AFL Brisbane v Western Bulldogs 2021: All the latest news and fallout from semi-final clash
They left plenty of supporters angry, but the AFL has given the umpires in the Dogs-Lions semi final classic its seal of approval, but Ray Chamberlain’s season is over.
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Ray Chamberlain has been axed for the preliminary finals as the AFL endorsed the standard of umpiring in the Western Bulldogs’ unforgettable victory against Brisbane Lions.
Chamberlain’s season is effectively over after he was told he would not be selected for either of the Geelong-Melbourne (Perth Stadium) or Port Adelaide-Bulldogs (Adelaide Oval) blockbusters.
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The league will select its three Grand Final umpires based on performances in those games.
Chamberlain, 45, had his mic turned up by Channel 7 last Friday night and received plenty of airtime as he officiated in Geelong’s win against the Giants.
The polarising umpire is no stranger to September heartbreak, having made it through to the Grand Final in just two seasons (2010 and 2019).
While the AFL’s review of Chamberlain’s semi-final performance has proved costly, it was a stack of controversial decisions in the other semi-final which outraged supporters.
Bulldog Caleb Daniel was penalised for insufficient intent when his mid-air soccer hack squirted out of bounds in the defensive pocket in the dying minutes.
Lachie Neale used that free kick to level the scores.
Lincoln McCarthy’s off-the-ball tussle with Alex Keath then had a free kick reversed, while Tim English was gifted the final and all-important centre clearance after a ruck infringement.
But it is understood the league has ticked off most, if not all, of these decisions.
But the decision to call for a ball-up instead of pinging All-Australian Dog Bailey Dale is believed to have been the main error picked out.
The umpiring appointments for this week’s games show the league was satisfied, with two of the three whistleblowers at the Gabba retained – Matt Stevic and Robert Findlay – retained.
Nathan Williamson, along with Chamberlain, has been dropped. Veteran Brett Rosebury and Jacob Mollison will replace those men in the preliminary finals, having both been named emergencies last week.
Heat on Treloar to deliver on Dogs’ trade gamble
For a player who often gets plenty of ball, midfielder Adam Treloar was uncharacteristically quiet against the Lions.
How quiet?
In his 10th final, Treloar didn’t get a touch until well into the second quarter and finished with just two kicks and 10 disposals.
It was the fewest possessions he’s had in a game this season, but Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge denied he had carried an injury into the match and said he expected the former Magpie to bounce back in a preliminary final against Port Adelaide.
Treloar arrived at the Dogs in the dying seconds of last year’s trade period after being squeezed out by Collingwood’s salary cap crisis.
Confirmation of the move only emerged after the trade deadline and was followed by weeks of haggling over how much of his new contract would be paid by the Magpies.
“He’s fully fit,” Beveridge said.
“His contributions historically have been quite outstanding and tonight probably wasn’t his most prolific game.
“So there’s a positive, we get Adam Treloar’s best hopefully in a preliminary final.
“I’m sure he’ll come up and put his best foot forward next week.”
HOW DO DOGS REPLACE CODY?
Jason Johannisen or Mitch Wallis?
With young forward Cody Weightman set to miss the preliminary final through concussion protocols, Beveridge must decide which of his two premiership players gets the nod when his side plays off for a grand final berth.
Or does he instead opt for forward Anthony Scott, who’s played 20 games this year?
Two of the three could even face Port Adelaide if skipper Marcus Bontempelli’s knee doesn’t get up for the clash against Port Adelaide.
The Bulldogs have used a league-high 41 players across the year, and that rotation policy could become crucial when choosing a replacement for Weightman.
“Cody’s been tremendous in recent times, so when you say suitable (replacement), you’re not going to get another Cody Weightman,” he said.
“His game now … he’s that player where when you play West Coast we think about Liam Ryan because he’s such a terrific aerialist for a small forward with great speed and clean at ground level.
“Cody’s sort of moving into that area where he’s really difficult to defend because he got an air and a ground game.
“But I suppose this is what happens and we’ve needed most of our list to play AFL footy this year and our boys have done an outstanding job.
“We’ve had critical role players contribute to really important victories and we’ll need to call on a handful of those boys to play in a preliminary final.
“The great thing is they’ll come into the team and feel like they’ve contributed in the past.
“We’ll have a different player to replace Cody who’ll bring a different skill set, but there are some lads there waiting in the wings who’ll come in and be an important part of our make-up.”
Johannisen, the 2016 Norm Smith Medallist, may be in the box seat after coming on as the medical sub against the Lions when Weightman came off.
Wallis, who was the Bulldogs’ leading goal kicker last year, has played just six games this year and last made a senior appearance in Round 17.
HAVE DOGS SPENT PETROL TICKETS?
Can they do it again?
Surely they can’t, can they?
Comparisons to the Bulldogs’ fairytale run in the 2016 finals are now inevitable after the club’s surge from outside the top four to now be knocking on the door of a grand final appearance.
The burning question for the Dogs is whether or not they have the petrol tickets to keep riding the wave deep into September.
Beveridge, again, is daring to dream.
“We were in healthy nick going into this game,” Beveridge said.
“Potentially we have a couple of injuries from tonight.
“We’ve had to shift some things around with our key forward and the ruck situation, but we’re pretty healthy and it is a level playing field with not being able to play state league games.
“The players that are coming in now to finals teams haven’t been playing, so the match fitness side of things is probably on the back burner a little bit.
“So we’re trying to get some conditioning into the lads at training.”
TOUGH ROAD JUST HOW THE DOGS’ LIKE IT
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge likes to create themes for his team and surely he has three words written on his whiteboard in large capital letters: “THE HARD WAY”.
In 2016 his team famously won all over the country on their way to an unlikely premiership.
They threw the normal script out by starting in Perth, going back to Melbourne, then up to Sydney before returning to the MCG for that drought-breaking flag.
On Saturday night the Dogs took the theme to the nth degree with a scrambled behind by youngster Latham Vandermeer in the final 30 seconds getting them through to the preliminary final.
And again it has an unlikely feel about it.
This time they’ve gone via Launceston and Brisbane to get to a final four shootout in Adelaide, which gives them a chance in the big one that — you should have picked up the theme by now — is being played in yet another different state.
Throw in the extreme quarantine measures they’re operating under and this the hardest of hard ways.
Beveridge’s team clearly thrives with this back-to-the-wall mentality given they manufactured it themselves late in the season by creating an untimely form slump.
The Dogs were the hottest team in the country a month ago before losing their final three games of the home-and-away season to slip out of the top four — Brisbane replaced them by just .05 per cent — and seemingly out of premiership contention.
There were signs against Essendon in the elimination final that the mojo was coming back but many put that down to the wet conditions in Launceston suiting the Dogs’ game style.
A date with Brisbane on the fast deck of the Gabba was supposed to show them up, and when Lions star Charlie Cameron lit the place up with three goals in the opening quarter, those predictions seemed on the money.
But there is a real grit about this Bulldogs side which comes from tasting premiership success and then learning the hard way that it doesn’t come around easily again.
Marcus Bontempelli showed why his peers voted him the best player and best captain in the game as he went to work with his All-Australian sidekick Jack Macrae to ensure the Dogs weren’t blown away by the excitable Lions.
They then got the game on their terms and it became an incredible arm wrestle for the remaining three quarters with heroes everywhere for both sides.
Fittingly, it came down to a frantic final few minutes when Dogs young gun Bailey Smith enhanced his growing reputation with a 27-possession three-goal game which included an extraordinary left-foot goal from the boundary line with two minutes remaining.
Some magic from Lions rising star Zac Bailey 30 seconds later again levelled the scores, before the Vandermeer behind sealed the Lions’ fate.
Afterwards Bontempelli, who worryingly hurt his knee in the final five minutes, revealed the inner belief which fuelled his side: “We’ve got a lot of self-belief and it’s all from the coaches and the players. We all live that belief … to keep driving, no matter what the score is, just keep pushing.
This will hurt Chris Fagan as coming into the game the Lions finals’ record had been the elephant in the room.
For the second time in three years they’ve gone out in straight sets with a horror preliminary final loss last year also part of that equation.
He will have a summer to contemplate while Beveridge will be on a plane to Perth on Sunday to prepare for a showdown with Port Adelaide in Adelaide next Saturday night.
That’s called doing it the hard way.
BONT KNEE INJURY SENDS SCARE THROUGH DOGS
Western Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli says he “should be all right” to play in the preliminary final despite suffering a knee injury in his side’s dramatic one-point win over Brisbane.
The Bulldogs superstar and Brownlow fancy landed awkwardly in a marking contest in the dying stages of Saturday night’s semi-final thriller at the Gabba.
He came from the field late in the game and watched on as the Bulldogs booked a date with Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval next Saturday night.
“It should be all right,” Bontempelli told Channel 7.
“Initial tests and what not are pretty good.
“I just landed awkwardly so I was a bit ginger initially and then the big fella fell across the leg, so rather than limp around out there probably the right thing was to interchange.”
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said the club did not yet know the extent of the damage to his inspirational skipper.
“He just copped a knock to the back of his knees, so it’s difficult to know the extent of any injury,” Beveridge said.
“He’s obviously a little bit sore and we’ll need a little bit of time before we can assess it.
“We’ll probably get a scan once we get to Perth and see if there’s any damage there, but I can’t give you too much more than that.”
If Bontempelli is to miss the club’s first preliminary final since their premiership year of 2016, he looms as one of at least two forced changes with forward Cody Weightman set to miss after copping a head knock.
Despite his injury cloud, Bontempelli said he could not be prouder of his side.
“It’s what we needed to do and we know what a quality team Brisbane are and especially here when the crowd is as loud and pulsating as that,” Bontempelli said.
“At different points we probably thought we were going to extra time, but a couple of the young boys stepped up late like Bailey Smith and Jack Macrae.
“It was a knife’s edge and I’m sure it was good viewing.”
Macrae, who dominated with 38 disposals, paid tribute to his teammates after the stirring win.
“It was a bloody good win, it would have been a good game to watch,” he said.
“It just shows you the maturity of the group, we just kept coming.
“We knew they’re a great team and it’s a bloody hard place to win, so I’m just so impressed with the boys.”
DOGS SURVIVE AFTER INSANE FINISH
A scrappy Laitham Vandermeer behind in the dying seconds handed the Western Bulldogs a stunning one-point victory over Brisbane in a thrilling and pulsating sudden-death semi-final at the Gabba on Saturday night.
The Lions have now gone out of the finals in straight sets for the second time in three years as tempers boiled over with police restraining one supporter who was abusing the match officials as they left the ground with the free kick count of 28-19 against Brisbane.
While the umpires had far too much say in the contest with howlers against both teams, when the match was in the balance, a brilliant left-foot goal to Bulldogs star Bailey Smith from 40 metres out broke the deadlock with two minutes left in the match.
A running Zac Bailey goal levelled the scores with 78 seconds remaining before Vandermeer rushed a behind with a toe poke to put the visitors in front to break the hearts of Brisbane.
Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli left the field late with a knee issue and the club will sweat on his availability ahead of the preliminary final date with Port Adelaide in Adelaide.
Jack Macrae (38 disposals and a goal) and Hugh McCluggage (28 disposals) were the best for their respective sides as momentum swung wildly throughout the contest.
The Dogs came out with all guns blazing in the final term with goals to Macrae, Josh Schache and Smith handing them an eight-point lead before Lions forward Tom Fullarton bobbed up with a major.
The Lions were reduced to a three-man interchange bench when Jarrod Berry was ruled out with concussion at halftime and medical replacement Ryan Lester – who came on for Jack Payne – was one of three goal kickers in the third term when Brisbane raced to a 18-point lead thanks to a noticeable lift in their pressure.
The Bulldogs lost Cody Weightman to a head knock late in the second quarter and his medical sub – Jason Johannisen – kicked a goal late in the third term to reduce Brisbane’s advantage to 10 points at the last change.
With Macrae racking up 24 touches by the main break, the Bulldogs led by the solitary point at halftime after they kicked the first three goals of the second term through Aaron Naughton, Mitch Hannan and Weightman.
Brisbane suffered a blow when fill-in forward Payne left the field with blood gushing from his head after clashing with the knee of teammate Linc McCarthy in a marking contest.
Brisbane led by 11 points at quarter-time after a sluggish start but scorching finish to the opening term.
The Bulldogs were on top early with Tom Liberatore hitting the scoreboard twice as the visitors dominated the contest on the ground and moved the ball out of defence with ease.
But Brisbane emphatically seized the momentum with three rapid-fire goals with Cameron, Linc McCarthy and Joe Daniher all booting goals on the back of Brisbane dominating centre clearances with ruckman Oscar McInerney getting his hand to the Sherrin first.
Cameron’s third goal for the term was a gem as he collected the bouncing ball at full pace and kicked across his body from 40 metres out to send the Gabba faithful wild.
Essendon supporters were irate at a number of umpiring howlers in the sudden-death final against the Bulldogs in Launceston last week. The Gabba faithful were revolting on Saturday when the Dogs received 10 free kicks to Brisbane’s four in the second term. Some were there – despite the passionate protests of some Brisbane supporters – but a few were very soft calls against the Lions. In short, they had a shocker. None of the officials at the Gabba should figure in the preliminary finals.
INJURY CARNAGE
It was carnage at halftime with both sides losing players to head knocks. The Bulldogs were forced to activate medical sub Jason Johannisen after Cody Weightman suffered a head knock when he ran into the substantial figure of Marcus Adams in the second term. Brisbane had to play the second half with one man short on the interchange bench after Jarrod Berry was ruled out of the match with concussion after hitting his head on the ground making a tackle.
LIONS’ FORWARD WOES
Lions senior coach Chris Fagan is always happy to talk about Dan McStay’s vital role in Brisbane’s forward structure. With McStay in the grandstands after getting knocked senseless last week, his influence was missed. After losing Eric Hipwood earlier in the season, the absence of McStay was critical as Brisbane struggled for a period to capitalise on their inside 50 entry superiority. Losing McStay’s replacement, Jack Payne, in the second quarter saw defender Ryan Lester thrust into a forward role.
CALEB DANIEL KICKS
There is a good reason why there is a Twitter account devoted to the “elite” kicking skills of diminutive Bulldogs defender Caleb Daniel. Time and again, Daniel was able to clear congestion with raking pinpoint kicks to teammates coming out of defence to thrust the Bulldogs into counter-attack. Brisbane allowed Daniel to sprint 15 to 20 metres out of the goalsquare before he pumped the Sherrin to the centre of the field.
SCOREBOARD
LIONS: 5.3 6.5 9.9 11.12 (78)
BULLDOGS: 3.4 6.6 7.11 11.13 (79)
Goals:
LIONS: Cameron 3, Bailey 2, McCarthy, Daniher, Robinson, McCluggage, Lester, Fullarton
BULLDOGS: Smith 3, Liberatore 2, Naughton, Hannan, Weightman, Johannisen, Macrae, Schache,
Greg Davis’ best:
LIONS: McCluggage, Zorko, Robinson, Cameron, Lyons, Coleman, McInerney
BULLDOGS: Macrae, Daniel, Bontempelli, B.Smith, Dale, Hunter, Dunkley
Injuries:
LIONS: Jack Payne (head cut), Jarrod Berry (concussion)
BULLDOGS: Cody Weightman (head knock), Bontempelli (knee)
Crowd:
36,470
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Originally published as AFL Brisbane v Western Bulldogs 2021: All the latest news and fallout from semi-final clash
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