Hoping to avoid the disgrace of winning the AFL premiership, only to miss the finals the following season, the Western Bulldogs need to finish their run home strongly and hope for some help from other sides to help them ascend from 11th on the ladder to one of the top eight slots.
The Bulldogs have an identical won/loss record to the No. 10 Essendon Bombers and the two sides are tied at 28 premiership points, but the Dons have a clear advantage of over 10 points in percentage. The West Coast Eagles, currently in ninth, look vulnerable. Their run home seems to be the toughest of the three sides.
The Western Bulldogs are obviously anxious to avoid being the first team to win the flag, and then miss the finals the following season. The last AFL club to suffer that fate was the Hawthorn Hawks in 2009. Hawthorn Hawk star Luke Hodges remembers the sensation of that dubious distinction, but he feels that describing the Bulldogs’ travails in the 2017 Toyota AFL Premiership competition as “premiership hangover” is unwarranted.
The primary basis for Hodges’ assertion seems to be that the Bulldogs were not the best team for the entirety of the 2016 season. It was only the last four games that got them into the finals. Winning the premiership in 2016 might have created unrealistic expectations of invincibility in 2017, something the ladder refutes vehemently.
In the entire world of sports, league champions often qualify for post-season play the following year, but repeat champions are rare. A four times consecutive winner, such as the Hawks appeared poised to do last year, is even more uncommon, so Hodge has walked the walk and therefore, deserves to talk the talk. The genuine threat is complacency, combined with a dose on invulnerability, but a loss or two to lesser ranked opponents and injuries to key players is often the harsh medicine premiers deal with following the top prize.
