The Western Bulldogs finally break losing streak.
In a nail-bitingly close NAB Cup game, the Western Bulldogs finally ended their losing streak against last year’s minor premiers the Hawthorne Hawks, reports Fox Sports.
The Bulldogs managed to hold on to a one point lead at the end of three quarters of the match to deny the Hawks their first win of the season.
Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney was impressed with his team’s resilience in showing a determination which had been lacking from the Bulldogs since halfway through last season.
“They wanted to hang in there,” he said.
“That was a good sign because we haven’t been able to do that for a while now.”
The match was being used by the AFL as a trial for a proposed limit on the number of interchanges that teams are allowed during a game. Currently there are unlimited interchanges in AFL games but the change would see that limited to just 80.
Hawthorne coach Alistair Clarkson was vocal in his opinion that the rule change would be a bad direction for the AFL claiming that he spent half the match against the Bulldogs counting interchange numbers instead of coaching.
“I reckon it’s an enormous risk to take with what’s a pretty good game at the moment,” said Clarkson.
Both teams found the new rules difficult although neither reached the interchange cap.
However, the shortened games of the NAB Cup do not allow an accurate representation of how the interchange rule would affect the game.
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