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Western Bulldogs bite after slow start against Gold Coast Suns

Rohan Connolly

WESTERN BULLDOGS 
0.1.3      1.3.6      2.6.9      4.13.12     (126)
GOLD COAST
0.6.0      0.11.2      0.14.6      0.16.9     (105)
NINE POINTERS - W Bulldogs: Suckling 3, Stringer. GOALS  -W Bulldogs: Stringer 3, Picken 2, Macrae, Dahlhaus, Hunter, Jong, Bontempelli, Suckling, Crameri, Liberatore. 
Gold Coast: Lynch 6, Ablett 2, Wright 2, Sexton, Ainsworth, Swallow, Martin, Barlow, Miller.
BEST - W Bulldogs: Stringer, Suckling, Liberatore, Dahlhaus, Bontempelli, Jong. 
Gold Coast: Lynch, Hall, Barlow, Kolodjashnij, Sexton, Ablett. 
UMPIRES Mollison,  Hay,  Nicholls.

The Western Bulldogs had good cause for concern late in the second term at Metricon Stadium on Thursday night.

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Gold Coast welcome back Ablett, and West Coast cruise

Gold Coast have welcomed back Gary Ablett with a win over the Western Bulldogs, and West Coast have cruised to victory over the Melbourne Demons.

Having already lost their first two JLT Community Series games, they trailed Gold Coast in their third by 49 points, with coach Luke Beveridge anxiously pacing the boundary line.

An hour later, the Dogs had run out 21-point winners, a stunning 70-point turnaround, and those contemplating going with tales of potential premiership hangovers even before the start of the new season had been forced into a hasty of re-think.

It's hard to know quite what to make of AFL pre-season form these days. But both the Suns and Bulldogs should go into round one in a fortnight at least knowing that when their systems work, either are capable of playing irrepressible football.

The Bulldogs needed that reassurance, too, having gone into the game missing only Dale Morris, Tory Dickson, Josh Dunkley, Jordan Roughead and the departed Joel Hamling from their premiership 22.

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Their fuse was lit by Matt Suckling, who fired their only shots in the first half, and finished with four goals, three of which were nine-pointers. And the long bombs from outside 50 were infectious, Jake Stringer joining the party in the last term with one of his own as he booted three of the Dogs' nine goals in a blistering last quarter.

In the end, there was enough to like for the premiers, Stringer ominous, Tom Liberatore and Luke Dahlhaus prolific, Marcus Bontempelli working himself into the game after a slowish start.

The Suns, meanwhile, will hardly be rapt about giving up the sort of advantage they held in the second quarter. But with nine of the first 10goals of the game, many the result of some wonderful link-up play out of defence, the Suns at times looked every bit as slick as their critically acclaimed opponents were last September.

Gold Coast fielded arguably the strongest 22 of their entire history in this full dress rehearsal for the real thing. And the biggest names were suitably inspired to deliver their best. Gary Ablett, playing his first pre-season for three years, wasted no time announcing his return to the AFL environment with the first goal of the game after starting forward.

Within 90 seconds of the start, Ablett had found himself an acre of space and got on the end of a pass which he duly converted.

Later in the term he delivered another trademark piece of magic with a burst clear from a stoppage and snap over his shoulder.

But even Ablett didn't leave the sort of imprint on proceedings his replacement as Suns' skipper Tom Lynch did.  The key forward was a huge presence with his strong hands and accurate kicking, and had racked up five goals to half-time.

And the Suns delivered the ball to him beautifully. Rodney Eade's side will benefit this year simply from having more healthy bodies on the park, but the Suns also appear to have put plenty of work in on the skills front, some of their handball particularly slick.

They certainly looked a lot sharper than the Bulldogs early, the lead ballooning out to 49 points late in the second term before  Suckling inspired something of a mini-recovery with a couple of booming goals, adding another nine-pointer in the third term.

The Dogs looked a lot less lethargic after the long break. And another good sign was the game of Stringer, busy up forward all night and conspicuous on the scoreboard by the finish, too, with three goals.

Beveridge's next task is to get his newly crowned top dogs back to playing four full quarters of football when they take on Collingwood in round one.

But even a cameo of their best in this game was more than we'd seen thus far this pre-season. And a potent enough reminder that on-song, the one-time underdogs will take some stopping again.