After not playing for three weeks, it was feared that the Bulldogs might be a bit rusty.

The team put this fear to bed with a scintillating first quarter which saw it jump Creswick and slam on three goals to nothing.

This came about from winning the ball in the middle via Josh Clough and Xavier Walsh and having this good work complimented with a very open forward line led by Will Austin-King and Jaycob Paddon, who were very dangerous.

Things were to change in the third quarter when Creswick dominated play with hard running and piled on four goals to Daylesford's none and went in at three-quarter time with a one goal lead.

In situations like this good teams respond, and this is exactly what the young pups did.

With the move of Joel Cowan onto the ball, with Josh Clough Xavier Walsh and Jaycob Paddon continually winning the ball out of the middle and with the irrepressible backline superbly led by Sam Marshall and Liam Murray standing firm, they created many opportunities for the

forwards and did the job kicking three goals to go on and record a great 13-point win.

The pleasing fact out of the game was that it was hard to find a weak link, with every player contributing at some stage.

Some brilliant individual efforts were made by the tireless skipper in Josh Clough and his hard working lieutenant in Xavier Walsh.

The silky skills of both Liam Murray and Darcy Thornycroft, who both mopped up down back and up forward, Sam Marshall and Timmy Winzar along with the intimidating Maggie Lowe down back were superb.

The brilliant high marking Will Austin-King gave them something to kick to all day.

Eamonn McGrath-Lester was strong and everyone welcomed back the little dynamo in Joel Cowan, who was superb.

The Bulldogs will be back in two weeks for the grand final on Saturday, September 11 at Eureka Oval, at 9am.

Score: Daylesford 8.6 (54) d Creswick 6.5 (41).

Goals: W. Austin-King 3, T. Cooper 2, J. Paddon 2, X. Walsh 1.

Best: Team effort.