THE WESTERN Bulldogs have produced one of the greatest finals wins in the club's history, stunning West Coast by 47 points at Domain Stadium to march into a semi-final.

The Bulldogs had never previously won a final interstate but an extraordinary execution of pressure, team defence and counter-attack saw them end the Eagles' season, winning 14.15 (99) to 7.10 (52).

"We haven't really broken a game open for a long time," Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said.

"It was an outstanding all-round performances from our 22.

"We didn't in our wildest dreams think we were going to play that well."

Five things we learned: West Coast v Western Bulldogs

The Eagles will face plenty of questions from this result. 

They were the first team in league history to register 16 wins and miss the top-four, but they saved their worst performance of the season for a cut-throat final. It was their largest loss in a home final and their second-lowest score of the season. 

"I saw it coming," Eagles coach Adam Simpson said.

"The way (the Bulldogs) played is the way they've been playing all year. We couldn't handle it, obviously.

The decision to play an injured Scott Lycett and Mitch Brown in the same side backfired. Lycett was severely hampered by his left knee injury throughout the night while Brown had little impact with the exception of a gifted goal in the second term.

"Look you can always reflect on those things and I'm sure we will," Simpson said.

"But no I don't think Mitch Brown was the difference between us winning and losing tonight."



The Bulldogs thoroughly deserved their victory.

They won the contested possession count by 23 and the clearances by eight to set the tone in the midfield. 

Every Bulldog rated

"Tonight it was back to some of our very best stuff so that is really encouraging," Beveridge said.

"Maybe that is linked a little bit to personnel and some of the changes we made. I thought that our hands were crisp."

Lachie Hunter ignited them in the opening term when Marcus Bontempelli was well held by Mark Hutchings. Tom Liberatore and Luke Dahlhaus also did a power of work inside.

Liam Picken was outstanding all night and kicked two goals from two excellent contested marks and Matthew Boyd was phenomenal in defence, but the entire defensive unit deserves praise.

The Bulldogs had 11 individual goalkickers and kicked their highest score since round 17.  

The Eagles had few winners.

"We just beaten around the ball and they played their way," Simpson said.

"When you're losing the contest like we did it's really hard to stop that. Some individuals just didn't produce tonight as well."

Andrew Gaff, Chris Masten and Luke Shuey worked hard but their disposals weren't damaging due to the Bulldogs' pressure. The Eagles kicked at just 62 per cent efficiency for the night.

Hutchings did a good job on Bontempelli in the first half. Sam Butler, Shannon Hurn and Brad Sheppard worked hard in defence but were under siege throughout.  

Every Eagle rated

The Bulldogs applied ferocious pressure on the Eagles from the opening bounce and never relented.

They wasted some opportunities early, kicking three behinds to the Eagles' two goals in the opening 10 minutes. But from there they kicked nine of the next 10 goals, including seven in a row, to stun the Eagles crowd into silence.

The Bulldogs ability to force the Eagles' defence to defend rather than zone off and intercept was a huge key. They produced 29 scores from 55 entries and could have won by more had they taken a few more chances. 

At the other end they kept the Eagles to their lowest score at home since 2014.

Josh Kennedy was held to just two goals. The Bulldogs kept the Coleman medallist to just one goal back in round 11.

GAME BREAKER Daniel a Rising Star nonetheless

The home side was unable to expose the Dogs for height, taking just nine marks inside 50 to the Bulldogs 12       

The win did come at a cost as the Bulldogs suffered yet another serious injury with Lin Jong breaking his collarbone when he was tackled by Jeremy McGovern in the second term. Jong's season is over and may have played his last game for the club. 

MEDICAL ROOM
West Coast: Lycett carried his knee problem into the game. He hurt laying a tackle in the first term and had to go to the rooms. He returned to play out the game but was clearly hampered throughout. Simpson confirmed after the match that he will need surgery to repair the damage in his knee.

Western Bulldogs: Jong broke his collarbone when tackled by Jeremy McGovern in the second term. He played no further part and Luke Beveridge confirmed after the match his season is over.

NEXT UP
West Coast's season is over, while the Bulldogs will be at the MCG next week against the loser of the Geelong-Hawthorn qualifying final.


WEST COAST                   2.3   3.6     5.9     7.10   (52)
WESTERN BULLDOGS      4.4   7.6   11.0   14.15   (99)          

GOALS
West Coast: Darling 2, Kennedy 2, Hill, Brown, LeCras
Western Bulldogs: Picken 2, Dickson 2, Dunkley 2, Dahlhaus, Hunter, Daniel, Liberatore, Smith, Roughead, Bontempelli, Stringer 

BEST 
West Coast: Hutchings, Gaff, Shuey, Butler, Hurn
Western Bulldogs: Dahlhaus, Daniel, Boyd, Picken, Hunter, Johannisen 

INJURIES 
West Coast: Lycett (knee)
Western Bulldogs: Jong (collarbone) 

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Farmer, Rosebury, Schmitt

Official crowd: 42,079 at the Domain Stadium