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The evenness of season 2016 was further underlined on Saturday evening, when the Western Bulldogs travelled to the SCG and, as they did last year, defeated the Sydney Swans on their own patch.
The Dogs opened the year as flavour of the month, winning four of their first five by big margins and going down to Hawthorn narrowly as their only loss.
But they had fallen out of premiership talk in recent times after losses to Greater Western Sydney and Geelong, along with some grinding wins over Collingwood, West Coast at Etihad, and Port in their last five matches.
They were somewhat fortunate against the injury-hit Pies, but were worthy victors against the Eagles and Power, which were high-quality games.
Given this AFL season is as even as anyone can recall, injuries are going to have a huge impact come September, even if no-one from clubland will concede the point. The Dogs have arguably been disrupted more than any other top eight side, particularly in the defensive part of the ground where so much of today’s football is set-up.
Robert Murphy is out for the season. Jason Johanissen missed nine matches, but boy did he know how to make an entrance on his return, and his impact went well beyond the cool-as-ice match-winning goal. All Australian Easton Wood has missed games. Matt Suckling has missed games. Marcus Adams has missed games.
The latter four of these were all there on Saturday, and it was no surprise to then see Sydney kept to their third lowest score for the season, even with Buddy Franklin getting off the chain. The Dogs backline is a wonderful blend of defence, attack, grit and resilience.
Still missing from the overall picture is Luke Dahlhaus, perhaps the best combination of pressure and creativity in the game, and some chance to be leading the Dogs’ best and fairest when he went down with a knee in Round 12.
Tom Boyd will also make the Bulldogs better when he resumes, and hopefully he can now put together continuous AFL football, which we haven’t seen for over a year. On a side note, we could do without his ridiculous suspension. Another example of overkill within clubs. Toby McLean is also best 22 despite being only 20 years old, and adds something different up forward.
The point is the Dogs have done it the hard way and had nothing handed to them.
The Bulldogs have several features of their game, the highlight being the most effective press in the competition, and they also control the ball better than any other side when up and running.
They have an astonishing 13 players (not including Murphy, who won’t be back) averaging 20 possessions or more this season, including all of their prime midfielders, plus half-backs like Boyd, Johannisen and Suckling, and half-forwards like Dahlhaus and Rising Star contender Caleb Daniel.
No other side comes close to that amount of players sharing the load, and they have a beautiful balance between inside and outside players among that group, with most of them capable on either side of the equation.
The Dogs lack scoring power compared to their top-eight rivals, and are ranked tenth in the league in points for, with only the bottom-eight sides beneath them in that stat. Adelaide and GWS, league leaders, average about four goals more per game than them.
Jake Stringer has had four goalless games this year after not having any in his last eleven matches last year. He needs to get rid of those. Tory Dickson kicked three or more goals nine times last season, but only once so far in 2016. If these two could find two or three goals more between them a game from this point on, it would make a huge difference.
An overlooked positive for the Dogs given the early season talk of their Etihad record, is they have now won twice interstate and twice at the MCG this year, both situations they are likely to confront in September if they want to make grand final day. In fact, they only have one loss away from Etihad this year so far.
With Richmond, Gold Coast and St Kilda to come in the next three weeks (where they need to add some yeast to their percentage), the Dogs should be in the top four by the time they hit Geelong and North Melbourne in Rounds 19 and 20. They then get Collingwood, Essendon and Fremantle in the run to finals, and will start favourite in all.
The Dogs are disciplined, tough and skilful for the most part. They’ll be a tough nut to crack for any opponent come September, at any time and at any place. 62 years after their last (and only) flag, the premiership dream is very much alive.