{"id":66512,"date":"2026-08-06T13:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/66512\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T13:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T13:43:18","slug":"kangaroos-deal-major-blow-to-bulldogs-wildcard-bid-as-afl-world-reacts-to-cats-non-sanction-over-concussion-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/66512\/","title":{"rendered":"Kangaroos deal major blow to Bulldogs’ wildcard bid as AFL world reacts to Cats non-sanction over concussion saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AlastairAlastair Clarkson (left) was abuzz as his side finally recorded a win against a top-eight opponent. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

North Melbourne has pulled off their best win of the Alastair Clarkson era, inflicting a costly 23-point defeat upon the Western Bulldogs at Docklands Stadium.<\/p>\n

Challenged several times, after leading by as much as 28 points, the plucky Kangaroos held their nerve in a Thursday night thriller to beat the Bulldogs for the first time since 2019.<\/p>\n

Inspired by forward Paul Curtis and midfielder Luke Davies-Uniacke (29 possessions, two goals), North won 15.10 (100) to 11.11 (77) to end a five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

Despite enjoying their best season in seven years, North was yet to beat an opponent above them on the ladder before facing the eighth-placed Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Unlike previous winnable games when they crumbled late, the Kangaroos fended off the desperate Bulldogs, led by captain Marcus Bontempelli and fellow star Ed Richards.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs, who missed the finals when they finished ninth under the previous system last year, face a precarious final fortnight of the home-and-away season.<\/p>\n

A win against North would have guaranteed them a wildcard spot, at the very least, but they will need to beat in-form Carlton or Melbourne to be guaranteed of not missing the finals.<\/p>\n

In a further concern for the Bulldogs, ruckman Tim English was in discomfort with his knee late in the final quarter and was assessed in the rooms.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe loss was a massive blow to the Bulldogs’ bid for a wildcard spot. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

North had to play with a man down for entire second half after defender Aidan Corr suffered issues with his back and was ruled out for the rest of the night.<\/p>\n

The win for the Kangaroos was set-up by a exhilarating first quarter from Curtis \u2014 the fourth-highest rated quarter of his career \u2014 who kicked the opening two goals and brought down a mark of the year contender.<\/p>\n

Curtis finished with a game-high four goals and 19 possessions to dominate opponent Michael Sellwood.<\/p>\n

The stirring win comes at a crucial time for Clarkson, who has faced questions about his future coming towards the end of his fourth season in charge at North.<\/p>\n

The four-time Hawthorn premiership coach is contracted until the end of the season, but a push for change could have come with a poor end to this campaign.<\/p>\n

But this result will quieten that noise and ensure he starts 2027 coaching at Arden St.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alastair Clarkson (left) was abuzz as his side finally recorded a win against a top-eight opponent. (Getty Images)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[77,191,260,4660,261,5069,3048],"class_list":["post-66512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-afl","tag-live","tag-melbourne","tag-north-melbourne-kangaroos","tag-sport","tag-updates","tag-western-bulldogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}