Follow it LIVE<\/a><\/p>\nHis availability is a huge boost for the Bulldogs, who are already have Rory Lobb (hamstring), Sam Darcy (ACL), Tom Liberatore (concussion) and James O’Donnell ruled out through injury.<\/p>\n
The Dog (4-2) navigated a tough fixture to start the season as it made an early statement by becoming the last remaining undefeated team just two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
A pair of chastening defeats and a mounting injury list, now including the loss of Sam Darcy due to a serious knee injury and Tom Liberatore to concussion protocols, have left the Bulldogs’ top-four hopes hanging by a thread.<\/p>\n
Western Bulldogs v Sydney at Marvel Stadium, 7.30pm AEST
NO LATE CHANGES<\/p>\n
Marcus Bontempelli warms up ahead of the match between the Western Bulldogs and Sydney at Marvel Stadium in round seven, 2026. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Sydney (5-1) has emerged as the team to beat as a comfortable victory over cross-town rivals Greater Western Sydney helped it settle into top spot with an average winning margin of 62 points.<\/p>\n
A primetime meeting with the Bulldogs loomed as a mouth-watering test between a pair of top-four challengers just a week ago but now looks more of a banana skin game for the Swans to be wary of.<\/p>\n
Adam Treloar, Ryan Gardner, Jedd Busslinger, Josh Dolan and debutant Lachie Smith are the inclusions for the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
The Swans have also suffered a blow with Isaac Heeney out because of a calf injury, while Joel Hamling and Corey Warner have been omitted. Dane Rampe returns, with Billy Cootee and Will Edwards to play their first AFL games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow all the action from Thursday night’s clash between the Bulldogs and Swans Matt Roberts is tackled by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-626501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626501","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=626501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}