The Western Bulldogs have qualified for its fourth consecutive finals campaign, with the final ladder positions not cemented until the last siren of the final match of the 2022 AFL Home and Away season.
A do-or-die round 23
After a close win against the Giants in Round 22 kept dreams of playing finals alive, the Bulldogs were up against Hawthorn at UTAS stadium in Tasmania.
Round 23 came with a do-or-die challenge for the Bulldogs, a win required to even have a shot at finishing in the top eight.
After a slow start in the first quarter and a six-goal second quarter, the Bulldogs were able to keep Hawthorn at bay for the rest of the match, finally coming away with a 23-point victory.
Bulldogs await finals news
While the win provided the Bulldogs with a chance for a top eight finish, its finals hopes hinged on whether Carlton would beat Collingwood later in the afternoon, taking the eighth spot on the ladder.
The match was closer than anyone was anticipating, and no one could have predicted that one point would eventually decide the team to finish eighth.
It was a heart-stopping final quarter, but it ended in celebration for Bulldogs supporters, with Carlton eventually edged out of the top eight with a one-point loss in the dying minutes.
Elimination final next Saturday
Carlton’s one-point loss to Collingwood late on Sunday afternoon cemented the Bulldogs in the eighth position on the ladder by half a percent, confirming they would meet Fremantle (who finished fifth on the ladder) in the first week of finals.
The Elimination Final against Fremantle will be played at Opus Stadium in Western Australia on Saturday 3 September at 6.10pm local time (8.10pm AEST).
This historic match is the first time ever that the Bulldogs and Dockers have met in a final. In the most recent meeting – just a fortnight ago at Marvel Stadium – it was the Dockers who claimed a 17-point win over the Bulldogs.
It is a familiar Finals Series for the Bulldogs, only needing to look as far back as 2016 when they finished the home and away season as underdogs in seventh place, before they were ultimately crowned premiers.
Taylor Duryea said, “That ‘win or go home’ mentality clears out a lot of noise, and you can just focus on what makes you a good side and hope to execute that.”
And all of us at Victoria University will be cheering them on!
You can watch the game live on Channel 7 and Fox Footy from 6.10pm.
We wish the Western Bulldogs the best of luck with this week’s Elimination Final.
Victoria University is proud to be supporting the Bulldogs both on and off the field as the ‘team behind the Bulldogs’.
