A courageous performance from Luke Beveridge’s battle-worn Bulldogs was the catalyst for one of the most entertaining games of football you’ll see all year.
Under the Friday night lights of Simonds Stadium in Geelong, the undermanned Dogs came out snarling, a Tory Dickson goal to open the match looked set up a high scoring first term, but the Cats, led by Patrick Dangerfield and Rhys Stanley managed to keep the Dogs at arms-length all night to eventually running out 25-point winners.
Speaking to westernbulldogs.com.au in the rooms post-match, Lachie Hunter said the Dogs put up a brave fight, but ran out of legs toward the end as injuries began to take their toll.
“We were right in it up until half time, but in the third quarter, obviously we had a couple go down and we let ourselves down a little bit around the ball,” Hunter said.
“They skipped away and they just held that margin, so, we were pretty good throughout the night but didn’t get the win unfortunately.”
It was the third time in four games that the Dogs had lost the contested ball count after winning it 14 straight times to open the season.
A highlight of the match for Dogs fans was young pup Zaine Cordy kicking his first career goal with six minutes remaining in the final term.
Bulldogs came from everywhere, literally, to congratulate the 19-year-old.
“We spoke about that after the game,” he said.
“Everyone was wrecked and we all pretty much had to play a full quarter in the end but we all wanted to get down and congratulate him.
“He’s a well-liked boy and he did an awesome job tonight.”
