By Molly Magennis
The Western Bulldogs’ made their return to the AFLW on Friday night, January 28, but could not compete against GWS who took home an easy win.
After 20 days since their first opening round game, the Dogs’ 2.10 (22) to 7.1 (43) loss made it clear their setback had made them a little rusty.
GWS came out firing and kicked two majors in the opening 10 minutes of the first quarter. The Dog’s attempted to respond, but fell short with Bonnie Toogood and Gemma Lagioia only managing to score behinds.
Richelle Cranston did manage to get the Dog’s on the scoreboard towards the tail end of the first term, but they were still outscored by the Giants.
Again GWS managed to kick two goals in the first 10 minutes of the second quarter, but this time the Dog’s struggled to get one of their own, and were left goalless heading into the main break.
The tables turned in the third quarter, with captain Ellie Blackburn hitting the scoreboard and GSW unable to find a goal, but it still wasn’t enough for the Bulldogs.
The Giants lead managed to slip further away as they gained some momentum in the final term, taking home a 21 point win.
Kirsty Lamb, who managed to notch up 18 disposals, said in a post-match interview on the Bulldogs’ website that the result was disappointing considering how hard the team worked to get the ball in their forward line.
“Unfortunately it’s kind of our storyline at the moment that we just can’t seem to convert into goals, which is a little bit disappointing but I guess the positive out of it is that we’re getting the ball inside forward 50, we’ve just got to start to gel a little bit better as a mids and a forwards group and start converting some goals,” she said.
The midfielder said the biggest take-away from the game was the quality of the Dog’s skill execution, particularly due to the extended time away from the game.
“We looked a bit rusty,” she said. “We looked like we haven’t played a game for a couple of weeks, so just our skill execution across the whole ground let us down.”
“It was tough, I’m not gonna lie, it felt like we hadn’t played a game for a little while and just trying to suckin the air at times.”
“You could tell on girls’ faces at times [that] they were a little bit cooked.”
In a post-match press conference, coach Nathan Burke said the girls’ started very rushed and a bit on the back foot being three goals down at quarter time.
“We started the way I feared we might start, after being a bit rusty, but then we worked our way into the game… good enough to get a different result but we couldn’t capitalise,” he said.
“We missed some goals that we shouldn’t have… so we never put scoreboard pressure on [the] Giants at all.”
The Bulldog’s will take on Richmond this Saturday February 5 at Whitten Oval from 7:10pm.
