Western Bulldogs: The perfect finals draw

the number of days between finals games was mainly irrelevant to the Doggies four in a row wins. More significant was their fearless style of play. Numerous times the commentators said that "a risky play" (into the centre for example) was successful. Read into this that no other team in the finals was prepared to fearlessly take risks. I put this down to Beverage's little book on how to overcome fear. Also highly significant was their superior handballing skills especially in congested play (in the phone box as Luke calls it). Another factor was the fairness of their style barely ever giving away a free compared with their opponents, a free against the Doggies meant to the Doggies a loss of possession and that I think has become taboo unlike other teams promoting aggressive play-the-man (this is what defeated GWS in my opinion). Another factor, they had a strategy for overcoming the opponents talls. Another factor, they always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, this was hugely disciplined play that is beyond me to understand, another of Luke's strategic plan I guess.

I think you're absolutely correct. I'm absolutely convinced that the first week bye ended up a hindrance to GWS and Geelong, who essentially played one game in a month, between the end of the regular season and their preliminary finals appearances. My vision is that if the AFL decide this is going to keep happening after next year as well, we'll continue to see more teams take the "long route" through to the premiership. I just can't see how the 'week off' for the two top-4 winners in week one can enable them to take the same momentum into the preliminaries that their opponents will carry.

You're right brian! The pies won an extra-time classic against the eagles in Perth nearly 10 years ago. (I had to look it up though)

Bulldogs win 2016 team of the year @GQAustralia awards.. #bemorebulldog ???

Agree with you about the GWS vs Bulldogs prelim - game of the season.

The pre-finals bye helped the dogs overcome some of their injury issues no doubt. But they still had to win four finals and thoroughly deserved their win. The bye gave us a better quality finals series with all teams rested and more players recovered from injury. The best thing about the finals series was seeing the Bulldogs play four times. The downside was seeing the second best team in the Giants only play twice. They smashed the runners up Swans than the only other game they got to play was a loss to the eventual premiers by only 6 points in the best game of the finals series. It would have been great to see them in at least one more game. No idea how this could be done but we had Sydney playing 3 more times after being belted by the Giants, but the Giants only played one more game. From an entertainment as well as fairness perspective there must be a way of making the finals series fixture even better.

Would they have won the GF without the bye - No Did they deserve their win - Yes

pretty sure both hawthorn and collingwood have beaten WCE in finals in Perth before

I like an article on the Bulldogs as much as the next footy fan but they now tend to be leaning towards wild assumptions that try to explain how they did it rather than just marveling at the super human (super-team) effort. First of all, after the bye round they had 3 days LESS rest than everyone else. They came up against the hottest team heading into the finals in West Coast which was just incredible in itself. Then 3 miraculous achievements just kept coming after that. Remember the well worn cliche that the Dogs couldn't win outside Etihad...? I don't think a game against the Hawks at the G would ever be considered a home game for the Dogs.

Agree with you Duck and PD. they played with all there heart and once my team was out I will admit that I believed they deserve the cup then. Did the Week before the finals help them I don't think you can tell if it did or not till after 2017 finals and we have more data.

Full credit to Dogs for going all the way from 7th...but it will be a once in 20 years scenario and unlikely to be repeated for a while. At least it will give teams that finish 5-8 some cause for optimism on future finals campaigns

Must say I don't know why the Dogs -Giants game was played on Sat not Friday. Sydney played their Semi after us then had to front up 6 days later. We got an 8 day break. This meant the Giants had a full 14 days between matches. So that helped. Having to play WCE in Perth (who had never lost a home final), surely would be the most unenviable task in football though. If Collingwoid had not choked in R 23, we would have played the Hawks at the MCG in the elimination final. Now that would have been the perfect draw for us.

I think you should change the title to perfect finals performance or greatest ever finals performance. The Dogs finals draw was just your standard draw for our position on the ladder,difficult but fair. West Coast on the Thursday probably worked against us as we were unable to utilise the bye round to its fullest but thankfully our returning players still got up but another day or two would have been more advantageous. Also the Thursday made it near on impossible for our fans to get over to Perth which some could describe as the toughest crowd to play against. The rest was just run of the mill,yep got Hawthorn on a days less break,so be it but I can't see any advantage in the GWS draw,it just seemed normal and fair and the Dogs were now on the rampage and consequently came out victorious in what was actually a very good game. I think the Dogs did get a pretty big advantage playing the GF at home when the Swans finished higher but that's a broader issue and an advantage all the Victorians receive. Adding the injuries during the season,making the GF from seventh,two interstate finals victories,beating the reigning three time champion in a knockout final and the only conclusion that can be reached is the Dogs premiership is the most remarkable ever seen in the history of the game. Dogs fans are proud of that.

Exactly. They won 4 knockout finals in a row. They easily accounted for last year's grand finalists. They beat the 2 best teams in the comp in GWS and Sydney (and didn't have to play bogey team Geelong). I cannot think of a team that has deserved a flag more....based on a finals campaign.

Two interstate trips in the finals, including one to a tin shed, and a shorter lead-in to the GF than its opponent. Not to mention still missing nearly a quarter of our Best 22 throughout the finals series. Cry me a river, Paul Madden.

No Bye, no Thursday night game............that's the way it should be!