Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has labelled his side's six-point victory over Melbourne on Sunday one of the best during his AFL coaching career.
The Dogs needed to beat Melbourne to keep its season alive and while favoured to win by ladder position, Melbourne played one of its best games of the season off the back of coach Simon Goodwin's sacking during the week.
Melbourne had arguably its best quarter of the season in the third term, turning a 10-point halftime deficit into a 10-point three-quarter-time lead and leading all the key metrics as it appeared they would run away with it.
Ed Richards, Tom Liberatore and Marcus Bontempelli helped flip the script in the last quarter, with the result keeping the Dogs within a game of Gold Coast, Hawthorn and GWS with two rounds to play – the Suns have three games remaining.
“We've had some monumental wins over the course of my time at the club and this is one of the best,” Beveridge said at his post-match press conference.
“It really is, because at three quarter time, the game had gone south and even if you think about our journey this year, I said the other day we've been really honest, but we've lost a handle on the games at different times with some momentum shifts.
“Sometimes it's self-inflicted and skill based.
“We lost our feet a lot today, we hit the ground too often and we turned the ball over...by overusing handball on a day where Melbourne's pressure was pretty good.
“(For) the boys to settle themselves at three quarter time and spread the load and work through the game - they hit the front again - I just think is outstanding.
“It's really important for us, I said to the boys after the game ‘our journey is beyond this year' so this afternoon is a really important one to have in the memory bank.”
The coach also complemented lesser lights Rhylee West, sub Riley Garcia and Joel Freijah who complemented the Dogs guns well and helped them win in a different way and shift momentum.
Sam Darcy was another to stand up late, taking a game-saving mark going back with the flight into a big pack, putting his body on the line in a show of tremendous courage.
It followed Darcy finding West inside 50 who kicked the sealing goal, with those moments coming after a relatively quiet day by the young forward's high standards.
“It was huge,” Beveridge said.
“We changed the ruck situation because of the day he was having.
“Things weren't going right, and he ended up going into the ruck and sharing some time with Tim (English).
“We kept ‘Lobby' in the back end so it's a prerogative thing and ‘Lobby' gives us enormous stability and we needed him to stay out there especially after we subbed Jedd Busslinger off.
“It mightn't be your day but it might be your moment and (Sam) had a couple of critical moments.
“That was a sensational mark he took there.”
