‘Not what we stand for’: Dons hurt after Dogs thrashing; McRae’s heartfelt message

Bailey Dale of the Bulldogsis tackled by Xavier Duursma of the Bombers.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Essendon fans voted with their feet by staging a mass early exodus from Marvel Stadium as the Bombers turned in an absolute stinker on a night Western Bulldogs playmaker Bailey Dale posted a club-record 49 possessions.

Bombers coach Brad Scott conceded his side took a step back on Saturday night after the Dons were crushed by 91 points - 18.19 (127) to 5.6 (36) - in a sobering reminder of just how far away the club is from ending their long run without a finals victory.

“I thought they were exceptional across the board in terms of a team performance,” Scott said. “Equally, as good as they were, we were poor.“

Many in the crowd of 47,366 - the eighth-highest home and away attendance between these clubs - would have come to Marvel Stadium expecting the Bulldogs to win - but they would not have foreseen the Bombers being bullied into submission.

The stands had thinned out noticeably by the last quarter with thousands of Bombers fans already well on the way home when the siren sounded on their third-heaviest loss to the Dogs in 100 years of competition between the clubs.

Apart from a goalless first 10 minutes of the match, this game was one-way traffic. The four points were already being couriered down Footscray Road to Whitten Oval by quarter-time when the Dogs led by seven goals. It was not until the 17-minute mark of the second term when the Bombers belatedly broke through for a goal. The Dogs had already booted nine.

The most glaring gap between the sides lay not in contest or clearance numbers, which were in the Dogs’ favour, but in their respective abilities to apply and absorb pressure.

The Bulldogs were ruthless, clinically efficient in the manner they moved the ball from the inside to the outside, and brutal in how they hounded the Bombers, forcing them to cough the ball up by hand and foot.

When the game was won in the first term, the Dogs stuck 14 tackles to the Bombers’ eight, despite having more of the ball. That the Dogs’ first three goals of the game came after broken tackles was a source of lament for Bombers coach Brad Scott.

“They were able to absorb our pressure and keep the ball alive and flow the ball really well and put our defence under pressure, even though our defence held up reasonable well with the metres difference I spoke about,” Scott said.

“It was the opposite for us. We couldn’t absorb their pressure and get the ball to the outside well enough and give our forwards a chance. Our forwards were starving by the end of the night.“

Zach Merrett had a rare poor game, limited to 20 disposals and failing to lay a tackle. No Bomber stepped up to fill the considerable void against a Dogs midfield unit which had Ed Richards, Tom Liberatore and Matt Kennedy all amassing big numbers.

Scott was pleased with Will Setterfield in keeping Marcus Bontempelli to 24 disposals and two goals, though the Dogs captain was pivotal in setting up his team’s early onslaught. Ben McKay, who held Aaron Naughton to one goal, was another to draw praise from his coach though he made several skill errors which raised the ire of Dons fans.

Not many of them were left by the last quarter when all interest centred on whether Dale would reach the rare milestone of 50 possessions, a feat achieved only 10 times since the stat was first recorded. He fell one short. His 37 kicks places him equal 11th for most kicks in a game.

He also gained 1017 metres with his disposals, bettering the 1001 metres of Gold Coast’s John Noble on Thursday night but short of Aaron Hall’s 1169 for North Melbourne in 2022.
Cheers broke out in the crowd each time Dale touched the ball in the closing minutes.

The half-back playmaker’s haul was the result of the Dogs’ dominance at the contest but also reward for his application to the defensive side of the game.

“It’s pretty significant,” Dogs coach Luke Beveridge said. “He had a lot of the ball, but he also won the footy back for us a lot.

“The stats sheet will show a lot of it is uncontested play but the willingness to run in the main two phases, outnumber defensively but also really link up and be creative through the middle of the ground, was first-rate. Quite exemplary.”

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Bailey Dale of the Bulldogsis tackled by Xavier Duursma of the Bombers.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Essendon fans voted with their feet by staging a mass early exodus from Marvel Stadium as the Bombers turned in an absolute stinker on a night Western Bulldogs playmaker Bailey Dale posted a club-record 49 possessions.

Bombers coach Brad Scott conceded his side took a step back on Saturday night after the Dons were crushed by 91 points - 18.19 (127) to 5.6 (36) - in a sobering reminder of just how far away the club is from ending their long run without a finals victory.

“I thought they were exceptional across the board in terms of a team performance,” Scott said. “Equally, as good as they were, we were poor.“

Many in the crowd of 47,366 - the eighth-highest home and away attendance between these clubs - would have come to Marvel Stadium expecting the Bulldogs to win - but they would not have foreseen the Bombers being bullied into submission.

The stands had thinned out noticeably by the last quarter with thousands of Bombers fans already well on the way home when the siren sounded on their third-heaviest loss to the Dogs in 100 years of competition between the clubs.

Apart from a goalless first 10 minutes of the match, this game was one-way traffic. The four points were already being couriered down Footscray Road to Whitten Oval by quarter-time when the Dogs led by seven goals. It was not until the 17-minute mark of the second term when the Bombers belatedly broke through for a goal. The Dogs had already booted nine.

The most glaring gap between the sides lay not in contest or clearance numbers, which were in the Dogs’ favour, but in their respective abilities to apply and absorb pressure.

The Bulldogs were ruthless, clinically efficient in the manner they moved the ball from the inside to the outside, and brutal in how they hounded the Bombers, forcing them to cough the ball up by hand and foot.

When the game was won in the first term, the Dogs stuck 14 tackles to the Bombers’ eight, despite having more of the ball. That the Dogs’ first three goals of the game came after broken tackles was a source of lament for Bombers coach Brad Scott.

“They were able to absorb our pressure and keep the ball alive and flow the ball really well and put our defence under pressure, even though our defence held up reasonable well with the metres difference I spoke about,” Scott said.

“It was the opposite for us. We couldn’t absorb their pressure and get the ball to the outside well enough and give our forwards a chance. Our forwards were starving by the end of the night.“

Zach Merrett had a rare poor game, limited to 20 disposals and failing to lay a tackle. No Bomber stepped up to fill the considerable void against a Dogs midfield unit which had Ed Richards, Tom Liberatore and Matt Kennedy all amassing big numbers.

Scott was pleased with Will Setterfield in keeping Marcus Bontempelli to 24 disposals and two goals, though the Dogs captain was pivotal in setting up his team’s early onslaught. Ben McKay, who held Aaron Naughton to one goal, was another to draw praise from his coach though he made several skill errors which raised the ire of Dons fans.

Not many of them were left by the last quarter when all interest centred on whether Dale would reach the rare milestone of 50 possessions, a feat achieved only 10 times since the stat was first recorded. He fell one short. His 37 kicks places him equal 11th for most kicks in a game.

He also gained 1017 metres with his disposals, bettering the 1001 metres of Gold Coast’s John Noble on Thursday night but short of Aaron Hall’s 1169 for North Melbourne in 2022.
Cheers broke out in the crowd each time Dale touched the ball in the closing minutes.

The half-back playmaker’s haul was the result of the Dogs’ dominance at the contest but also reward for his application to the defensive side of the game.

“It’s pretty significant,” Dogs coach Luke Beveridge said. “He had a lot of the ball, but he also won the footy back for us a lot.

“The stats sheet will show a lot of it is uncontested play but the willingness to run in the main two phases, outnumber defensively but also really link up and be creative through the middle of the ground, was first-rate. Quite exemplary.”

Kieren Briggs of the Giants and Luke Jackson of the Dockers compete in a ruck contest.Credit: Getty Images

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir is refusing to sweat over trade speculation swirling around Luke Jackson, even if Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has signalled his interest.

Star ruck Jackson is reportedly set to ask for a trade back to the Demons due to escalating personal matters, despite being contracted at the Dockers until 2029.

The speculation grows even after Jackson in March categorically ruled out a return to Victoria, insisting he would remain with Freo long-term.

If the 22-year-old premiership ruck had designs for a Melbourne homecoming, he didn’t show it in Fremantle’s 34-point win over GWS at Engie Stadium on Saturday.

Jackson starred without injured ruck partner Sean Darcy, taking 32 hitouts to Giants counterpart Kieren Briggs’ 26 to help the Dockers win the centre clearance count by 15 to eight.

He also finished with 21 disposals, seven clearances and a game-high 15 contested possessions.

Longmuir praised Jackson for his performance in helping Fremantle snap their two-game losing streak, saying the trade speculation seemed baseless.

“In my discussions with him, he’s a bit confused where it all comes from,” Longmuir said.

“Never has he said anything but he wants to be a Fremantle player, and these headlines keep popping up and people from other clubs keep fuelling ’em.

“So until he comes to me asking for a trade, I won’t be concerned.

“He’s been in the back paper a lot. I can only imagine how many phone calls and how many people want to talk to him about what’s going on.

“But like I said to the players at the end of the game, ‘Oh, you wouldn’t know it with Luke’.

“He is able to push those distractions aside, come to the club, get to work, be a great teammate, work on his game, and you saw that ability tonight.”

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Goodwin had fanned the flames by indicating his desire to see the 2021 premiership star back in red and blue earlier in the week.

“Clearly he’s a premiership player and if it ever came to a point that he wanted to come back to Melbourne, there’s no question that we’d be interested in him,” the Dees coach said.

Goodwin remains in contact with Jackson, who played 52 games across three seasons with Melbourne after he was the No.3 draft pick out of East Fremantle in 2019.

Longmuir wouldn’t be drawn when asked about his thoughts on Goodwin’s comments.

“You can work that out,” Longmuir said.

Asked if he felt annoyed that external AFL figures were fuelling the speculation, the Dockers coach added: “Oh no, I understand that coaches are going to get asked, so it’s not necessarily directed to that.”

AAP

Nic Martin of the Bombers kicks the ball .Credit: Getty Images

Essendon coach Brad Scott admits there is a “stark contrast” between his side and elite contenders like the Western Bulldogs and that showed in their big loss on Saturday night.

Scott said his side still has some levels to pass before they can match it with the best but he thinks his side will take lessons from the loss.

“We are clearly a layer deeper than being there to tackle and pressure,” Scott said.

“They were really, really good at absorbing that pressure and it’s to their credit. They beat it and that fed into the way the game looked after that.

“It was a stark contrast, they were able to absorb our pressure and flow the ball well and put our defence under pressure and it was the opposite for us.

“We couldn’t absorb their pressure and move the ball so our forwards were starving by the end of the night.”

Bombers coach Brad Scott, right, speaks to his players.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

Scott said he kept challenging his players to rise to the level of the Bulldogs instead of trying to slow down the game and reduce the losing margin.

“They are a good team but that’s where we aspire to be,” Scott said.

“I make no apologies for trying to attack the game, rather than hold up and try to not get beaten by a big margin.

“We got beaten by a bigger margin because we did that but we’ve got to use this to practice against the best team and bridge the gap to where we want to be.”

Mason Redman of the Bombers.Credit: Getty Images

Essendon defender Mason Redman admits it was a blow to be thumped by the Western Bulldogs and he wants a response in next week’s Dreamtime at the ’G clash against Richmond at the MCG.

“It’s pretty disappointing, to be honest,” Redman told Fox Footy.

“I feel like the last six weeks, we’d been building an identity that we were hard to play against and tough in the contest, but tonight we definitely took a step back in that area and that’s disappointing.

“It felt like they outworked us all over the ground – forwards, back, mids – they outnumbered us at every contest and then spread to the outside on us. It seemed like they outworked us, which is really disappointing, as I’ve felt in the last six weeks like we had built an identity.”

Redman wants a rapid response against Richmond.

“The best thing about AFL is that we have six days and then we are back into them [playing another game],” Redman told Fox Footy.

“I don’t think we can come up with any excuses for tonight, it just wasn’t good enough.

“I know we are going to bounce back next week, as that’s not what we stand for.”

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge.Credit: AFL Photos

As they enjoyed the spoils of their win over Essendon, the Bulldogs weren’t willing to give former star Bailey Smith any extra motivation ahead of their clash against his new club Geelong on Thursday night.

Smith had had a few cheeky digs at his old club while he has starred for the Cats, but coach Luke Beveridge and midfielder Tom Liberatore weren’t trying to respond.

Liberatore told Fox Footy he couldn’t remember anything Smith had said when he was asked post game while Beveridge pumped up his former midfielder.

“Coming off a knee rehabilitation, which is such an arduous challenge, for him to be playing the football that he is, I’m really pleased for him,” Beveridge told Fox Footy.

“We’ve had a couple of good wins down in Geelong, one was significant because we made finals, the other wasn’t because we didn’t end up at the pointy end, but we will go down there knowing it is a tough challenge.

“There is a lot at stake every week.”

Beveridge was playful about the potential of him re-signing as coach of the club, but he said he wouldn’t expect a big pay rise as the coaching soft cap was “as hard as a rock”.

“You want to make sure the people who commit to the club and to forming relationships with the players are also taken care of,” Beveridge said.

“If and when it happens, we will agree to pretty amicable terms so everyone is able to put food on the table.”

Buku Khamis of the Bulldogs marks the ball.Credit: Getty Images

Just when hope was building in the Essendon community, the Bombers turned in an absolute stinker, obliterated by the rampant Western Bulldogs by 91 points – 18.19 (127) to 5.6 (36).

The margin is the Bulldogs’ third-biggest win over the Bombers in 168 matches.

For long periods, this was men against boys stuff, which to an extent is not far off the mark.

The Dons fielded one of the youngest teams of the round, and the Dogs are in the sweet spot, though the 47, 266 who came to Marvel Stadium - the eighth-highest home and away crowd between these clubs - would have expected more of a contest.

Many of the red-and-black persuasion had left by the final quarter, not interested in seeing their team mauled.

They did well to last so long. The match was effectively over by quarter time after the Dogs blasted seven goals while keeping the Bombers goalless.

The main interest in the final term was whether the Dogs would get the margin into triple figures and if Bailey Dale could reach the half-century for possessions.

The crowd cheered his every touch in the closing minutes, but he fell agonisingly short, finishing with 49.

If there was a play that summed up the night, it was Rhylee West’s fourth goal, four minutes into the final quarter.

West, one of the league’s most improved players this year, gathered a loose ball inside the forward 50, strong-armed Archie Roberts with a Dustin Martin-style don’t argue, and kicked truly over his shoulder.

A Bulldogs fan waves a flag.Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images

The Bulldogs have given the Bombers an all-mighty thumping at Marvel Stadium while Bailey Dale has set a slew of records with 49 disposals.

It is the most touches in a game for anyone this season, the most ever at Marvel Stadium and the most by a Bulldogs player in a game, passing the previous record of 43.

The Bulldogs are a serious premiership contender what Essendon is remains to be seen by they are a ways away from their old rivals.

More than 47,000 turned up for the match although the crowd had thinned out by the finish, thankfully it was a Bulldogs home game, not an Essendon one.

Bailey Dale has set the club record for disposals with 49 disposals.

The Dogs may not get to their century but they will win by a lot.