A Preview To The Bulldogs' Clash With the Kangaroos
- Alex Docherty
- Jul 3, 2020
- 5 min read
Two weeks ago, after assessing the Bulldogs being trounced by St. Kilda, I took a quick look at the next three weeks - the first two I thought were almost givens: GWS were going to hand it to us and that we should be able to take care of Sydney in Sydney. North I hadn’t exactly made my mind up on. They constructed a miracle comeback against the Saints in round one and in round two they put in a strong shift against the Giants at Giants Stadium.
“Let’s see how North go in the next two weeks. If they’re serious about contending, they should beat the Swans and at least put in a concerted effort against the Hawks.” I told my brothers on that Sunday night.
Well, those two weeks have passed and I sit here on a cold Thursday evening, still trying to ponder where on Earth the Kangaroos are three weeks since the restart. They lost pretty comfortably against the Swans in round three and as I sat on my desk and watched North and Hawthorn on Sunday night, I was far from convinced that they were going to be anything other than a team struggling to make up the numbers.
By reckoning, the Hawks should’ve had them on toast on Sunday night. However, the standard of football was just a fraction above the game that was on before that. Whether or not Hawthorn decided to put the cue in the rack or they were legitimately buggered from the first three quarters remained to be seen. But the Roos made a final push and fell less than a kick short, which does not make it any more clearer on where North Melbourne sit in the 2020 pecking order.
Another 90 seconds and that would’ve been a North Melbourne win, so as I write this, I can’t be entirely sold that the Dogs will chalk up win number three of the season by the end of the weekend. I might have mentioned it during the week, North Melbourne always seem to bring some of it’s best football against the Bulldogs, and I can argue that it is one of the AFL’s most slept-on rivalries in the 21st century.
Some may scoff at the idea that it these two sides have a strong rivalry, based on the lack of success between them over the last 30 years, but success shouldn’t automatically mean a red-hot rivalry. Take West Coast and Sydney for example. They had two cracking Grand Finals in the mid-2000s and maybe sans for a couple more close ones on either side of those Grand Finals, nobody rarely talks about them together as a rivalry anymore.
On the other hand, have a look at Hawthorn and Geelong - take away the premierships from 1989 until now and you still have a mountain of amazing games that will be on Youtube or captured on DVD somewhere where fans of Geelong, Hawthorn and the AFL in general can rewatch and relive. Of course, the premierships add more fuel to the fire, but the quality of games that they have churned out year after year have turned it into arguably football’s greatest rivalry - certainly in the 2010s, but you can also argue for this century.
Now, don’t get me twisted in saying the Bulldogs/North is like Geelong and Hawthorn - because it isn’t. The Dogs and North are their own entities and haven’t had as much success as those two have over the course of this century. But they still have had their heated contests over the past few years, and in a way, it almost feels like both teams play a nice little game of one-upmanship with each other whenever they play - it’s often fun to watch.
Let’s go back to last year. The only game the two teams were scheduled to play in 2019 saw North a red-hot mess that led to the termination of Brad Scott as head coach in the build-up, play some of their best football up to that point. The Bulldogs, after being bettered in the second, and most of the third, ramped up their intensity and even took the lead, before North eventually powered back out to win by five goals.
I’d like to think somewhere Bulldogs’ coach Luke Beveridge would wind that game back to those who played on that day and ask how a club that had only won two games after nine rounds, could get over a team that would eventually play in the Finals not once, but twice in the same game. However, the reality is that North aren’t an overly bad team. Inconsistent? Most definitely, but they’re not a rubbish team.
On Saturday night, the Roos will be without captain Jack Ziebell. Ben Cunnington, whilst named, is still a chance to miss after missing the last two games with back complaints. Maybe that’s the reason the Roos’ last two weeks have been fleeting? Despite my issues with Cunnington gut punching anyone that stands next to him and getting away with it, the man is a serious beast in contested spaces - one could make the argument he is one of the best contested possession winners in the game.
The midfield battle will be interesting. Without him, the Roos have Shaun Higgins as their sole A-grade midfielder. Trent Dumont and Jed Anderson are solid players and Jy Simpkin is fast emerging as contested ball specialist in his own right and against the likes of Bontempelli, Macrae, an emerging Bailey Smith, Tom Liberatore and others, it almost feels like the Dogs have the advantage without Cunnington there. With him, it becomes a more intriguing battle.
Todd Goldstein is still playing some very decent football - given his great form around the ground the past two weeks, how will Tim English fare on Saturday night? English’s best football is around the ground. He had Sam Jacobs on toast in round three and last week proved too good for the talls of Sam Naismith and Callum Sinclair. Big Tim needs to continue to focus on his own game first, because when he does, he looks good doing it, as the last two weeks have shown.
The Dogs have their own injury issues. The number one key forward Aaron Naughton is out for at least six weeks, after hurting his ankle last Thursday night. This means Josh Bruce needs to step up another level. He has been horrifically underperforming in his first four games in the red, white and blue. In the last two weeks, you can see him beginning to get more involved in the plays, which is an encouraging sign, but there needs to be a consistent four-quarter effort.
Josh Schache will come in to relieve some of the burden. He’s essentially a forgotten man with Bruce’s arrival, but we should remember that Schache has done quite a few nice things and is an often a reliable shot on goal. Dickson too - where the hell is he? With Lloyd out for at least the next month, it seriously makes me ponder about his future at the club, if he still can’t get in this team.
Well, at least Lin Jong and Easton Wood are back in the team though, so I can’t complain too much. Jong has been a very solid contributor in rounds two and three and Wood you’d think will strengthen a defence that has been pretty good over the past fortnight. He doesn’t need to be a standout, he just needs to do his role for the side, which I think he does on a pretty consistent basis.
I’m hardly ever confident about the Bulldogs when it comes to North, but I am very confident we’ll be treated to a great contest, whichever way the result lands.