Australian Football

Match Report

In the Elimination Final the Bulldogs faced the Roosters in the sudden-death contest. Less than half the teams in the league can say they have reached the big dance from this placement, it has happened only 11 times in SANFL history. Glenelg has done it five times, the Redlegs have done it four times and Westies and Port have done it once. But out of all those, only Norwood and Port have gone from the Elimination Final to a premiership, with the 'Legs taking out the 1984 flag from fifth position and the Magpies coming from fourth in 1998. The Roosters and the Bulldogs have never faced each other in this situation before, but have faced off in the finals series. A first semi-final in 1997 saw the Dogs send the Roosters out of the finals with a 19-point win, followed by another victory in the 2006 qualifier and then a double-encounter in the 2007 finals in the Qualifying Final and the Grand Final. But then came the 2012 finals, the Bulldogs forced out on premiership contention in straight sets, after a defeat to West Adelaide it would be the Roosters that finished the job with their near 15-goal hammering of the hapless Centrals. During this season, the Bulldogs took both minor round matches, a 22-point win at Prospect in Round 11 and then a 50-point hiding at Elizabeth. But they have never won an Elimination Final.

Going into this match, the clubs had very different preparations. From the final five matches for their seasons, the Bulldogs took four wins with a loss to Norwood in Round 21, while the Roosters couldn't take a trick after their Round 17 win against South. The Eagles kicked off their horror run, finishing with their visit to The Parade against Norwood. The Bulldogs seemed to be in hot form in the lead up to this game, and early on it seemed they would not be easily pushed over. Inaccuracy would be a factor for the Bulldogs though, as they kicked 4.6 to North's 2.1 to lead by 17 points at the first change. But this is where the Bulldogs fight was put to an abrupt halt, the wind that they couldn't fully capitalise on was big used to far better effect by the Roosters. Despite having the same accuracy problems, they kept the Dogs to just three lousy behinds whilst kicking 4.6 for themselves to take a 10-point lead into the long break. From here, the Roosters controlled all, their pressure going up several notches as the Bulldogs collapsed. Taking advantage of poor decisions and costly turnovers, the Roosters kept up their assault and added a further 5.3 to the Dogs' 3.4 to stretch their advantage to 21 points. Another disappointing finals campaign for the Bulldogs would see them crash out in week one this time around, the Roosters ramming the point home in the final term as they slammed in a further 9.6 to the comparably poor 3.1 to take a 62-point win and advance to a 1st Semi-Final.

Todd Miles was voted best afield for the Roosters, while the Dogs named Trent Goodrem as their standout.