Bob Murphy believes the Western Bulldogs would have struggled to overcome West Coast in their 2016 Elimination Final if it wasn’t for the pre-finals bye.
Luke Beveridge’s side were beaten by Fremantle in the final round of the home-and-away season and were pitted against the Eagles in a do-or-die final in Perth.
Murphy was thankful the team had another week to prepare for the clash after watching them train following the Dockers loss.
“That was the first year of the bye and I saw the boys train a couple of days before,” Murphy told This is your Sporting Life, proudly brought to you by Tobin Brothers Funerals - Celebrating Lives Every day.
“Libba (Tom Liberatore) couldn’t run … if we had have played that weekend it could have been pretty miserable.
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“We were flogged by Fremantle; it was almost that aberration game. But it was at the same ground which kind of proved a blessing in disguise.
“They had the weekend off and then they came back and trained on the Monday and I just remember looking on in amazement thinking: 'Wow, we’ll win and win well.’”
The Bulldogs thumped West Coast by 44 points and went on to beat Hawthorn, GWS and Sydney en route to their first premiership in 62 years.
Listen to Bob Murphy’s chat on This is Your Sporting Life, proudly brought to you by Tobin Brothers Funerals - Celebrating Lives Every day with Peter Donegan in the player below
