Hard-running Dogs win it their wayPeter Hanlon
May 16, 2011WESTERN BULLDOGS 7.2 12.4 18.11 23.15 (153)
RICHMOND 1.4 6.8 11.8 18.10 (118)
GOALS Western Bulldogs: Gilbee 6, Minson 4, Grant 3, Jones 2, Liberatore 2, Cooney, Moles, Ward, Giansiracusa, Hargrave, Murphy.
Richmond: Riewoldt 4, Miller 3, Martin 2, Foley 2, Vickery 2, Graham, Helbig, Nason, Jackson, King.
BEST
Western Bulldogs: Ward, Gilbee, Hudson, Minson, Boyd, Cross.
Richmond: Nahas, Martin, Jackson, Cotchin, Deledio, Conca.
INJURIES Richmond: Edwards (cheek), White (shoulder) replaced in selected side by Helbig.
UMPIRES Findlay, Jennings, McInerney.
CROWD 39,141 at Etihad Stadium.
TEN minutes into the third quarter, a smell hung in the trapped Docklands air as heavy as the endless drone of the ground announcer. A contender's season was being cooked, the flame dangerously close to turning on its coach.
Having led by 52 points just a quarter earlier, when its spluttering campaign had finally found some zing, the Western Bulldogs were just two goals to the good of Richmond and seemingly in serious bother. That they saw off a challenge by staying true to their free-flowing instincts provided a reassurance that their customary way is the way forward.
''It's just great to have a win and get the mood up around the place,'' said Lindsay Gilbee, his cliche for once summing up perfectly the Bulldogs' desperate need for a happy ending.
Gilbee started up forward with an early return to half-back on the agenda, but had a career-high five goals just seven minutes into the second quarter, stayed put, and finished with six.
Will Minson also bagged a personal best, dragging in bladder-bursting marks and spearing through four goals. Married to Ben Hudson's precision hit-outs and second efforts at many of the day's 42 centre bounces - which Tigers coach Damien Hardwick thought outstanding - it defied doubts that the two big Dogs can be a joint force.
''Sometimes you can be so close all the time and come away with nothing,'' Minson said. He meant his efforts as a target a week earlier, but might have been reviewing the three losses that had put the Dogs in the cross-hairs.
Callan Ward, icing the bruises that come with the exuberance of youth, said coach Rodney Eade had asked his players simply to play the game they like to play - take risks, run the ball through the corridor, shrug off the shackles and attack. ''Our focus was to solely play our way,'' said Ward, perhaps the best of many good Dogs.
The Bulldogs had scored five goals before a Richmond team that had prepared for a more cautious opponent shook itself to life. They hunted the ball and ball-carrier, ending Shane Edwards' afternoon within minutes, kept Brett Deledio touchless for 21 minutes, and scooted clear with their best quarter of the year.
Fears that Ryan Hargrave was returning prematurely were allayed by his 10 possessions for the term, and when Minson took a second contested mark on Alex Rance it was 11 goals to two and bordering on party time. Cue the sort of afternoon nap that has cost them dearly recently.
Suddenly, Richmond had Deledio, the hitherto quiet Dustin Martin and Trent Cotchin winning the stoppages, and Robin Nahas playing delivery boy to a forward line where Brad Miller and Ty Vickery offered alternatives as Dale Morris kept a tight leash on Jack Riewoldt. The Tigers, as fast-scoring as any when the mood takes them, kicked eight of the next nine goals.
''I don't think we hit the panic button,'' said Ward. ''As long as we have that confidence and belief, we can go back to the way we play.'' Minson noted that the Dogs were guilty of a defensive mindset, when attack was the cure; Gilbee thought their season had been lived in their shells.
So attack they did, Eade sending Bob Murphy forward briefly, but long enough to keep the ball alive on the ground when outnumbered deep in the pocket to almost overshadow the resultant goal - some effort given that it was bounced through from the cheap seats.
Liam Jones, whom Gilbee praised for getting reward for his toil of recent weeks, jumped up for two in two minutes, including the killer blow from long range just before the three-quarter-time siren, when Minson took care of Angus Graham on the goal-line, and Rance flailed at and missed the ball for the second time in five minutes.
The shootout continued to the final siren, but the Dogs were never going to give up an eight-goal lead twice.
Gilbee feared he might be banished when Barry Hall and Shaun Higgins return next week, but was pleased with a spread of goalkickers that included three for Jarrad Grant that could easily have matched his half-dozen. ''I'm pretty sure his spot's safe in the goal square,'' he said of Hall.
A single statistic captured the game for Hardwick - the Dogs' pressure earned them eight turnovers inside their forward 50, where Richmond could conjure none. In praising Ward's ''super courage'', and the foundation he, Matthew Boyd, Daniel Cross and Liam Picken provide, Eade summed up the zeal that gave the victors a launching pad.
Ward said he didn't have to look far for inspiration. Last night, the Bulldogs had a team meeting and drifted off to the showers without Cross. At length, he emerged from an ante-room, eyebrow freshly stitched. Hardly a rarity, but this time well worth it.
ROCK AND A HAPPY PLACE
Peter Gordon's place in Bulldogs' history is secure thanks to his role in keeping the club alive in its own right in 1989, and it seems the former president is still inspiring the Scraggers, this time musically. The respected lawyer is a producer of Rock Of Ages, a tribute to the rock anthems of the 1980s, which made a big-haired pre-game appearance yesterday on a stage in the Etihad Stadium stands.
FIRST BLOKE ALERT
Having made the front page of the Sunday papers for flagging his interest in marrying his prime ministerial partner Julia Gillard, the word was doing the rounds yesterday that a pact had been struck by Richmond-supporting Tim Mathieson and his Bulldog-loving better half. If the Tigers got up, they would wed; a Dogs win, and it was de facto status quo.
THE STREAK
The Bulldogs' win maintained a dominant recent record against the Tigers, who last beat them at the start of the 2005 season. Yesterday was the Dogs' eighth win since, a streak broken by a draw in 2008, the one famously celebrated by former Bulldog Nathan Brown, who thought his Tigers had won.
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