Bulldogs beat Pies in AFL pre-season

A dominant first-half display from the Western Bulldogs propelled them to a 61-point AFL pre-season cup win on Saturday night against Collingwood.

Young Bulldog onballer Marcus Bontempelli starred with 15 possessions in the first quarter and finished with 29 touches and three goals in the Dogs’ 0.18.7 (115) to 0.8.6 (54) win at Etihad Stadium.

Collingwood took a strong side into the match, but it was the young Dogs who seized the momentum from the outset.

Jack Macrae (31 disposals), Mitch Wallis (21) and Luke Dahlhaus (32) joined Bontempelli in helping to set up the win, with veteran skipper Robert Murphy also playing a pivotal role down back in the impressive performance.

Collingwood stars Scott Pendlebury and Dane Swan weren’t able to exert their usual influence early and Travis Cloke managed just one goal in the first half before finishing with two, but to put the result down to an off night for the Pies would do an injustice to the hard-working Dogs.

Luke Beveridge’s men impressed with their slick ball movement and overlap run, but also pressured their opponents into costly turnovers and ran hard defensively when they didn’t have the ball.

The margin blew out to 48 points in the third quarter before the Pies managed an unanswered three-goal burst, but the Bulldogs finished the match well with six goals to one in the final term.

Will Minson was also a key factor for the Dogs with a dominant 50-hitout display.

Steele Sidebottom (30) and Taylor Adams (31) worked hard throughout for Collingwood, while Pendlebury (28) improved as the game went on.

Both sides leave the match with injury concerns with Levi Greenwood (ankle) and Jason Johannisen (head knock) both subbed out.

Johannisen was later cleared of any serious issues associated with the high bump from teammate Jarrad Grant, but Pies coach Nathan Buckley wasn’t as optimistic about Greenwood’s prognosis.

“We don’t know how severe it is, but it was bad enough for him to not be able to play on,” Buckley said.

“We’ll have to go and assess that.

“He’s likely to miss weeks – we just don’t know how many.”

The loss of Greenwood and the listless manner of Collingwood’s defeat is a blow as Buckley tries to nail down his preferred midfield mix.

The coach said the performance wasn’t an accurate reflection of the efforts that his players had put in over the pre-season, but he admitted more work needed to be done ahead of round one.

Conversely, Beveridge was delighted with the way in which his players hunted their opponents.

“It was a pretty rounded performance – I was happy with most of it,” Beveridge said.

“We put them under pressure and they gave the ball back a little bit. I thought our defence set up extremely well and we capitalised on some of those opportunities.

“I thought all the boys really contributed.”

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