Plenty of son shine as Bulldogs blast lowly Eagles

Roger Vaughan | August 17, 2025

Depending on your outlook, it was either a glorious endorsement of the AFL’s father-son rule, or the damning indictment of why the system needs changing.

Western Bulldogs star Sam Darcy (dad Luke, 226 games) handballed to Tom Liberatore (dad Tony, 283 games), who passed to debutant Jordan Croft (dad Matthew, 186 games), who took a great mark and kicked his first goal on debut.

With Rhylee West (dad Scott, 324 games) also busy in attack, the Bulldogs thrashed wooden spooners West Coast by 94 points on Sunday at Marvel Stadium.

The 19.12 (126) to 4.8 (32) win left the Bulldogs eighth on the ladder and sets up a massive clash next Sunday against Fremantle at the same venue. If Gold Coast win at least one of their two games in round 24 as expected, the loser of the Bulldogs-Dockers clash will miss the finals.

So the Bulldogs and Fremantle effectively start their finals series next Sunday, with coach Luke Beveridge noting they had to beat GWS this time last year to make the eight.

“It (the West Coast win) is a promising day on a number of fronts … for both clubs, (next Sunday) is a big day,” Beveridge said.

“It was a mixture tonight – our stoppage strength wasn’t really on show, but our offence and defensive elements were pretty good.”

There is plenty of ongoing commentary about the father-son rule, which the AFL has decided against changing.

St Kilda in particular have been vocal  in saying it skews the draft too much. Under the rule, the Bulldogs had easy access to Liberatore, Darcy, West and now Croft because their fathers played at least 100 games for the club.

“It’s a beautiful thing. Family in footy, it’s something special,” Beveridge said.

“It doesn’t matter what I say, because people will say ‘well, you’re going to say that’.

“I’m hoping they protect it.”

Much of the pre-game chat had been around how many goals Darcy would kick, and he looked ready for a day out with the first two of the game in the opening 11 minutes.

But Croft then lit up the second term, first taking a great mark. His kick from 50m was marked on the goal line by teammate Aaron Naughton, who duly converted.

Two minutes later the three father-sons combined for Croft’s first AFL goal, with Matthew celebrating in the stands.

Croft kicked another goal in the second term as the Bulldogs romped to a 56-point lead at the main break.

Lachie McNeil was hurt in a third-term collision and subbed out with a hip injury.

Darcy, West, Naughton and Sam Davidson all kicked three goals, while captain Marcus Bontempelli added two among his 31 disposals and 10 clearances in another best-afield performance.

The season cannot end quickly enough for the last-placed Eagles. Jamie Cripps’ final-term goal meant they avoided their lowest score at Marvel Stadium, by just two points.

But it was their lowest score and biggest losing margin this season.

“We just couldn’t quite stop any of their scoring and we clearly couldn’t score – pretty big parts of footy,” said Eagles coach Andrew McQualter.

Eagles star Liam Baker worked his backside off in defence. Young key forward Job Shanahan looks likely, but his finishing let him down and he kicked three behinds.