Bulldogs celebrating their Round 10 win. (Photo: Western Bulldogs/Website)
The Western Bulldogs will be making its first finals appearance since the sides’ historic premiership win back in 2018. Four years removed from that soggy and historic day, the Bulldogs are chomping at the bit to take on Collingwood on Sunday.
Speaking to the media ahead of the side’s clash against the Magpies, Bulldogs skipper Ellie Blackburn said there’s a lot of excitement around the club to be back playing finals footy.
“It was really exciting for us,” Blackburn said.
“Obviously we wanted to win one more convincingly and secured a spot in the finals sooner than we did, but footy has funny ways of working at times, and for us to be in finals the way we are.
“There’s a lot of excitement around our group at the moment, we’re really hyped at the moment and to be back playing finals footy, we haven’t been here in a while so it’s good to be back.”
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There are only a few players left from that historic 2018 win, with Blackburn being one of them. Blackburn says that as a side, they’ll lean on those players as much as possible but also admits that the young pups are reading and raring to go for Sunday.
“I mean it’s an exciting opportunity for us isn’t it, I think there’s only a handful of players that were there in 2018.
“So we sort of lean on those players as much as possible to share their experience and get the group up and about for the game itself and for finals in general. The youth that we have is just pure excitement so they’re ready to go and they can’t wait to play on Sunday.”
It’s been a hard few weeks, with the Bulldogs captain being in doubt for the round 10 clash against Carlton, but Blackburn says that she’s grateful for the support from the Bulldogs.
“Obviously it’s been a tough couple of weeks for me personally but the club has been incredible with the support they’ve offered me and the way that they managed me particularly through last week.
“I’m nothing but grateful and thankful for the way they supported me throughout it and was able to get through the game relatively ok and have pulled up really good.”
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