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The Age
23-05-2025
- Sport
- The Age
Victorious Smith has potshot at Dogs as Bevo ‘doesn't bite' on Cornes controversy
Loading Key posts 11.57pm Scott queries footy's Snicko 11.35pm 'Nothing in it': Bevo dismisses Cornes clash 11.00pm Smith needed jabs to play 10.53pm Smith's swipe at his old club 10.41pm Cats win the Bailey Smith grudge match 10.08pm In or out? Have your say on Dempsey's mark 9.49pm Three-quarter-time analysis: The Dogs are coming 9.06pm Bont pinpoints Bulldogs' woes Hide key posts Latest posts Latest posts 12.00am Curtain down on a thrilling night That's all, folks, we are signing off on a cracking night of footy. Be sure to join us again on Friday night for our live coverage of Dreamtime at the 'G between Essendon and Richmond. yesterday 11.57pm Scott queries footy's Snicko By Claire Siracusa Cats coach Chris Scott said he didn't have a good view of the controversial mark paid to Ollie Dempsey that resulted in a goal against the Dogs. Dempsey was paid the mark and had a shot deep in the pocket, though the ball appeared to have been over the line when he took the grab. His goal gave Geelong a seven-point lead. Scott instead referred back to an earlier moment, when a Dempsey goal was overturned due to a spike on the 'edge' in the AFL's review centre, the football equivalent of cricket's Snicko. 'This is controversial, probably, but what I will say is I'd love to see the technology around the edge with that shot on goal,' he said. 'Because that goal umpire was 30 centimetres away from that. If he can't see or hear that, then something's wrong. Like, the technology, please. 'I am prepared to say that, the edge technology ... show us that it works. Because they're saying it works off sound. 'The goal umpire's 30cm away from it. If he doesn't think it hit the post – I back him over the technology anyway. And I might have a bit of inside information that it doesn't work that well.' Scott also appeared surprised to be asked a question about Bailey Smith's shin injury, which the former Bulldog revealed to Fox Footy after the game. Scott clarified that Smith himself had shared the information, and then asked Cats footy boss Andrew Mackie whether he had heard about it. Scott then said if the coach and football manager hadn't known about it, then the injury couldn't have been too serious. But he said Smith would have tried to play with a serious injury, given the occasion. yesterday 11.35pm 'Nothing in it': Bevo dismisses Cornes clash By Danny Russell Beaten Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge has queried a boundary line call that resulted in a Geelong goal, refused to elaborate on his pre-game verbal clash with Kane Cornes and said his side had chosen not to antagonise former club star Bailey Smith. In an incident-laced post-match press conference following his side's 14-point loss to the Cats, Beveridge would not be drawn on footage that appeared to show him trading heated words with Cornes before the game. 'What incident?' Beveridge said to reporters. 'Ultimately, when we come in here, we talk about the game. That's probably all we're after, isn't it? 'If you're trying to draw up any controversy, I don't think there was any, so I've really got nothing to say.' When pushed further by Seven reporter Mitch Cleary, Beveridge closed down his press conference. 'I know what you are trying to do, Mitch, and you're not going to get me to bite,' he said before leaving the room. Earlier, Beveridge was asked about the free-kick count falling Geelong's way 26-12 and his thoughts on a decision to pay Geelong forward Ollie Dempsey a mark that looked to be over the boundary line in a tense last quarter. Dempsey followed up with a crucial goal. 'The out-of-bounds-on-the-full one? Critical part of the game. Lots of eyes on it,' Beveridge said. 'Other than that, as I always say, swings and roundabouts, they happen. No one's sitting in our rooms thinking about the free-kick differential.' Beveridge said there had never been any intention to target Smith. 'Personalities did not come into it,' Beveridge said. 'I didn't want us to go out there and be distracted. 'There is no point going over the top with a confrontational approach to something that we hadn't done previously 'It wasn't going to help. We assess things before the game every week. We say, 'OK, this player here, that player there, they're probably going to get a bit of the ball'.' Beveridge said the Bulldogs had their hands full with Max Holmes and the Cats' key forwards Jeremy Cameron and Shannon Neale, who booted 10 goals between them. 'We couldn't clear the ball from those one-on-one areas to resurrect the footy,' he said. 'And they got, you know, too many sort of tap-in goals from those, those long-range plays where we needed to be better at not letting it out the back. We didn't defend well.' yesterday 11.00pm Smith needed jabs to play By Claire Siracusa Cats star Bailey Smith has revealed he had to 'jab his shin up' four times, including at half-time, in order to play against his former side. Smith told Fox Footy that he probably wouldn't have played if it hadn't been a match against the Bulldogs. 'I'm glad I got through the game,' he said. 'I had to jab my shin up, I reckon, four times, at half-time and then before the game. So got up there somehow.' The Cats were coming off a five-day break from their thumping win over Port Adelaide last Saturday and Smith said he treated the game against the Dogs like 'a final or grand final' in terms of getting up to play despite injury. Smith didn't specify what the shin injury was. He had not been sighted at training on Tuesday, though the Cats said at the time it was a case of resting up on a short turnaround, and he had trained indoors. Smith also left the track on Wednesday before media were allowed to watch training. Smith said he hoped to be able to play next week. The Cats have a 10-day break, travelling to Perth to play the Eagles in round 12. yesterday 10.53pm Smith's swipe at his old club Bailey Smith has made a pointed remark about life at Geelong following their thrilling 14-point win against the Western Bulldogs, saying he relished the freedom at his new club. 'That's the beauty of the club, is that, you know, they let you be yourself, and probably don't you try and conform to something you're not, sort of like previously, previous years,' Smith told Channel Seven after the game. 'So, you know, I'm just grateful that they're, you know, welcoming me.' After a near best-on-ground performance against his old club with 33 possessions, Smith said he had felt the pressure leading into the match at GMHBA Stadium. 'I'd be lying if I didn't, but it's more sort of excitement,' he said. 'And yeah, I sort of do my meditation each day, just, you know, try being in the present as much as I can, and worry about what I gotta do today, not too much in the future. 'But, yeah, certainly sort of shit myself for this game.' Smith finished the game with a number of scratches on his body, but revealed that the Bulldogs went with an 'almost reverse psychology' approach early in the game by not giving him much attention. 'They didn't go after me,' he said. Smith said he loved the challenge of playing against his old club, and praised the time he had spent at Geelong. 'It's been fun. I'm just so grateful to be able to be like welcomed with, I suppose, open arms after, yeah, a bit of a shit year last year,' he said. 'I'm just grateful, and, yeah, just trying to repay them as best I can, and just, you know, outwork everyone we come up against. So I'm loving it.' On a night that the Geelong crowd was given free Smith-like headbands to emulate the recruit, the star midfielder wanted to turn attention to a teammate's milestone. 'I just want to shout out Mitch Duncan. His 300th. I think a lot of the spotlight was on me, which was, you know, pretty unfair for him,' Smith said. 'He's such a great player, and I just want to give him his credit where it's where it's due, 300 games, crazy. I think he's only the seventh Cat to be able to do it, so we're gonna go chair him off now.' yesterday 10.41pm Cats win the Bailey Smith grudge match Geelong have won the Bailey Smith grudge match to celebrate Mitch Duncan's 300th game milestone in a thrilling encounter that was closer than the 14-point margin suggested. The high-profile Cat revealed on Fox Footy he nearly didn't play because of an issue with his shin, but refused to miss the Bulldogs match, which had been built up on the back of several Smith comments in the lead-in. 'I'm glad it is over and done with. I'm glad I got through the game,' Smith said. Jeremy Cameron was the difference with six goals and several contentious umpiring decisions that went in Geelong's favour also helped with the free kick count unbalanced at the end. However, it was a tough win on a big occasion as Smith faced his former team, without any signs of the rancour present in the build-up. There were boos but not much more as the 2025 Western Bulldogs showed again they need to be beaten more than once in a match if their opponents want to collect the four points. They fell 33 points behind, hit the post five times, lost the free kick count 26-12, watched Cameron and Shannon Neale kick 11 goals straight between them, but somehow they were level late in the final quarter. They had just kept coming, lifting themselves from the canvas after conceding a massive 51 points on turnover in the first half. The main offender was inexperienced Bulldogs defender Luke Cleary, who could not find a target, which left his team vulnerable to the error-punishing Cats. Mr Bean would have exited the back 50 in his Mini with more care than the Bulldogs during the dead-end quarter. But in a high-scoring match, the Cats could not establish a big enough lead to bury the Bulldogs. They hung on by scoring goals within red time at the end of each of the first three quarters as they waited for their engine room of Marcus Bontempelli, Ed Richards and Tom Liberatore to kick into gear. When they did, the game changed and the Bulldogs came hard. Their momentum was interrupted only by a brilliant three-bounce, goal of the year contender from Max Holmes and an outrageously poor piece of umpiring that gifted Jeremy Cameron a goal. The pièce de résistance came as the Bulldogs controlled territory and threatened to take the lead. The Cats made a rare foray forward and Shannon Neale kicked the ball deep into the pocket where Ollie Dempsey marked. The ball appeared to be out of bounds when he marked, but it was paid. The young star went back and kicked a cool major to stretch the lead out beyond a goal. It was frustrating for the Bulldogs but they had their chances to hit the lead more than once after that and struggled to get ahead, drawing level before Shannon Neale managed to run on to Cameron's kick inside 50 and kick his fourth goal. He then kicked the sealer when he was smart enough in the ruck to drag James O'Donnell towards him and win a free kick for blocking and it was all over. yesterday 10.24pm FT: Cats withstand Bulldogs challenge Geelong have held on in an entertaining clash against the Bulldogs. Cats forward Tyson Stengle kicked a late goal in the final minute, and the Bulldogs answered quickly through Matthew Kennedy, but it was all too late. The Cats had held on for a 14-point victory. The spoils go to Bailey Smith, but not without a scare. Bad kicking cost the Bulldogs. Smith had a sensational night against his old club, racking up 33 possessions (25 kicks and eight handballs). He was leading disposal winner on the night alongside teammate Max Holmes. Geelong's big forwards dominated in a high-scoring game. Jeremy Cameron booted six goals and Shannon Neale nailed five. Cats 20.7 (127) defeat Bulldogs 16.17 (113) yesterday 10.21pm Time running down for Dogs The Bulldogs trail by 13 points with two minutes remaining in this game. They need to get busy. yesterday 10.18pm Brain fade hands Cats a goal Another free kick, another Geelong goal. This one seemed legitimate. Bulldog defender James O'Donnell wrestled big Cat Shannon Neale in a ruck contest, but grabbed him around the waist and gave away a free kick. Neale slotted home his fifth goal. Accuracy is winning the night for Geelong. yesterday 10.15pm Neale gives Cats edge Geelong are back in front by a goal. Jeremy Cameron marked in the centre of the ground and wheeled onto the left and went long to Shannon Neale. The kick cleared his head, but Neale was able to run it down, keep ahead of a pursuing James O'Donnell and bang home a 15m goal. That was Neale's fourth, and Neale and Cameron have 10 between themselves. The Cats have also activated their sub, bringing on Ted Clohesy for Ollie Henry.
7NEWS
23-05-2025
- Sport
- 7NEWS
Inside the frosty exchange between Kane Cornes and Luke Beveridge at GMHBA Stadium
Expert AFL commentator Kane Cornes has detailed what was said during his explosive pre-game confrontation with Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge on Thursday night. The pair faced off at GMHBA Stadium ahead of the epic encounter between the Dogs and Geelong, with vision of the frosty exchange caught on Seven's coverage. Cornes has been strong critic of Beveridge over the years, believing the team has underperformed since winning the 2016 premiership. The Port Adelaide great was commentating for Channel 7 on Thursday when Beveridge walked past him on the ground. 'I was standing close to the boundary line just in front of where we had our LED pod getting ready to go on TV,' Cornes said on his Friday radio show SEN's Fireball. 'I was staring out blankly into space to the players warming up and just out of the corner of my eye Luke Beveridge and the crew started walking towards me. I thought, 'Oh, OK, this is going to be interesting. How do I play this?' 'So I just stood there and looked out and as he came closer to me, he was staring at me strongly, with a strong look on his face. That was from 10 or so metres away and as he got a little bit closer, I looked back and I just said, 'Bevo,' and nodded my head. 'The reaction (from Beveridge) was the reaction that you saw. 'I don't know if it's for me to share what he said. I'm happy to tell you exactly my part in this — other than to say 'Bevo', and nodded my head ... it wasn't received well. 'It was something along the lines of, 'You've got the nerve to say that,' and I just said, 'What, I can't say hello?'. 'Then he turned around again and started to go again and that's when he was dragged away. 'But it's OK, it's fine. He's combative, he protects his club. I've got no issue with it. We can have a bit of a laugh about it, I think.' Cornes also explained why he took some steps towards Beveridge during the exchange. 'It was never going to become physical. He had his own security guards, he had a couple of club officials pulling him way,' he said 'It was more just a flinch reaction or a shock reaction when you're not expecting something. Your initial instinct is to walk over and say, 'Did I hear that correctly?', type of thing. 'It was over pretty quickly.' After the game, Beveridge shut down any talk about the clash. 'What incident?' he said. 'Ultimately we come in here, we talk about the game, that's probably all we're after isn't it? 'If you're trying to drum up any controversy, I don't think there was any. I've really got nothing to say. You're not going to get me to bite.' Cornes is not the only person in the media that Beveridge has had an issue with over the years. AFL Media's Damian Barrett has regularly spoken about an encounter with Beveridge and the coach had a famous blow-up at journalist Tom Morris (who would lose his job not after that for another issue that surfaced) about a team selection story. 'I'm not the first person he's had a run-in with, there's been many,' Cornes said. 'Caro (veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson from Channel 7's The Agenda Setters and The Age), Damo (Damian Barrett), Mark Robinson (former Herald Sun chief football writer), Tom Morris, and myself. 'He's a combative character. I'm sure I won't be the last and we move on.' Cornes shared a strong opinion on Beveridge's public persona three weeks ago when The Agenda Setters co-host Craig Hutchison described the coach as being on a 'charm offensive' with the media. Beveridge is in the final year of his contract but Hutchison said the timing of the coach's media 'campaign' was no coincidence. Backed by a strong run of form to catapult the Dogs into top-four contention, Beveridge has recently been reported to be on the brink of an extension. 'This has been a coach who has been largely unavailable to the media for a long period of time, and we're now seeing — which is a positive thing, by the way — him open up and be available and vulnerable,' Hutchison said at the time. 'He's getting a terrific hearing from everywhere that he does interviews at the moment. 'It's been Sheedy-like, in my mind. And again on the weekend he got favourable coverage through the papers. 'Is he playing the Bulldogs on the break here with this PR campaign?' Cornes said Beveridge was 'playing the media on a break'. 'I find it incredibly amusing that he's detested the media for such a long period of time and then you're getting these sort of headlines,' he said. 'I think he's sucked in the media and I don't think it's authentic. It's strange. 'Now, maybe someone has sat him down and given him that feedback (that he hasn't made himself available enough) and he's taken that on board and it's been good for the club, and I'd rather coaches speak than not. 'But for 10 years, he's hardly spoken, and now because his contract is up for grabs, he's available to everyone.'
West Australian
23-05-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Inside the frosty exchange between Kane Cornes and Luke Beveridge at GMHBA Stadium
Expert AFL commentator Kane Cornes has detailed what was said during his explosive pre-game confrontation with Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge on Thursday night. The pair faced off at GMHBA Stadium ahead of the epic encounter between the Dogs and Geelong , with vision of the frosty exchange caught on Seven's coverage. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Luke Beveridge and Kane Cornes have words. Cornes has been strong critic of Beveridge over the years, believing the team has underperformed since winning the 2016 premiership . The Port Adelaide great was commentating for Channel 7 on Thursday when Beveridge walked past him on the ground. 'I was standing close to the boundary line just in front of where we had our LED pod getting ready to go on TV,' Cornes said on his Friday radio show SEN's Fireball . 'I was staring out blankly into space to the players warming up and just out of the corner of my eye Luke Beveridge and the crew started walking towards me. I thought, 'Oh, OK, this is going to be interesting. How do I play this?' 'So I just stood there and looked out and as he came closer to me, he was staring at me strongly, with a strong look on his face. That was from 10 or so metres away and as he got a little bit closer, I looked back and I just said, 'Bevo,' and nodded my head. 'The reaction (from Beveridge) was the reaction that you saw. 'I don't know if it's for me to share what he said. I'm happy to tell you exactly my part in this — other than to say 'Bevo', and nodded my head ... it wasn't received well. 'It was something along the lines of, 'You've got the nerve to say that,' and I just said, 'What, I can't say hello?'. 'Then he turned around again and started to go again and that's when he was dragged away. 'But it's OK, it's fine. He's combative, he protects his club. I've got no issue with it. We can have a bit of a laugh about it, I think.' Cornes also explained why he took some steps towards Beveridge during the exchange. 'It was never going to become physical. He had his own security guards, he had a couple of club officials pulling him way,' he said 'It was more just a flinch reaction or a shock reaction when you're not expecting something. Your initial instinct is to walk over and say, 'Did I hear that correctly?', type of thing. 'It was over pretty quickly.' After the game, Beveridge shut down any talk about the clash. 'What incident?' he said. 'Ultimately we come in here, we talk about the game, that's probably all we're after isn't it? 'If you're trying to drum up any controversy, I don't think there was any. I've really got nothing to say. You're not going to get me to bite.' Cornes is not the only person in the media that Beveridge has had an issue with over the years. AFL Media's Damian Barrett has regularly spoken about an encounter with Beveridge and the coach had a famous blow-up at journalist Tom Morris (who would lose his job not after that for another issue that surfaced) about a team selection story. 'I'm not the first person he's had a run-in with, there's been many,' Cornes said. 'Caro (veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson from Channel 7's The Agenda Setters and The Age), Damo (Damian Barrett), Mark Robinson (former Herald Sun chief football writer), Tom Morris, and myself. 'He's a combative character. I'm sure I won't be the last and we move on.' Cornes shared a strong opinion on Beveridge's public persona three weeks ago when The Agenda Setters co-host Craig Hutchison described the coach as being on a 'charm offensive' with the media. Beveridge is in the final year of his contract but Hutchison said the timing of the coach's media 'campaign' was no coincidence. Backed by a strong run of form to catapult the Dogs into top-four contention, Beveridge has recently been reported to be on the brink of an extension. 'This has been a coach who has been largely unavailable to the media for a long period of time, and we're now seeing — which is a positive thing, by the way — him open up and be available and vulnerable,' Hutchison said at the time. 'He's getting a terrific hearing from everywhere that he does interviews at the moment. 'It's been Sheedy-like, in my mind. And again on the weekend he got favourable coverage through the papers. 'Is he playing the Bulldogs on the break here with this PR campaign?' Cornes said Beveridge was 'playing the media on a break'. 'I find it incredibly amusing that he's detested the media for such a long period of time and then you're getting these sort of headlines,' he said. 'I think he's sucked in the media and I don't think it's authentic. It's strange. 'Now, maybe someone has sat him down and given him that feedback (that he hasn't made himself available enough) and he's taken that on board and it's been good for the club, and I'd rather coaches speak than not. 'But for 10 years, he's hardly spoken, and now because his contract is up for grabs, he's available to everyone.'
Perth Now
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Perth Now
Inside the frosty exchange between Kane Cornes and Luke Beveridge
Expert AFL commentator Kane Cornes has detailed what was said during his explosive pre-game confrontation with Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge on Thursday night. The pair faced off at GMHBA Stadium ahead of the epic encounter between the Dogs and Geelong, with vision of the frosty exchange caught on Seven's coverage. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Luke Beveridge and Kane Cornes have words. Cornes has been strong critic of Beveridge over the years, believing the team has underperformed since winning the 2016 premiership. The Port Adelaide great was commentating for Channel 7 on Thursday when Beveridge walked past him on the ground. 'I was standing close to the boundary line just in front of where we had our LED pod getting ready to go on TV,' Cornes said on his Friday radio show SEN's Fireball. Kane Cornes and Luke Beveridge exchange words before Thursday night's blockbuster. Credit: 7AFL 'I was staring out blankly into space to the players warming up and just out of the corner of my eye Luke Beveridge and the crew started walking towards me. I thought, 'Oh, OK, this is going to be interesting. How do I play this?' 'So I just stood there and looked out and as he came closer to me, he was staring at me strongly, with a strong look on his face. That was from 10 or so metres away and as he got a little bit closer, I looked back and I just said, 'Bevo,' and nodded my head. 'The reaction (from Beveridge) was the reaction that you saw. 'I don't know if it's for me to share what he said. I'm happy to tell you exactly my part in this — other than to say 'Bevo', and nodded my head ... it wasn't received well. 'It was something along the lines of, 'You've got the nerve to say that,' and I just said, 'What, I can't say hello?'. 'Then he turned around again and started to go again and that's when he was dragged away. 'But it's OK, it's fine. He's combative, he protects his club. I've got no issue with it. We can have a bit of a laugh about it, I think.' Cornes also explained why he took some steps towards Beveridge during the exchange. 'It was never going to become physical. He had his own security guards, he had a couple of club officials pulling him way,' he said 'It was more just a flinch reaction or a shock reaction when you're not expecting something. Your initial instinct is to walk over and say, 'Did I hear that correctly?', type of thing. 'It was over pretty quickly.' After the game, Beveridge shut down any talk about the clash. 'What incident?' he said. 'Ultimately we come in here, we talk about the game, that's probably all we're after isn't it? 'If you're trying to drum up any controversy, I don't think there was any. I've really got nothing to say. You're not going to get me to bite.' Cornes is not the only person in the media that Beveridge has had an issue with over the years. AFL Media's Damian Barrett has regularly spoken about an encounter with Beveridge and the coach had a famous blow-up at journalist Tom Morris (who would lose his job not after that for another issue that surfaced) about a team selection story. 'I'm not the first person he's had a run-in with, there's been many,' Cornes said. 'Caro (veteran AFL journalist Caroline Wilson from Channel 7's The Agenda Setters and The Age), Damo (Damian Barrett), Mark Robinson (former Herald Sun chief football writer), Tom Morris, and myself. 'He's a combative character. I'm sure I won't be the last and we move on.' Cornes shared a strong opinion on Beveridge's public persona three weeks ago when The Agenda Setters co-host Craig Hutchison described the coach as being on a 'charm offensive' with the media. Beveridge is in the final year of his contract but Hutchison said the timing of the coach's media 'campaign' was no coincidence. Backed by a strong run of form to catapult the Dogs into top-four contention, Beveridge has recently been reported to be on the brink of an extension. 'This has been a coach who has been largely unavailable to the media for a long period of time, and we're now seeing — which is a positive thing, by the way — him open up and be available and vulnerable,' Hutchison said at the time. 'He's getting a terrific hearing from everywhere that he does interviews at the moment. 'It's been Sheedy-like, in my mind. And again on the weekend he got favourable coverage through the papers. 'Is he playing the Bulldogs on the break here with this PR campaign?' Cornes said Beveridge was 'playing the media on a break'. 'I find it incredibly amusing that he's detested the media for such a long period of time and then you're getting these sort of headlines,' he said. 'I think he's sucked in the media and I don't think it's authentic. It's strange. 'Now, maybe someone has sat him down and given him that feedback (that he hasn't made himself available enough) and he's taken that on board and it's been good for the club, and I'd rather coaches speak than not. 'But for 10 years, he's hardly spoken, and now because his contract is up for grabs, he's available to everyone.'
The Age
23-05-2025
- The Age
How an ‘invisible' police unit has hounded criminals for generations
'I had a .25 calibre Browning automatic in my shirt pocket, and as I chased Cody, he's turning around. By this time, he's got his gun to go. I counted five shots that he fired in my direction – five. And when we got that far, I fired two in the air above him, and he called out, 'I've had enough.' So I caught up to him and pulled the gun from him.' Unluckily, Cody chose the wrong copper to try to beat in a foot race, as Cairns was a local decathlon and long jump champion. Luckily, Cairns was a pacifist and didn't shoot him. There is brave, and then there is crazy brave: Robbo Robertson firmly fits the latter category. Called to a bank silent alarm, Robertson's partner Rod Porter (they were both unarmed) walked into the branch confident it would be a false call. 'I opened the door and saw an old lady on the ground,' Porter recalls. 'I thought the old dear had fallen over, and I leant over to help her up.' His mood changed when a bandit yelled out to his partner: 'Shoot him, shoot him.' There was a gunman on the counter pointing a shotgun at the cop. Porter ran (he was no Stawell Gift winner) with the two armed crooks in pursuit. Robertson fired up the Dogs' Valiant, tried to hit the gunmen, then put the car between Porter and the bandits. When they took off in their stolen getaway car, Robertson 'rammed them up the arse. That made them really happy.' Porter was hiding in a yard and when he emerged, Robertson said: 'Quick, get in. I know where they went.' Porter remembers thinking: 'This is a bloody stupid idea. This man is an idiot – why are we doing this?' Both offenders were arrested. The Dogs follow on foot, cars, bikes and motorbikes, and once when an offender went bush, an enterprising officer borrowed a horse from a nearby paddock and rode in bareback, finding the crook's hideaway. Then there was the non-ventilated 'super truck' in which a cop, often in 40-degree heat, would sit for up to 10 hours watching a suspect house. Stripped of most of their clothes, the officer would use a peephole to peek and an empty bottle to pee. 'It was a good way to lose weight,' one said. In the early 1990s two crooks planned to break into a jeweller's house in Malvern East, where they would hold the wife and children hostage, forcing him to return to his shop, open the safe and provide a fortune in valuable stones. The Dogs were following them because they were wanted for another job. As they did dry runs on the house, their bugged conversations revealed the hostage plan. On the night of the planned abduction, the Dogs were watching from a flat overlooking the house. Police had moved the family and replaced them with mannequins, apparently sleeping in their beds. The crooks were behind a brick wall across the road. What they didn't know was that on the other side of the wall was the special operations group, waiting for the right moment. In crept the crooks, throwing back the blankets in the main bedroom, only to find two dummies. They bolted into the welcoming arms of the special operations group. Game over. Another call for help started with police in Nepal, went to the Australian Federal Police, then to Victoria, and, finally, the Dogs. A man had grabbed a woman in Melbourne after meeting her on a dating site, and then made a ransom demand to her Nepalese parents. Somehow the Dogs found a likely address in Pakenham. One surveillance officer peered through a knothole in the fence from a vacant block to see a man digging a hole. It was not to plant tomatoes. Retired senior sergeant Michael 'Mouse' O'Connor, a veteran Dog, takes up the story. With reports from the ground and support from the air, it was clear the man was digging a grave. 'He lay down in it to see it was the right size. I was sure she was dead. Then he marches her out – she was wrapped in Glad Wrap. The SOG were en route, but it would have been too late. I told the boys to go.' One dropped on all fours, so others could use him to vault over the fence. 'She was scooped up, and all she could say was, 'Where did you come from?'' says O'Connor. Some cases were sophisticated but not life and death. Australians are world-class shoplifters, and in the 1970s a family that would later become notorious gangsters were followed and grabbed with products worth $400,000. In another case, a group of lithe young women entered a shop, then left, all apparently eight months pregnant. One mob were more Benny Hill than The Untouchables – a shoplifting gang that used an attractive female member in a mini-skirt to bend over in a store, leaving the male shop assistant apparently hypnotised, allowing the rest of the crew to grab anything that wasn't nailed down. Loading After the 1976 Great Bookie Robbery, a relative of Ray Chuck, the mastermind of the job, was followed to Queensland, where he lived in a beachside caravan park. As the target didn't have a car, there wasn't much action and the Dogs deputised the woman who ran the park to eavesdrop on the crook's calls that were made on the park's party line. Over six weeks, the woman did all the work while the Dogs crew took up surfing. Police sometimes say they have hit a brick wall, but in one case such a wall saved crooks from certain arrest. The notorious Gym Gang, a stick-up crew that pulled jobs over 24 years that netted well over $4.5 million, had just grabbed their biggest haul. In 1994, the gang pretended to be a road crew working on the Monash Freeway, stopping an armoured van carrying about $2.3 million that had just been picked up at the Reserve Bank. As they had rehearsed, the gang drove the van to a dead-end lane in Richmond to load into another vehicle. What they didn't know was that behind the wall of a brick building at the end of the lane was the secret office of the surveillance branch. The Dogs had security cameras facing the main street, but none into the laneway – meaning they missed their chance to nab the gang. After the job, the Dogs would follow many of the suspects, finding they often met on suburban sports ovals to try to avoid listening devices. (One rode his bike everywhere in the hope he would be able to pick out the Dogs. Sometimes he did, but most times he didn't.) While one of the necessary skills is to be able to move without being noticed, there is also an art in staying still and not being seen. Ian 'Vag' Whitmore earned his nickname, according to O'Connor, because he could lie in a gutter for hours like a vagrant. 'He would hide in a garden or up a tree for eight or 10 hours to get photos and great results.'
