Round 15
	V
Western Bulldogs 14.9 (93)		Port Adelaide 15.18 (108)

The Western Bulldogs did themselves no favours on Sunday, throwing away three quarters of hard work by self-destructing in the final quarter as league leaders Port Adelaide narrowly avoided an embarrassing defeat.

This match – between the teams on top and bottom of the ladder heading into round 15 – loomed as one of the great mismatches, but for much of the game the Bulldogs threatened to pull off the biggest upset in the AFL since last placed Fitzroy beat top-placed West Coast in the final round of 1991.

But with the game in the balance after three tight quarters, the Bulldogs committed two of the worst errors imaginable and the kind of errors which bottom sides repeatedly make.

And Port made the Bulldogs pay as a top side should to ultimately record an unconvincing but important 15.18 (108) to 14.9 (93) victory before fewer than 15,000 fans at the Telstra Dome.

The victory put the Power back on top of the ladder while condemning the Bulldogs to a 14th consecutive match without a victory since their only win of the season back in round one.

But until the Bulldogs two last quarter ‘howlers’, Port looked anything but a possible premiership team while the Bulldogs did not look wooden spoon material.

The first of the Dogs’ costly last quarter mistakes came at the seven minute mark of the final term when Robert Murphy’s dreadful kick out of defence went straight to Roger James, who punished the home side with a goal.

That goal gave the Power a two goal lead – incredibly their biggest lead of the game to that stage – and when Brian Harris committed an almost identical error with a poor kick out of defence five minutes later, it resulted in a goal to Byron Pickett and the Bulldogs’ brave challenge was over.

Led by the much-maligned but suddenly revived Nathan Eagleton, the Bulldogs earlier were good value for their one point lead at quarter-time and three point lead at half-time.

However as early as the third quarter the signs were there that the Power were finally starting to awake from a performance that was surprisingly lethargic considering they were coming off a shock one point loss at Geelong last week.

In fact it was only poor kicking for goal – a wasteful 4.6 in the third term - which kept the league leaders from taking control of the game earlier.

But once the Bulldogs had committed football suicide through their costly last quarter turnovers, the Power were able to cruise home in the final minutes – even though several key players such as Nick Stevens, Josh Carr and Stuart Dew were well below their best form.

However the Power still had their two proven match-winners in Gavin Wanganeen and Warren Tredrea in top form and that ultimately proved the difference.

Wanganeen was dominant across half-back all day, setting up numerous attacks in his trademark loping style while Tredrea kicked six match-winning goals in attack.

Tredrea’s height and strength again ruthlessly exposed the Bulldogs lack of height and class in attack while how embattled Bulldogs’ coach Peter Rohde would have wished for a player like Tredrea in his attack.

Instead the Bulldogs had to rely on veteran Matthew Croft to provide a target in attack when Rohde also needed him at the other end to contain Tredrea.

It’s the main reason the Bulldogs are firmly entrenched on the bottom of the ladder – a lack of quality key position players – but if they can match their effort against Port Adelaide in the weeks ahead when they come up against lesser teams than that elusive second win will not be far away.

And as for Port Adelaide coach Mark Williams will be desperately hoping for a lift in his team’s performance in the next fortnight when they tackle the two teams immediately below them on the ladder – West Coast and Brisbane.

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