Australian Football

Match Report

To finish off the weekend's action, the late game pitting the two canine clubs against one another, the Bloods taking on the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs of 2019 didn't have much luck against most of the field, but against the Bloods they couldn't lose. They did it the hard way on both occasions -- at home in Round 3 they scored six behinds in the first term and won by 20 points in a game that yielded just 12 goals from 28 scores, then in Round 15 at Richmond the Dogs came from 16 points down at the final change to win by 15 points after keeping West scoreless in the last quarter. Both teams got done last week, while the Bloods went down to the Roosters by nearly five goals, the Dogs put up a more spirited fight in the second half against the Blues but lost by 15 points. Another startling stat... its been almost a calendar year since the Bloods tasted victory. 

Early on it looked as though the Dogs left a good deal of their fight behind last week, the Bloods racing off to a 33-point lead by quarter-time after bagging 6.5 to 1.2, that Bulldogs goal coming at the death. Centrals' second term was an improvement, they cut the Bloods' lead back to four straight kicks by the long break after scoring 3.2 to 1.5. The second half was where the Dogs made their move, upping their pressure on the body and ball and further cutting down the Bloods' lead. A three-goal burst in the final five minutes of the third term amongst their 5.2 to Westies' 3.1 brought them to within a couple of kicks, the gap back to just 11 points. Centrals just kept on coming in the final term, even kicking into the lead by the 16th minute mark after scoring 4.2 to 1.1. The Bloods managed to square it up deep into time-on with their 1.2 and had it not been for a last minute shot on goal by the Dogs going completely wide, the Dogs could have stolen it by a point or a goal. Instead the two teams would share the points in an 86-all tie. 

Kaine Stevens would be named Westies' best on ground, while the Dogs named James Boyd as their best.