Western Bulldogs premiership player Tory Dickson said the group is looking forward to setting foot onto Mars Stadium on Saturday, a venue he hopes the club can turn into a “fortress” in the coming years.
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The Western Bulldogs host Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon in what will be the first-ever AFL home and away season game played in Ballarat.
Excitement is brewing, and adding to the build-up is the fact the ninth versus sixth clash has huge implications on both team’s ladder position.
Dickson said the equation was simple for the reigning premiers.
“It’s simple for us, we need to win the last two to make finals,” Dickson said.
“We’re really looking forward to it, it’s obviously a huge game.
“It’s going to be a historic day for Ballarat. It’s really important that we build a great atmosphere in that region.”
Dickson said while it would take time to learn how to play the ground and its conditions, there were some similarities to their training venue Whitten Oval.
“At the moment it’s probably neutral because we haven’t played there before but we really want to build a home ground advantage, a bit of a fortress in Ballarat.
“Given it’s cold and windy, it’s replica of our ground, Whitten Oval, we get very windy days. We feel we’ve got an advantage in those conditions.
“We’re just looking forward to the challenge and can’t wait to get out there.”
Coach Luke Beveridge voiced a similar opinion at Bob Murphy’s retirement press conference on Tuesday, believing Mars Stadium could become a very tough place to play for opposition teams.
“It’s out first opportunity to play in Ballarat and we’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. It’s a chance to make this stadium a place where it’s hard for opposition teams to come and play us.”
Anticipation builds for Thursday night’s teams as to whether Bulldogs stars Dale Morris and Jason Johannisen, who have been injured, will be selected.
Meanwhile, curiously, Port Adelaide’s Hamish Hartlett believes playing in Ballarat might work better for Power.
"Not having played too much footy at Etihad (the Bulldogs’ home ground) over the past couple of years, it probably works slightly in our favour to have that neutral venue," Hartlett said.
"(Mars Stadium) is a big deck, which helps with the way we move the ball.
"With those wider grounds, there's a bit more space to move the ball and we think defensively the way we play probably helps as well," Hartlett said on Wednesday.
The Power is an outside chance of sneaking into the top four and have all but guaranteed itself of playing in the finals for the first time since 2014.
Port Adelaide will fly into Melbourne early Friday afternoon and arrive in Ballarat around 3.15pm for a light run on Mars Stadium.
We really want to build a home ground advantage
- Bulldog Tory Dickson