AT HALF-TIME Sydney Swans midfielder Josh Kennedy was the Western Bulldogs' most obvious impediment to victory.

In the second quarter, Kennedy had combined with Tom Mitchell and the pair gained 26 disposals and kicked four goals between them.

Kennedy's half-time disposal tally stood at 22, with nine contested possessions.

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He had kicked a crumbing goal and a stoppage goal to worry the Bulldogs, who were losing clearances 16 to 20.

Inside the Bulldogs' rooms with the margin two points in the Swans' favour, Cats' premiership teammates Steven King and Joel Corey – now Bulldogs assistant coaches – devised a cunning plan to curb the Swans' star's influence.

The inside midfielders responsible for Kennedy, mainly Marcus Bontempelli and Tom Liberatore, needed to put more body on the 188-centimetre champion at stoppages.

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If Kennedy was to win the football in tight, his disposal could not be clean because as coach Luke Beveridge noted post-game the Swans were getting "too much open ball and very difficult balls to defend."

It wasn't a case of tagging Kennedy because the Bulldogs thought they could beat him in open space.

What underpinned the plan was a desire to scrap and compete that the Bulldogs had shown all season.

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Liberatore was the right man to get under Kennedy's skin too, as he can strip a football off an unsuspecting opponent quicker than it takes most of us to push snooze on an alarm clock.

The Bulldogs had to start winning the ball at the source because their game depended on it.

The Bulldogs like their defenders to take aggressive starting positions so when they win the ball back they are in a position to score from turnovers quickly.

Clubs now time how long it takes between turnovers and forward 50 entries and the Bulldogs are renowned for being lightning on the counter-attack.

In the second quarter, that pace was on display when Isaac Heeney missed a handball on the wing and in less than 15 seconds Tory Dickson had snapped a goal.

Bulldogs defender Joel Hamling, who did an outstanding job on Lance Franklin, says Beveridge has taught the defenders to: "back yourself in with the flight of the ball … and have a go."

However with Kennedy and Mitchell winning the ball in tight, and inside 50s virtually even, the high half-backs Jason Johannisen, Shane Biggs and Matthew Boyd were too occupied defending to run creatively off half-back.

The Bulldogs also like to lock the ball in their front half and set up a diamond defence that can cover the opposition's outlets or dare them to kick before strangling them like a bunch of sheep dogs corralling startled sheep.

So the forwards needed to tighten up, lifting the pressure inside the forward half and limiting the Swans' switch-kick.

Liam Picken led the charge in that area and when pressure forced the Swans down the line, Tom Boyd stood tall.

Boyd took four contested marks in the third quarter and the ball spent six minutes and nine seconds longer in the Bulldogs' forward half than it had in the Swans.

All of a sudden, the Bulldogs' swarm was happening and they were transferring the ball quickly in space once their pressure won it back from the opposition.

Jack Macrae had 11 disposals in the third quarter and was involved in four scores, Bontempelli had six touches, Toby McLean six and the Bulldogs kicked 2.6 (18) for the quarter.

Most importantly, the Bulldogs won nine clearances to the Sydney Swans' six, winning five of the first seven clearances to win back the ascendancy.

The plan, devised at half-time, had put the game back in the Bulldogs' hands.

Kennedy, still as strong and courageous as he'd been in the first half, had six touches and kicked his third goal but the Bulldogs' plan, with 22 players committed to it, had put the game back on their terms. 

With confidence and an eight-point lead the premiership was there to win and when Jake Stringer did what he was born to do, kicking a stoppage goal 10 minutes into the final quarter the dream was becoming real.

The swarm and spread prevailed.

The willingness to keep the ball alive at all times had worn the Swans down and Kennedy could not tilt the scales back his teams' way.

There were outside runners everywhere as the crowd found a voice they had not found for 62 years.

The half-time plan had worked. It got back to its average time in forward half of seven minutes greater than the opposition.  

Kennedy was stopped, finishing the game with a gallant 34 disposals but just one more inside 50 in the second half to finish with six for the game, and the Bulldogs took off.

They had 36 to 16 inside 50s and kicked 6.10 to 3.4 after half-time and Johannisen, Macrae and Picken put the ball inside 50 on 15 occasions between them.

As Beveridge said, the Bulldogs had kept their heads when all those around them were losing theirs.