ADELAIDE'S finals hopes have been extinguished by a 17-pointloss to the rejuvenated Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Sunday night.
Dogs pair Tory Dickson and Tom Campbell bagged 10 goalsbetween them – comprising personal-best hauls of six and four respectively – tolift their side from a 22-point deficit late in the third term to win 20.11(131) to 17.12 (114).
In a fluctuating shootout under the roof, the Bulldogsextended their lead to three goals on three separate occasions but looked gonewhen the Crows piled on six consecutive goals in the third term.
But the young Dogs responded with nine of the next 11 goalsto celebrate Adam Cooney's 200th game in style against a team desperate to playfinals.
The Bulldogs' turnaround in form has been stunning.
After being overrun by Melbourne in round 14, the Bulldogswere 16th with a 3-10 record, but have won four of their past seven games,including upsets of finals hopefuls West Coast, Carlton and now Adelaide.
Potential All Australian ruckman Will Minson dominated hisopponent Sam Jacobs for much of the contest and often provided midfielders TomLiberatore and Ryan Griffen with silver service at stoppages.
Dogs stoppers Mitch Wallis and Daniel Cross limited theeffectiveness of Crows stars Patrick Dangerfield and Rory Sloane, respectively.
Meanwhile, Crows skipper Nathan van Berlo had his hands fullwith Griffen, who was superb again as he continues his career-best season.
Bernie Vince (27 touches, one goal) and Andy Otten (threegoals in attack) were among Adelaide's best contributors.
Proud Bulldogs coach Brendan McCartney said it was a good,hard-fought result for the club.
"They actually challenged us where we've been reallystrong and I guess that's the competition … we've been really dominant in someareas and they beat us at that for a fair bit of the game," he saidpost-match.
"In the last quarter we probably got back to what we dobest and won some contests and got the ball in some space and converted prettywell."
Crows coach Brenton Sanderson said he was "reallydisappointed" about the manner in which his side played out the game.
"It's a loss that we shouldn't have had," hesaid.
"The Bulldogs are a good young side and they're playingsome good footy, but when you get into positions like that, it's happening toomuch to our young team … it's something we've got to fix straight away."
The Bulldogs kicked two quick goals at the start of thethird term to extend their lead to 17 points before the Crows took completecontrol, making the home side's effort to swing the pendulum all the moremeritorious.
The Crows haven’t beaten the Dogs at Etihad Stadium since2002, with the Bulldogs now stretching this winning streak to five games.
Next week the Dogs travel to the Gabba to take on theBrisbane Lions, while the Crows host Melbourne at AAMI Stadium.
