Cross marks demolition as season’s best
Bulldogs midfielder Daniel Cross says his team has discovered its bite in a comprehensive thrashing of Port Adelaide
Cross, 26, said the four-quarter effort against the lacklustre Power was what made the Dogs' eighth win for the season the most satisfying.
"Being able to crush a side when we're really on top and ... running over the top of them in the end was just a really good sign for us," he said at TIO Stadium on Saturday night.
"I'd probably say it would be our best win for the year.
"Everyone contributed. We made that a goal tonight, to really trust each other and do a job, everyone has a role to play each week and we instilled that trust in each other and it shone through the whole game.”
Cross was enthused that the Dogs managed to win all four quarters for the first time in 2009, saying the comprehensive margin was indicative of how much the club had come on since defeating the same opposition by 54 points last season.
"Everyone knows the role they've got to play and we've definitely got better in that area," he said.
"If everyone is winning their position and getting a tick at the end of the game, then it goes a long way to winning the game.
"We're doing that a lot better than we were doing last year."
Cross had an astonishing 37 possessions, which was his best return this season and came after a week where he admitted he was "a bit crook".
"There was a few of us that had [a cold] so I had a really light week and I think it did me the world of good," he said.
"Certainly coming up here and being fresh in the legs was good. I coughed up a lung there in the first quarter but I think I sweated it out by quarter time and I started to feel really good as the game wore on.
"It was a really good sign but I was looking for the siren in the last quarter."
The Bulldogs now head off on their mid-season break, and Cross said he was confident they would return capable of not falling into another second-half slump.
"I think Bill Davoren and Luke Meehan in the phys-ed department are well aware of that, and we've done a few things differently this year," he said.
"We've been topping up on our fitness every week, doing a bit of cross training here and there and hopefully that will help us through to the latter part of the season and we make a good run to the end."