BY NIC NEGREPONTIS
Fairytales do happen.
From this moment on, the 2016 Grand Final will be the measuring stick all future winners are measured against.
But how did such an improbable finals performance come to be?
While the Western Bulldogs were unquestionably the best team in September, they didn’t finish August particularly well, dropping their round 23 match against 16th placed Fremantle to close off the season.
Yes, they left key players out and yes, the game meant absolutely nothing, but it will be an interesting bit of trivia to accompany what they accomplished when 2016 is reflected on.
The bye that followed is important because it gave the Bulldogs a week between Perth trips and allowed key injured players a chance to play in the elimination final.
Based on the season, the Bulldogs were a better side than West Coast Eagles, but a home advantage and recent form left them as justifiable underdogs.
They accounted for the Eagles, returned home from Perth and awaited the result of the following night’s qualifying final between the Hawks and the Cats.
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The Bulldogs beat the Swans when they met during the season.
An errant shot on goal by Hawthorn midfielder Isaac Smith and the Dogs had their second opponents. That kick was a moment out of their control, but it shaped their playing future – if Smith’s kick had graced the other side of the post, who knows how the finals series would have played out.
The next match was a tough call. The Bulldogs had done well to get this far, but they next had to face the reigning premiers, a team that had won 15 other last 18 finals at the MCG.
But this Dogs outfit declared themselves ready to end the Hawthorn era. They tore the Hawks to shreds with as good a second half of footy as any footy fan would want to see.
With that win, the Dogs had comprehensively beaten both of last year’s grand finalists. There was a whiff of something potentially epic in the air, but still only a whiff. At this stage their shot at the flag seemed the longest of the four remaining teams.
All eyes turn to a historic preliminary final between two teams looking to make history. In the orange corner were the GWS Giants, the youngest team in the competition, whose rise to the top rolled in like a Game of Thrones winter, and in the blue corner, a side that hadn’t won a flag in 62 years.
The theme of the day seemed to be a battle between a side that was "gifted" success and a team that had waited six decades for it.
Of course, these Giants, helmed by former Bulldog 150-gamer Leon Cameron, earned their spot through stellar coaching and list management, and if the Bulldogs wanted their spot in the finale, they would have to find something special.
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Stand-in Bulldogs captain Easton Wood shared the cup with Bob Murphy after the Grand Final
There was no breaking away from GWS like they did with their previous opponents. The match was still up for grabs deep into the contest.
But again, they did it.
If there’s one word to sum up the Western Bulldogs in 2016 it’s resiliency, and this finals series showed that every test they faced in the regular season (injuries, brawls between teammates and a CEO quitting) was just a warm-up for the real deal.
They went into the Grand Final after three of the toughest of victories – last year’s grand finalists in Perth, the team going for four successive premierships, and the prodigal child of the competition at home – and they had done it all from seventh place on the ladder.
The Swans knew the Bulldogs’ position all too well, having ended their long premiership drought 11 years earlier.
Now a powerhouse of the competition, the Swans had Geelong beaten from the opening moments of their preliminary final and came into the Grand Final as clear favourites.
For the fourth straight week, the general feeling for the Bulldogs was admiration mixed with doubts about whether they had what it took to make it all the way.
Even on paper it looked like a Sydney win. Official AFL statistics provider Champion Data had Sydney going in to the match with a stronger side and more of their best 22 players available, and in about 70 per cent of matches this year, the team in that position walked away victorious.
The underdog pun was thrown around a lot in the days leading up to the match. Even when the game started, it still seemed appropriate.
Even though the Bulldogs led for the majority of the contest, it always seemed like Sydney were a goal away from pushing the game their way.
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Lance Franklin brought the margin back to a point, but it wasn't enough.
When Lance Franklin slotted a trademark goal in the fourth quarter to bring the margin back to one point, the Swans looked as if they were going to run over the top.
Enter Tom Boyd, who had already silenced his critics with his performance in the previous three quarters, but his goal on the run from outside 50 can only be described as one of the most important moments in the Bulldogs' history.
Liam Picken followed it up and put the final nail in the coffin for the Swans.
If you could pick two players in this Bulldogs side to kick the winners, you’d be hard-pressed to find a duo that told a better story.
And that was it … they'd done it. A better script for a sporting event couldn’t be written; it was almost too perfect.
The cherry on top – and one of the great moments in sporting history – came when coach Luke Beveridge called injured heart-and-soul captain Bob Murphy to the stage to give him his own premiership medal. It brought one of the biggest ovations ever heard inside the 162-year-old MCG.
It will be one of those moment that everyone who saw it will pass on to the next generation.
For one gloriously improbable month, we were all children of the west.