The Western Bulldogs must break new ground by winning five finals to claim the premiership, but one of the club’s important midfielders believes the Herculean task is not beyond them.
Forced into playing an “extra” final under the AFL’s expanded top 10 system, the eighth-placed Bulldogs must achieve footy’s equivalent of rounding Cape Horn in their pursuit of the 2026 flag.
Should they somehow pull off a flag triumph, it would, remarkably, probably exceed the club’s stunning drought-breaking premiership a decade ago when they rode extraordinary finals momentum to claim the flag from seventh spot.
Emerging midfielder Joel Freijah says the club can adopt a “why not” attitude in chasing a flag from the lower rungs. Asked if the Bulldogs were capable of doing more than just inflicting damage on opponents through September, the 20-year-old said: “Yeah, definitely.
“There’s no reason why any team can’t go all the way,” Freijah said.
“We’ve just got to fine-tune our game a little bit, for us. We’ve been doing that over the last month.
“There’s no reason why we can’t keep going week over week.”
The Bulldogs rooms were rocking on Friday night after they held on for the slender wildcard final victory over Collingwood – a win achieved before a bumper crowd and at a venue that is normally a black and white fortress.
The three-point triumph was achieved in front of a bumper 81,036-strong crowd in an intense finals environment. It was the Bulldogs’ second-largest crowd since they won the 2016 premiership against Sydney in front of 99,981 fans.
“Unbelievable game. Unbelievable last 10 minutes. It would have been amazing to watch as spectators. A brilliant game of football,” said Freijah.
“Credit to them – they’re an amazing side, a high-pressure side. It was a high-pressure game all night.
“We’re really proud of our efforts, and we’re going to celebrate.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, and challenges this year as a team.
“To have a win like this in front of a massive crowd is unbelievable. We love playing at this ground – we wish we played more here but, yeah, it’s awesome.”
Amid debate about the status of wildcard finals and a mid-week rebuke from AFL boss Andrew Dillon to Freijah’s teammate Ed Richards who said Friday night’s clash against Collingwood was akin to “round 25”, Freijah was left with the feeling that he’d played “a real final”.
“We finished eighth in the end, so we didn’t really need the wildcard [round or game],” he said.
“We’re [entering] into the real deal now, but that was a final. That was a real final. That was great.”
The Bulldogs gave up sizable leads in the second and third quarters before the game was played on a knife’s edge in the final quarter. Only Tim Membrey’s inaccuracy with his shot at goal after the final siren stopped the Bulldogs experiencing heartbreak.
But Freijah said the message at the final break was pretty clear: “execute” better in the pressurised environment.
“The same [message] as half-time really – high-pressure game. Whoever is going to have their moments and execute [better … will benefit from that],” he said.
“Even in the second quarter we had 20 [or so] inside 50s, and we couldn’t quite convert. We eventually knew it was going to come our way, we just sort of took our chances.
“Unfortunately [for Collingwood] Membrey missed, but it was an awesome game.”
The Bulldogs had a strong spread of contributors from players such Freijah and Matthew Kennedy (who was forced out late with concussion), even though skipper Marcus Bontempelli was their best four-quarter player.
Beveridge lauded that part of his team’s performance.
“It’s critical,” he said.
“Richo [Ed Richards], Marcus, Kennedy and Freijah – the core group are holding up their end – they need the boys to be stable around them and chip in.
“[Rhylee] West had a couple of big plays out of centre-bounce and we’ve got to spread that load and share the commitment at the coal face. It’s really important for us.”
Bontempelli, too, savoured a memorable night for the red, white and blue.
“I mean that last quarter was one of the most exhilarating quarters of footy I’ve played in. Not a lot of defending going on,” he told Seven.
“I think it was almost anyone who could get to 100 almost was going to win.”
The veteran campaigner said the Dogs happily “took it up” to Collingwood by regularly getting in their faces.
“I think there [was] a bit of [taking them on at] ‘their home ground’,” he said.
“They’ve owned this place for a long period of time – we’ve only played three or four games a year [here].”
Kennedy will be sidelined for the Bulldogs’ elimination final next week.
“They’re all in a state of disrepair, to a degree, because they left it all out there,” Beveridge said.
“We’ll freshen up but obviously lose Matty Kennedy for the next one. He’ll go into protocols, I think. But at the moment I feel like everyone else has got through in reasonable health.”
With AAP
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