Australian Football

Match Report

For match number three on the Saturday afternoon, we head up Port Road to the Maughan Thiem Hyundai Oval in Woodville where the Eagles faced the Bulldogs. The Eagles have had very few reasons to cheer about when facing the Bulldogs as of late, but from the two victories they have had from the last 10 outings, one win yielded the ultimate prize in the 2011 premiership. After that, the Bulldogs made sure they got some payback, taking the previous three games up to the most recent in Round 9 at Elizabeth where they took a 35-point win. The Dogs would have been more confident after their wins against the Bloods and South, while the Eagles victory against North was followed by a humbling at the hands of West.

The conditions were fine in the early goings although the centre of the ground was a mud-pit, the coin toss taking place outside the quagmire. After conceding the first goal to the Dogs, the Eagles would kick ahead with their 4.3 to Central's all-up two goals to lead by 14 points at the first change. The Bulldogs answered back in the second term, bringing the gap back to within a couple of kicks by half time. They scored 3.2 to 2.1, so at the long break the Eagles were up by 11 points. The third quarter was where the conditions started to tell, the Dogs were kept to just two behinds as the Eagles managed to take 2.4 and extend their advantage to 21 points going into the final term. The visitors made a last ditch run at the Eagles in the final term, but inaccuracy would deny them a handy victory as they scored 3.4. The home side's 2.1 would be enough to take the win, the Eagles getting across the line by two goals.

The Eagles would name Scott Lewis as their best afield, while the Dogs voted for skipper Paul Thomas.