Australian Football

Match Report

On a very sandy Manuka Oval, the Western Bulldogs have overcome a poor start to record a meritorious win over Greater Western Sydney and move to within reach of the top eight. The ground received a top-dressing of sand after hosting the Sheffield Shield cricket final three weeks ago, and this caused difficulties for some players and made bouncing the ball nigh on impossible.

The Dogs kicked the first goal of the match, but for the remainder of the first quarter, in a period described as "rubbish" by Bulldogs' coach Brendan McCartney, were outscored five goals to nil as the Giants got on top to take a 26-point lead into the first break. The Giants tall forwards, Jeremy Cameron, Jonathon Patton and Jonathan Giles were causing major headaches for the undersized Dogs defence which was missing Jordan Roughead through a shoulder injury.

In the second term the Bulldogs gradually worked their way back into the batch, with early second quarter goals to Lachie Hunter, Bob Murphy and Liam Picken cutting the margin to eight points, but the Giants, led by Cameron, responded strongly late in the quarter, kicking three of the last four goals to go into the long break with a 20-point lead.

Continuing to apply pressure in the third term, the Bulldogs closed the gap to a single-figure margin several times, but the Giants were good enough to respond each time, with the margin still at 20 points as late as the 24-minute mark of the quarter. But late goals to Matthew Boyd and Tom Young saw that gap closed to just eight points and put the Dogs in with a chance at three-quarter time.

The all-important first goal of the last term went to Bulldogs skipper Ryan Griffen, cutting the margin to under a goal but Josh Kelly took it back out to 10 points for the Giants with a goal at the 10-minute mark. But the Giants run was to end there. The Bulldogs took total control in the last 20 minutes and goals to Stewart Crameri (two), Liam Jones (two), Shaun Higgins and Jason Tutt saw them run out comfortable winners by 27 points.

Both sides now have 2-2 records, along with four other sides fighting it out for a place in the eight. The Giants will face Melbourne at the MCG next week, while the Dogs will take on the winless Carlton at Docklands on Easter Sunday.

GOALS
GWS: Cameron 3; Tomlinson, Kennedy, Patton, Giles, Sumner, Hampton, Haynes, Greene, Kelly
Western Bulldogs: Crameri 4; Jones 3; Tutt 2; Hunter, Murphy, Picken, Giansiracusa, Boyd, Young, Griffen, Higgins

BEST - SPORTAL.COM.AU
GWS: Shaw, Giles, Patton, Hunt, Ward
Western Bulldogs: Higgins, Boyd, Picken, Macrae, Crameri

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
GWS: Shaw, Hunt, Giles, Patton, Treloar, Ward, Coniglio, Plowman
Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Higgins, Picken, Macrae, Crameri, Murphy, Jones, Giansiracusa

INJURIES
GWS: Mumford (general soreness - replaced in the selected side by Adam Tomlinson), Hoskin-Elliott (left leg), Hunt (knee)
Western Bulldogs: Morris (left leg)

SUBSTITUTES
GWS: Jed Lamb replaced Will Hoskin-Elliott in the second quarter
Western Bulldogs: Jason Tutt replaced Dale Morris in the second quarter

COACHES' COMMENTS
Leon Cameron (GWS): They started to get on top about 10 minutes into the third quarter, which was disappointing. I thought our first half was some good quality footy [but] having 21 inside 50s in the first quarter and not capitalising probably came bad to haunt us a little bit. I thought their ball use was better than ours, especially after half time.

Brendan McCartney (WB): It was a win full of character. We thought we could win the game when we turned up here today but to serve up that rubbish for the first 30 minutes [and then] to go back to what we've built on and what we stand for, we sort of gradually got back to that. The longer the game went, it stood up like it always does. It was almost like we were just floating around thinking this is going to happen [in the first quarter]. It rarely does.

UMPIRES: Leppard, Wenn, Armstrong

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Fox Footy

COMMENTATORS: Dwayne Russell, Gerard Healy, Tony Shaw, Ben Dixon