\n Match Report\n <\/p>\n
\n The Bulldogs have continued their unbeaten start to the 2026 season.\n <\/p>\n
\n By Gemma Bastiani\/AFL.com.au & Western Bulldogs Media\n <\/p>\n
The Western Bulldogs remain the only undefeated side to start the 2026 season, despite a second-half fightback from Essendon on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
Under the rare open roof of Marvel Stadium, the Bulldogs recorded the 14.15 (99) to 9.11 (65) victory to keep a clean sheet, but the 34-point margin was their narrowest over the Bombers since round seven, 2022.<\/p>\n
Even in the absence of hard nut Tom Liberatore and breakout star Richards, the Dogs controlled the contest. By half time, they were leading the clearance count 22-9 (ultimately winning the metric by 14), and the contested possessions 62-47.<\/p>\n
The win was soured somewhat by ruck Tim English, small forward Arty Jones and defender Rory Lobb all failing to play out the contest.<\/p>\n
Arty\u2019s party<\/p>\n
In his first game at the top level since a nasty concussion sustained against Brisbane in Opening Round, Arty Jones made his mark on the contest early. First, a stunning long-range goal that sailed over the head of teammate Sam Davidson in the goal square. Then, not two minutes later, Jones rose above a pack in the hotspot and although he was the smallest player in the crush, he pulled down a stunning mark and followed up with a beautiful set shot to record his second major of the quarter.<\/p>\n
WESTERN BULLDOGS\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7.2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10.7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 10.14\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a014.15 (99)
ESSENDON\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1.3\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1.7\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 5.9\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 9.11 (65)<\/p>\n
GOALS\u00a0
Western Bulldogs:\u00a0Jones 3, Naughton 3, Darcy 3, Bontempelli, Bramble, Williams, Kennedy, Dolan
Essendon:\u00a0Gresham 3, Edwards 2, May 2, Wright, Caldwell<\/p>\n
BEST\u00a0
Western Bulldogs:\u00a0Bontempelli, Lobb, Sanders, Kennedy, Bramble, Naughton
Essendon:\u00a0Roberts, Prior, Edwards, Durham, May<\/p>\n
INJURIES\u00a0
Western Bulldogs:\u00a0English (right knee), Jones (hamstring)
Essendon:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n
LATE CHANGES
Western Bulldogs:\u00a0Ed Richards (knee soreness), replaced in selected side by Lachie McNeil
Essendon:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n
Crowd:\u00a038,786 at Marvel Stadium<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report The Bulldogs have continued their unbeaten start to the 2026 season. By Gemma Bastiani\/AFL.com.au & Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-587555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587555","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=587555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}