Australian Football

Match Report

Up in the northern suburbs, the Bulldogs faced their arch-rivals the Eagles at the Playford Alive Oval in Elizabeth. In the last 10 years, no two clubs have had such a storied history as these two. Six grand finals clashes, with the Eagles finally making the Dogs hurt in the 2011 decider with their narrow three-point win. But the Eagles of 2012 have seemed to be a shadow of that team that escaped West Lakes with the premiership last season and the Dogs have just started to really get going. Their last stoush saw the Dogs outlast the Eagles at Oval Avenue in the Anzac Day match, a six-point win in Round 6. However, this time the Bulldogs had a plan for punishment for the Eagles.

The conditions weren't entirely ideal, although the worst weather seemed to dodge Elizabeth, the Dogs still sprayed four scoring shots from six. But the Eagles didn't bag a score at all, Centrals taking a 16-point lead at quarter-time. The Eagles finally managed to put something on the board, but three behinds to 4.1 was hardly the impact that Michael Godden was looking for. At the long break, the Bulldogs were up by 38 points. The Dogs weren't without their moments of madness, in fact it was one moment that handed the Eagles their first goal. But again, the Dogs continued to stretch the gap out slowly but surely. The home side added a further 4.2 to 2.4, at the final change the Bulldogs had a 51-point advantage. The Dogs finished the job in the final term, restricting the Eagles to just 1.3 whilst adding 6.1 for themselves to take a 79-point win and in the process sending a message to the Redlegs ahead of their clash this coming Sunday.

Ryan Williams was named best for the Bulldogs, while the Eagles named Byron Sumner as their main standout.