Australian Football

Match Report

Game number two takes us to the mid-north west of the Adelaide metro, to the Maughan Thiem Kia Oval in Woodville where the Eagles hosted the Bulldogs. The Eagles were triumphant the last time they locked up with their noughties Grand Final rivals, back in Round 9 at Goodman Road they left with a 29-point win. The Dogs made them work for it a bit, but were their own worst enemy with their trademark procrastination in their approach to goal. Both came in winners from the split round, with the Eagles eluding the Blues' grasp by 10 points and the Dogs closing their home account with a victory over Adelaide. Of course most will remember last year that despite the Eagles going on to win the premiership, the Bulldogs did manage to get one final word in before hand with their four-point victory in the final week of the shortened season, so a last round back-hander wasn't out of the question and there was a 200-game milestone being celebrated this time around. But... that was NOT going to happen today. 

This would end up as a white-line nightmare end to the year for the Bulldogs, who would be held goal-less for over a half of the game. They would score just one behind as the Eagles ran off to a 37-point lead by the quarter-time siren courtesy of their 6.2 opening quarter clinic. The Eagles would build that lead up to almost 10 goals by the long break, the Dogs scoring a lousy three behinds to the Eagles' 4.1. At half-time, the reigning premiers were 59 points in front. There's no real mercy rule in football, but for the Eagles' faithful it was probably a small part of some long overdue vengeance from their Grand Final stoushes of the 2000's. The Dogs finally put one through the big sticks in the third quarter. Just one, though. The Eagles added another 5.1 to take their lead to 14 goals by three quarter-time. A further 4.4 to 1.2 in the final term took the Eagles to a thumping 104-point win, those Centrals fans that stayed behind only stayed to clap off their 200-gamer Jarrod Schiller, there was absolutely nothing else to be thankful for at Oval Avenue this day other than perhaps avoiding being the lowest score recorded in 2021. 

Jack Hayes was the Eagles' standout, with 21 disposals, four goals and five tackles. The Dogs named Kyle Presbury as their best with 25 disposals.