Hawks and Eagles through to this year’s AFL Grand Final. It’ll be a week of footy craziness in Melbourne, with a public holiday Friday in honour of Saturday’s game at The G. Should be a tough, tight encounter. West Coast got up over a gallant North Melbourne Saturday night in Perth. For the first half, I thought the Roos might just pull off a miracle. But the Eagles found enough momentum by the final quarter to seal it. The Hawks were too good for minor-premiers Freo on Friday night for a 27 point win. Both prelim finals were great games, desperate and hard fought. One more game for the year – hard to believe we’re here already. Looking forward to a big Saturday.

Fires out.

Another big weekend working on the venue space & building in general. 2 AFL finals played Friday & Saturday evening. Saw the Hawks v Crows game at a mate’s footy club reunion on Friday at the infamous Bakers Arms. Regular locals allowed to join the party & eat classic footy finger-food (cheese & cabana, bight-size sangas & chips). The Hawks destroyed Adelaide in a 74 point belting. Not hard for a Bulldog supporter to watch given our game the week before against the Crows. So it’s off to Perth for Hawthorn this weekend in an epic preliminary final clash against Fremantle. The winner books a place in the grand final the following weekend. North Melbourne, the big surprise this finals series – and the first team ever to make the final 4 from 8th on the ladder, will also travel west after beating Sydney in a thriller, to play an all-conquering West Coast. We’re quietly hoping (as Victorians), one of our local sides makes it to the big one.

Fires out.

They were gallant in an absolute thriller at The G Saturday night, but the youngest side to make the finals fell to a hardened Adelaide who held on to clinch a 7 point victory. The Bulldogs seemed deeply effected by the sense of occasion – their first finals appearance in 5 years. With an average age of just 23, almost the entire side had never played an AFL final. And it showed – silly mistakes, costly turn-overs and 20 missed shots at goal, before a fever-pitch crowd of over 60,000 screaming maniacs (including us). Despite all their nervous decision-making, they ran and ran, crashed through packs & gave their all – consequently taking the lead by 8 points with just 10 minutes to go. We thought, hoping against hope, they had it. But the Crows had other ideas – bigger-bodied, finals-experienced, and just cool-headed enough to snatch victory. The final score – Bulldogs: 14.18 (102), Adelaide 16:13(109). If you can bare to watch it – here’s the gripping final quarter.

This coming weekend, The Crows play The Hawkes at The G in a Friday night sudden-death battle. And North Melbourne, who upset the Tigers yesterday, travel to play Sydney. The winners go to a Preliminary Final. The losers, season over.

Fires out.

Caught up in finals fever this week. Bulldogs faithful marching from Fed Square to The G this Saturday at 5pm, in preparation & celebration of the first Doggies finals appearance in years. Got our tickets for the game, sitting inside the Punt Road arc, to the left of the southern point post. Will Minson recalled to the ruck for this epic clash against the Crows. Captain Bob Murphy returns from injury. It’ll be a tough & frenetic sudden-death final, the winner surviving to play the following weekend against Hawthorn or Westcoast (depending on which team loses that qualifying final in Perth tonight).

Fire out.

Rare video, shot from the audience at Strawberry Festival, Beijing 2012. Must have been loud out there – sound is clipping pretty hard. One of our favourite festival shows ever.

Footy fever gripping Melbourne town. This Saturday night, a Red-White-and-Blue march from Fed Square to The G, lead by Bulldogs club president Peter Gordon. We’ll be there & posting here. It’s the first week of AFL September Finals, just gets bigger from here.

Fires out.

Posted last week, the AFL final 8 was set, not sorted. Turns out it was. After 9 games of football across the weekend, the final 8 remained completely unchanged from the week before. In a controversial move, 8th placed North Melbourne rested 9 of it’s star players, knowing it couldn’t lose the spot while not wanting to advance to the prospect of an Adelaide home final. That set the tone for a few other sides in the 8, who also rested players – including the Bulldogs. The Dogs were bloody lucky though. They lost what should have been an ‘unloseable’ game against the bottom side. If Adelaide had done what they were expected to do – beat Geelong – the Doggies would have been off to Adelaide for the first final. (click below for highlights)

Brisbane Lions beat Western Bulldogs in tight contest, Saturday 5th September 2015.

Fortunately the Crows lost, the Cats turning in a blinder to farewell a retiring group of superstars. The season officially done last night – with the Bombers winning a cliffhanger against the Pies, finals kick off this coming weekend. We’ll be at ‘The G’ Saturday night for the first Bulldogs final in years, against a formidable Adelaide side. Whodathunkit.

Fires out.