The Western Bulldogs have begun their premiership defence well seeing off a spirited Collingwood to record a 14 point win.
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Final score
Collingwood Magpies 12.14.86
Western Bulldogs 15.10.100
The reigning premiers return to the MCG, where they’ll be hosted by one of Australia’s biggest clubs. It’s the Collingwood Magpies facing off with the Western Bulldogs at the MCG. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 7:50pm AEDT Friday night.
For every club the first game of the season is tense and emotional. It’s the culmination of a long build-up over the offseason.
But I’d say it’s a particularly nervous occasion for tonight’s two clubs, albeit perhaps for different reasons.
The Dogs are making their first meaningful appearance after starring in one of the great stories in modern footy.
Having finished seventh and won the flag should give them a lot of confidence, but it also raises the pressure on a team still mostly made up of younger players.
Although there isn’t a genuine reason to expect a premiership hangover, they’ll be relieved to put out some good early performances and put any fears to rest.
There were some signs of inconsistency during the pre-season, which might indicate a slight lack of preparation having played all the way through September.
Collingwood have made a number of changes to their squad over the summer, but most of their team tonight will still remember last year’s humiliating 80-point Round 1 loss to Sydney after so much pre-season optimism.
This time around they appear to be starting the season somewhat below full strength, with Jamie Elliott, Levi Greenwood and new recruit Daniel Wells all unavailable through injury.
They also have to make do without Jordan de Goey after that young man’s misbehaviour.
They welcome Will Hoskin-Elliot from GWS and Henry Schade from Gold Coast to the side tonight. Interestingly, veteran recruits Chris Mayne and Lynden Dunn were only named as emergencies.
The Dogs for their part have one new face of their own, and of course it’s former Collingwood superstar Travis Cloke. He has impressed during the Community Series and will be keen to play well against the club who cast him aside.
The Dogs start the season without Mitch Wallis and Jordan Roughead, but almost all of their premiership heroes are available, and they welcome back Bob Murphy after he missed almost all of 2016.
Prediction
The Dogs showed last year that they are a talented, organised, disciplined outfit, and while this Collingwood team has potential they don’t appear as capable nor as resilient.
Western Bulldogs by 20 points.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 7:50pm AEDT.
Fartogo
Guest
The Collingwood cheer squad treating Cloke the way they did just shows what Mutts they really are. Flat out trash.
Horrie
Guest
Pretty soft win for the Bullies. I thought the margin flattered the Pies with some late scoreboard activity when the game was over and the Bullies had the cue in the rack. Pendles is far and away the Pies best player and unfortunately their young midfielders are mainly B grade, with a B+ for Treloar. Like the Daniher lad at the Dons, I expect young Moore may regret going to the Pies.
TomC
Roar Guru
That's not a haiku Although it appears like one Structure is the key
TomC
Roar Guru
He was pretty good. There were a few superlatives being chucked around at half time about his performance on Foxfooty, but he wasn't any more than pretty good. It's easy to see how he'll fit in, though. He's a smart, capable forward and seems to work pretty well with Crameri.
Paul
Guest
Is it modern footy or Collingwood leading mid fielders winning ruck centre clearances tackles loose Know how Sydney feel Swatches Ps thanks schmidty
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Tom (or anyone else who watched), I surprisingly haven't seen much about Cloke apart from FoxFooty's Facebook telling me he "silenced the Collingwood crowd" at one point. Did he do well, or was it a mediocre Bulldog's debut for him?
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
Ooooh, I did remember seeing that. I'm pretty sure even he labelled that as "disturbing". I swear there's something about Tom's professionalism and knowledge that seems to make us act like nervous youngsters would around the principal. Or maybe that's once again a too-weird analogy, I can't tell.
TomC
Roar Guru
Interesting observation, XI. I'll have to think about that one.
TomC
Roar Guru
Votes 3. Scott Pendlebury (Coll) - Started slowly, but head and shoulders the game's best player after quarter time. Worked hard both inside and out and showed his class with the quality of his disposal, as well as his attacking work. Finished with 35 possessions - 24 of them contested -, 10 clearances, 6 tackles and 2 goals. 2. Jason Johannisen (WB) - He seemed to play a few different roles tonight, but as a small forward he really made his mark, providing plenty of run, kicking two goals and setting up two more. Later on he worked further up the ground and finished with 30 touches. 1. Steele Sidebottom (Coll) - After Pendlebury he was the game's dominant midfielder. 35 touches including some very neat passes to teammates, he was also a threat in the forwardline with two goals. A bit unusual to only find one spot for the winners, but it was very much a win out of efficiency and organisation rather than individual brilliance for the Dogs. Macrae, Liberatore and Dahlhaus all would have been close.
Josh
Expert
Don't worry AD it's not as weird as that time I called Tom my conscience.
TomC
Roar Guru
Match report The Western Bulldogs have begun their premiership defence well seeing off a spirited Collingwood to record a 14 point win. Although the Magpies started with plenty of fight, it was the Dogs who were more efficient early, kicking away to a 20 point lead at quarter time. Collingwood continued to come at the Dogs, and gradually their advantage at the contests began to translate on the scoreboard. As the game opened up, the Pies found a forward option in Alex Fasolo, who kicked three goals in the second term, and fought their way to within a goal at half time. After a free-flowing, high quality second quarter it appeared the game could have gone either way. Adam Treloar kicked a great goal to give the Pies the lead right at the start of the second half, but that seemed to awaken the sleeping Dogs, who immediately began a run of five majors. During the third quarter Western got in behind the Collingwood defence all too easily, even with the Pies still getting their fair share of possession. That run seemed to suck a bit of life out of the game and while Collingwood stuck in the contest - particularly with Scott Pendlebury fighting hard and showing plenty of class - the Dogs always kept them at arm's length from then on. While the Pies closed within 13 points at one stage in the last quarter, it never really felt like they had the firepower to overtake the Dogs late. Despite the loss, Collingwood would take a lot of positives from this performance. They easily won the inside 50s, clearances and contested possessions. They had good performances from some of their younger players like Adams, Hoskin Elliot and Phillips, and a masterclass from captain Scott Pendlebury. They'll be somewhat disappointed not to take more of their scoring chances, but that has been difficult for the Dogs' opponent over the past two years. The Magpies should be content with their opening performance of 2017 and hopeful and doing better in six days time against Richmond. It probably wasn't a dominant display by the reigning premiers, but good enough at the very least. While they struggled somewhat at stoppages, they were generally clean and composed in open play, and very effective in their forwardline. The standout player for the Dogs was Jason Johannisen, who spent a lot of the game in the forwardline where he was a constant threat, but covered a lot of ground and had a big influence in many ways. Matt Boyd, Macrae and Dahlhaus were all good for the Dogs. Crameri and Cloke would be happy with their performances, the former returning from a year off and the latter after transferring from Collingwood in the trade period. The Dogs had a remarkable defensive performance from Lin Jong and Tom Liberatore, who finished with 28 tackles between them. Western will be back at Etihad next Friday for the Grand Final rematch, and they should be fairly confident ahead of that.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
That sounded a crapload more weird when typed than I imagined, sorry.
Liam Salter
Roar Guru
I had a mini thought with myself that I would continue my late 2016 "tradition" of appearing on your live blogs and being your (probably pretty annoying) regular commenter, Tom. Guess I've already failed my task, haha. Still, seemed like a good game and thanks for the call, Tom!
XI
Roar Guru
Good call, Tom. I feel like the Pies would get more out of that than the Dogs would. A lot more work for WB to be where they should be than Collingwood.
TomC
Roar Guru
Thanks for your thoughts, Rick.
TomC
Roar Guru
And that's full time Collingwood Magpies 12.13.85 Western Bulldogs 15.10.100
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
Well done Dogs. Both teams I think will be happy with this hitout. Pretty good game. Thanks for the call Tom.
TomC
Roar Guru
Ooh, some bad news in the last seconds, as Dale Morris clutches his right leg after colliding with Hoskin Elliot.
TomC
Roar Guru
Probably, yeah. The life's gone out of it a bit the last 45 minutes or so, but the second quarter was marvellous.
TomC
Roar Guru
This game is over now, as the Dogs hold up around half forward with time ticking away. Western will start their premiership defence with a round one win.