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Western Bulldogs vs Melbourne

Scoreboard | Match report | Match statistics

Round: 23   Venue: Docklands   Date: Sun, 01-09-2013 4:40 pm   Crowd: 22,176  
Western Bulldogs 4.3.2713.6.8414.8.9216.11.107 C:  Brendan McCartney
Melbourne 4.5.296.5.419.7.6113.8.86 C:  Neil Craig
  MELB by 2WBULL by 43WBULL by 31WBULL by 21  
Weather
min temp  14.5°C      max temp  23.8°C
rainfall  0.2mm    humidity  45%    air pressure  1022.0mb
wind speed 35km/h      wind direction  N
Brownlow Medal 3 Matthew Boyd (WBULL)2 Adam Cooney (WBULL)1 Tom Liberatore (WBULL)

Match Report

Two of the also-rans of 2013, the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne, have signed off on the season by providing their fans with hope for 2014. The Bulldogs defeated the Demons by a relatively slim 20-point margin but gave a glimpse of what they might be able to display more consistently in the future, with a scintillating nine-goal-to-two second quarter, which left the Dogs with a commanding 43-point lead at the long break.

But Melbourne fans would have been heartened by the second-half performance of the players. Faced with the prospect of another thrashing, the side galvanised in the third term and kicked three goals to one to reduce the margin to 31 points at the last change. To their credit, the Demons then pressed hard again in the final term, kicking four goals to two to cut the final deficit to just over three goals.

That second half would have given fans at least some semblance of confidence for next season, especially if Paul Roos comes on board as has been widely tipped.

Meanwhile the Dogs second term burst was further evidence that Brendan McCartney has his charges heading in the right direction. The Bulldogs have won five of their last nine games in 2013 and have been amongst the AFL's top three in most key indicators.

The Dogs' best on Sunday included skipper Matt Boyd (40 possessions), Tom Liberatore (36 touches and a goal) and Lachie Hunter (two goals and 22 possessions), the latter two likely to be very much the core of the Dogs' future. For Melbourne, Jack Grimes (23 disposals) and Jack Viney (16 touches and a goal) also gave glimpses of better Demon times ahead.

GOALS
Western Bulldogs: Dickson 3; Hunter, Cooney, Giansiracusa, Jones 2; Wallis, Grant, Cross, Liberatore, Minson
Melbourne: Watts 4; Kent 2; N. Jones, Garland, Howe, Sellar, Viney, M.Jones, Dunn

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Western Bulldogs: Liberatore, Murphy, Minson, Hunter, Boyd
Melbourne: Trengove, Viney, Garland, Watts, Frawley

BEST - THE AGE
Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Minson, Liberatore, Cooney, Murphy, Hunter
Melbourne: Grimes, N. Jones, Watts, McKenzie, Viney, Trengove.

COACHES COMMENTS
Brendan McCartney (WB): None of us thought we played our best footy early and in the second half but coming into the game today and watching them train over the last few weeks, I just sensed from experienced footy person's point of view that we may be tipping over a bit because we have been pretty competitive for about an eight or nine week period, and that seems to be what most clubs can endure before they hit a little hiccup. But they got the job done and played some scintillating footy in the second quarter. We've been talking for awhile about where we want to go and how we are going to get there but we're not forgetting for one second where we're at either. We saw that again today - the good and the not so good.

Neil Craig (Melb): I thought out first quarter was quite good but we lost total control both visually and statistically in the contested ball. We absolutely got smashed in the second quarter. You don't necessarily have to win it, but I think the differential was huge. When we were able to address that at half time, I thought our players showed enormous fight and probably played at a level of intensity in that area of the game which they haven't played at, certainly since I've been coaching them.

INJURIES
Western Bulldogs: Daniel Giansiracusa (ankle)
Melbourne: Chris Dawes (calf) injured in warm-up

SUBSTITUTES
Western Bulldogs: Koby Stevens replaced Mark Austin in the third quarter
Melbourne: Luke Tapscott replaced Max Gawn in the third quarter

UMPIRES: Hosking, Armstrong, Fisher

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Anthony Hudson, Gerard Healy, Danny Frawley, David King

Source

Match report by Andrew Gigacz

Footnotes

Video sourced from YouTube, courtesy of AFL Media

Match stats

Western Bulldogs Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
47 Austin, Mark 3 1 1 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 24y 189d 33 2
5 Boyd, Matthew 23 8 17 40 0 0 1 1 0 1 31y 5d 220 75
45 Campbell, Tom 6 3 1 7 1 3 2 1 3 0 21y 303d 13 12
17 Cooney, Adam 14 10 16 30 2 0 0 3 0 2 27y 336d 201 173
4 Cross, Daniel 11 8 16 27 1 0 1 7 2 0 30y 155d 210 33
6 Dahlhaus, Luke 8 5 12 20 0 2 0 3 0 0 21y 11d 50 52
29 Dickson, Tory 10 5 4 14 3 1 0 3 0 0 25y 340d 30 45
13 Giansiracusa, Daniel 9 3 5 14 2 1 0 3 1 0 31y 174d 250 316
1 Grant, Jarrad 6 5 6 12 1 0 0 2 1 0 24y 57d 58 70
16 Griffen, Ryan 8 1 8 16 0 1 0 3 3 0 27y 36d 183 120
26 Hunter, Lachie 15 7 7 22 2 0 0 1 0 0 18y 262d 9 4
19 Jones, Liam 6 3 1 7 1 1 0 0 1 0 22y 189d 56 56
21 Liberatore, Tom 15 3 21 36 1 0 0 11 2 0 21y 108d 55 11
27 Minson, Will 4 1 18 22 1 0 48 3 2 3 28y 143d 158 73
38 Morris, Dale 4 3 5 9 0 0 0 0 2 2 30y 246d 173 3
2 Murphy, Bob 23 9 6 29 0 0 0 0 1 0 31y 84d 249 167
42 Picken, Liam 15 7 10 25 0 0 0 2 0 0 27y 31d 107 30
23 Roughead, Jordan 11 9 5 16 0 0 0 2 2 0 22y 302d 57 12
25 Stevens, Koby 1 0 7 8 0 0 0 0 0 1 22y 75d 30 11
3 Wallis, Mitch 8 2 11 19 1 0 0 5 1 2 20y 312d 43 13
10 Wood, Easton 4 2 8 12 0 0 0 2 1 4 23y 362d 47 6
31 Young, Tom 6 4 9 15 0 1 0 2 1 1 21y 128d 24 4
  Rushed   1  
  Totals 210 99 194 404 16 11 52 57 23 16 25y 109d 2256 1288
Melbourne Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
36 Davey, Aaron 9 2 5 14 0 1 0 7 1 1 30y 83d 178 174
14 Dunn, Lynden 10 6 4 14 1 0 0 2 0 0 26y 110d 117 91
8 Frawley, James 10 5 5 15 0 1 0 0 0 2 24y 346d 118 3
20 Garland, Colin 12 7 7 19 1 0 0 2 0 1 25y 126d 101 14
37 Gawn, Max 0 0 1 1 0 0 7 0 0 0 21y 245d 17 8
31 Grimes, Jack 12 7 11 23 0 0 0 3 0 0 24y 113d 68 5
38 Howe, Jeremy 8 5 7 15 1 0 2 1 0 1 23y 64d 56 65
39 Jetta, Neville 7 4 4 11 0 0 0 4 2 0 23y 201d 41 19
45 Jones, Matt 7 4 9 16 1 0 0 3 1 1 25y 318d 22 3
2 Jones, Nathan 9 3 10 19 1 1 0 4 4 2 25y 224d 157 76
34 Kent, Dean 7 4 3 10 2 1 0 2 0 1 19y 189d 15 10
25 McDonald, Tom 9 1 7 16 0 0 0 2 0 2 20y 348d 39 0
13 McKenzie, Jordie 6 1 9 15 0 0 0 2 2 2 23y 72d 69 10
30 Sellar, James 7 3 1 8 1 2 0 3 0 1 24y 161d 44 14
42 Spencer, Jake 0 2 6 6 0 0 25 2 2 2 23y 327d 24 3
12 Sylvia, Colin 7 5 7 14 0 0 2 4 1 1 27y 297d 157 129
35 Tapscott, Luke 4 3 3 7 0 2 0 4 0 2 22y 65d 45 11
46 Terlich, Dean 9 6 8 17 0 0 0 4 1 1 23y 262d 20 0
5 Toumpas, Jimmy 7 4 8 15 0 0 0 1 0 0 19y 242d 14 0
9 Trengove, Jack 9 3 8 17 0 0 1 4 0 0 21y 364d 79 38
7 Viney, Jack 8 1 8 16 1 0 0 6 1 3 19y 141d 13 3
4 Watts, Jack 5 3 2 7 4 0 0 1 1 0 22y 159d 73 60
  Totals 162 79 133 295 13 8 37 61 16 23 23y 236d 1467 736

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.