In the second week of September 2010, the Western Bulldogs found themselves in an all-too-familiar scenario.

For the third season running the Bulldogs under coach Rodney Eade had made the top four, only to lose their Qualifying Final.

In both 2008 and 2009, the Dogs fought back to win their way through to Preliminary Finals with rebounding Semi-Final victories.

Now they faced that prospect once more, having been comprehensively beaten by top side Collingwood in week one of the finals.

Looking to bounce back for a third year in a row, the Bulldogs faced Sydney, who had won their Elimination Final after finishing fifth, just as they had done two years earlier.  The Dogs accounted for the Swans comfortably on that occasion and they were favoured to do so again, but it would prove to be no easy task.

On the Thursday leading into the cut-throat match, Bulldogs selectors made two changes to the side that had gone down to the Pies, one of them enforced. Tim Callan was omitted, while the unlucky Shaun Higgins succumbed to a condition known as thyroiditis, an illness which had hampered him during the season.

In choosing replacements for Callan and Higgins, the selectors plumped for young Easton Wood, and another choice that sent shock waves through the AFL world. The Bulldogs named Andrew Hooper to make his AFL debut, prompting many to ask, "Andrew who?"

Hooper had played TAC Cup football with the North Ballarat Rebels but had been overlooked in the 2009 National Draft, with many list managers concerned about his lack of size. At just 172cm, Hooper was indeed diminutive, but the Bulldogs saw enough in him to take him in the 2010 Rookie Draft.

After a solid season with the Bulldogs' VFL affiliate Williamstown, Hooper was rewarded with selection for the cut-throat Semi-Final against the Swans, thus becoming the first AFL player in a quarter of a century to make his debut in a final (the previous one had been North Melbourne's Paul Spargo, who coincidentally debuted in the corresponding Semi-Final match in 1985 against the Bulldogs. Ironically, Paul's father Bob was a Bulldog himself, playing 80 games for Footscray between 1958 and 1963).

On a mild September Saturday evening at the MCG, the Dogs and Swans opened the match defending grimly, and eight minutes elapsed before the first major of the match came, a goal to Barry Hall after a mark. The ex-Swans premiership captain was in his first year with the Bulldogs and, having come into the match with 75 goals for the season, had become the spearhead the Dogs had been searching for throughout Eade's tenure as coach.

Adam Goodes responded for Sydney five minutes later, and the sides went goal for goal for the rest of the term, locked together at 3.4 apiece at the first change of ends.

The prevailing expectation was that the Bulldogs would gradually get on top as the game wore on, but Sydney turned that notion on its head in the first 20 minutes of the second quarter. The Swans added five straight goals to open up a 30-point lead and the Bulldogs were in grave danger of being eliminated from the premiership race in ‘straight sets’.

It was not until time-on before the Dogs managed a score, with their first goal of the quarter coming at the 24-minute mark when Hall snapped his third.

The Bulldogs cleared from the ensuing centre bounce, with the ball going to the first-gamer Hooper, who received a free kick for a hold. With only second left before the half-time siren, the debutant showed nerves of steel, calmly slotting his first AFL goal. The Dogs went into the long break still 16 points adrift of the Swans, but with momentum and renewed belief.

That momentum was not halted by the interval, and Jarrad Grant took only 30 seconds to snap the first goal of the second half, and when Hall marked and booted his fourth minutes later, the Bulldogs were back within four points and it was ‘game on’.

From there a dour struggle played out. Sydney had several chances in front of goal over the next 20 minutes but missed them all, including a ‘poster’ from point-blank range by Daniel Bradshaw.

The Bulldogs kicked the only other major of the term, courtesy of a brilliant snap from Daniel Giansiracusa, and when the three-quarter time siren sounded, the two sides were back where they started, with scores level at 8.9.57 apiece.

Giansiracusa got the Dogs off to the best possible start in the final term, kicking his second major within half a minute. The Bulldogs finally appeared to be getting on top, but the Swans dug in, the two sides trading behinds until a mark and goal from Bradshaw had Sydney back within a point 10 minutes in.

Once more the Bulldogs surged, and with goals to Bob Murphy and Giansiracusa, the lead ballooned out to 13 points. With six minutes remaining, the Dogs looked home, but a mark and goal to Lewis Jetta, followed by two rushed behinds had Sydney back with five points and in sight of victory.

The Bulldogs held their nerve, though, and played ‘keepings off’ for the final 90 seconds of the match to win a heart-stopping affair.

The thrilling win carried the Dogs through to the Preliminary Final for an unprecedented third consecutive year.

Debutant Hooper would have felt well satisfied that his goal just before half time was pivotal to the Bulldogs turning the match around, but it was not enough for him to save his place in the team, and he was replaced by the seasoned warrior Dale Morris, returning from injury.

Sadly, the Dogs bowed out against St Kilda the following week, and premiership glory would elude the red, white and blue for several more seasons.

Andrew Hooper went on to play only six further AFL matches, but Bulldog fans will long remember his role in helping to secure a famous finals victory.