The Western Bulldogs achieved a 25-year-first in the win over Collingwood last Friday night, according to Champion Data.

Taking a deep dive into the post-match stats, the Dogs were first to the ball nine less times than the Pies at stoppage but ended up winning 17 more clearances.

It’s a turnaround Champion Data has never seen in their 25 years of collating stats, and a feat made even more impressive when considering the Bulldogs were without typical clearance king Tom Liberatore.

Of the Dogs’ 55 clearances on Friday night, star duo Adam Treloar (11) and Marcus Bontempelli (10) were the main culprits, while 12-gamer Harvey Gallagher (6) was next best.

The remaining 28 clearances were spread across 12 different players.

Bontempelli sits fourth across the competition for total clearances this season (80), followed closely by Treloar (77) on the club-house leaderboard.

Liberatore leads the league for average clearances with 9.8 per game (next best Fremantle’s Caleb Serong, averaging 7.8).