The Western Bulldogs have continued their hot start to the season by producing a demolition job against the GWS Giants on Saturday.
Under the roof at Marvel Stadium, the Dogs feasted as they blew their rivals away by recording the 21.6 (132) to 7.10 (52) victory.
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The ugly nature of the loss was made even more damning for the Giants after they elected to leave Marcus Bontempelli to roam.
Bontempelli has been one of the premier midfielders in the competition for several years now, but the Giants elected to back their own stars and go head-to-head.
It became evident early that the tactic wasn’t working as the Bulldogs maestro carved up the turf with ease.
At halftime the Dogs entered the break with a 38-point lead, thanks in large part to the work of the 30-year-old who had 18 disposals, three goals, six inside 50s and five score involvements.
Several AFL greats couldn’t quite believe the Giants hadn’t sent somebody to run with Bontempelli.
“It’s an intriguing thing … he’s waltzed around all by himself once again,” Nick Dal Santo said at halftime on Fox Footy.
“He is two steps ahead of everyone else in the competition … he’s always had poise, but what he has is great decisions, so when he makes that decision to sneak forward, he goes so hard, and it puts his opponent in really vulnerable positions.
“We spoke about a few things the Giants have to tidy up, maybe pay a bit of respect for no.4.”
Saturday afternoon was Bontempelli’s second-highest rated first half of his career.
“I’m staggered (nobody’s gone with him),” Ben Dixon said.
“I’ve been tracking him, and no one has gone to him. Rowston went to him early, but it wasn’t a run-with (role).”
The Bulldogs’ skipper finished the contest by leading all ball-winners with 33 disposals to go with three goals, 11 score involvements and 665 metres gained.
Teammate Aaron Naughton said the display is just common place for the Bulldogs superstar.
“I looked up at the stats before half-time and he had like 17 and three, I was like ‘wow’,” Naughton said.
“But he does it every week – not only that, but also the defensive side of his game is top notch as well, which probably goes underrated because his offence is so good – but I couldn’t ask for a better skipper.”
The Dogs will look to continue their undefeated start to the season next Friday night when they travel into Adelaide for a clash against the Crows.
Originally published as GWS’ inexcusable mistake in bloodbath loss against the Dogs