SONS OF THE WEST DESTROY DOCKERS
WATCH out, top eight. The Western Bulldogs are coming for you.
On the back of five wins in six games and a 47-point thumping of Fremantle at Marvel Stadium yesterday, the Bulldogs are making a 11th-hour charge towards September. And their finals fate is now largely in their own hands.
The Bulldogs now sit only a matter of percentage points outside the top eight and face the team they currently sit just behind – a floundering eightplaced Adelaide – in the final round of the season.
It won’t be easy, for Luke Beveridge’s side face fellow top-eight sides Brisbane, Essendon and Greater Western Sydney over the next three weeks before the Crows.
But where there is a will, there is a way.
The Bulldogs have speed to burn, are playing an attacking brand of football and have now found avenues to goal they have struggled to find in recent years.
Their midfield – led by Marcus Bontempelli, Jack Macrae, Tom Liberatore and Josh Dunkley – is as strong as any and the Bulldogs’ skill level across the ground is up there with the best.
With his famous father Scott – a seven-time Bulldogs best-and-fairest winner – watching on in the stands, Rhylee West endeared himself to Bulldogs fans early in his first game, putting that toughness on show as he went full-steam into a marking contest which brought a heavy collision with Fremantle’s Luke Ryan only to bounce straight back up.
West went on to kick his first AFL goal late in the second quarter, every Bulldogs player on the ground getting over to congratulate him.
The 19-year-old finished with 14 disposals playing primarily as a small forward.