Bob Murphy began with a classy show of support for Adam Goodes and finished by leading his team to the verge of the top four when the Western Bulldogs thrashed Essendon by 87 points at Etihad Stadium.
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The Bulldogs' captain wore Goodes' No.37 for the coin toss before Sunday's big victory, adding to a weekend filled with match-day shows of support for the Sydney champion.
In addition to the entire Dogs' team wearing their club's indigenous jumper in support of Goodes – following the lead set by Richmond on Friday night – Murphy took his gesture a step further by wearing the No.37 on his guernsey during the warm-up for the match at Etihad Stadium.
Murphy, who last week called Goodes one of his heroes in a column for Fairfax Media on the booing controversy surrounding the dual Brownlow Medallist, then swapped back into his normal No.2 for the game and played his part in the Dogs' obliteration of the shell-shocked Bombers that all-but secured the Dogs a finals birth and perhaps even put them in the frame for a top-four position.
Ex-Bomber Stewart Crameri was the star, booting seven goals in a performance described by coach Luke Beveridge as fitting reward for a player who had suffered through the Essendon supplements scandal.
Beveridge said Crameri, who has spent a part of the season playing on the wing, was starting to reach peak form having built slowly from a pre-season interrupted because he had to sit out the NAB Challenge series.
"That was really challenging for him," Beveridge said. "Knowing that [he] couldn't play a game, that was the main thing that played on [his mind]," he said.
"So I spoke to him early and pretty much guaranteed him a spot... as long as he kept his training up.
"It didn't really work out for him and us early, but to his credit he went back to VFL level and it took him a few weeks to be selected.
"But we've seen the fruits of him putting his head down and working hard. So it would be nice to think that he's got a fair bit in him... for the back end of the year."
The 87-point margin was a timely percentage boost for the Dogs as they jostle with several other clubs for top eight positions, and Beveridge said he spoke to his players during the match about the importance of beating the Bombers by as much as possible.
"We haven't had a lot of opportunities to have big margins and today presented one so we spoke about… going for it and trying to stretch it out as much as we can," he said.
The Dogs' sixth win from seven matches moved the club into fifth position and within one game of fourth-placed Sydney by recording their 11th win of the season, leaving a club some experts tipped for the wooden spoon five games left to win the two matches they are likely to need to qualify for September.
And with matches against Port Adelaide (Etihad Stadium), Melbourne, West Coast (away), North Melbourne and Brisbane (away) a legitimate push for a double chance is now firmly on the radar after the 19.13 (127) to 5.10 (40) win over the Bombers.
In another high-quality offensive display, the Dogs' triple threat of medium-sized forwards proved what a dangerous force they could be for opposition teams by combining for 15 goals as the Dogs ran out to their second-highest score of the season.
Crameri had help from Jake Stringer and Tory Dickson, who both kicked four goals.
A 14-goal blitz from the Dogs across the second and third quarters meant that an underwhelming contest was over early, as the Dogs stayed true to their promise to stick with their high-risk, high-reward attacking system under coach Luke Beveridge.
The Dogs had 22 more inside 50s, 63-41, in a thoroughly one-sided match in which the Dogs' young talent again stepped up, with Lachie Hunter amassing a career-best 37 disposals and Mitch Wallis and Jason Johannisen, both with 26 disposals and a goal, producing big impacts in different ways.
