BARRY Hall and Ben Hudson have farewelled the game on a winning note, with the Western Bulldogs prevailing by 46 points against Fremantle at Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

Hall finished with a flurry, kicking four final-quarter goals and five for the match to lead the Bulldogs to a 15.17 (107) to 8.13 (61) win.

In a scrappy match, the final appearances of Hall, Hudson and Fremantle midfielder Byron Schammer added interest to the final round dead rubber.

Schammer was the best of the three with 23 possessions while Hudson was challenged by Aaron Sandilands until the big Fremantle ruckman hobbled off in the third quarter with a re-occurrence of his toe injury.

All three were honoured afterwards with both teams forming a guard of honour that saw Hall and Hudson chaired off before Schammer at the other end.

Fremantle, which was forced to make five changes to last week's side owing to injury and suspension, was again struck by bad luck in the hour before the first bounce.

Defender Luke McPharlin injured a hamstring in the warm-up, which saw first-gamer Casey Sibosado come in for his debut. The result sees both clubs record nine wins and 13 losses for the season, with the Bulldogs building the better percentage. Their final ladder positions will be determined once North Melbourne, Richmond and Melbourne have played.


Influential players
Matthew Boyd continued to put his hand up for his second All Australian guernsey with a stellar, hard-running performance. He ended with 35 touches.

Daniel Cross was solid as his deputy with 29, but his performance carried more weight given he was battered around from pillar to post and was treated on the field after hard knocks four times across the afternoon.

Patrick Veszpremi played his best game for the club with 19 touches - including seven in the first quarter - just a week after he appeared to lack match fitness against Hawthorn. He also kicked an important goal in the final quarter that pushed the Dogs out to a 16-point lead 10 minutes in.

Ryan Griffen was also among the Dogs' best with 28 possessions and a goal straight after Veszpremi's final term effort that put the result beyond doubt - while Callan Ward - who was intermittingly booed by the club's fans with his future still unconfirmed - collected 21.

Sibosado, after getting the latest call up possible, kicked the first goal and had 12 possessions, but impressed the most with his clean hands that held six marks, two of which were on the lead before he was subbed off in the third quarter.

Possession-wise, Michael Johnson (30 touches), Schammer (24) and Tendai Mzungu (20) were Freo's bestr, while Alex Silvagni - who manned Hall after the withdrawal of McPharlin - held his own and even celebrated the premiership Swan's retirement by taking a mark on his shoulders in the fourth term.

No Barry, no
Hall's last game was commemorated by the issuing of Barry masks to fans in attendance, and when he got going in the last quarter, the crowd really got into the spirit of things. There was more than one banner pleading with Hall for "one more year", but he remained adamant afterwards he was heading off to start the next phase of his life and told Channel 10 there was "not a hope in hell" he would reconsider. Maybe his stubbornness on the issue stemmed from the fact he would find it hard to equal his statistics from his farewell tour; Hall booted 40 goals from his final eight games. Not a bad way to go out.

What it means
The clubs will end 2011 with the same win-loss ratio but the Dogs have a bigger percentage. They'll also take a better mindset into the pre-season having won two of their last three games under caretaker Paul Williams, despite a lack of experienced backmen.


What the coach said

Paul Williams (Western Bulldogs)

"We still wanted to improve a few areas of our game. There wasn't a total release of any structural stuff.

We still wanted them to have some discipline in a few areas, and they did OK in the first half, in the second half they were a lot better.

We kicked the ball woefully in the first half and when we turned it over that's where [Fremantle] was getting most of their inside 50s from, from our poor kick choices.

We cleaned that up a little bit, kicked 2.7 in the third quarter and the game was probably done and dusted if we kicked straight.

Then in the last quarter it was a nice way to finish for both our old fellas in Hally and Huddo."

Toyota AFL Dreamteam highlight

Western Bulldogs:

Four Bulldogs notched triple figures, with captain Matthew Boyd leading the way with 155 points. Next best was Daniel Cross with 139 points, followed by Ryan Griffen (110) and Daniel Giansiracusa (109) .

QUARTER BY QUARTER

FIRST QUARTER
Fremantle's injury toll continued to grow before the opening bounce, with McPharlin injuring his hamstring in the warm-up. It was the late inclusion Sibosado who impressed early, taking a strong contested mark and kicking the first goal. With the roof open and conditions blustery, both sides struggled to attain any ascendancy early with Silvagni doing a good job on the retiring Hall. Veszpremi was busy early, but the Dogs failed to capitalise on the scoreboard. It was a similar case at the other end, with Schammer and Stephen Hill missing key shots on goal as the Dogs held a slender lead at the first break.

Western Bulldogs by six points

SECOND QUARTER

Fremantle was on top early after Cross gave away an uncharacteristic 50m penalty for entering the restricted zone, gifting a goal to Zac Clarke. It took until the six-minute mark of the second quarter for the Barry Hall facemasks to make their first appearance, with the retiring Bulldog kicking a sensational banana goal from deep in the forward pocket. Sandilands was causing havoc for the Bulldogs defence, taking strong marks and dishing off to Kepler Bradley for his second goal of the term. The Dogs static ball movement was playing into their opponents' hands, before goal-machine Jason Tutt dribbled home a beauty from tight on the boundary. The Bulldogs finally found their run, kicking the last four goals of the half as Sandilands missed two easy set shots and inexplicitly played-on from three metres out, resulting in a missed snap from Paul Duffield.


Western Bulldogs by 9 points

THIRD QUARTER

After an uninspiring first-half, Freo sprang to life early with a sensational snap from Mzungu after some excellent dash and dare by Michael Barlow from half-back. Both sides decided it was time for fresh legs, introducing their subs midway through the quarter in a bid to shake each other. It was a long bomb from Griffen that finally gave the Bulldogs some breathing space as Mark Harvey's men began to tire. The Dogs midfielders continued to find plenty of the ball while Easton Wood made a goal-saving smother on Justin Bollenhagen after the youngster had Paul Duffield all alone in the goalsquare to cut the deficit to less than two goals.

Western Bulldogs by 14 points

FOURTH QUARTER

The first two Bulldogs entries inside 50 were targeted for Hall, as his teammates looked to help the forward add to his tally of just one major for the day. Hall started to let his frustrations out, with a free kick awarded to the Dogs reversed after a bit of argy-bargy and then giving away a 50m penalty after a holding call went in favour of his opponent. Long goals to Veszpremi and Griffen put the victory beyond doubt. But all eyes were fixed on Hall. With numbers continuing to fill Hall's space, a kick across goal led to Silvagni manhandling Hall who finally kicked his second. The floodgates opened as Hall kicked four last-quarter goals to the delight of the Bulldogs faithful and ensured he and Hudson finished their careers in winning fashion.

Western Bulldogs by 46 points

MATCH DETAILS

Western Bulldogs 2.6 6.8 8.15 15.17 (107)
Fremantle 1.6 4.11 6.13 8.13 (61)

GOALS
Western Bulldogs: Hall 5, Giansiracusa 2, Jones 2, Veszpremi 2, Griffin 2, Tutt, Dahlhaus
Fremantle: Bradley 2, Mzungu 2, Clarke, Sibosado, Hill, Barlow

BEST
Western Bulldogs: Boyd, Cross, Veszpremi, Griffen, Murphy, Ward, Giansiracusa

Fremantle: Johnson, Silvagni, Mzungu, Schammer, Broughton


INJURIES
Western Bulldogs: Nil

Fremantle: McPharlin (hamstring) replaced in side by Sibosado


SUBSTITUTES

Western Bulldogs: Jayden Schofield replaced by Shaun Higgins in the third quarter.

Fremantle: Casey Sibosado replaced by Justin Bollenhagen in the third quarter.Reports: NilUmpires: McBurney, Ritchie, Hay


Official crowd: 18,128 at Etihad Stadium

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs