Veteran Bulldogs destroy 'horrible' Roosters
CENTRAL District, led by Paul Thomas and Ian Callinan, showed why it might yet be a threat in September with a 50-point win over the Roosters.
CENTRAL District, led by two grand old stars in Paul Thomas and Ian Callinan, showed why it might yet be a threat in September with an emphatic 50-point win over North Adelaide on Saturday.
Apart from the first 10 minutes when they couldn't get near the footy, it was all one-way traffic as the fifth-placed Dogs rolled the second-placed Roosters for the second time in a row. An in-form Callinan made a huge difference, his four goals were all class and the final one triggered a fist pump to loyal Doggies' fans standing in the rain at Elizabeth, while Thomas set an example of how to make an impact on the game with his pressure even when he didn't have the footy.
The Dogs had winners all over the ground and collectively, its defensive unit of Josh Waldhuter, Matthew Prior, Corey Reichert, Jackson Potter and Tom Collier was superb.
Coach Roy Laird has been critical of his side's intensity in recent weeks but described yesterday's effort as one of the best in the past two years.
"Our overall pressure was good, the attack on the footy was excellent and with that came a bit more poise with the ball feeling that we were in the game,'' Laird said.
"Unfortunately we've been two steps forward, one step back for most of the year and we've got to make sure our 21 (players) understand that is the brand of footy we'd like to play.
"We had a really tough week on the track, some running and competitive work, so they've responded well to that.'' By contrast, North Adelaide coach Josh Francou said his side lacked hunger. Chad O'Sullivan had a good game against his old team and Michael Clinch did a mountain of work in defence but they lacked support.
"It was horrible,'' Francou said. "I was really disappointed in our guys' inability to adapt to these conditions, follow instructions as far as 'not over-use the ball and don't kick short', which I thought we did a lot of. "But ultimately, when you boil it down, we were uncompetitive and that's the frustrating thing.''
Surprisingly, North was all over Central early as Leigh Ryswyk ran amok and kicked two goals and dynamic Matthew Campbell and Nick Amato got their hands on the footy to givegave the Roosters the jump.
The Dogs needed a spark and Callinan dragged them back into the contestdid that by kicking the first goal and setting up their second. The momentum continued to swing Central's way when Josh Glenn - who this week was invited to the AFL draft camp - kicked a goal from 45m and Thomas made it two in a row soon after.
The game became even more of a scrap in the third quarter as a free kick, 25m penalty and subsequent goal to James Boyd saw the Dogs go further ahead and it became a whitewash in the last as Central kicked 5.5 to North's no score.Scott Dutschke typified his side's endeavour by sprinting and throwing himself at a loose ball - which earnt him a free kick - even though the game was well and truly over.