The Western Bulldogs made an attacking statement in their final hitout before the season proper, making light work of Hawthorn at their home of VU Whitten Oval on Friday evening.<\/p>\n
A seven-goal second quarter set up the 18.9 (117) to 11.7 (73) victory as the sun set in Footscray, in a performance that will no doubt give the Dogs confidence heading north to face reigning premier Brisbane in next week’s Opening Round.<\/p>\n
After noting their own defensive deficiencies around the contest last year, the Bulldogs were simply oppressive in tight. Efforts to close space, tackle, and smother were manic from the home side, led well \u2013 unsurprisingly \u2013 by veterans\u00a0Tom Liberatore\u00a0and\u00a0Matt Kennedy.<\/p>\n
It meant that the Hawks’ attempts to move the ball forward, even when the contest was won, often ended up impeded by defenders\u00a0Buku Khamis,\u00a0Rory Lobb, or a defensively placed\u00a0Tim English.<\/p>\n
Khamis’ leap at the footy across the defensive half of the ground delighted the heaving crowd, with the fringe tall patrolling the backline with maturity and poise, proving his readiness to become a regular fixture in the side.<\/p>\n
Connection between lines proved a concern for Hawthorn throughout the match, with long patches where it struggled to exit the back half, and others with repeat forward entries picked off. It led to some real indecision deep in defence, which allowed the Dogs’ defence to remain well-structured behind the ball.<\/p>\n
This did create headaches for key Hawks\u00a0Mitch Lewis\u00a0and\u00a0Mabior Chol, who had to compete with the Bulldogs’ defensive stocks in the air, and went largely unsighted. A tall Hawk who didn’t get beaten, however, was\u00a0Jack Gunston, picking up where he left off in his All-Australian 2025 season with three first-half goals. Notably, youngster\u00a0Calsher Dear\u00a0didn’t feature, with coach Sam Mitchell opting to play him in the earlier VFL hitout.<\/p>\n
With the Hawks struggling to regularly equalise in the air, it made life difficult for exciting smalls\u00a0Jack Ginnivan\u00a0and\u00a0Nick Watson\u00a0to impact at the fall of the ball close to goal. Both spent some time pinch hitting through the midfield, and started to get dangerous up the ground as the game wore on. Watson earned the admiration of the away crowd late in the piece with a spectacular flying mark at half-back.<\/p>\n
How Hawthorn’s midfield will shape up has been a topic of much discussion given the loss of James Worpel to Geelong, a shoulder injury to Will Day, and the failed attempt to recruit former Essendon captain Zach Merrett. As expected, new co-captain\u00a0Jai Newcombe\u00a0carried much of the load alongside\u00a0Conor Nash, while the likes of\u00a0Josh Ward,\u00a0Connor Macdonald,\u00a0Cam Mackenzie,\u00a0Dylan Moore, and\u00a0Josh Weddle\u00a0featured heavily.<\/p>\n
Newcombe, despite having a superb night leading the midfield, may come under the scrutiny of the Match Review Officer for a dumping tackle on Bulldogs star\u00a0Ed Richards\u00a0late in the third term. A head knock to Mackenzie may further thin the array of midfielders to choose from for next week’s Opening Round clash with a similarly-depleted Greater Western Sydney midfield group.<\/p>\n
Once that midfield group started to press forward and get busy on the deck, however, the visitors started to look dangerous in front of goal, with Watson and Macdonald both landing early third-quarter majors.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs were simply dynamic ahead of the ball, as\u00a0Aaron Naughton\u00a0was flanked by young pair\u00a0Jordon Croft\u00a0and\u00a0Sam Davidson\u00a0in\u00a0Sam Darcy’s absence with general soreness. Smalls\u00a0Rhylee West\u00a0and\u00a0Oskar Baker\u00a0stayed busy, while\u00a0Arty Jones worked into the game beautifully to finish with three goals.<\/p>\n
English seems primed for a strong season in the ruck after dispensing with Hawks counterpart\u00a0Lloyd Meek, and also kicking two goals, finding rule adjustments in the ruck little concern.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile captain\u00a0Marcus Bontempelli shook off some nervous early kicks at goal to have a significant impact around the contest, and in the Dogs’ transition into attack.<\/p>\n
New faces
Hawthorn defender\u00a0Noah Mraz\u00a0was given an opportunity to show his wares in the absence of Tom Barrass, who missed with a back complaint. Mraz had some nice early moments, leaping at the footy and creating an aerial contest, but then had some disposals he would rather forget, playing on Aaron Naughton no less.\u00a0Aidan Schubert\u00a0also had his first run in the brown and gold, coming on after half-time. His clean hands on the deck inside 50 set up a neat goal to open the final quarter, with the 18-year-old not looking overawed at the level. Forward\u00a0Matt Hill\u00a0played the final quarter, moving well and evading some opposition pressure.<\/p>\n
Young Bulldog\u00a0Lachie Jaques\u00a0found his feet in defence, taking some kick ins and demanding the footy on transition, while young ruck\u00a0Louis Emmett\u00a0offered support to English throughout the match. Former Sun\u00a0Connor Budarick\u00a0has found his home across half back for the Dogs, often taking charge of Nick Watson.<\/p>\n
Round one chance
Dogs defender\u00a0Michael Sellwood\u00a0seems primed for an early opportunity in defence, selected ahead of former pick No.13\u00a0Jedd Busslinger\u00a0\u2013 who appeared in the earlier VFL practice match.\u00a0Jordan Croft\u00a0did his chances of cementing his place in the best team no harm once more, moving well in tandem with Naughton and Davidson as talls inside 50, and should maintain his place even when\u00a0Sam Darcy\u00a0returns to the team.<\/p>\n
Medical room
After an impressive opening three quarters, Bulldogs youngster\u00a0Ryley Sanders\u00a0copped a ball to the face and was ruled out with concussion, meaning he will not play in the Dogs’ Opening Round game. Croft spent some time after the main break getting his hips\/quads attended to, but also finished the match without any issues.<\/p>\n
Cam Mackenzie\u00a0was brought from the ground after a clumsy tackle attempt which saw him cop a cut on the chin and undergo a Head Injury Assessment.<\/p>\n
Fantasy watch
A day after Sydney’s Brodie Grundy starred to ease worries over the rucks,\u00a0Tim English (RUC, $1,162,000)\u00a0did likewise in a dominant performance for the Bulldogs. English had 23 disposals, 28 hitouts and kicked two goals for his 131.\u00a0Connor Macdonald (FWD, $714,000)\u00a0started at the first centre bounce and split his time between the midfield and forward line, scoring 86. Dogs recruit\u00a0Connor Budarick (FWD, $506,000)\u00a0caught the eye with a tidy performance across half-back for his 81, while popular rookie\u00a0Lachie Jaques (DEF, $230,000)\u00a0grew into the game to score 63. Dogs small forward\u00a0Arthur Jones (MID\/FWD, $327,000)\u00a0was lively, kicking three goals to score 58 points.<\/p>\n
WESTERN BULLDOGS\u00a0 \u00a0 5.3\u00a0 \u00a012.4\u00a0 \u00a016.5\u00a0\u00a0 18.9 (117)
HAWTHORN\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 4.0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 6.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 9.4\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a011.7 (73)<\/p>\n
GOALS\u00a0
Western Bulldogs:\u00a0Croft 3, Jones 3, Sanders 2, Liberatore 2, English 2, Baker 2, Naughton 2, Davidson, Freijah
Hawthorn:\u00a0Gunston 3, Butler 2, Watson 2, Ginnivan, Lewis, C.Macdonald, Mackenzie<\/p>\n
BEST
Western Bulldogs:\u00a0English, Sanders, Khamis, Bontempelli, Liberatore, Naughton
Hawthorn:\u00a0Newcombe, Gunston, C.Macdonald, Impey, Ward<\/p>\n
INJURIES
Western Bulldogs:\u00a0Sanders (concussion)
Hawthorn:\u00a0Mackenzie (head knock)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Bulldogs made an attacking statement in their final hitout before the season proper, making light work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":["post-507712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}