- The captain had been sick all week.
- He had missed training and was in doubt for the crash
- He came out and gave a master class.
There was no stopping inspirational Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Montempelli as he overcame illness to score one of the most accurate goals under pressure you will see in AFL football.
Coach Luke Beveridge had backed captain Marcus Bontempelli to overcome illness and take the lead in the Western Bulldogs’ clash against Fremantle after the 28-year-old missed the entire week of training.
“He’s been sick,” Beveridge said Friday.
—He was also a criminal a couple of weeks ago. In fact, that was before the game against Collingwood, and he came out and played an extremely influential game.
“He hasn’t trained with the group this week. He comes today; tomorrow is a fairly early game, so we will hardly do anything about our captain’s career.
“He’s had a different preparation and, as you know and can understand with him, it’s going to take something pretty big to stop him from playing.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t affect him too much.”
Not only was the Bulldogs ace unscathed, he was inspiring, recording 15 disposals, two goals and eight goal involvements before half-time.
That included his crazy second goal, beating three defenders to break in a huge goal that stunned some of the game’s greatest.
Bontempelli escaped the attention of three Fremantle defenders to score a huge goal for the Bulldogs on Saturday.
The goal came after the Bulldogs captain had been ill all week and missed training.
“Certainly not,” Brisbane Lions champion Jonathan Brown said.
Bontempelli stepped up, evaded three defenders and scored the goal to give the Bulldogs a healthy lead at halftime.
‘How good is the Bont? He is the best, of the best, of the best.’
Garry Lyon was also shocked in the comments.
“Not only did I have three to beat, one of them was captain Alex Pearce and he’s as good as any defender, you’ve got Luke Ryan in there joining in and (Karl) Worner comes in, take a look at him. three (defenders),’ he said in the comment.
“It’s not enough, you need the whole team there,” Brown responded.
“That’s amazing,” Lyon continued.
‘To score him first to halve the contest, then he refused to give up the ground ball and then kicked a goal.
‘I know right after this we’re going to celebrate another modern great in Dusty (Martin).
“But right now, just enjoy the fact that you’re watching one of his peers and contemporaries do his thing at the highest level.”
Fans also quickly took to social media to praise Bontempelli.
“I don’t care what anyone says, Marcus Bontempelli is the best Bulldog of all time,” one posted.
‘Marcus Bontempelli is just a weirdo!!! “How lucky the @westernbulldogs are to have a player like that leading their team,” added another.
;Wow. Bontempelli. Simply incredible. He may be an opposition player but you can’t help but admire him,” another posted.