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There was a good, genuine football story missed during Round 17.
Plenty salivated over Sydney’s ten goal to none quarter against Carlton, and rightly so. There was rejoicing over Richmond finally finding their best form, and the continued loss of power at Port.
Then Collingwood put up a calamitous performance, and the Dons delivered the best of the post-Matthew Knights era.
Off-field, we had Brian Taylor calling Harry Taylor a poofter, Eddie McGuire declaring war on the Swans, and vice-versa. What wank all of that is too, and oh-so-tiring. Can’t we just focus on the football?
Eddie is the master deflector, and the only thing he loves more than a Pies win is the sound of his own voice.
The Western Bulldogs, unfortunately, played off-Broadway on the weekend.
The 4.40pm Foxtel slot, on both Saturday and Sunday, almost always gets lost in the wash-up of the round. The Bulldogs don’t get the most publicity at the best of times, and playing in Cairns only added to this.
If the Dogs, like some of us thought, showed that they were tracking okay with their Round 13 win over the Pies, then last weekend confirmed it.
Despite the match being in the Suns’ home state, and Gold Coast starting the match as favourites (do people think that losing the best player the game has ever seen would have no impact?), this was a match the Bulldogs had to win, and the manner in which they did was impressive.
They outplayed another young side, supposed finalists, despite missing their own superstar and captain in Ryan Griffen. Griffen is no Ablett, of course, but he did finish 2013 as a top-five midfielder in the competition. Don’t underestimate his loss for a minute, but it won’t get mentioned anywhere near as much as the Gold Coast skipper’s.
Even when Griffen has played this season, he hasn’t been near his best. The silver lining has been the fast-tracking of his young midfield’s development, and we saw them deliver the goods on Saturday. If he can return to full fitness in 2015, he’s going to be the delicious icing on a very tasty cake.
Take out Matthew Boyd’s 31 disposals from Saturday, the other six top ball-getters for the Dogs were Jackson Macrae, Tom Liberatore, Mitch Wallis, Nathan Hrovat, Jason Johannisen and Luke Dahlhaus.
Their ages, respectively, are 19, 22, 21, 20, 21 and 21. It’s a beautiful set of numbers.
Apart from Macrae, they also had two other multiple goal-scorers on the day – Lachie Hunter (age 19) and Jake Stringer (20). Jordan Roughead, a 23-year-old full-back, led the way for the Dogs marks on the day. Tackles? Hunter and Macrae again, followed by Hrovat, Stringer and Dahlhaus.
We haven’t even got to Marcus Bontempelli yet, who some think will be the best of the lot of them, and single-handedly won the Dogs the match against Melbourne two weeks ago. He didn’t have enormous influence against the Suns, but he did have impact. Have a look at his mark in the palm of one hand in the first quarter that set up a goal.
He also kicked a clutch major in the third term to wrest back the lead for the Dogs. He has big game and big moment player written all over him.
The Bulldogs have got their concerns, of course, and how much they’d love to have one or two of the Gold Coast big men on their list. They could do worse than throw a six-year, $5 million contract at a player like Charlie Dixon.
The future is bright for the Dogs, but it’s not going to be a linear progression, and there will be hiccups on the way.
But when this side reaches full maturity, with continued development and another few key acquisitions, they might just deliver that long-awaited flag to the Bulldog faithful.