AFL finals 2019: No fairytale for Western Bulldogs but it was a bittersweet win for GWS
Western Bulldogs had their dreams of a repeat of their 2016 premiership heroics shattered by a rejuvenated GWS outfit but it may have been Brett Deledio’s last game.
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Peter Gordon couldn’t watch last time it was so close.
This time the Western Bulldogs president might have struggled to watch at Giants Stadium because it wasn’t.
There will be no fairytale this year.
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The scene of one of the most memorable nights in Western Bulldogs history in 2016 was one of its most forgettable three years on.
Eleven Dogs played their first final against Greater Western Sydney choc-full of confidence after a blazing run of form that included a 10-goal flogging of the Giants three weeks earlier.
Instead, they walked into a fire pit.
The Giants brought a furnace-like heat and their physicality and thirst for the contest clearly unsettled the Dogs.
A Bulldogs side that had monopolised possession for months, just couldn’t get their hands on it and when they did, they were brutally set upon. Marcus Bontempelli was targeted and had little influence.
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The final score — 16.17 (113) to 8.6 (55) — was the Dogs’ lowest tally for the season and a game they went into with so much hope, they ended with a feeling of helplessness.
Unlike the premiership year, this time the bye came at the worst possible time for a side who had won eight of 11 games after the mid-season bye.
GWS were hard, tough, annoying and mightily impressive, with returning stars Jacob Hopper and Toby Greene instrumental in the thrashing.
While the home side let the Dogs off the hook in the first quarter, their dominance took full toll in the second half.
The Giants kicked 10 goals to three after half time, including a run of eight unanswered.
The inside 50s were a staggering 76-37 in the Giants’ favour, while they won contested ball by 42 and had 33 shots to 15.
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Giants skipper Phil Davis said his team’s performance was built on pressure.
“We want to be producing every week and we’ve been inconsistent this year but we know that our best footy (when) we get the ball in our forward half our forwards tackle as well as anyone and our mids crunch in very well too,” Davis said.
Davis praised Giants and Bulldogs fans for creating an electric atmosphere.
“The Bulldogs fans turned up and it was a great atmosphere. I thought the crowd got louder and louder,” Davis said.
“It was a good atmosphere to play in front of. Thanks to all the orange boys and girls to come out and watch us play. It was really good fun.”
OH NO NAUGHTON
As if the scoreboard wasn’t ugly enough, the sight of Aaron Naughton being carried off the field in agony might have tipped Dogs fans over the edge.
Naughton flew for a mark over Phil Davis in the third term, but landed straight-legged and his left knee buckled.
On the turf in pain, he was carried off and immediately ruled out for the rest of the game.
The Dogs will pray it is nothing too serious, with lateral ligament damage the early diagnosis.
“The initial assessment of the injury isn’t extreme but they’ve got to scan it to work out whether he needs surgery,” Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said.
“It doesn’t seem to be an ACL. It seems to be a lateral (ligament), but I’d rather not comment in any detail.
“He’ll have a scan and we’ll publicise it when we can.”
THE WIND
The Dogs won the toss and took a leaf out of Trent Cotchin’s book and kicked into a wind that was blowing into what would be the Giants’ forward pocket in the first term.
It wreaked havoc at the airport too, where Dogs fans were left stranded in Melbourne unable to fly to Sydney after cancellations and delays caught many out. Even Dogs football director Chris Grant only just made it in time.
It may go some way to explaining the crowd at Giants Stadium, with two completely empty bays on the top tier making for an unsightly spectacle.
The final crowd figure was 19,218.
DESTRUCTIVE DE BOER
Matt De Boer was absolutely monstered by Bontempelli in Round 22, but revenge was his when it counted most.
But while De Boer was more robust in isolated contests with the Dogs superstar, the back-up party was ready and waiting when he wasn’t.
The Giants went after Bontempelli at every opportunity, with Shane Mumford and Toby Greene particularly keen to drop the shoulder here and offer a shove there.
Brownlow favourite Bontempelli was restricted by De Boer to just 13 disposals — his lowest tally since Round 22, 2017, with GWS clearly going after the ball winner.
Beveridge positioned his star midfielder deep forward and even into the ruck in an attempt to break the shackles, but it had little effect.
“We expected it. What can you do in the game other than fight the good fight and try to stay disciplined,” Beveridge said.
“We prepared for that, we knew it would happen and it wasn’t just there. It was elsewhere, so that’s how you win finals and credit to them.
“He’s a fighter, he persevered, but we just didn’t have any weight of numbers to get any momentum going at all.
“There’s no doubt it was an eye opening experience for some of us.”
FABULOUS FINLAYSON
Keep the Coleman medallist Jeremy Cameron under control — check.
Make sure Harry Himmelberg is quiet — check.
Jeremy Finlayson? Nope.
Of the Giants’ batch of dangerous key forwards, it was Finlayson who slipped under the guard.
When the game was there to be won, he was the commanding inside 50 presence, kicking two goals in the second and another in the third.
ALL OVER FOR LIDS?
Ben Horne, Chris Vernuccio
An emotional Brett Deledio tore his calf in the first quarter of Saturday night’s elimination final, but refused to tell the Giants coaching staff.
Unwilling to let his teammates down after GWS showed enormous faith in rushing him back after a month out, Deledio showcased his warrior qualities by gutsing it out to the final siren.
Teammates returned the favour after full-time, chairing the former Richmond champion off the field for the last time, with his career now all but certainly over.
Post-match coach Leon Cameron was still convinced Deledio hadn’t suffered the tear until midway through the second quarter, but the 32-year-old’s revelation it was actually at the start of the game is testament to his resilience and dedication to the cause.
Deledio laid a desperate tackle nine minutes into the third term which directly allowed Daniel Lloyd to snap a goal and virtually broke the Western Bulldogs’ back.
Unable to live with the prospect of leaving the Giants a man short and jeopardising their season, Deledio pushed through the pain barrier.
“I didn’t tell them. I didn’t want to tell them. They knew after halftime but I didn’t tell them early. I was talking to our physios and just said, I can feel it but I’ll keep pushing on and just see how I go,” Deledio said.
“Unfortunately I cooked it in the first quarter.
“There are bigger fish to fry so I couldn’t put the boys under any sort of duress. Better off being me who is sore than any of them.
“I had to do my bit and try and hang in for the boys and just do what I could. If we make it through I might be a chance but she looks like it might be curtains unfortunately.”
Deledio made a quicker than expected return from a calf injury suffered in Round 21 but it was a risk the Giants were willing to take.
Giants defender Heath Shaw said Deledio inspired his teammates with his willingness to keep playing with the injury in the second half.
“I haven’t had a chat to him but Leon (coach Leon Cameron) spoke about him just then. He was a little bit of a risk coming in, we knew that, and Leon put it on him and said ‘no matter what happens, you’re playing out the game,” Shaw told Channel 7.
“I think he did his calf halfway through the second quarter and then went on to play that selfless role on Easton Wood with a torn calf.
“Hats off to him. He was amazing for us in the second half, it’s pretty said.”
Deledio, in his 275th match, played 63 per cent game time for 11 disposals as he was managed throughout the final quarter.
BEVO: IT WAS A DISASTER
Sam Edmund
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has lamented a “nightmare” elimination final loss to Greater Western Sydney after the Dogs conceded the second-most inside 50s ever recorded in a final.
Beveridge said the Giants “went for us physically”, with the loss so brutal he wondered whether his 11 finals debutants would learn from the experience or be rocked by it.
A season of increasing hope was smashed to smithereens as the Bulldogs had 18 fewer scoring shots, lost contested ball by 42 and lost the inside 50 count by 39.
The Giants’ 76 entries is second only to Essendon’s 78 against North Melbourne in the 2000 elimination final.
Superstar Marcus Bontempelli was blanketed by Matt De Boer, while the Dogs are hopeful Aaron Naughton has escaped an ACL injury.
“There’s no doubt they played with an energy we didn’t have, unfortunately. Whatever the reasons for that are, the players seemed ready and we’d definitely put Round 22 behind us,” Beveridge said.
“We couldn’t win it on the inside and when we got our hands on it we coughed it up. In transition we couldn’t find each other on the overlap and just nothing went right.
“There was a pretty noticeable difference in the contest today, which we had been pretty good at.
“We built a good balance in our game and we just didn’t have any of it today, so it’s a bit numbing really.
“It was a bit of a disaster.”
VFL DOGS GO OUT IN STRAIGHT SETS
James Mottershead
They say bad kicking is bad football.
Footscray had ten behinds on the board before they kicked their first goal in their 4.17 (41) to 8.8 (56) VFL loss to Port Melbourne.
They had 21 scoring shots, winning the inside 50 count by 22 but being left to lament their putrid accuracy in front of goal.
The loss means the Dogs, who finished second on the ladder, have been bundled out in straight sets.
Home finals have been a hot topic this weekend and despite Footscray finishing four spots higher on the ladder, the VFL finals fixturing meant yesterday’s game was played at Port Melbourne’s home ground.
Lin Jong made a return from a hamstring injury and showed he is built for finals footy, finishing with 23 touches, five tackles and a goal.
Lukas Webb was the leading ball-winner on the ground and finished with 32 disposals and seven tackles.
Giansiracusa said tall utility Jackson Trengove had a slow start to the semi-final but would be in the frame if the AFL side wins.
SCOREBOARD
GWS GIANTS 16.17 (113)
d
WESTERN BULLDOGS 8.7 (55)
GOALS
Giants: Finlayson 3, Greene 3, Kelly 3, Lloyd 2, Himmelberg 2, Cameron 2, Whitfield
Bulldogs: Naughton 2, Suckling, McLean, English, Schache, Richards, Lloyd
SAM EDMUND’S BEST
Giants: Whitfield, Hopper, Greene, Finlayson, Taranto, De Boer, Kelly, Williams, Daniels
Bulldogs: Macrae, Wood, Hunter, Suckling.
SAM EDMUND’S VOTES
3 — Lachie Whitfield (GWS)
What a performance from the Giants’ running man. Was pivotal when it was there to be won early and went on with it.
2 — Jacob Hopper (GWS)
Thirty disposals — 19 contested — seven clearances, four tackles and four inside 50s.
A beacon of GWS’ physical intent.
1 — Toby Greene (GWS)
Who plays the villain better? Got under the skin and then got on the scoreboard, with three goals from 20 touches. Clean and composed.
INJURIES
Giants: Nil
Bulldogs: Naughton (knee)
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Foot, Williamson, Ryan
Official crowd: 19,218 at Giants Stadium
GIANT WARNING: DON’T UNDERESTIMATE US
—BEN HORNE
Written off as too soft for finals football, GWS Giants yesterday proved how ferocious they can be.
The AFL has long recognised GWS as the most skilful and naturally gifted team in the competition, but increasingly it was being used almost as a backhanded compliment.
Long accused of bearing a soft underbelly, the Giants yesterday bullied the team that denied them a place in the 2016 grand final with a brutal physical dismantling of the Western Bulldogs.
Sydney’s wild winds meant some Bulldogs fans flying in from Melbourne were still arriving at the ground in the third quarter.
But with 10 minutes left those same supporters had already fled to the exits as hurricane GWS took hold.
The emphatic 113-55 knockout triumph rode the wave of Stephen Coniglio’s lifelong commitment to the club last week, and should go a long way to alleviating any pressure that was starting to build on coach Leon Cameron.
Just three weeks ago the Bulldogs hammered home 12 consecutive goals against a hapless Giants outfit who became the first AFL side in over 100 years to go two weeks in a row without kicking a second half goal.
Yesterday, the free-flowing Bulldogs were made to feel claustrophobic, as tagging terror Matt de Boer and rucking colossus Shane Mumford manhandled Brownlow Medal chance Marcus Bontempelli out of the contest.
The Bulldogs were still in the hunt at halftime, but this time it was the Giants who produced the second half fireworks.
It was a coaching masterclass from Cameron, as the magician Bontempelli constantly had his hands and arms taken from him — and the Bulldogs, who have averaged 116 points over the last month of the regular season were cut off at the source.
In the brief moments when Bontempelli didn’t have de Boer in his shadow, he had Mumford towering over him at the stoppage.
Phil Davis was another intimidating force at the back and attack dog Toby Greene let himself off the chain with a dominant performance that yielded a critical three goals.
Coleman Medallist Jeremy Cameron didn’t kick a goal until the last quarter, but for the most part he didn’t need to, as lieutenants Jeremy Finlayson (three) and Harry Himmelberg (two) hit the scoreboard in the big moments.
A howling mistake from Zac Williams when he kicked out straight into the waiting hands of Toby McLean in his own goal square threatened the turn the match on its head, as the Bulldogs rushed through three quick goals and could have taken the lead at halftime when Bontempelli missed a set shot from close range.
GWS were made to sweat for not banking enough points to support their dominance in the first quarter and a half, but unlike three weeks ago when they capitulated — the Giants saved their best for the second half.
Just like in 2016, the Bulldogs fans were making enough noise to drown out the Giants in front of a 19,218 crowd split about 50-50 on GWS soil.
That was until Jeremy Finlayson kicked his third goal and ran to the blue army silencing them with a provocative shooshing gesture.
It signalled the end of the Bulldogs season and potentially the start of something special for the orange army as GWS proved once again they’re capable of beating any side on their day.
At one point in the first quarter, Bontempelli and fellow Bulldogs star Aaron Naughton were nursing bloodied faces on the boundary line — as GWS muscled up.
In the third quarter forward Himmelberg mowed down a runaway Bulldog in a moment indicative of the GWS mindset.
Lachie Whitfield played up to the Sydney crowd with a rugby league style tap and pass when a free-kick was rewarded.
Toby Greene copped a nasty kick to the groin which forced him off the field, but otherwise he was unstoppable — terrorising the Bulldogs.
Originally published as AFL finals 2019: No fairytale for Western Bulldogs but it was a bittersweet win for GWS
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