Australian Football

AustralianFootball.com Celebrating the history of the great Australian game

 

Greater Western Sydney vs Western Bulldogs

Scoreboard | Match report | Match statistics

Round: 6   Venue: Manuka Oval   Date: Fri, 28-04-2017 7:50 pm   Crowd: 14,048  
Greater Western Sydney 3.3.216.3.398.6.5411.9.75 C:  Leon Cameron
Western Bulldogs 2.4.166.12.487.17.599.19.73 C:  Luke Beveridge
  GWS by 5WBULL by 9WBULL by 5GWS by 2  
Weather
min temp  -1.8°C      max temp  16.5°C
rainfall  0mm    humidity  77%    air pressure  1022.3mb
wind speed 9km/h      wind direction  N
Brownlow Medal 3 Marcus Bontempelli (WBULL)2 Zac Williams (GWS)1 Caleb Daniel (WBULL)

Match Report

The very first Friday night AFL match to be played in Canberra will give long in the memories of those who saw it, with league heavyweights GWS and the Western Bulldogs going blow for blow in an epic encounter that was almost as good as their titanic struggle in last year's preliminary final. In the end the Giants prevailed by just two points, despite the Dogs probably being the better side on the night, a reversal of the circumstances last season. The Dogs cost themselves the match with poor kicking for goal during dominant periods in the second and third terms, finishing with 9.19 against the more efficient 11.9 of GWS.

GWS went into the match as warm favourites and made all the early running. The Giants had full control of the match for the first eight minutes and converted that dominance into a 13-0 lead with goals to big men Rory Lobb and Jonathon Patton. The Bulldogs settled after that and a goal on the run to Matt Suckling opened their account at the nine-minute mark. The two sides traded behinds for the next period before Caleb Daniel broke through for another running goal to give the Dogs a one-point lead after 23 minutes, before Toby Greene snatched the lead back for GWS with a mark and goal just before the quarter-time siren.

The Giants started the second quarter as they had the first, looking to take complete control. A brace of goals to Jeremy Cameron had them out to a 16-point lead after nine minutes but a lovely snapped goal from Marcus Bontempelli then sparked a complete turnaround in the match. The Bulldogs began to dominate from that point, with Bontempelli adding his second four minutes later and, although Cameron responded with his third, the Dogs held sway for the remainder of the half.

Jake Stringer kicked two goals and the Bulldogs had numerous other scoring opportunities but were plagued by inaccuracy, as they had been against Brisbane a week earlier. They finished with 4.8 for the quarter, a sharp contrast to the Giants' 3.0, and led by nine behinds, 6.12 to 6.3, at the long break. The margin should have been far greater.

The Bulldogs had further chances to extend the margin early in the third quarter, but a set shot from Tom Liberator hit the post, and another running shot from Daniel also missed. The game was very much an arm wrestle for the rest of the quarter with both sides missing shots, but two goals through Cameron and Greene gave the Giants a narrow lead midway through the term. The only other goal of the term came at the 27-minute mark, when Daniel marked about 40 metres out and Greene caught him across the nose with a hit that saw Greene reported for striking. Daniel received a bloodied nose and a 50-metre penalty. He kicked the goal and it was the Dogs by five points at the last change.

Bontempelli's third goal after a mark early in the final term extended the Bulldogs' lead to 11 points but the Giants held sway in general play for the next 20 minutes. A 50-metre penalty given against Easton Wood saw Patton nail an easy goal and he then followed up with a beautiful kick from the boundary to put GWS ahead by three points. Greene added another to extend the lead to nine but the balance of play swung back the Dogs' way in the final minutes. A magnificent snap from Stringer cut the margin to three points, and then Tom Boyd had a chance to give the Dogs a lead but his set shot was a complete mis kick that failed to score. A final snap from Toby McLean just missed, and the Giants held on to win by two points and maintain a place in the top four.

Zac Williams played an outstanding match for the Giants, collecting 25 possessions and laying six tackles, while Bontempelli again shone through for the Bulldogs, with 22 touches to go with his three goals.

Neither side lost any fans in this match, and they look set for a long and fascinating rivalry near the top of the ladder. Next up for the Giants is a trip to take on the impressive Saints at Docklands on Friday night, while the Bulldogs will host the fourth-placed Tigers at the same venue the following night. 

GOALS
GWS: Cameron 4; Greene, Patton 3; Lobb
Western Bulldogs: Stringer, Bontempelli 3; Daniel 2; Suckling

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
GWS: Williams, Greene, Cameron, Kelly, Shiel, Scully
Western Bulldogs: Macrae, Bontempelli, Daniel, Johannisen, Hunter, Dahlhaus

BEST - THE SATURDAY AGE
GWS: Mumford, Greene, Cameron, Haynes, Patton, Williams, Ward
Western Bulldogs: Bontempelli, Daniel, Macrae, McLean, Stringer, Dahlhaus

INJURIES
GWS: Sam Reid (hamstring)
Western Bulldogs: Tom Campbell (ankle) replaced in the selected side by Bailey Dale, Tom Liberatore (concussion).

REPORTS: Toby Greene (GWS) reported for striking Caleb Daniel (Western Bulldogs) in the third quarter.

UMPIRES: Deboy, Meredith, Ryan

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Seven Network

Source

Match Report by Andrew Gigacz

Match stats

Greater Western Sydney Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
18 Cameron, Jeremy 10 5 1 11 4 1 0 1 2 3 24y 27d 99 256
35 Corr, Aidan 10 9 5 15 0 0 0 1 0 0 22y 346d 40 1
4 Greene, Toby 13 7 4 17 3 1 0 4 0 2 23y 215d 104 98
19 Haynes, Nick 12 8 7 19 0 0 0 3 1 0 24y 345d 68 6
2 Hopper, Jacob 8 4 10 18 0 0 0 5 1 3 20y 81d 15 7
17 Johnson, Steve 5 2 6 11 0 1 0 3 2 0 33y 298d 280 501
22 Kelly, Josh 11 4 13 24 0 0 0 5 0 0 22y 75d 66 38
40 Kennedy, Adam 8 5 6 14 0 0 0 1 1 1 24y 290d 82 6
15 Kennedy, Matthew 6 1 7 13 0 1 0 6 2 2 20y 22d 7 4
37 Lobb, Rory 6 5 5 11 1 0 10 2 1 0 24y 78d 41 44
41 Mumford, Shane 1 1 7 8 0 0 52 7 2 4 30y 297d 157 47
12 Patton, Jonathon 10 9 2 12 3 2 0 0 0 1 23y 343d 59 86
50 Reid, Sam 3 0 2 5 0 0 0 1 0 1 27y 172d 35 16
9 Scully, Tom 12 4 11 23 0 0 0 5 1 0 25y 348d 133 59
23 Shaw, Heath 23 5 1 24 0 0 0 3 1 1 31y 152d 243 39
5 Shiel, Dylan 15 4 14 29 0 0 0 2 1 3 24y 50d 93 48
10 Smith, Devon 10 3 14 24 0 1 0 7 0 0 23y 343d 99 93
14 Taranto, Tim 5 4 15 20 0 0 0 7 0 1 19y 90d 5 0
20 Tomlinson, Adam 9 5 4 13 0 0 0 2 0 1 23y 261d 73 19
8 Ward, Callan 11 2 16 27 0 0 0 1 1 1 27y 18d 173 87
29 Williams, Zac 16 5 9 25 0 0 0 6 2 0 22y 220d 59 14
16 Wilson, Nathan 14 3 4 18 0 0 0 2 0 2 24y 111d 58 13
  Rushed   2  
  Totals 218 95 163 381 11 9 62 74 18 26 24y 289d 1989 1482
Western Bulldogs Match Stats Career
# Player K M H D G B HO T FF FA Age Games G
25 Adams, Marcus 8 5 4 12 0 0 0 0 1 0 23y 302d 16 1
4 Bontempelli, Marcus 10 2 12 22 3 0 0 7 2 2 21y 155d 69 68
17 Boyd, Tom 6 3 6 12 0 0 22 3 2 3 21y 249d 44 40
12 Cordy, Zaine 7 3 5 12 0 0 0 3 0 0 20y 183d 17 8
6 Dahlhaus, Luke 10 4 17 27 0 0 0 4 1 1 24y 250d 121 98
31 Dale, Bailey 7 4 11 18 0 1 0 1 1 0 20y 280d 15 9
35 Daniel, Caleb 14 8 10 24 2 1 0 1 0 0 20y 295d 38 19
20 Dunkley, Josh 8 3 8 16 0 4 3 4 1 2 20y 109d 20 13
7 Hunter, Lachie 15 7 5 20 0 0 0 4 0 1 22y 136d 68 33
39 Johannisen, Jason 14 0 7 21 0 1 0 3 0 1 24y 171d 70 22
46 Jong, Lin 9 3 7 16 0 0 0 7 2 0 23y 328d 45 26
21 Liberatore, Tom 6 3 5 11 0 1 0 7 4 0 24y 347d 104 34
11 Macrae, Jack 10 1 16 26 0 1 0 8 4 1 22y 268d 83 21
16 McLean, Toby 11 1 11 22 0 2 0 5 1 1 21y 87d 24 20
2 Murphy, Bob 14 3 7 21 0 0 0 2 1 0 34y 323d 301 178
42 Picken, Liam 4 3 11 15 0 1 0 4 0 0 30y 270d 182 68
18 Roberts, Fletcher 7 2 3 10 0 0 0 0 2 0 23y 329d 43 0
14 Smith, Clay 4 2 6 10 0 1 0 2 1 1 23y 352d 50 36
9 Stringer, Jake 8 0 5 13 3 2 0 2 1 2 23y 3d 79 149
1 Suckling, Matt 15 6 7 22 1 0 0 1 0 0 28y 277d 125 62
34 Williams, Bailey 9 3 2 11 0 0 0 3 0 1 19y 200d 7 0
10 Wood, Easton 7 6 4 11 0 0 0 1 2 2 27y 236d 113 15
  Rushed   4  
  Totals 203 72 169 372 9 19 25 72 26 18 23y 334d 1634 920

Footnotes

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