There was Spring in the air and a spring in the step of Western Bulldogs fans as they made their way through Yarra Park on the evening of Friday September 16, 2016.

After a typically wet Spring Melbourne week, the rain had cleared and Doggies supporters making a pilgrimage to the MCG had an air of confidence they hadn't experienced for a long time. 

They had been walking on air all week after the Dogs had shocked the football world by beating West Coast on their own turf in an Elimination Final win that was one of the biggest upsets in a final in years. 

Now they would take on the kings of the AFL, Hawthorn.  The Hawks were reigning premiers and had won the last three consecutive flags.  They had finished in the top four again and would have already been through to a Preliminary Final had a post-final siren shot from Isaac Smith narrowly missed seven days earlier.

Now they faced the Bulldogs in a cut-throat semi-final. There would be no tomorrow for the loser. The reigning champs went into the match as warm favourites. As good as the Dogs had been in knocking off the Eagles, few expected them to match the might of one of the greatest teams of the modern era. 

The Bulldogs were forced to make one change to the side that had returned victorious from Perth. The desperately unlucky Lin Jong had broken a collarbone in the win over West Coast, with 20-year-old Toby McLean coming in for just his 17th AFL match.

Not unlike they had done in Perth, the Bulldogs started the game full of flourish, but were unable to translate their advantage to the scoreboard. The ball lived in the Dogs' forward line for most of the first 15 minutes, but the scores seemed to tell a different tale. 

While the Hawks scored goals through James Sicily and Jack Gunston from only a handful of entries into their forward 50, the Bulldogs could manage only three behinds from repeated forward thrusts of their own. Uncharacteristically, Tory Dickson, normally deadly accurate in front of goal, missed two shots he would usually kick ‘with his eyes closed’. 

Momentum shifted soon after and the Hawks took control in general play. Fortunately for the Dogs, Hawthorn also missed some gettable shots but a goal to Paul Puopolo saw the Bulldogs 19 points adrift in the early stages of time-on. 

With the game threatening to slip out of reach, the Dogs’ acting skipper Easton Wood settled his charges, kicking truly after marking a pass from Josh Dunkley. The Bulldogs went into the first break 11 points behind, but with plenty of room for improvement. 

That improvement did not come straight away. For the Bulldogs, the second term began in the worst possible fashion. The Hawks got the centre-bounce clearance and the dangerous Cyril Rioli pounced to kick his first goal, putting Hawthorn 17 points clear only 32 seconds into the quarter 

But the resilient Dogs did not buckle, and after a great snap goal from Jake Stringer, came the first of two moments that would later be viewed by many as symbolising the changing of the football guard. 

The Bulldogs got an immediate centre-bounce clearance after Stringer's goal and a long, penetrating kick from Jordan Roughead found its way to a one-on-one contest between Hawthorn's wily old veteran Luke Hodge and Marcus Bontempelli. As the ball fell towards the pair the bodies of Hodge and Bontempelli collided. The Hawk skipper lost his feet but 'The Bont' did not. He held his ground and took the mark, leaving Hodge prostrate on the ground beside him.  Bontempelli coolly converted the goal, and the Dogs were within five points and threatening. 

Hawthorn, though, would not lie down. The reigning champs responded to the Bulldogs' challenge with counter punches of their own. Goals to Bradley Hill, Hodge and Liam Shiels had the Hawks' lead back out to 23 points and the Dogs were on the ropes once more midway through the quarter. 

They battled on without great impact, with Josh Dunkley and Jason Johannisen both kicking behinds. Just before time-on Luke Breust had a shot at goal that would have put the Hawks 27 points clear had it been accurate. Fortunately for the Dogs, it sailed wide. 

With the team almost four goals behind, the Bulldogs coaches box discussed the possibility of making moves. The injured Bob Murphy was in that box, and he later recounted the discussion: "There was a bit of talk about ‘do we need to change?’.  We needed to stop the momentum, but Luke Beveridge said that the game is actually being played the way we want it to, and the scoreboard will start to turn if we hold the line.” 

Beveridge was right. Breust's behind was Hawthorn's last score of the half. In the final 10 minutes of the second term, everything clicked into place for the Bulldogs. The Dogs' run and carry from half-back began to pay dividends, and a goal to Dunkley followed by two in a row from Clay Smith suddenly had them with three points of the Hawks. 

A half-time lead was on the cards as the forward thrusts continued, but a behind to Tom Boyd followed by another uncharacteristic miss to Dickson saw the Bulldogs head into the long break trailing by a point. 

It remained to be seen whether the Dogs could carry their momentum into the third quarter, and when Breust kicked an ‘out the back’ goal at the five-minute mark, that seemed doubtful. Liam Picken pulled one back for the Bulldogs and the two sides went toe-to-toe for the next 10 minutes.

Midway through the quarter Stringer marked and goaled to put the Dogs in front. With self-belief coursing through their veins, the Bulldogs seized the moment. Their frenzied relentlessness began to pay dividends.

Jack Macrae provided constant drive as the Dogs swept all before them over the next 15 minutes, the Hawks seemingly powerless in the face of wave after wave of attacking red, white and blue. The Bulldogs piled on five straight goals and led by 26 points when the three-quarter time siren sounded, bringing hordes of wild Bulldogs fans to their feet.

If Hawthorn's back wasn't broken by the last break, it was very soon after. In a second symbolic piece of play early in the final term, Bontempelli deftly cut off a Hodge handball, grabbed the ball himself and pinpointed a pass to Dickson. Dickson put his yips behind him and kicked truly. Any remaining doubts were allayed by two follow-up goals from Picken, giving the Dogs a 43-point lead.

The Hawks mounted one final challenge, kicking the next four goals, but it was too little, too late. After marking just before the final siren, Caleb Daniel franked a superb win with a post-siren goal, the Bulldogs victorious by 23 points.

The Dogs had many winners on the night, Bontempelli with his two goals and 27 possessions, Picken with three important goals and the bullocking Clay Smith, who laid 10 tackles to go with his two majors.

Macrae, in particular, was pivotal. His part in the Bulldogs getting on a roll in the third term cannot be understated. He collected an amazing 15 touches for the quarter, and after the game said the players, like Beveridge in the coaches’ box, felt the tide would turn if they kept doing all the right things: "We kept grinding and we knew it would turn eventually. We have a lot of belief in the group."

History now shows just how far that belief took them. The following week, the Bulldogs travelled to Sydney's west, and knocked off the Giants in a thrilling Preliminary Final, before going on to defeat Sydney in the Grand Final to break a premiership drought that had lasted 62 years. 

MATCH DETAILS

Hawthorn                           3.4          7.5          8.9          12.12 (84)
Western Bulldogs            1.5          6.10        12.11     16.11 (107) 

GOALS

Hawthorn: Hodge 2, Shiels 2, Burgoyne, Puopolo, Gunston, Hill, Fitzpatrick, Rioli, Sicily, Breust
Western Bulldogs: Picken 3, Stringer 3, Bontempelli 2, Smith 2, Daniel, Dickson, Dunkley, McLean, Roughead, Wood 

LEADING DISPOSALS

Hawthorn: Mitchell 24, Burgoyne 22, Smith 21, Hodge 20, Shiels 20, Gibson 20
Western Bulldogs: Macrae 39, Bontempelli 27, Picken 24, Dunkley 23, Dahlhaus 23, McLean 21, Hunter 21