Marcus Bontempelli says memories of last year’s elimination finals loss to Adelaide still stir the emotions and he expects to draw on those feelings when the Western Bulldogs come up against the Crows this Saturday night at Etihad Stadium.
It was the Bulldogs' first finals appearance since 2010, and falling to the Crows by just seven points is motivating the 20-year old Bontempelli.
“[It was] our first final in a long time, and losing in such a close game certainly plucks emotional strings,” Bontempelli told westernbulldogs.com.au.
“I think it’s important for us to click back into that, and [remember] what it felt like for us to go down in a close game that we felt like we were good enough, and in a good enough position, to win.
“So for me particularly it’s a big game, it’s a final rematch, so there’s always a lot of heat in it and probably plenty of emotion from our end of things, that’s for sure.”
The Bulldogs fell to North Melbourne on Friday night by 16 -points, but Bontemeplli says the team will be using the eight day break to refresh and heeding some of the lessons learnt against the Roos.
“We really intended for it to open up at some point, [but] we went away a little bit from what we were good at in the past and that certainly showed in the game, so we’ll be looking to refocus that this week and hopefully put it into full flight against a good Adelaide team.”
At 114.6 points per game, the Crows overtook North Melbourne on the weekend as the League’s highest scoring team but the Dogs continue to boast the competitions’ stingiest defence, holding opponents to 57.3, something the group prides itself on.
“It’s good to see that our defence was able to stand up against a high scoring team and probably only let them score half of what they’ve averaged in previous games, for us that’s a real positive.
“We just have to bring our end of the bargain and be able to score a bit more on offense and really put Adelaide’s defence under the pump.”
One avenue may be Bontempelli himself.
The passage of play that saw Jake Stringer bursting out of the centre to hit up a marking Bontempelli mid-way through the first term was one of the highlights of the night and something that gives the Dogs forward set up a fresh look when he’s down there.
“Being able to do that, send Jake up and me forward changes the landscape and how it looks down in the forward line.
“So, it’s something I’m still developing, I’m still growing into a being a good forward and a good midfielder at the same time so to see some little wins along the way is good and hopefully we can make it more and more consistent as we go.
