The Western Bulldogs were kept to their lowest ever AFLW score as they were smashed by Melbourne on Sunday.
Playing for the Hampson-Hardeman Cup, the AFLW’s two oldest rivals were both hoping to shore up spots in the top eight.
The Demons got on the front foot early on and were able to take control of the game. They put the foot on the pedal in the middle two quarters to have the game over by the final break.
The Bulldogs threw things around in the final quarter, but in the end suffered their biggest ever loss, losing 10.13 (73)-1.3 (9).
The loss was the Bulldogs third in row, with finals now looking less likely.
Coach Nathan Burke was pretty disappointed post game.
“We didn’t play the way we wanted to play footy,” he said.
“We wanted to come out and be fierce and the first quarter wasn’t too bad, second and third made some really dumb decisions played some dumb football.
“That’s what happens against good teams, play really dumb football get beaten heavily.”
Burke said while they had some really poor decisions with the ball in hand, it was without the ball where they were really beaten.
He said they gave the Demons too much room and allowed them to use the corridor, which is exactly what they wanted.
Burke said with the game over they decided to try some different things, but admitted nothing worked in the end.
The loss was compounded by a hamstring injury to Elisabeth Georgostathis who didn’t play out game.
The loss leaves the Bulldogs in ninth spot, percentage behind seventh placed North Melbourne.
With three winnable games in the run home, the Bulldogs are still within a shot of playing finals.
Burke said they need to use the lessons from the weekend if they are to get their season back on track.
