Josh Dunkley says the Bulldogs were embarrassed by their finish to 2019 season
Their first finals appearance since their 2016 flag triumph was not one the Western Bulldogs want to remember. Still smarting from their ‘embarrassing’ exit, they will hit 2020 with a fresh goal.
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Western Bulldogs midfielder Josh Dunkley says the team was embarrassed by its exit from last year’s finals series and the group has vowed to show the AFL its bite in 2020.
The Bulldogs were bundled out of the 2019 finals – the team’s first September appearance since their drought-breaking 2016 premiership – in a 58-point thumping from Greater Western Sydney in their elimination final at Giants Stadium.
The Dogs had stormed into the finals, winning seven of their last nine games to secure their place in the September action.
Dunkley, one of the Bulldogs star performers in 2019, said the team was left smarting from the loss and have pledged to strike back this season.
“It was a disappointing way to end the year, I think everyone would have seen that from the outside … we were pretty embarrassed after it, to be honest,” Dunkley said.
“It was not the way that we wanted to exit, certainly the final series. If we played a game like that during the season we would have been just as disappointed.
“The hunger’s there, we spoke as a group the following week before we exited into the off-season and everyone was really disappointed and hungry as ever.
“Bevo (coach Luke Beveridge) stood up the front and mentioned that we are going to learn from it and going to come back.
“It obviously wasn’t our best day, but we are going to come back bigger and better and stronger in 2020 and hopefully show the footy world what we can produce.”
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Since their finals loss, the Bulldogs have added former St Kilda forward Josh Bruce and defender Alex Keath from the Adelaide Crows to their list in the trade period.
Dunkley expects the pair to make an impact for the Bulldogs.
“The off-season we were all away siting by our phones waiting for the call to come through to say that we got the boys. It’s perfect for us the way that they have come in,” Dunkley said.
“Keathy has obviously has some surgery done (to repair a stress fracture in his lower leg) and he has been a delayed start, but he is out there now and performing really well in match sim and Brucey has got a great presence around the footy club already.
“(They are) two great players across the competition that we have sourced out from opposition clubs and I can’t wait to see them line-up for us in 2020.”
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The Bulldogs open their pre-season campaign in the Marsh Community Series against North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium on February 21 and the season proper against Collingwood at the same venue on March 20.