Brett Kirk of Sydney is cheered from the field for his final match after the AFL 1st Semi Final match between the Western Bulldogs and the Sydney Swans at the MCG, Melbourne.
The Western Bulldogs have staged an amazing comeback to beat Sydney by five points in their AFL semi-final at the MCG.
Newly-confirmed Prime Minister and Bulldogs No. 1 ticket holder Julia Gillard watched her team hang on grimly in the last quarter to win 11.11 (77) to 10.12 (72).
The Bulldogs will now play St Kilda in a preliminary final on Saturday night, while Geelong and Collingwood will meet on Friday night in the other.
Bulldogs and Sydney players formed a guard of honour as Swans co-captain Brett Kirk was chaired from the ground in his final AFL match.
It was also the last game for Swans coach Paul Roos, who went to the changerooms soon after the final siren.
The crowd of 39,596 is understood to be the lowest MCG semi-final attendance since 1934.
Sydney were left ruing their inaccuracy in the second half, when they kicked 2.8.
Barry Hall kicked four goals for the ‘Dogs, while Robert Murphy played a crucial role when moved forward for the second half and midfielder Daniel Cross was also superb.
Daniel Giansiracusa kicked two of the Bulldogs’ three final-term goals and finished with three for the game.
Midfielder Josh Kennedy and defenders Tadhg Kennelly and Ted Richards were high among Sydney’s best.
A goal to Lewis Jetta and a rushed behind brought the Swans to within a goal heading into time-on of the frenetic last term, but they could only manage another behind as the Bulldogs defended grimly.
They cleared the ball out of defence in the last minute and strong marks to Hall and Daniel Cross ensured they would hold onto their lead.
The game looked over midway through the second term, when the Swans held a commanding 30-point lead.
Scores were level at quarter-time, but Sydney went on the rampage with five unanswered goals.
Kennedy and Kieren Jack were dominating at the stoppages, while Kennelly and Nick Malceski were giving Sydney great drive off half-back.
Typifying the fierce physical pressure, Swans midfielder Jude Bolton was knocked senseless early in the second term after an accidental bump from Cross.
But Bolton was back on the field before half-time.
Just when the game looked shot, the Bulldogs somehow kicked the last two goals of the half.
Hall put through his third of the half and Andrew Hooper, the first AFL player in 25 years to debut in a final, kicked his first senior goal from a suspect free kick.
The margin was only 16 points and the Bulldogs continued their surge in the third term with three more goals.
The Bulldogs incredibly hit the front when Giansiracusa goalled at 12 minutes.
Adding to the Swans’ growing worries, lead ruckman Shane Mumford had hurt his knee late in the second term and was restricted for the rest of the game.
Sydney also were their own worst enemies in the third term with a succession of bad misses.
They kicked 0.5 and one out on the full, with Bradshaw kicking behinds from three regulation set shots.
In a moment oft-repeated across his celebrated career, Kirk had to leave the ground under the blood rule in the third term after a heavy clash with Dylan Addison.
Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade praised his players for their courage after a shocking few weeks.
Collingwood smashed them in their qualifying final and they had lost three of their last four matches.
Key players Adam Cooney and Shaun Higgins are out of the finals because of injury and defender Dale Morris faces a race against time to be ready for the preliminary final.
Morris is making good progress from the bone fracture he suffered in his back last month.
“Obviously the last three or four weeks have been disappointing and we’ve been challenged publicly about our effort, which is fair enough,” Eade said.
“Tonight we showed a lot of spirit and courage, it shows really what the group is about and what the club’s about.
“To get up from there (five goals behind) showed a lot of resilience.”
The Bulldogs lost to St Kilda by nine goals to seven in last year’s preliminary final and Eade predicted another grinding clash between the two sides next Saturday night.
He said the Bulldogs went to Hall too often in the first half and must find more scoring options.
“It’s going to be difficult to score against them, no doubt, they’re a very good defensive side,” Eade said.
He added Morris still needed final approval to play from his doctor, but Eade noted the defender had trained well over the last few days.
When asked why he went straight to the rooms post-match, rather than stay on the ground, Roos dismissed the question.
“I don’t know, where else was I going to go?” he said.
Sydney also beat Carlton by five points in last Sunday’s elimination final and Roos felt it was a similar match, where either side would have been stiff to lose.
He felt the missed shots on goal and the Bulldogs’ extra run were critical.
Carlton also worked their way into the game in the third term last Sunday, but Roos felt it was simply a matter of inaccuracy this time.
“Whether it was the extra break or whatever, they did look to have a little bit more run in their legs and, in the end, that’s probably what got them back in the game and got them over the line,” he said.
“This week was more just shots at goal – they had six scoring shots and we had five – we kicked 0.5 and they kicked 3.3.
“In terms of general play, it (the third term) wasn’t as bad as last week was, but we just didn’t capitalise on our scoring chances.
“That’s obviously a huge difference in the game when you come down to five points.”
Roos said it would not be until the next few days that it started sinking in his coaching career was over.
“To be perfectly frank, it’s not dissimilar to any other loss, really ,” he said.
He is buoyant about Sydney’s future, saying the side had developed well through this year and was well-placed.
“We did feel we needed to make some changes at the end of last year and we were pretty aggressive, we felt we got some really good players into the footy club,” he said.
“Kirky is leaving, but the senior players are really playing good football – the short and medium term for the football club is really positive.”
Roos paid tribute to Kirk and joked he left the field after his third-term knock to the head “with that glazed look on his face.
“I don’t think he’d feel that way, but it was probably fitting that he gets smashed in the head and comes off under the blood rule, because he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“His attack on the footy, right to the last moment, his effort right to the last moment can’t be questioned.”
Perhaps, in a strange way, it was a fitting end to the AFL careers of Sydney coach Paul Roos and his courageous captain Brett Kirk.
For so long the masters of the close game, they provided a thriller in their swansong.
Yet just as the Swans did in an epic 2006 grand final, they fell on the wrong side of the sort of result that was a regular by-product of the tough, contested footy played by Kirk and played under Roos.
The five-point semi-final loss to the Western Bulldogs at the MCG spelt the end for Roos, the coach who broke the AFL’s longest premiership drought, and Kirk, the rookie list poster boy whose bravery helped him overcome deficiencies to become an elite footballer and a premiership player.
Roos departs to devise the Swans’ future – taking charge of the club’s academy to develop young NSW-based players.
Kirk, 33, leaves after 241 games – and as testament to his longevity following his 200th consecutive AFL match.
Roos also noted that it was somehow fitting that Kirk, in his last AFL match, had to leave the ground under the blood rule.
One of the game’s most fearless players suffered a cut to his mouth in the third term while contesting the ball and, yet again, needed treatment for a collision wound.
“It would be a real shame if the guys didn’t continue to play the way Kirky has played his footy, which has been fantastic,” Roos said.
But there was only raw emotion for Kirk soon after his AFL swansong.
“You’re just gutted … you’re a week away from playing in a preliminary final to get yourself into a grand final,” he said.
“You’re gutted for yourself and your team-mates.
“At this point, I have no reflection at all – for me, it was more about that I was always going to leave it all out on the field.
“I was go and go and go until I fell over – I had a bit of a dog tonight, but I kept cracking in.”
There was a Zen-like symmetry in their demise, plotted by the man who effectively started Roos’ senior coaching career.
Rodney Eade – shown the door by the Swans in late 2002 and replaced by Roos – marshalled his troops including ex-Sydney bad boy Barry Hall.
Perhaps best afield for the Bulldogs, Hall booted four goals against his old club and set up a fourth-quarter Daniel Giansiracusa goal to break open a three-quarter-time deadlock.
Bulldogs and Swans players made a guard of honour for Kirk as team-mates Adam Goodes and Ryan O’Keefe chaired him from the field.
He was beaten and battered, but the practising Buddhist retired a champion.
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