The “Bontempelli Bump” will sit in the memories of Bulldog supporters like a gorgeous song.
Moments after a Jake Stringer snap brought the Bulldogs to within two goals of Hawthorn early in the second quarter, Jordan Roughead’s clearing kick went goal-side of Marcus Bontempelli. The 6ft 3in midfielder ran back with the flight before turning his body at the precise moment and bumping Luke Hodge (Luke Hodge!) off his feet to take a strong mark.
The bump, the mark and the consequent goal, was an early-warning flare that signalled to the huddled masses at the MCG that the Bulldogs were not yet done for. Not by a long shot.
Fifteen minutes later, the usually reliable Luke Bruest sprayed a shot that would have put Hawthorn up by the best part of five goals. The miss appeared to shift the ground beneath the Hawk’s feet and allowed the young Bulldogs to find theirs. By the end of the quarter, Hawthorn’s margin had been pulled back to just a point.
Ruffled after a half-time brawl, the Bulldogs became electric. Jack Macrae was getting touches every other minute, Luke Dalhaus was in everything and Jake Stringer reminded everyone that he couldn’t be ignored. He defies inattention, much like Cyril Rioli, the difference being that the Bulldogs’ defensive pressure stifled Rioli’s influence and even his bromance with the Seven commentary team.
When the two teams turned for the last quarter, the Bulldog’s owned a 26-point lead. With 12-minutes left in the game, Liam Picken beat Dr. Nitschke out of a fee by putting the Bulldog’s 43-points in front, and their supporters into a riotous frenzy. The brown and gold sections of the 87,823-strong crowd were as quiet as a church-service.
Picken perhaps more than anyone has benefited from the arrival of Luke Beveridge. The Bulldogs’ coach has rubbed the dourness off the one-time tagger to reveal the shinier parts of the steely 30-year-old.
But the bigger story is that the young Bulldogs are coming of age, particularly Bontempelli who continues to sculpt his legend. He finished the game with 27 touches and two goals – but the statistics are not even half as fulfilling as the aesthetic joy of his football invention. He is occasionally the greatest midfielder in the game.
Greatest is a tag that Hawthorn has held less ephemerally over the past three years. It may partly explain why the resignation of their fans on radio and social media after the siren, bordered on eulogy – even the Herald Sun led with “the king is dead”. Here, a note of caution: the potential inclusions of Jaeger O’Meara, Tom Mitchell and yes, even Tyrone Vickery, means that Hawthorn is hardly on a dead run to turning into a nostalgia act playing sportsman nights at casinos.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, are well placed to play on the main stage for some time yet. With a list that is seven parts kids born in the 90s to three parts veterans, Friday night may be the moment where the Bulldogs stopped being the battler who is always punching up.
On Saturday night they will play the league’s upstarts, featuring Callan Ward – who left the Bulldog’s to become the second player to sign with the Giants at the end of 2011 – and Ryan Griffen who traded places with Tom Boyd in 2015. Boyd’s return to Spotless Stadium will at times see him matched against former teammate Shane Mumford, who has 114 games more experience and outweighs him by a refrigerator.
The Bulldogs’ hopes are also significantly outweighed by history, with no side having made a grand final from outside the top four in the modern era. None of which seems to weigh too heavily on the mind of Luke Beveridge, who told SEN on Saturday that it is all about the now. “The players have been putting their own labels on how they see the future,” he said.
Win and the Bulldogs will break a run of seven preliminary final losses to play in a grand final for the first time in 45 years. Lose and the Giants will feature in one after just five seasons in the league. For neutrals, it’s a choice between a feel-good romance and an apocalyptic horror.
Both are more entertaining prospects than the other side of the draw, which will throw up re-runs after Sydney ended Adelaide’s season with all the ceremony of bin night. The Swans set the tone from the first bounce when their midfield – led by Luke Parker and Josh Kennedy – played as if unaware of football’s troublesome relationship with the human head. It resulted in Sydney’s best ever opening term in a final.
Sydney will be encouraged by the return to form of its stars Lance Franklin – who kicked four goals after his first goalless final last week – and midfielder Isaac Heeney. Heeney looks like a character actor available to play “Surfer #2” in Home & Away, but his role in the Swans’ win on Saturday night was a starring one. He finished the night with 32 disposals (21 of which were in the first half) and nine marks. Sydney’s supporting cast was every bit as impressive, particularly Nick Smith, who reduced Eddie Betts’ influence to just eight disposals and three goals which were more a footnote than a meaningful story.
Unfortunately for Sydney, one of the stories to come from the game was their injury list. Gary Rohan’s right knee ended his night, his season and any belief in a higher power, while Jarrad McVeigh’s 31-year-old calf will need to defy medical convention should he face Geelong off a six-day break – a shortened preparation that seems to defy common sense.
Despite playing on Friday night, the Western Bulldogs will play their preliminary final this Saturday night. The Swans, who played a day later, will play their final a night earlier. The sign on the AFL media manager Patrick Keane’s door this week should read “the spin doctor is in”. Once he’s done explaining the logic behind the fixture decision, he’ll likely head down to the Royal Melbourne Show to moonlight as the carny who tries to convince you the basketballs aren’t larger than the rings.
It is the only downside to what promises to be an enthralling two games of football. Geelong goes into the penultimate week having won its past eight games. It’s last loss? Yep, Sydney. The Bulldogs have the Bontempelli Bump and the momentum that comes from knocking of last year’s Grand Finalists in consecutive weeks. They also carry the support of the entire football world outside of Sydney’s west and pockets of Canberra. Everything else, it appears, seems to favour the Giants.
So who wins? Who meets in the Grand Final? The only proper answer is “we don’t know”.
