FIND out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Saturday, July 2, 2011

Herald Sun

Loss could haunt Dees in finals race
By Scott Gullan

MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey has acknowledged his team took a significant step back last night after yet another blowout loss. The mental fragility of the Demons was again exposed, this time by a rejuvenated Western Bulldogs team that kicked six goals to one in the final term to win by 64 points in what looms as a season-defining game for both clubs. Given the events of the week for Melbourne, with the death of one of the club's greats, Sean Wight, the lack of fight and spirit was a concerning to Bailey. "I reckon it's a step back tonight, absolutely," Bailey said. "Friday night game in front of a big audience and obviously the emotion of the week, so then to not start particularly well ... we had our opportunities but we didn't take them."

Snappy Dogs back to their best
By Mark Robinson

IN the season-long search for lost treasures, the Western Bulldogs last night finally found the X that marks the spot. The X was Adam Cooney. The spot was the flanks and wings of Etihad Stadium. Cooney's performance in his team's rousing 64-point victory against Melbourne wasn't just about numbers. In the first half he had 14 possessions, a team-high four tackles, four clearances and a goal. He finished with 26 touches, six tackles, seven clearances. Cooney showed athleticism and acceleration, the two qualities that made him a standout No.1 draft pick, and in 2008 the Brownlow medallist. Time and again, the rejuvenated Cooney would burst from stoppages and explode down the ground. With best afield Ryan Griffen, he carved open a Demons team that lacked composure and clean hands and had a forward line that didn't function. The Demons should be brutal in their self-analysis. Ten goals isn't an unlucky margin and it was a performance that not only lacked authority, but also the ability by a player - any player - to change the course of events. In essence, it lacked oomph. The Demons laid 90-odd tackles last week in their win against Richmond. Last night they laid just 10 in the first quarter, and improved that to 19, 32, and 12 across the next three quarters. Such an improvement in the middle two quarters, but the result could not be seen on the ground or on the scoreboard. The midfield was beaten (save for Jack Trengove and, at a pinch, Jordie McKenzie), the forward line didn't have a consistent target (Liam Jurrah beaten by Robert Murphy, Brad Green held by Dale Morris), and the Bulldogs' pressure made almost everything hard work. For a statement game it was a miserable effort, and it continues to be two steps forward, one step back for Dean Bailey's boys. Not so for the Dogs.

The Age

Dogs feast at picnic
By Rohan Connolly

IN THE end, it was a picnic. Actually, in the beginning it was a picnic, too. Just a slightly more competitive one. But if hard, bruising football and red-hot intensity was what you were after, last night wasn't your game. Not that it would have worried the Western Bulldogs particularly. They were tough enough when they had to be, their biggest names - Ryan Griffen, Adam Cooney and Daniel Giansiracusa - all stood up, and they were able to restore at least by a few more degrees the confidence that had been stripped away by such an abject start to the season. But it wasn't a great look for Melbourne, which had a spot in the eight to protect, and could have put a two-and-a-half game gap between itself and its opponent. Instead, it's now half-a-game, a fate no more than the Demons' lack of fire in the belly deserved. They'd lost their previous 10 games at Etihad Stadium, and frankly, seemed to lack the will to prevent that becoming 11.

Bulldogs best of the year
By Michael Gleeson

THE Western Bulldogs' ability to get their best players back and playing well had not uncoincidentally also delivered them their best performance of the year in defeating Melbourne, coach Rodney Eade said. The 64-point win over the Demons in front of 29,516 people at Etihad Stadium had salvaged their Dogs' season and left them on the fringe of the eight and determined to make the finals, Eade said. Melbourne was left to ride its rollercoaster into a week of misery, stretching its losing streak at the Docklands ground to 11. "That's the best we have played this year, no doubt," Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said. "On a few fronts, the consistency of it for sure, certainly being able to kick enough goals. Our ball use was better but our pressure was a lot more consistent and we were able to create a lot more turnovers.

Bulldogs take evening stroll along the avenue
By Greg Baum

AT ETIHAD Stadium last night, the Western Bulldogs had more avenues to goal than Melbourne, and more luck with goalkicking, and more poise in front of goal, and kicked lots more goals. Thus they won their third game in a row, by this year's standard a streak. Sometimes football is that simple. Barry Hall kicked three in the first half, one from a mark taken while standing stock still; two Demon defenders bounced off him as if off a closed door. Adam Cooney, playing with his old aplomb, made a silk purse of a sow's ear. Running with the flight of the ball towards goal, he judged that he would reach it, and was open to a shirtfront from an onrushing Melbourne backman if he tried. So he let the ball bounce, then lashed it almost on the half-volley with his right foot. In that moment, he was more Rooney than Cooney. By these goals, the Bulldogs led. The second quarter began with two strokes of luck for the Bulldogs. One was a marginal 50-metre penalty that put Callan Ward at pointblank range. Then Shaun Higgins flew early and recklessly over Jack Trengove in the Bulldogs' forward pocket, and when the whistle sounded, every nearby player made dutifully for the wide-open spaces upfield. Instead, the free kick was paid against Trengove, whose merest glimpse over his shoulder at the launching Higgins was ruled to be a shepherd. Goal kicked.

The Australian

Bulldogs of old show life in the kennel
By Stephen Rielly

ONE streak appeared to begin and another most definitely lengthened at Etihad Stadium last night when the Western Bulldogs humbled Melbourne by 64 points. For the first time in a troubled year, the Dogs offered something of their former selves, to win not only their third game on the trot but defeat a side that was, at the first bounce at least, in the top eight. Given the starstruck season it has been for the red, blue and whites, it was almost like going back in time last night when Ryan Griffen, Adam Cooney, Daniel Giansiracusa and Callan Ward hit a high note as one. They shared 104 possessions and nine goals. Barry Hall kicked three first-half goals and Shaun Higgins, at half-back, rediscovered much of the sweet form that has been lost to him for months. It was like old times, with a swaggering centre-square performance from an elite group reunited, fit and quicker by mind, hand and foot. Especially by foot. Carlton next Sunday afternoon might prove to be a mountain too high to climb, but for the first time since the earliest weeks of the season the Bulldogs vaguely resemble the side most expected them to be this year. It wasn't the venue that consigned Melbourne to its seventh loss of the season, a defeat likely to tumble the Demons from the eight. And yet it has become difficult to discuss Dean Bailey's side and not take into account its record at Etihad. The Demons have not won at the stadium in Bailey's near four seasons in charge. They have now lost their past 11 matches at the ground and not once in all of those encounters have they surpassed 100 points.