IT IS A LITTLE less than two years since Mitch Hahn's left knee buckled in the Western Bulldogs forward line, and only a few weeks longer since Robert Murphy's left knee crumbled underneath Anthony Rocca and the MCG lights. Long ago enough for West Coast to rarely get beaten, let alone by a whole lotta goals.

If it's true that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, it's also true that when something's been gone for a really long time, your mind does start to slip a bit. When coaches tell you how much a simple pre-season helps a player play well they seem to be onto something, too.

Murphy and Hahn wore Bulldog jumpers last year, but neither did the things they were used to doing in them, or that they wanted to. Murphy had a wobbly hamstring, other niggles affecting his comeback too, while Hahn's year ended more emphatically, with a shoulder reconstruction that cut it six weeks short.

Last night's game was not the first time either player has looked good this year, or played well in the same game. Each week, both have looked better and a little more like their old selves, rejigging memories while also suggesting there might be more new, good and even better things on the way.

The pair are a little like Beauty and the Brute. Murphy doesn't dance around the ground so much as ice skate over it. He likes to glide, with the odd twirl or pirouette thrown in, shooting dinky little passes all over the place. You know he's playing well when he looks light on his feet, like he's playing on his tip-toes. You know he's playing well when nimble and nifty are the best words to describe him.

He was both those things last night, right from the start, when the Eagles didn't seem at all sure what he was about to do next. He gave Darren Glass the slip on a couple of early occasions, and had the less worldly Will Schofield bamboozled a few times, too. His kicks curled around corners, travelled as long as he needed them to and he had three goals by half-time. "We call him Bobby Dazzler because he just seems to dazzle," said Hahn. "He's got the Fred Flintstone toes going."

Hahn is the ruffian, the player whose tackling, pressure and strength were the things the Bulldogs missed when he was gone. He has had more of the ball in other games this year, yet the things he did last night mattered a lot, creating things for himself or others. He squeezed into a couple of places he shouldn't have, to take marks and kick goals, he made sure the ball wasn't run away from him too easily and he laid fewer tackles than only Matthew Boyd.

For Hahn, feeling involved in a game early means doing something with his body. "If I can lay a tackle early on or get a bump or help create a goal for someone else, that's when I feel a bit switched on," he said. He's sure his coaches and teammates have remembered that about him too, just like he knew Murphy was ready to play well against the Eagles when he noticed him throw in a few early side-steps.

"He's a good one to play beside," he said. "With some of the things he does, you wouldn't even know he's had a knee reconstruction. He ran and ran today, he worked really hard and he was dodging guys here and there.

"It's been going through all of this with him, as well. Because we both did the knees, we went through all the rehab and built up a good relationship, so it's good to see him play well and play how he's always played.

"You watch him run around and think his knee is totally out of his mind now. Then you realise it's out of your mind too."

The Bulldogs played their best recent football when Murphy and Hahn were on the sidelines; at the end of the year in which both were hurt, 2006, their club's smart, quick and creative season ended when they played the Eagles in a final at Subiaco.

Daniel Giansiracusa kicked some special goals last night, Jason Akermanis worked even more magic, and the Bulldogs looked like they did back then because Adam Cooney and Ryan Griffen have made their midfield more powerful and hard to resist. But Murphy and Hahn have brought some inventiveness of their own back, their bodies better after an extra year up and running and their own memories starting to click a bit more too.

"I think you remember things just through training, even before you play," said Hahn. "When you train well and train hard, for a long time you start to forget you were injured and get a good idea of what you can still do."