Western Bulldogs captain Ellie Blackburn is relishing a return to the AFLW finals, five seasons after winning the flag in 2018.
Blackburn is one of six remaining Dogs who were part of the season two Grand Final win, alongside Kirsty Lamb, Bailey Hunt, Naomi Ferres, De Berry and Kirsten McLeod.
>> WE’RE IN! BULLDOGS RETURN TO THE FINALS <<
Speaking at the AFLW Finals Launch on Wednesday morning, Blackburn said the young group is ready to make their mark in Sunday’s Elimination Final against Collingwood.
“The youth that we have is just pure excitement – they’re ready to go. They can’t wait to play on Sunday,” she said.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us - I think there’s only a handful of players that were there in 2018, so we’ll lean on those players as much as possible to share their experiences and to get the group up and about for the game itself and also finals in general.”
Blackburn played a major – if not the – role in the Bulldogs’ push for a finals berth, slotting the round 10 match-winner against Carlton to secure a spot inside the top eight.
“It was really exciting for us – obviously we would’ve wanted to win more convincingly and secure a spot in the finals sooner than what we did, but footy has funny ways of working out at times,” Blackburn said.
“For us to be in finals – there’s a lot of excitement around our group at the moment. We’re really hyped and keen to be back playing finals footy.
“We haven’t been here in a while so it’s good to be back.”
The Bulldogs will meet Collingwood at Victoria Park on Sunday 6 November at 3.10pm AEDT.
Tickets are $10 for adults and free for kids.
