When an actor is nominated for an Academy Award, the cliché saying, “it’s an honour just to be nominated” is thrown around a lot. They don’t really mean it. They want to win the Oscar.
However, before the 2016 AFL Grand Final was won by the Western Bulldogs, the road they took to get there, to be contenders with the mere chance to win, was a victory unto itself. There was no cliché about it. Oh sure, they wanted to win too, but to actually be there, for their supporters to buy tickets to a grand final for the first time since 1961, it was the stuff dreams are made of. Their only premiership cup (1954) has been the one shining beacon in the history of the club. The struggles have been real – for decades! They were the battlers of the competition. The underdogs.
They’d faced mounting injuries, including their spiritual leader, and captain, the beloved Bob Murphy. A season ending knee injury meant his on-field presence was gone. The young pups needed his guidance. Mounting injuries meant they finished lower than expected, seventh for the season. It also meant there were no second chances. No advantages. Every final was do or die. Every final meant a loss was the end of the road. They were underdogs in all of them, and each and every week, the Bulldogs pulled off the gutsy, “upset” win.
So, in all honesty, getting to the Grand Final, and the hype and belief in the players and the supporters in the lead up to it, was so magical, everyone and anyone who wasn’t a Sydney Swans fan was willing the Dogs to pull off one more upset – the BIG one! Yet, many of us still doubted they could do it. Many of us were content with them getting there. Many of us would have praised them for losing to Sydney. Many of us desperately wanted them to win. Our hearts were most certainly with the Bulldogs, but Sydney finished on top of the ladder – minor premiers. Our heads were with them. Logic was with them. They were the best team all year. Surely, the Doggies couldn’t beat them on the grandest of days?
There wasn’t a player in the Bulldogs’ team that had ever played in a grand final. Not one. Sydney had the experience. They’d been there before. They’d also been brutal in the first quarter of their past two finals victories, winning those games off the back of that early dominance. Many of us thought the Dogs would crumble under that pressure. Many of us were wrong! The Dogs absorbed everything the Swans threw at them. So much so, the underdogs led, albeit narrowly, at the first break.
By half time, the game was still in the balance. Only two points separated them. Sydney led by a mere two points. The third quarter saw the Bulldogs open up a narrow 8-point lead. In one of the closest grand final in years, it was all going to come down to the final term.
Jake Stringer had been quiet all day. He had a few kicks that sprayed out on the full, but he snapped a goal in the last quarter when it mattered. That goal spurred his team on to push through the pain and fatigue of a tough, hard contested game of footy and hold the lead until the end.
Million-dollar-man, Tom Boyd, stepped up and played his best game yet. Three goals each to Boyd, Picken and Dickson, meant the scoring was spread evenly for the Doggies. Josh Kennedy was clearly Sydney’s best player. He kicked three goals (also 34 disposals, 5 clearances and 6 inside 50’s). After an early ankle injury (rolled) to Buddy Franklin, his agility was compromised and he managed just one goal for the entire match.
A heavy knock and a nasty knee injury for Dan Hannebery in the last quarter meant momentum shifted in the Bulldogs’ favour. A frustrated Hannebery raced to get his knee strapped up on the sidelines. He was determined to return to the ground and help his teammates clinch the win. He did return to play out the game, but his kicking lacked power and he was clearly in pain. It was the cruellest of blows for a player as hard and as tough as they come.
The MCG erupted with sheer joy and jubilation when the final siren sounded. A twenty-two point victory to the Western Bulldogs meant that sixty-two years of struggles had suddenly evaporated. It was almost too unreal to be real! This win was everything that sport should be, and more.
Being contenders was a victory, no doubt, but it really wouldn’t have been enough to be runners-up. The ending had to be written this way…the Bulldogs HAD to win! They DID win!
As if the win wasn’t enough, and as if the roaring cheers from a dominant Bulldogs’ crowd wasn’t enough, when coach, Luke Beveridge called injured captain, Bob Murphy onto the dais to give him his own medal, the medal he would have received had he not been injured, well, the dam walls broke all over Australia. That was the moment you knew that these players won it all because they played for their coach. This coach, who guided his players on the hope and belief of every Bulldog’s supporter, every AFL fan, and every past Bulldogs player who never got to a grand final, but believed this group could do it, and who desperately wanted them to do it, and did!
I’ve already said, “Who’s going to write the movie script?” Then I suddenly realised, that the movie script has already been written. The story the Doggies weaved all year, against the odds, IS the script. They wrote it themselves. They made history. This story couldn’t be written as a fictional tale and believed without it sounding like a syrupy mess. It is a tale of heartache, tears, lost hope, fight, belief, spirit and victory against all odds. Oscar worthy!
No team has ever won a grand final from seventh spot. The Bulldogs did. The reserves won the VFL premiership six days ago. Luke Beveridge won “Coach of the Year” last week, and now, the AFL Premiers for 2016 are the Western Bulldogs. They pulled off the triple crown!
Ted Whitten’s famous words, “They stuck it right up ‘em!” is the most appropriate description of everything the Western Bulldogs have achieved all year. They deserved this victory. It’s long, long overdue. Almost 100,000 people witnessed the overwhelming emotion that comes with the good guys finishing first. It’s the perfect ending. Not just for the Western Bulldogs, but for our great game.
*My Western Bulldogs 1-39 margin prediction got up too! Hope you got on @ $3!
