Dogs find groove against Bombers

THE AFL premiers are back. Or they just might be, on the basis of Western Bulldogs’ 30point run-and-gun win over Essendon yesterday.

Luke Beveridge’s side stood up in the match they simply had to win to keep their flag defence alive.

Jason Johannisen roared with four goals and Marcus Bontempelli showed his class in the 19.13 (127) to 13.19 (97) success.

The Bulldogs broke open the contest in the third term, kicking seven goals to outgun the Bombers in an old-fashioned shootout.

In the high-scoring contest, Joe Daniher was the dominant forward, kicking six goals to take the lead in the race for the Coleman Medal. But the Bulldogs had more routes to goal, beginning with Johannisen.

In front of a crowd of 48,754, the Dogs’ grand final hero began in the forward line and sparked his side.