Australian Football

Match Report

The second Saturday arvo match was just across town in the inner west, the City Mazda Stadium in Richmond hosting the "Canine Clash" between the Bloods and the Bulldogs. The Dogs reigned supreme over the two matches last season, their last stoush was at the Ponderosa in the final round where the Dogs won by seven goals to end West's premiership defence from hell. Their last outing at Richmond resulted in a 47-point thrashing of the luckless Bloods, whose harsh luck hasn't changed thus far this season. Centrals were handed their sixth defeat of the year by the Magpies last week, while West showed some fight against Glenelg but ultimately went down. 

The first quarter was quite entertaining, a near shootout ensued as the Bloods took a one-goal lead at quarter-time after scoring 4.2 to 3.2. Accuracy issues dogged the Dogs in the second term as the Bloods stretched their lead to 15 points by the long break after scoring 4.1 to 2.4. Centrals this season have had several instances where they have a quarter off, but the Bloods have given up the ghost themselves for the past three rounds and it was going to happen again. The Dogs kept the Bloods to just two behinds in the third quarter whilst kicking 4.1 for themselves to lead by eight points at the final change. The final quarter was reduced to a slog, no-one was able to find the tall sticks as the Bloods kicked three behinds to two, going down by seven points in the end. 

Chris Jansen was the standout for the Dogs and collected best on ground honours, the Bloods named Kaine Stevens as their best.