Australian Football

Match Report

Up north in the only Saturday afternoon match of the round, the Bulldogs faced the Crows at the My Money House Oval in Elizabeth. After dropping their inaugural clash in early 2014, the Bulldogs have taken the last three matches against Adelaide. The two games from last season saw Centrals win in Round 8 by 20 points and then the Round 13 match by 35 points. After barely outlasting the Roosters two weeks ago, despite the Bulldogs going off the boil against the Tigers, this was to be a far bigger test for the Crows especially since the AFL side came calling and plucked a couple of players for their trip to the Gold Coast.

The first term was pretty evenly fought, with both sides suffering early match inaccuracy on goal. The Dogs would be ahead by seven points at quarter-time, they kicked 3.4 to Adelaide's 2.3. The inaccuracy continued for the Bulldogs in the second quarter, but they made up for that by keeping the Crows to two goals whilst adding 4.4 for themselves. At the long break, the Doggies held a 23-point lead. One of the big positives for the Bulldogs is the up and comers, while their star power has been low they've got plenty of young guns that were standing up just fine to the full-timers. The third term would have given cause for concern to Centrals coach Roy Laird, the Crows producing their best footy during this period as they drew to within a kick of the lead by three quarter-time after bagging 6.1 to 3.1. But the Bulldogs weren't letting this one slip away, shaking off that lowly quarter to restore their advantage to run out 23-point winners after kicking five goals to two in the final stanza.

Travis Schiller was named best afield for the Dogs and sealing his State team berth, while the Crows named Brad Crouch as their best in his bid for a recall to the senior side.