Round 19 2009

W.Bulldogs vs West Coast
Round 19, 2009

Embley leads the celebration. Photo: aflphotos.com.au

Date

Sat, 8 August 2009 (2:10 PM EST)

Venue

Docklands

Attendance

22,417

Result

Won by 5

Score

WCE 16.6.102 - 13.19.97 WBD

Brownlow

3 A.Embley (WCE)
2 S.Hurn (WCE)
1 M.Rosa (WCE)

Ladder

12th

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West Coast caused a massive upset by beating the highly-fancied Dogs in a thriller under the Dome. The Eagles surprised their opponents and skipped out to an early lead as the Bulldogs squandered chances in the first quarter, then turned on the gas in the second, kicking six straight goals to open up a commanding 47 point lead. The Bulldogs sparked into action, narrowing the gap to a manageable 22 by halftime and then threatened to take the game away from the visitors early in the final quarter. The Dogs led by 8 points midway through the final term but a couple of pieces of individual brilliance by Andrew Embley wrested back the lead. A Jason Akermanis goal put the home side back in front by the slenderest of margins but Mark LeCras countered for the Eagles, who were able to hold on as the Bulldogs pressed to record their first away win since 2007. Embley turned back the clock with a sensational four goal, 32-possession effort and was ably assisted by Shannon Hurn and Matt Rosa who both had 30-plus possession games.

Summary[]

		1/4 time		1/2 time		3/4 time		Final
Western Bulldogs		0.8.8		5.11.41		10.16.76		13.19.97
West Coast		3.2.20		10.3.63		13.3.81		16.6.102

Goals: Embley, Kennedy 4, LeCras 3, Ebert, Houlihan, Lynch, McKinley, Wirrpanda

Best: Embley, Kennedy, Hurn, Rosa, Houlihan, Glass, LeCras

Injuries: Nil

Milestones: Embley 200th official game (184 premiership, 14 pre-season, 2 international), Brown Rising Star nomination

Named side[]

	West Coast				Bulldogs
B:	A.Selwood	Glass	Brown	B:	Morris	Lake	Harbrow
HB:	Hurn	Wilkes	Butler	HB:	Hargrave	Williams	Gilbee
C:	Rosa	Priddis	Houlihan	C:	Cross	Boyd	Ward
HF:	Embley	Kennedy	S.Selwood	HF:	Johnson	Hahn	Hill
F:	LeCras	Wilson	Lynch	F:	Akermanis	Minson	Stack
R:	Naitanui	Ebert	Masten	R:	Hudson	Griffen	Cooney
I:	McGinnity	McKinley	Swift	I:	Addison	Eagleton	Everitt
	Wirrpanda				Picken
E:	Davis	Fletcher	Schofield	E:	O'Keefe	Skipper	Wood

In: Wilkes

Out: MacKenzie (thigh)

Late change: (WBD) Wood for Picken

From the papers[]

The Sunday Age[]

"Cooney, who'd jumped right on board with a big last quarter, appeared to add the exclamation mark when he slipped over, recovered his footing and the ball, and dobbed one from about 55 metres, to increase the gap to eight points.

But now the Eagles, supposed to quietly slouch off centre stage as the big boys took over, stood tallest. Particularly Embley, superb all afternoon but at his finest in the final term with two huge goals, the first a enormous bomb from well outside 50 metres on the run, the second after a mark and from outside the boundary line.

From the next centre bounce, the Bulldogs charged again, Will Minson's tap giving Akermanis the chance to unleash from outside 50 and put the home side and hot favourite in front one last time.

But the Dogs didn't really deserve to get out of jail. And they didn't. LeCras steered home the winner barely a minute later and the Eagles hung on for dear life in a desperate final two minutes, the siren celebrated in only slightly less emotional fashion than that grand final win three years ago."

Players in the WAFL[]

Round 20 (8 Aug)

Perth (Smith, Sullivan) vs East Perth

East Fremantle (Staker, McNamara) vs Claremont (Stevenson)

Subiaco (Fletcher, Stenglein, Cockie) vs Swan Districts (Hunter, Hansen, Notte, Davis)

South Fremantle vs West Perth (Seaby)

Bye: Peel

Injury list[]

In the lead-up to the match the following players were listed as injured or unavailable:

Player	Injury	Expected duration
Waters	Elbow	Season	On the LTI list, replaced by Davis 2/4/09
Cox	Groin	Season
Kerr	Osteitis pubis	Season
Shuey	Fibula	Season	On the LTI list, replaced by Wilson 28/7/09
Nicoski	Back	1-2 weeks
B.Jones	Thigh	1 week
McNamara	Corked thigh	Test
Spangher	Hamstring	Test