‘No reason’: Bulldogs set eyes on unprecedented five-match flag miracle

The Western Bulldogs must break new ground by winning five finals to claim the premiership, but one of the club’s important midfielders believes the Herculean task is not beyond them.

Forced into playing an “extra” final under the AFL’s expanded top 10 system, the eighth-placed Bulldogs must achieve footy’s equivalent of rounding Cape Horn in their pursuit of the 2026 flag.

Should they somehow pull off a flag triumph, it would, remarkably, probably exceed the club’s stunning drought-breaking premiership a decade ago when they rode extraordinary finals momentum to claim the flag from seventh spot.

Emerging midfielder Joel Freijah says the club can adopt a “why not” attitude in chasing a flag from the lower rungs. Asked if the Bulldogs were capable of doing more than just inflicting damage on opponents through September, the 20-year-old said: “Yeah, definitely.

“We’ve just got to fine-tune our game a little bit, for us. We’ve been doing that over the last month.

The Bulldogs rooms were rocking on Friday night after they held on for the slender wildcard final victory over Collingwood – a win achieved before a bumper crowd and at a venue that is normally a black and white fortress.

The three-point triumph was achieved in front of a bumper 81,036-strong crowd in an intense finals environment . It was the Bulldogs’ second-largest crowd since they won the 2016 premiership against Sydney in front of 99,981 fans.

“Unbelievable game. Unbelievable last 10 minutes. It would have been amazing to watch as spectators. A brilliant game of football,” said Freijah.

“Credit to them – they’re an amazing side, a high-pressure side. It was a high-pressure game all night.

“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, and challenges this year as a team.

“To have a win like this in front of a massive crowd is unbelievable. We love playing at this ground – we wish we played more here but, yeah, it’s awesome.”

Amid debate about the status of wildcard finals and a mid-week rebuke from AFL boss Andrew Dillon to Freijah’s teammate Ed Richards who said Friday night’s clash against Collingwood was akin to “round 25”, Freijah was left with the feeling that he’d played “a real final”.

“We finished eighth in the end, so we didn’t really need the wildcard [round or game],” he said.

“We’re [entering] into the real deal now, but that was a final. That was a real final. That was great.”