Old news: From underdogs to top dogs - How the Bulldogs built a fairytale

[choconmientay]

Sorry guys. Old news in the slow season despite cricket is on. I still love to read about us winning this year's Premiership

Btw. the abit over 4 minutes video still have Gia playing with us

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Underdogs to top dogs: How the Bulldogs built a fairytale. By mastermind5991 Roar Guru

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It seemed like only yesterday the Western Bulldogs were in turmoil on and off the field.

The club’s fans might not know it, but August 31, 2014 will forever go down as a significant date in the club’s history, for what seemed to be all the wrong reasons.

In the final minute of their match against the GWS Giants at Etihad Stadium, Tom Liberatore sent the Bulldogs forward, with Jake Stringer in position to take the mark and potentially slot the match winning goal for the team.

Shockingly, the man dubbed “The Package” would drop the most simplest of chest marks, then watched as then-Giant Tom Boyd (who would later land at the Bulldogs as part of the Ryan Griffen trade) set up Devon Smith for the goal that would see the Giants win the match by six points.







A month and a half after that defeat, the club plunged into turmoil when captain Ryan Griffen requested a trade to the Giants – that was then followed by Brendan McCartney quitting as coach after three unsuccessful years at the Kennel.

Club president Peter Gordon cited communication issues between the coach and his disenchanted playing group as a key reason for his resignation.

That, and Griffen’s trade request which was eventually met despite a refusal from Gordon, followed on from the departures and retirements of several veterans, among them Daniel Giansiracusa, Adam Cooney and Shaun Higgins.

A month after Griffen and McCartney walked out on the club, Luke Beveridge was appointed as the club’s new coach, and upon his appointment he stated that one of his objectives was to boost the morale of the playing list.

Shortly after, Robert Murphy was appointed captain, succeeding Griffen. Then, in the new year, Simon Garlick resigned as CEO, believing “the time was right”, continuing the Bulldogs’ off-season from hell.

The crisis the club had endured in the weeks following the 2014 season led to them being considered as favourites for the wooden spoon in 2015.

Things only got worse when reigning best-and-fairest Tom Liberatore suffered an ACL injury in a pre-season match against Richmond, resulting in him sitting out the entire season.

Despite all the adversities, the Bulldogs would open the season with a surprise ten-point victory over eventual grand finalists the West Coast Eagles at home, that was then followed by unexpected wins over Richmond (at the MCG), the Adelaide Crows and the Sydney Swans (at the SCG).

The club would finish sixth on the ladder, earning a home elimination final against the Crows at the MCG. After a close contest all night, the Bulldogs had their season ended by way of a narrow seven-point defeat.

Coach Luke Beveridge said after the loss that he wanted his side to learn from the pain of that defeat, believing it would spur them on in 2016.

And that’s exactly what happened.

The Bulldogs started this season by thrashing last year’s minor premiers, Fremantle, by 65 points at Etihad Stadium on Easter Sunday. That was then followed by a 57-point win over St Kilda at the same venue six days later.

All was going swimmingly until captain Robert Murphy suffered the dreaded ACL injury in the final minutes of the three-point loss to Hawthorn in round three. It would ultimately sideline him for the remainder of the season.

It was to be the first of the club’s well-documented injury woes in 2016. Easton Wood filled in as captain for the rest of the year, with Marcus Bontempelli stepping in on a couple of occasions when Wood was injured.

Defender Jason Johannisen then suffered a hamstring injury in the win over Carlton six nights later, and wasn’t seen again until Round 15 when he stepped up to kick the match-winning goal against the Sydney Swans at the SCG.

Worse came against St Kilda in round 18 when Jack Redpath went down with a serious knee injury, before Mitch Wallis suffered a sickening, self-inflicted leg injury in the final quarter.

The scenes inside the Bulldogs rooms following the match, which they lost by 15 points, were unbearable for all involved as Wallis was shielded from his emotional teammates.

Despite the horrific injury toll, coach Luke Beveridge insisted the club could still challenge for the premiership. They finished seventh at the end of 23 rounds, a rung lower than last year.

They were then pitted against the West Coast Eagles in an elimination final at Domain Stadium, and were given next to no chance of toppling the 2015 runners up, despite having beaten them by eight points in round 11.

It looked like they would be in for a long night when they conceded the first two goals, but they then pulled away after half time to record a 47-point victory and book a semi-final showdown against Hawthorn.

Again, the Bulldogs would start underdogs against the triple-reigning premiers, and after falling as much as four goals behind in the first half, they again come back from the brink to end the Hawks’ reign on the premiership dais.

That sent them through to a preliminary final against the GWS Giants at Spotless Stadium, where they’d lost to the fifth-year club by 25 points in round nine. On that occasion, they were missing Jack Redpath and Matthew Boyd through suspension.

Once again the club started as underdogs, but again they would not give in.

The club’s loyal supporters made the trip to Sydney in droves, some making the drive up the Hume Highway to see if their club could break their preliminary final curse which had stretched back to 1985.

After falling behind by 14 points early in the final quarter, the Bulldogs outworked their more-fancied opponents to win through to their first Grand Final since 1961, Jackson Macrae breaking the deadlock with three minutes remaining.

The scenes among the Bulldogs faithful, and inside the coaches box at full-time, were ones of delirium as they became the first club to reach the decider from outside the top four under the current finals system.

Standing in the way of the club completing the AFL’s fairytale were the Sydney Swans, who were competing in their fifth grand final in twelve years, desperate to atone for their 63-point humiliation by Hawthorn in 2014.

Given the massive support for the Bulldogs throughout the finals series, the match was dubbed “the Sydney Swans versus the rest of Australia” – with “the rest of Australia” getting behind the sons of the west, who hadn’t saluted since 1954.

With two-time premiership Hawk Matt Suckling missing out on selection, it meant that the Western Bulldogs side named on Thursday night had no grand final experience to speak of.

It was the first time since St Kilda in 1997 that any team went into the decider without a single player having featured in a previous premiership winning side, let alone played in a Grand Final.

What followed was one of the most intense openings to a grand final in living memory, with the first goal (to the Swans’ Luke Parker) not coming until more than halfway through the opening quarter.

The Bulldogs would steady to take a four-point lead into quarter-time, but the Swans would turn the match their way with a six-goals-to-five second quarter to lead by two points at the long break.

Only three majors were booted in what is typically known as ‘the premiership quarter’, with Clay Smith’s goal seeing the Bulldogs take a lead which they would not relinquish for the remainder of the match, despite the best efforts of the more experienced Swans.

John Longmire’s men suffered a huge blow to start the final quarter of the season when Dan Hannebery left the field with a knee injury, but were still within nine points with five minutes left when Lance Franklin was caught holding the ball.

The resulting turnover saw much-maligned former No.1 draft pick Tom Boyd kick a goal what would put them 15 points up. Another goal to Liam Picken, and a meaningless miss from Toby McLean on the final siren, established the final winning margin of 22 points.

By featuring in the Bulldogs’ premiership side, Boyd has become the quickest No.1 draft pick since West Coast’s Drew Banfield to feature in a premiership side.

And so, the AFL’s fairytale was complete.

The Western Bulldogs, under the watch of coach Luke Beveridge, captain Robert Murphy and acting captain Easton Wood, have now gone from underdogs to top dogs of the AFL in the space of just two years.

It is hard to believe that this was a club in a deep crisis two years ago, when captain Ryan Griffen and coach Brendan McCartney left a trail of destruction behind them when they walked out of the Whitten Oval in disgust in October 2014.

But the club’s subsequent transformation into premiers in such a short space of time can inspire teams like the Brisbane Lions and Melbourne, who have also endured horrid times this decade, to achieve something similar in the future.

The Dees’ troubles have been well-documented, with the club finishing 17th with a percentage of 54.07% in 2013, but under the watch of Paul Roos, slowly made progress to the point where they finished 11th with ten wins this season.

That has them primed to further improve and continue to climb the ladder under new coach Simon Goodwin going forward.

Meanwhile, the Brisbane Lions finished 17th for the second consecutive season, conceding the most points of any team over the course of 23 rounds. Their regularly uncompetitive efforts cost coach Justin Leppitsch his job after three years.

Perhaps the Lions could’ve learnt something from the Bulldogs’ rags-to-riches rise, and with the right people in the right positions, could see themselves contending for a premiership towards the end of this decade.

But the club’s recent history (only one finals series since 2004) will do little to suggest that they could emulate what the Bulldogs have done in so little time, even in the face of such adversity.

As for the Sydney Swans, the defeat was a disappointing end to what had been a consistent season for the club, whereby they conceded the fewest points of any team en route to claiming their second minor premiership in three seasons.

Despite the best efforts of Josh P Kennedy, who was clearly his side’s best and could’ve claimed the Norm Smith Medal had the Swans won, an ankle injury to Buddy Franklin early in the match limited his output while a knee injury to Dan Hannebery in the final quarter ultimately proved to be their downfall.

Coach John Longmire said the Swans didn’t have enough contributors on the day, and were simply outworked by a more committed Western Bulldogs outfit.

Despite the defeat, there is no doubt the red and white will continue to remain in premiership contention in the years to come, but for all their consistency in Longmire’s six years as coach, they have only the 2012 title to show for it.

The fact they were even able to return to the Grand Final twelve months after exiting September in straight sets and losing nearly a thousand games of experience in the off-season should still be considered a good achievement.

Their latest failure on the big stage would also have to hurt more than the 63-point thrashing they were dealt by Hawthorn two years ago did. They did have their chances this time around, but either failed to convert them or turned the ball over under the Bulldogs’ relentless pressure.

Back on topic to finish off, and congratulations to the Western Bulldogs, who have overcome such adversity and odds to claim the premiership for 2016, breaking a slew of records in doing so.

They became the first team to reach the Grand Final from outside the top four since Carlton in 1999, became the first team to win the flag from outside the top three since the Adelaide Crows in 1998 and matched the Crows’ 1997 efforts in winning four consecutive finals to win the premiership. They also became the first team to win the premiership from seventh place.

More importantly, commiserations to the Sydney Swans, who have finished runners-up for the second time in three years.

And that’s all she wrote for season 2016. May a joyous off-season beckon for the premiers, the Western Bulldogs, and for the other 17 clubs, well, their mission to knock them off the premiership perch has now begun in earnest.

[BornInDroopSt'54]

Good luck to any club trying to imitate our success. There is a tapestry of things coming together that preempted it. Not the least a team of strong charactered individuals, not to mention the talent, Bevo, our history and several other identified causes not to mention some unidentified causes. Cracking in and our game plan are necessary but not sufficient causes.
No one has the mix we had in 2016.