Western Bulldogs versus Sydney
7.50pm, Friday 31 March
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
Aidan Hammond (Aged 11)
The Fire Builds. You lose the grand final. The Fire Builds. You think about what you could have had The Fire Builds. You see the other team hold up the premiership cup. The fire builds. You go into your hotel room. The fire builds. You see everyone partying in the streets. The Fire Builds. You turn on the TV and you see everything about the grand final. The Fire Builds. At night you can’t sleep because all you can remember is the grand final. The Fire Builds. You train the whole season in the pre-season. The Fire Builds. You play in the JTL series. The Fire Builds.
One day the fire has to be released. The best time for the fire to be released is in the grand final rematch where all of the memories come rushing back. Will the fire be released tonight? That’s what Sydney want, they also want to bounce back on the not so good match last round. They got beat by Port Adelaide and Sydney are really good at bouncing back from their last loss, they did really bad last night.
Western Bulldogs want to continue the winning. They want to keep the success through the years. That means winning the grand final replay. They also want to back up their win against Collingwood. It would be really good for them to beat Sydney. The Western Bulldogs had a bad out who is Dale Morris. It will be a bit harder for the Bulldogs defence to cope with the Sydney forward line. The Swans will have that advantage tonight. The swans have a disadvantage to because they are losing Dane Rampe. They might need to get a midfielder in the half backline he because they might be losing the excellent rebound that Dane Rampe has. Sydney put a late inclusion in as Aliir.
It is a big night for Sam Reid and Tom Liberatore as they are both having their hundredth game. Sam Reid hasn’t been so regular in the Swan’s line up, but he has been handy as a 3rd forward for Sydney, but how would he be tonight on his hundredth game. Tom Liberatore has been a really good in the midfield. He is still young and he has lots of potential which he hasn’t reached yet and hopefully for the Bulldogs he will reach.
Sam Reid on his hundredth game straight out gets a goal. Swans get a point and they have the momentum. Sydney look like they are bouncing back from their last game against port and their Grand Final. Western Bulldogs score a goal through Travis Cloke. He is playing well for Western Bulldogs. Sam Reid and Sydney are on fire Sam scores another goal on his hundredth game.
Swans score another through Laidler and it looks likes Sydney are doing well and they are going to win by quite a bit after Sam Reid scored his 3rd goal. Sam Reid is really doing so well on his hundredth game. His confidence would be so high, it would be up in the clouds. Like the commentators, and I agree with them that as soon as you score a goal you shouldn’t be taken off. If you just scored a goal the chances are that you are playing quite well. So why take them off of the field. These are professional sports players surely they have enough endurance to stay on the field after they played really well, the coaches in the AFL should change their tactics.
Cloke got one back, the dogs can just stick in there. They would if they can kick goals not behinds! Cloke scores his 3rd Sam Reid and Travis Cloke both have 3 goals in the first quarter! Western Bulldogs! Come on! Another Behind! Lauchie Hunter scores a behind to end the quarter. 18 to 25 The Swans are winning. The Bulldogs have the momentum but it is not showing on the scoreboard. The Bulldogs are 2-6 and Swans 4-1. Sydney could try to keep that lead and not go into offence mode to soon they need to just defend and then they level momentum. It is going to be a good game.
In the first quarter, Tom Liberatore laid 6 tackles, he is a tackle machine. 1 minute into the quarter and Sydney do the exact opposite as they should do. Attack mode: Activated. Without the momentum. You know what that ended in? A Robert Murphy goal. The Swans are leading, but just by 1 point. Buddy could have scored the momentum settler to give them a 7 point lead, but he didn’t. The Swans only led by 2 at that point, the Dogs had the momentum. Everybody knew what would happen next, the Swans fans tried to believe that it wouldn’t happen but deep down they knew that the Western Bulldogs wold score the next goal. They did through Suckling. The Dogs are winning by 4 points.
A lot of the goals were from turnovers. Oliver Florent the youngster kicks the goal and the momentum levels Swans by 2, this is a close game, a classic Friday night. The Bulldogs get another goal, Travis Cloke kicks his 4th. Cloke is going to have a 40 goal season. Dogs by 2.
Swans could of hit the lead but only score a behind and the margin is 1. The scores are level as the dogs rush a behind. Swans hit the lead via a behind from Buddy. Sydney need to use all of their opportunities. Swans get a goal! It is a really important goal, Nic Newman is the one who scores the goal. It is Swans by 7 and they are getting the momentum in their favour. The Package got a goal to get the Dogs back. The Swans are still winning by 1 point but boy is it close.
It is anyone’s game right now, just who will get it. The Bulldogs get a point, the scores are level. Can the Bulldogs get a seven point play right before half time? Yes, they can through Lin Jong.
At half time I relax and think about the game. I’m thinking about momentum and ideas for a Footy Almanac report. I love watching Hamish McLaughlin interview the Auskickers, the interviews are so funny and cute and a lot of the time he tells the Auskickers to say something that they have no idea what it means. He tried to tell him to say let’s go back to Tim Watson and let’s just say it didn’t exactly go to plan.
The Dogs have not been as accurate as the Sydney Swans. They could be ahead by more than 8. But the game right now is what it is and it is an awesome game that would be really good to watch. I think that the Bulldogs would win from here. To start of the quarter Tom Boyd scores a goal, it looks like Bulldogs are going to run away with this, but Sam Reid scores another goal. I am quite tired and I have my tennis grand final on Saturday.
Dogs score 3 in a row and Sam Reid scores another goal. Sam Reid is playing the match of his life. He will always remember this one, not just because he is kicking lots of goals, remember it is his hundredth game. Stringer and Buddy both goal, I’m quite tired I go to sleep, with the scores 85-61 in the Bulldogs favour. It is pretty obvious who is going to win.
I wake up the next morning and check the scores on afl.com.au and I see some thumbnails of video clips and I see that Swans got quite close to the Bulldogs at one point but the Bulldogs come out 23 point winners. I went to sleep at 3 quarter time for the tennis match in the morning. We end up winning the match, it got down to my singles victory but ETKG got out on top, but let’s go back to the footy, the sport that I am writing about. You lose the Grand Final replay. The Fire Builds.
Western Bulldogs 4.6 7.7 12.11 16.14 (110)
Sydney 5.2 6.5 9.7 13.9 (87)
Goals:
Western Bulldogs: Cloke 3, Stringer 3, Bontempelli 2, T.Boyd 2, Picken 2, Jong, Murphy, Hunter, Suckling
Sydney: Reid 6, Franklin 4, Newman, Florent, Laidler
Best:
Western Bulldogs: Dahlhaus, Jong, Bontempelli, Stringer, Picken, Hunter, Cloke
Sydney: Reid, Franklin, Lloyd, Kennedy, Jones, Parker
Umpires: Hosking, Ryan, Mollison Crowd: 42,834
Our Votes Reid (SS) 3, Bontempelli (WB) 2, Lloyd (SS) 1.
Brownlow:
Do you think Bulldogs would win Back2Back Premiers.
Stuff Aidan, although it is still fire ban season until Easter Sunday. I think very much the Bulldogs can go back to back. I do not favour them to do so, however. I think they might even have lost on Friday night had Tippett not got injured so early.