Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
If the Western Bulldogs’ elimination final against Adelaide goes down to the wire, star forward Aaron Naughton and his teammates will be calm and confident.
Last Friday night’s wildcard triumph was the Bulldogs’ eighth win by 10 points or less this season.
It was the luckiest of the eight, having to rely on Collingwood forward Tim Membrey to not kick a goal after the siren.
But two of the Bulldogs’ close wins this year came at the Adelaide Oval – a six-point triumph over the Crows in round two and a two-point thriller against Port Adelaide six weeks later.
“We’ve had a lot of time under tension as a group in those high pressure moments,” Naughton said.
“We’re quite confident if it does go down that way, we know we can at least play the style and play the numbers game that we want to.
“Then there’s obviously a little bit of luck involved when the games are so tight.
“The more you get exposed to it the more you can deal with those high-pressure situations.
“We’ve looked back at every single one of those close games and we haven’t done it perfectly by any means.
“There’s things that we want to improve on, but we’ve just been able to do enough right in those moments to get it done.”
After booting 60 goals last season, Naughton has managed to back that up with another 50 this year.
Like he was for an extended period last year, the high-flyer has become the Bulldogs’ No.1 target up forward due to the long-term absence of Sam Darcy.
The towering forward has been sidelined since rupturing his ACL in round six, contributing to a dramatic form slump for the Bulldogs after they won the first four games of the season.
“Any ACL injury at any club does shock the system a little bit because you know they’re going to be out for a long-term stint,” Naughton said of Darcy.
“Sam’s such a great player and such a young leader of this footy club as well.
“The way that he’s been attacking his rehab and doing everything right has been terrific, but ACLs are a bummer of this industry.”
Naughton had his own scare this year, landing awkwardly against Sydney in round seven.
Despite being taken off on a stretcher and appearing to suffer a serious injury, the 26-year-old avoided any damage and was able to play just eight days later.
“I have watched it back, and I’m still flat that they didn’t pay the mark on that one,” Naughton joked.
“Credit to our medical staff, they acted really quickly, and I was in safe hands.
“I wasn’t concerned by it or worried about jumping at the footy after that by any means.
“It didn’t look nice but I came through all good.”
