We go from one rivalry with a Sydney team to the other, there’s no rest for the Western Bulldogs as they travel up North to the Sydney Cricket Ground to tackle the Sydney Swans in a Thursday night game - this being the third match in an 11 day stand.
It’s been a pretty turbulent few days since the Bulldogs’ win over the Greater Wank Stains, I mean the Greater Western Sydney Giants.
On the Saturday morning, one Essendon player tested positive for covid-19. For the sake of privacy, let’s call him Conor M. No, wait that’s too obvious - what about C. McKenna? Yes that’ll do. That guy tested positive on and has at least put the next few weeks for the Bombers and to a lesser extent, the league in a bit of a spin. However on Tuesday, his latest result came back negative, so that has me bloody confused.
None of this should affect the Bulldogs however and seeing as McKenna wasn’t on the flight to Sydney when they beat the Swans over a week ago, they should be fine too, so Thursday night so far is on. Let’s get to it.
Because I was at work, trying to earn an actual living, I had to try and catch most of their game against the Kangaroos on Saturday through the radio. Having watched a bit of the Swans the week before against the Bombers, I didn’t think of them much of a chance, considering who the Kangaroos beat the previous round and where they beat them. The Swans couldn’t even put away an Essendon team that has had such horrid history in Sydney over the years.
But as the Bulldogs showed on Friday night, the Giants might be heading towards a bit of a downward spiral and maybe that diminishes the credibility of North's win over them to a degree. But not enough to suggest that the Roos won’t be a major threat when the Dogs play them in round five. It’s still hard to really say who is better than who at this stage of the season.
The 2020 season is going to be the one year where surprises are around every corner and tucked in every crevasse. I mean come on, Gold Coast are sitting inside the top four, Carlton beat Geelong at Kardinia Park on Saturday, Port Adelaide remain the only unbeaten team and last year’s Grand Finalists are sitting ninth and 12th on the ladder. How many of you would’ve truly predicted that at the start of the year?
Here’s another surprise, the Swans, bottom four finishers last year, are sitting in the top eight following their win against North Melbourne. Wasn’t able to watch much, but by the sounds of it, they were harder at the contest for longer. After conceding the opening two goals of the game, Sydney went to work and by three-quarter time, opened up a 27-point gap. It also benefitted the Swans greatly that the Roos’ number one contested possession winner Ben Cunnington was a late out. But still, it was a really good job by the Swans midfielders considering that not many people rate them externally.
The old firm - Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker - were sensational in the middle and were complimented by some of the Swans younger brigade. Ollie Florent was outstanding and James Rowbottom looked like Kennedy mark II at times on Saturday with the way he wins the contested footy. He’s a second-year player, so watch out for him in the next few years, he’s going to be a very good player.
Have they found a way to win without Buddy? Well they’re 2-1, so early indications will say yes they’ve adapted well so far, but for how long can it be sustained? The Swans will be without him, Sam Reid and Tom McCartin as tall forwards Thursday night, so that’s not a good sign. Round one, they narrowly beat an Adelaide team that looks like they’ll be the competition’s whipping boys this year - so that’s not exactly an encouraging sign either.
But a benefit of not playing Buddy is that they can be a bit more unpredictable in terms of targets inside 50. I wouldn’t mind knowing how often the Swans delivered it to him or intended to do so in years gone by, because the stats should indicate that they can be too Buddy-centric.
But on the lighter side of things, Sydney kicked 10 goals on the weekend through nine individual goal-kickers. Nick Blakey and McCartin are keys that will be very capable players a few years down the track, and they have several other small or mid-sized options they can use. Think Tom Papley (until he goes to Carlton at the end of the year), Isaac Heeney, Will Hayward, Lewis Taylor and Sam Gray. You could even throw down Parker and Kennedy as resting forwards and they might bob up with a goal or two, like they did Saturday.
That’s just something for the Bulldog defenders to think about this week. They were brilliant in handling the entries inside 50 by GWS on Friday night. A big part of that was because the pressure delivered by the Bulldogs’ midfielders was that intense that the orange and charcoal counterparts didn’t have much time to think things through. Hence the hack kicks forward. Hence why the likes of Alex Keath and Hayden Crozier were able to do their thing in defence to the best of their ability.
It was that kind of ‘in your face’ style of pressure that had been missing from the Western Bulldogs’ in the first two rounds, and as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, it’ll be hard in a shortened season and given the fact that they haven’t had much work together in that three-month gap. There might be questions about the sustainability for pressure over the next 14 games.
On top of that, they’re going to be without Josh Dunkley for up to six weeks after it was revealed that he injured his ankle in the final seconds of Friday night’s win. If there was any more grief that 2020 can deliver to the Bulldogs, this will be the kind of crap that we’ll get. Whilst Dunkley’s game wasn’t as special as we have been accustomed to over the past 18 months, but his presence in the midfield will be missed greatly.
As well as his ability to find the footy, his tackling pressure has always been highly rated, and given that the pressure was the catalyst to toppling the Giants on Friday, it might be a hard thing to replace. However, there are still plenty of Bulldogs that will be able to run through the middle. Bontempelli, Macrae, Bailey Smith has been having a great start to the year, Lin Jong, Liberatore, Wallis and Toby McLean just to name some and keep in mind Patrick Lipinski was dropped for having a 22-possession game the week before, some would argue unfairly.
I also need to mention the debut of Louis Butler. A kid from down my way, he spent time at the Sandringham Dragons last year and also captained his school team, Brighton Grammar last year. The kid’s got some skill by foot and he’s an excellent runner, which means he could see time at half-back or maybe on a wing? Watching his highlights package, I really like the look of him. I could see him replacing Matt Suckling, his form has been extra ordinary since the season restart, I think he needs a spell.
The Bulldogs’ recent history against the Swans has been promising and in a season where everything has gone balls-up on my tips, it’s something that I want to be able to bring into this, but I just can’t be confident it will hold up. The Dogs have won five of the last seven games against the Swans and two of the past three at the SCG. It’s positive numbers, but Sydney had won its last nine games in Sydney against the Bombers before they lost in round two - take it with a grain of salt.
I will conclude this piece by saying that it four years on, it is still such a joy reading comments by a few Sydney supporters on social media, still salty about how the umpires ‘gifted’ the 2016 premiership to the Bulldogs. I’ve had a couple of workmates come up to me over the past year and tell me that the Dogs got away with it.
I’m not sorry in the slightest. Got away with what? Were there favourable calls? Maybe so, but did they decide the game? I don’t think so. Even still, my blind dog could’ve seen that the Bulldogs were first to the ball most of the day and that they were harder at the contest for longer. Still, the tears taste great - keep them coming Sydney supporters.
That’s the aim of the game, that and kicking more goals.