Tears of joy flowed in the Western Bulldog sections of the crowd in the minutes before the final siren sounded to mark the end of the longest current AFL premiership drought.
The Bulldogs’ fans had endured an agonising 120 minutes on the edge of their seats before a late burst of goals ensured the premiership cup would return to the Whitten Oval for the first time since 1954.
It was a grand final that had it all.
Desire for the cup – that elusive piece of silverware – made for a stressful afternoon for the Bulldog faithful, but it ended as a rewarding one after years of finals torment.
It was finally the Bulldogs turn to stand on top of the premiership dais. Acting skipper Easton Wood, injured captain Bob Murphy and senior coach Luke Beveridge took hold of the cup as red, white and blue confetti rained down.
Beveridge was being hailed as the mastermind of the triumph, but he was happy to deflect praise on to club president Peter Gordon, who has devoted years of his time and money to ensure the Bulldogs not only survive but thrive in the AFL.
The Bulldogs did it from seventh spot in the finals – something never before achieved.
They powered into September with 15 wins and overcame a raft of injuries during the season.
The Bulldogs faced a race against time to have their stars fit for the finals, but the week’s bye between round 23 and the elimination final proved a handy leg up from the football gods.
A shock win on the road over the West Coast Eagles in week one of the finals kick-started the September campaign. That was followed by a win over three-peat premier Hawthorn, ending its era at the top.
Seven straight heartbreaking Bulldog preliminary final losses were erased with an emotion-charged win over GWS Giants.
At that point, the Bulldogs dared to believe.
They showed nerves of steel on Saturday to come through with an against-the-odds win over the Sydney Swans by 22 points at the MCG on grand final day.
“The boys have spoken in the public domain about no ceilings and write the next chapter,” Beveridge said.
“As we went on, as we won a final and we beat great opposition, the boys got belief, as well. That obviously continues to blossom and it snowballs out of control in the end.”
It was Tom Boyd’s long-range goal from the edge of the centre square that gave the Bulldogs an unassailable lead in time-on of the last quarter. A game that seemed destined for a heart-stopping finish was suddenly burst open by these brilliant Dogs, who kicked the last three goals of the game – two through Liam Picken either side of Boyd’s goal.
That gave the Bulldogs’ fans a chance to soak up the monumental achievement as Beveridge raced down from the coaches’ box to embrace with young midfielder Clay Smith on the boundary.
It was not all smooth sailing for the Bulldogs, though.
Is it ever?
There were periods in the game when it looked as though Sydney was getting on top.
After the Bulldogs had won a 16-point lead early in the second quarter, the Swans hit back with four of the next six goals to lead by two at half-time.
While there were 11 goals shared in a free-flowing second term, there was only three goals shared in each of the first and third quarters.
An eight-point three-quarter time lead was never going to be safe for the Bulldogs – not with Swans superstar Lance Franklin wanting to leave his mark.
When Franklin trimmed the lead back to one point, it was fingernail-biting time for the Bulldogs.
Then Jake Stringer produced a miracle snap goal from the pack to have the Bulldogs fans believing again.
Not even a goal from Swans youngster George Hewett could swing the momentum back for the interstate side.
Picken swooped to goal on the run from 35 metres out, Boyd launched his third goal from 60 metres and the icing on the cake was provided by Picken, who gathered the spilled ball in the square and launched it over the goal umpire’s hat to spark wild celebrations in the Bulldogs camp.
“Everything was racing,” Beveridge said. “There’s almost like there’s not enough time to win it, but there’s plenty of time to lose it … it felt like going into half-time that we were in a little bit of trouble because Sydney had momentum, they bit back and we needed to dig deep again and find a way.
“In the end, we had the even contribution of the 22. In big games like this, you have to have that.
“To get a little gap at the end of the game was amazing.”
