boer all game long, he had 16 disposals, but jeez some of those kicks were absolute rippers. Also, that goal in the third quarter would’ve been like a big right hook on the jaw of his counterpart. So obviously it would’ve been therapeutic for all Bulldogs supporters, including myself. And to Bailey Smith, whilst not his best performance, he took the game on at every opportunity and looked imposing as a midfielder once again.
There’s not much else I need to add out of this, us Bulldog fans got the response we were after. I think it’s pretty safe to say I’ll enjoy the rest of my weekend before the Dogs go up to Sydney to take on the Swans - another must-win. I look forward to seeing how the Swans travel this weekend against North, that’ll be an interesting game, considering we play both teams in the next couple of weeks.
I'm just hoping that this performance wasn’t a one off, and that we have turned the corner on the 2020 season. I would love more of the same next week at the Sydney Cricket Ground please.
Western Bulldogs 2.5 4.6 7.8 8.9.57 GWS Giants 1.2 1.4 3.5 4.9.33
Goals
Western Bulldogs: Dunkley, Smith, Keath, Wallis, Richards, Dale, Liberatore, Bontempelli GWS Giants: Perryman 2, Cameron, Finlayson
Alex Docherty’s Best
Western Bulldogs: Macrae, Daniel, Liberatore, Johannisen, English, Keath, Smith GWS Giants: Perryman, Haynes, Hately, Coniglio, Caldwell, Ward