2017, R2 WESTERN BULLDOGS v SYDNEY

The Western Bulldogs’ second-round clash against Sydney in 2017 was memorable for many reasons. The Dogs were coming off a Round 1 win over Collingwood at the MCG and were now taking on the team they’d defeated six months earlier to break a 62-year premiership drought.

Those two factors on their own were enough to make the match a blockbuster, but there was one other element that helped make this night extra special – the unfurling of the 2016 Premiership flag.

A host of past Bulldogs champions and club luminaries lined up inside Marvel Stadium as the pennant was raised. Club legends, including Gary Dempsey, John Schultz, Doug Hawkins, Chris Grant, Scott West and Rohan Smith stood alongside off-field contributors like Alan Johnstone, Irene Chatfield and Club President Peter Gordon. Each and every one of them beamed as the flag was unfurled.

It was a wonderful moment for all who witnessed it. As unforgettable as it was, though, for one group inside the stadium, it was a moment that would have to be pushed to the backs of their minds – at least for the next few hours.

That group was, of course, the 22 Bulldogs players who were about to cross swords with 22 others wearing the famous red and white Swans jumper.

And after the ceremonies were done and the siren sounded to signal the start of the 2016 Grand Final match, it seemed as if those 22 Dogs – and perhaps Luke Beveridge and his coaching panel – still had those celebrations on their minds.

In fact it took until the 17-minute mark of the opening term for the Bulldogs to register their first goal. In one respect, this was not necessarily a reason to panic – the goal had actually come more than two minutes earlier than the Dogs’ opening major in the Grand Final, kicked by Zaine Cordy at the 19:54 mark.

There was one major difference this time though. Cordy’s goal in the 2016 came in response to Sydney’s only goal to that stage. Here at Marvel Stadium six months later, the Swans had four goals on the board before the Dogs hit the scoreboard through boom recruit Travis Cloke.

Cloke’s goal seemed to spark the rest of his team into action. From that moment until the quarter time siren Sydney did not score again. The Dogs, meanwhile, peppered the goals, albeit without much accuracy. Cloke kicked his second major 10 minutes after his first, and at the first break the Bulldogs had recovered to be only seven points down, 2.6.18 to 4.1.25.

Over the next two quarters the Bulldogs looked much more like the side that had scaled the AFL’s Everest back in October. Sharing five goals between Bob Murphy, Matt Suckling, Cloke, Jake Stringer and Lin Jong, the Dogs took an eight-point lead into the long break. Two goals to Tom Boyd ­– one of the Dogs’ Grand Final heroes – and singles to his premiership teammates Lachie Hunter, Marcus Bontempelli and Jake Stringer extended the Bulldogs lead at the final change of ends to 22 points.

Heading into the final term, the feeling among the Footscray faithful at Marvel Stadium was one of buoyancy – almost jubilation. Those emotions may have unintentionally spilled over the fence and onto the field, because the Bulldogs brigade of players seemed to barely react as the Swans repeated their opening quarter salvo, kicking the first four goals of the final term.

In just 12 minutes Sydney had wiped out that three-quarter time deficit and led by four points. The game was suddenly balancing on a knife’s edge once more. Over the next six minutes the game took on gladiatorial proportions, with the only scores a pair of behinds to the Bulldogs.

Amazingly, though, the remainder of the final term followed an almost identical script to that of the first. In the first quarter, Sydney had failed to register a score after Sam Reid had kick the Swans’ fourth goal. Reid had also kicked Sydney’s fourth of the final term, which again proved to be his side’s last score.

It was future skipper Marcus Bontempelli who first responded to the challenge laid down by the Swans. He capped off a fine running effort from another premiership hero, Liam Picken, with a goal that restored the Dogs’ lead.

From that moment on, the home side took complete control. Picken followed up with his own major after being awarded a free kick and, immediately after, Jake Stringer produced one of his trademark centre square bursts to kick a booming goal. In the blink of an eye, the Bulldogs had gone from trailing to leading by 16 points.

Any final doubts among the Bulldogs’ fans were erased at the 28-minute mark when Picken took a clever mark and kicked his second goal. Seconds later, the final siren sounded, and the Dogs had once again vanquished the Sydney Swans. The final margin was 23 points, one more than the winning one of the previous year’s premiership victory.

The win rounded out a night to remember for all Bulldogs fans and, in a way, it encapsulated the journeys of many of them over their football lifetimes. It began with smiles and great expectations, was then punctuated by periods of anxiety and despair, before finally ending in triumph for the mighty red, white and blue.

Round 2, 2017

Western Bulldogs 16.14.110 def. Sydney 13.9.87

Goals: Cloke, Stringer 3; Bontempelli, T Boyd, Picken 2; Jong, Murphy, Hunter, Suckling
Best: Bontempelli, Jong, Dahlhaus, Cloke, Stringer

Brownlow Medal votes: Marcus Bontempelli 3, Lance Franklin (Syd) 2, Sam Reid (Syd) 1