Western Bulldogs bite back with fierce response against wounded GWS in fiery encounter
Lachie Whitfield sat out three quarters of Friday night’s game after a big hit from Aaron Naughton. The MRO has delivered his verdict and has pocketed nearly $8,000 from the fierce Dogs-Giants encounter.
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Eight Western Bulldogs players and seven Greater Western Sydney counterparts are lighter in the pocket after being slapped with fines for engaging in a melee in their fiery clash on Friday night.
The 15 players were fined a total of $7750 — with 14 being told by the AFL’s match review officer to cough up $500 as a first offence and Bulldogs forward Josh Bruce having to pay up $750 as a second offence.
Aaron Naughton was one of the players fined for engaging in the melee but avoided sanction after a collision which left Greater Western Sydney’s Lachie Whitfield concussed.
Naughton was cleared of any wrongdoing by MRO Michael Christian, who concluded the young Bulldogs star was “contesting the ball and his actions were not unreasonable in the circumstances”.
Naughton was chasing a ground ball when Whitfield came into his path and the pair collided.
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said yesterday that it was a “great physical contest” and Naughton had simply “attacked the footy”.
“Unfortunately Lachie didn’t protect himself,” Beveridge said on Fox Footy.
“He put his head in the hole which is a bit of courage but probably isn’t the technique that Leon (Cameron) and his coaches would teach him up there.”
All-in brawl erupts as Dogs’ regain their bite
Lauren Wood, Sam Landsberger
From the moment Giants skipper Stephen Coniglio sent Nick Haynes to take care of coin toss duties, it was already on.
From there, it was always going to be a dogfight.
The Western Bulldogs live to fight another day as they notched their first win of the season with a strong response, but it wasn’t without a heavy dose of Friday night spite.
Football’s newest hottest rivalry had some spice added last August when Haynes suffered a throat injury against the Dogs after a Marcus Bontempelli hit.
Bontempelli escaped sanction and Haynes sustained a fractured larynx and later forgave the Dogs skipper, but to say the feeling remains is an understatement.
The toss was a move that Giants defender Phil Davis said at quarter-time was simply to develop leadership for other players like Haynes.
OK. If you say so, Phil.
Tagger Matt de Boer had the job on Bontempelli and didn’t even wait for the first bounce to dial up the physicality with the Dogs skipper in every Giant’s sights.
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“It does look like the Giants are putting Marcus Bontempelli’s head on a plate tonight,” Brownlow medallist Chris Judd said on Triple M.
But it shouldn’t have been taken as a compliment, according to the premiership star.
“I’d be offended that the opposition team thought that that sort of stuff would put me off my game … and I’d be laser-focused to make sure that it doesn’t,” Judd said, later questioning whether the tactics had distracted the Giants more than it had the Dogs as they lagged.
It boiled over at three-quarter time with every player in, with the league set to play debt collector for a no doubt hefty booty after Saturday’s match review – even at half the rate.
A fight broke out at three quarter time 😱😱😱
— 7AFL (@7AFL) June 19, 2020
(watch #AFLDogsGiants on 7) pic.twitter.com/M4miVwfVw1
GIANT BLOWS
Aaron Naughton can book his flight to Sydney for next Thursday’s clash at the SCG because he has no case to answer for concussing Lachie Whitfield on Friday night, according to several AFL legends.
Naughton attacked a loose ball at full steam in the first quarter and didn’t deviate from his line, with a cautious Whitfield coming the other way and failing to protect his own head.
The pair made incidental contact and Whitfield was ruled out of the game at quarter-time with concussion.
The AFL amended its tribunal guidelines on dangerous tackles last week amid a broader message from football boss Steve Hocking: “We want to be clear – protection to the head is our highest priority”.
But former North Melbourne champion Wayne Carey declared Naughton had “no case to answer”.
“(Naughton) was running at the footy and in the end knew he wasn’t going to get the footy, but he’s entitled to at least brace himself for contact, which was coming the other way from Whitfield,” Carey said on Channel 7.
“He didn’t raise anything, braced himself, contact came, unfortunately for Whitfield he didn’t come back on the ground, and unfortunately we play a contact sport and sometimes things like that are going to happen.”
St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt agreed.
“Naughton’s eyes were clearly on the football and we know football is a contact sport, it’s 360-degrees and those sort of collisions are going to occur,” Riewoldt said on Fox Footy.
“You could tell (Whitfield) was trying to take possession of the ball and spin before he actually got it and that probably contributed to the fact he wore it across the head rather than through the torso and the shoulders if he had of body-lined it.”
Hawthorn champion Dermott Brereton also said that Whitfield had failed to properly protect himself.
It will be a busy day for match review officer Michael Christian as he dishes out multiple fines for wrestling, albeit financial sanctions that will be discounted by 50 per cent due to this year’s paycuts.
But the football world appeared united that Naughton would be in the clear to take on the Swans next week.
Naughton, 20, showed some of the swagger that helped him burst on to the scene as both a key defender and full-forward in his first two seasons.
While the No.9 draft pick didn’t kick a goal he took five marks (one contested), split packs and provided a physical presence that supported enforcer and former Giant Josh Bruce.
LITTLE BIT OF LIBBA
It was 320 days between outings for Tom Liberatore, but he’d lost no touch.
Every time he goes near the ball, things just happen and they did from wire to wire.
He had 18 touches, with a little bit of trademark cheekiness along the way.
With a ruffle of Coniglio’s well-coiffured do, he was back.
And aren’t we all a little better with a spot of the premiership Dog out there on a Friday night.
SON OF THE … NORTH?
It is the year of anomalies, but who could have considered six months ago that Western Bulldogs star Lachie Hunter would play in a scratch match in royal blue and white?
“Because North Melbourne didn’t have enough players, Lachie found himself on North Melbourne’s team,” Dogs defender Easton Wood said on the ABC.
“Lachie was saying ‘imagine if someone texted me at the start of the year saying I’m still on an AFL list, but I’m playing for North Melbourne in Round 4 at the MCG in the VFL and our football manager is umpiring – can you imagine trying to explain that?
“2020 is throwing up some curveballs, that’s for sure.”
SCOREBOARD
WESTERN BULLDOGS: 2.5 4.6 7.8 8.9 (57)
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY: 1.2 1.4 3.5 4.9 (36)
BEST
WESTERN BULLDOGS: Macrae, Bontempelli, Liberatore, Dunkley, Daniel, Keath
GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY: Coniglio, Haynes, Perryman, Ward, Corr
VOTES
3 Jack Macrae
2 Marcus Bontempelli
1 Tom Liberatore
BONTEMPELLI ‘WASN’T SURPRISED’ BY BATTERING
Western Bulldogs skipper Marcus Bontempelli admits he was ready for a battering and was anything but surprised by the Giants fiery physical tactics in his first win as skipper.
Bontempelli, 24, was firmly in the sights of Greater Western Sydney players at Marvel Stadium last night, wearing a heavy tag from Giants stopper Matt de Boer before the ball was even bounced in what is swiftly becoming one of football’s spiciest new rivalries.
“I wasn’t surprised,” the captain said on Channel 7 of the tactics.
“It obviously happened late last year in that final. It’s always tough. I think you know ... Matty de Boer, he’s a good operator.
“You probably know you’re not going to have the influence you do with ball in hand but I was just doing my best ... to try and help my teammates get out, and just commit to trying to be a good team player tonight and hopefully it helped.”
The Western Bulldogs held the Giants to just one goal until midway through the third quarter, claiming victory by 24 points for their first win of the season.
“It’s about trying to make your teammate a better player, and there’s no teammate that puts his body on the line more than Marcus,” Bulldog Mitch Wallis said.
“I thought he was outstanding tonight, led from the front, but he did get help from his 21
teammates.
“Another bloke that I am proud of and he played really well.”
Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge says his ability to withstand it will do him “the world of good” after weeks of external pressure on the captain and the club.
The Dogs ground out their first victory for 2020 with a 24-point win over the Giants, with football’s modern rivalry adding another hot chapter to its short history.
Bontempelli wore a hard tag from Giants stopper Matt de Boer, which Beveridge had expected.
“We expect (the physicality) every week, but the history is beaten up and that’s OK. We’re part of it and both clubs have exchanged personnel here and there,” Beveridge said.
“You’re never sure about the off the ball stuff and whether or not the appetite’s there to do it again, but it was there again tonight.
“It was a shame that both sides missed a lot of goals or had breakdowns in open field because it could have been a higher scoring affair. It’s just nice to be on the winners’ list and now it’s just one win. That’s all it is.”
Nick Haynes – who sustained a fractured larynx in an incident with Bontempelli, who escaped sanction, last August – took the coin toss for the Giants in a move Beveridge labelled “peculiar”.
High-flying forward Aaron Naughton will be assessed by the match review officer today for a bump on Giants speedster Lachie Whitfield, who was concussed and sat out three quarters.
Bontempelli, 24, had “felt the pressure” going into the game, Beveridge said, and some teammates “felt like they let him down last year and wanted to make amends” in the physical encounter.
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Originally published as Western Bulldogs bite back with fierce response against wounded GWS in fiery encounter