Before I start, I am keeping the title as Western Bulldogs, and not Footscray for the purpose of making searching on the site easier. If want to come back to this at some stage, they’re way more likely to search the actual team name, rather than ‘Footscray’. I do the same by not adding the annual Indigenous name changes, as well. It’s for continuity, because I like continuity. No more, no less.
In the end, it was a 51-point win to the Dogs over the Dees in Round 21, but it felt like the margin was so much larger.
At quarter time, the teams wandered off to their respective huddles, and they could not have been further apart in terms of their performances. The Dogs were all over their opponents, punishing them at the contest, winning clearances as though it was a training drill, and owning territory like they were foreign investors. As a matter of fact, it took until the quarter was half over before the Dees got a touch on the offensive side of the centre square, such was the Western Bulldogs’ domination.
The only place the Dogs failed to punish Melbourne was the one that mattered most, resulting in just four Bulldog goals from 11 scoring shots. I started to wonder whether it was something that would come back to haunt the Dogs, particularly as it seemed the Dees couldn’t possibly play worse than they had in the opening quarter.
Melbourne scored four goals to two in the second, and there were signs of life, but even that was inflated, as the real story was the number of shots each team had. The Dogs had 19. The Dees had six.
That, and the Dogs had this bloke named Marcus Bontempelli doing basically whatever he liked out there.
It was probably halfway through the third quarter that the Bulldogs finally put the Dees away – at least on the scoreboard. In every other facet of the game, it was as though the result was already decided. Melbourne battled on, but that basically resembled them to this point of the season – battlers. It was admirable, but they were a class below and blew their lines in the opening scenes of the game. Had the Dogs had their radar working, this was the type of game that should have been a 100-point win.
The Dogs power on toward September. The Dees fall in a heap, with the reality of the situation now dawning on them. They will not play finals in 2024.
Let’s jump into HB’s Talking Points from this one.
JOIN NOWRound 21 – The Prophet’s Predictions
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