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The Western Bulldogs took a 14-point win over North Melbourne on Saturday night, confirming they’ll play finals in 2016.
» Click here to read the full match report
Final score
Western Bulldogs 9.7.61
North Melbourne 7.5.47
The match of the round is at Etihad on Saturday night, as the Western Bulldogs take on the North Melbourne Kangaroos. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog from 7:25pm (AEST).
This arguably looms as something of an early elimination final.
The Dogs and the Roos sit in seventh and eighth respectively, both a game and a big chunk of percentage outside the top four.
With a three-game gap between themselves and ninth spot, both are virtually certain of playing finals, but recent history tells us that it’s very hard to make a serious premiership run from fifth to eighth position.
So one way or the other both teams need almost everything to go right in order to be realistic flag chances, and that needs to start with tonight’s game.
Unfortunately, not much has been going to plan for either team lately.
The Roos consolidated their finals spot in the last two weeks with wins over Collingwood and St Kilda, but that broke a streak of five consecutive losses. Injuries have played a role, as has the quality of the opposition, but in truth they’ve simply fallen out of form at a bad time.
The Dogs could argue that they are the victims of bad luck, with their injury list mounting alarmingly over the course of the season. Marcus Adams, Jack Redpath, Matt Suckling, Jack Macrae, Tom Liberatore, Mitch Wallis and of course Bob Murphy are among the first choice players unavailable for them tonight.
Undermanned as they were, they showed a lot of resolve to get as close as they did to Geelong last week, but it does rather feel as though there are too many obstacles in their way.
That said, after tonight their draw looks rather manageable for the remainder of the season, so a win tonight would give them a genuine chance of pushing into the top four should the teams above them stumble.
That seems less likely for the Kangaroos, who face Hawthorn, Sydney and GWS in their remaining fixtures.
Still, every result, including tonight’s, could mean the difference between travelling interstate in the first week of the finals or playing in the more familiar environment of the MCG. That’s certainly a prize worth winning.
When these sides met earlier in the season the Roos were in the middle of an extended winning streak, and ground out a modest win in a low-scoring – and quite frankly tedious – affair. It wouldn’t surprise me if tonight’s game was also decided by the defences, the Dogs remain one of the league’s most miserly teams and North’s backline is packed with quality and experience.
At selection, the Dogs regain veterans Dale Morris and Matthew Boyd from injury, while Nathan Hrovat and Lukas Webb also get a chance. Koby Stevens and Jed Adcock have been omitted, with Liberatore and Macrae unavailable.
Just one change for the Roos, with full forward Jarrad Waite missing through a hip problem, replaced by Majak Daw.
While North Melbourne haven’t been in the best form of late, particularly against other finals sides, they still field a team with a lot more experience than the Dogs, and that maturity and stability is a decent edge near the end of a tough season in what could well be a tight, tense game.
On another day I might tip the Dogs, but tonight I reckon it’ll be North in a nailbiter.
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