The Western Bulldogs have won a low-scoring battle of attrition against a slumping GWS side, who have crashed to a fourth loss in five AFL games.
Both sides struggled to score in wet and slippery conditions at ENGIE Stadium on Saturday, with the Bulldogs grinding their way to an 8.22 (70) to 6.7 (43) win.
It was the Bulldogs' first win outside Melbourne this season and only the second time they have logged successive victories in 2024.
Despite their low conversion rate they were still too efficient for a Giants team playing at their main home ground for the first time since round one in mid-March.
It was the Giants' lowest score in coach Adam Kingsley’s tenure and they kicked just two goals after halftime. The result means they could drop to seventh by the end of the round.
The Bulldogs' more direct style suited the conditions and GWS were unable to play their much-vaunted "tsunami football" that propelled them to a 6-1 start to the season.
While the Bulldogs squandered plenty of opportunities, kicking 0.5 in the first quarter and hitting the posts seven times through the game, they were more effective at getting the ball into scoring areas.
“We don’t usually play a surge ... sort of game, we like to share it and create,” Beveridge said.
“I felt we were really composed and stuck to what they know together and what they are building together.
“We feel like over the last two weeks it just reminds us if we are doing it for long enough then it’s going to be difficult to beat the Bulldogs."
Beveridge cited the presence of four Indigenous players at his club for Sir Doug Nicholls Round, the 200th game of Taylor Duryea and the recent enforced retirement through concussion issues of Aiden O’Connor as motivational emotional factors.
“Thats important for Aiden to know that his teammates really felt pretty emotional about him this week more than ever, and I feel that influenced the way we played too,” Beveridge said.
Adam Treloar, Ed Richards and Jack McRae won plenty of ball and James Harmes followed up his four-goal haul last week with two, and Sam Darcy also kicked two majors.
GWS had just two goalkickers, with Jesse Hogan booting three in his 150th game and captain Toby Greene bagging the other three.
Giants coach Kingsley said the Bulldogs played the conditions better and his team had to provide better service to their forwards, with just 40 and 41 entries in their past two games.
“We’ve got to get our backsides in gear, but our last month of footy hasn’t been at the same level,” he said.
“We’ve become a little bit unreliable to one another within our system, and that breaks us down a little bit too often.
“There’s a combination of reasons for that. We’ll get to work on that, try and fix it, but we’ve got to pull our fingers out
“The competition is very close, there’s a logjam between that middle part of the ladder that we are part of now, and we need to make sure we keep our heads above water as best we can.”
