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The Western Bulldogs are the 2016 AFL Premiers, winning an emotional victory over the Sydney Swans at the MCG by 22 points on Saturday afternoon.
All the wash-up from the AFL Grand Final
» Match report: Bulldogs are premiers!
» BUCKLAND: The West wins one for all
» Seven talking points from the match
» Our top ten tweets from the day
» Another classic Bulldogs banner
Final score
Sydney Swans 10.7.67
Western Bulldogs 13.11.89
The Western Bulldogs are out to make history this afternoon as they do battle with a Sydney Swans outfit that are in their third decider in five years. Join The Roar from 2:30pm (AEST) for all the live scores, highlights and action from the 2016 AFL grand final.
After 23 rounds of footy and three extra weeks of finals, we’re finally at the pinnacle of the season, down to two sides with very different stories, but the same goal.
The Swans were dominant over much of the competition for most of the year, coming home strong to take the minor premiership and pole position in the finals race.
The lost just five games throughout the home-and-away season and topped the league in contested possessions, inside 50s and tackles and were second in uncontested possessions, in contested marks, clearances, and total disposals.
Despite this, they lost in the first week of the finals to cross-town rivals GWS, before bouncing back with commanding wins over Adelaide and Geelong to reach the decider.
The Bulldogs have had a different path to the big game, one that has re-written the history books. They’ve reached their first grand final in 55 years, breaking a run of seven preliminary final losses for the club.
They’re the first side in AFL history to make it to the grand final after finishing lower than sixth in the regular season.
They rallied past West Coast in Perth before taking down the three-time defending champions Hawthorn in the second week in one of the biggest upsets in recent history, then finishing it off with a nail-biter against GWS last week.
These two sides have played each other once in 2016 back in Round 15, in what turned out to be one of the games of the year at the SCG.
Jason Johannisen scored a goal in the dying seconds of the match to give the Bulldogs a four-point win and give the Swans one of their few losses of the season.
The Dogs also have the wood over the Swans in the finals arena, having won their last three finals games against them, with the last being a five-point semi-final win back in 2010.
The grand final experience though is extremely lopsided. Sydney have 18 men in their side who have played in the biggest game of the season before, but the Bulldogs have just one, Matt Suckling, who has only been named as an emergency.
Team News
Some big changes for the Swans coming into the game, including the return of co-captain Jarrad McVeigh from a calf injury.
McVeigh struggled off the field against the Adelaide Crows in the second week of the finals, before being ruled out for the preliminary final last week against the Cats.
After gingerly working through training for most of last week, he’s been cleared to play the decider after a fitness test alongside Callum Mills.
Mills makes his way back into the side from a hamstring injury suffered in the opening week of the finals against GWS.
Despite the two confidence boosting returns, the Swans will be without key defender and cult hero Aliir Aliir, who has succumbed to a low-grade medial ligament strain following the win over Geelong.
On the other side of the fence, coach of the year Luke Beveridge will take an unchanged side into the last game of the season.
There were some concerns about ruckman Jordan Roughead during the week, but he has recovered comfortably from an eye injury suffered in the prelims.
Prediction
Very rarely do you have a grand final with an obvious winner coming into it, and this is certainly no different.
If you had asked who would win this contest at the start of the finals, it would be Sydney by a comfortable margin, but the Dogs have more than proven themselves as serious contenders with some huge performances.
The Swans stumbled in the first week of the finals, but their win over Geelong, in particular, was the kind of performance that got them the minor premiership and the tag as favourites coming into the post-season.
Everyone loves an underdog, but unfortunately, this story will be spoiled by the Swans. There’ll be a couple of goals in it late.
Swans to win by 13
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