Pendlebury powerful, but Dogs on top

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 the Bulldogs 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 Taylor Adams, Will Hoskin-Elliot and Tom 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’ opponents over the past two years.

The Magpies should be content with their opening performance of 2017 and hopeful of 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 forward line.

The standout player for the Dogs was Jason Johannisen, who spent a lot of the game in the forward line where he was a constant threat, but covered a lot of ground and had a big influence in many ways.

Matt Boyd, Jack Macrae and Luke Dahlhaus were all good for the Dogs. Stewart Crameri and Travis 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.

The Bulldogs will be back at Etihad next Friday for the Grand Final rematch, and they should be fairly confident ahead of that.

Final score
Collingwood Magpies 12.14.86
Western Bulldogs 15.10.100