Class of '85 rejoice in Bulldogs old and new

[bornadog]

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The Western Bulldogs' third-quarter lull on Sunday was largely missed by their most enthusiastic group of supporters at Etihad Stadium. The 1985 Dogs hadn't caught up for a while, and by half-time they were kicking with a metaphorical gale.
Sue Wallis – mother of Mitch, wife of Steve – reckoned it was like putting on an old pair of slippers. Thirty years ago (when she insisted she was just five) this was an onfield team that after each Saturday afternoon's final siren was bolstered by wives and partners and headed out into the night as one.
"We were this huge group with a great bond," Steve Wallis said, recalling Saturday night dinners at heaving tables at Poon's Chinese restaurant, the Plough Hotel or some other local haunt only too happy to host the neighbourhood heroes.

"These guys, when they walked in here today, it was just like normal, back to what we were doing 30 years ago."
Mark Kellett was wise to the essence of any reunion, and as someone whose 155 games were split between four seasons each at St Kilda and the Bulldogs and three as a Swan, he is well versed on the fleeting nature of footy club bonds.
"What people maybe miss from the outside is that you're in each other's pockets five days a week, then all of a sudden you get sacked or retire or move on, and then you don't see each other," Kellett said. "We played in a preliminary final together, and then it was gone."

If there is incongruity in footballers getting together to mark a year that fell short of even a grand final appearance, nobody in the Limelight Room cared. Kellet had put off a London business trip to be there, Andrew Purser and Jim Sewell had flown across from WA, Darren Baxter was down from the Gold Coast and even sporting the beginnings of the perfect '80s retro reunion accompaniment.

"I'm gunna do it one more time – I'm gunna have the mullet!" Baxter beamed, tight curls already working their way down the back of his neck. He revelled in being around old mates, saying their nicknames again – Steve "Super" McPherson, Michael "Magic" McLean, Rick "Tits" Kennedy, "because he had the massive pecs".
None could believe three decades had passed since a team that hadn't played finals for a decade stormed to the top of the ladder, boasted the Brownlow medallist in Brad Hardie, the Coleman medallist in Simon Beasley, and fell to Hawthorn by 10 points in a preliminary final they might well have won. Heads were shaking, too, at how quickly they'd been brought back together.

Wallis reckons he hadn't had much luck getting reunions off the ground in the past, but when the club suggested hosting the 1985 list at its match-day lunch he called up his database and sent a short email. "Listen boys, the club is willing to fund airfares and lunch, who'd like to come?"
Hardie rang straight away, filthy that radio commitments would rule him out. Doug Hawkins was a regretful apology, "but then all of a sudden they were firing in, 'I'm coming, I'm coming'," Wallis said.

The link between the strong turnout and the momentum that's building around Luke Beveridge's Bulldogs wasn't lost on him. The 1985 Dogs were similarly young and, Wallis noted, played without inhibition. He was in just the third of 14 seasons, and at 20 was two years younger than Mitch is now. Even a relatively old hand like Hawkins was only 25.
Purser reckoned they did their best, "might have pinched" the prelim but were beaten by a better side in the Hawks. His only regret is a cautionary one for the current crop. "The thing we didn't do was capitalise, we fell away the following year," the former ruckman said.
Wallis rues a swing towards negativity in 1986, when free-running players became taggers and their momentum was lost. "It's no different to Luke [Beveridge] next year – if we have a successful year with this style, we don't need to tighten up next year, we need to continue on."

Purser recalled the "West Australian flavour" of that team, after Shane O'Sullivan mined the west for Beasley, Hardie, Jim Sewell, Allen Daniels and others. Baxter marvelled at how they all gelled, players from the Bulldogs' Gippsland zone like the Cordy brothers and imports such as Tony Buhagiar, Phil Maylin and Emmett Dunne. "It was a weird mix of people, but it worked."
Kellett reckoned O'Sullivan and rookie coach Mick Malthouse were key to setting the mood, recalling Malthouse as "incredibly engaging" and "a real practical joker". Someone was routinely dumped in the Western Oval mud at training; banter was a good-natured constant.

Infamously, hijinks got out of hand at the end of 1985 when the America-bound Bulldogs made it only as far as Hawaii before being turfed off their Qantas plane. All know the consequences would be far greater today, but the story was still getting a decent run on Sunday.

Kellett recalled checking into a Honolulu hotel with full-forward Beasley, urging him to come to the beach when the phone started running hot. "Mike Willesee, radio stations, TV, newspapers," Kellett said, picturing Beasley setting himself up in the foyer as a virtual foreign correspondent. "Bease has gone, 'This is the biggest day of my life, I'm not going anywhere!'"

Footscray slipped to eighth in 1986, having lost much-loved captain Jim Edmond to Sydney over what Wallis remembers as "an off-season that ate us". In hindsight it's bonded the '85 group all the more, and left them convinced that today's exciting crop must take its chance.

Purser wants to see 60,000 members following a veritable Collingwood of the western suburbs. He's been going to Subiaco and watching the Bulldogs lose for too long, is hoping for a happier result against West Coast on Sunday. "You spill blood for them, you're not going to be anything else," he said of his enduring love.
Kellett thought they'd be bottom six this season, maybe bottom four. Asked what he likes most about a team he finds exhilarating to watch, he said: "That it's totally unexpected."

[bornadog]

Can't believe it was 30 years ago, one of my favourite seasons of watching footy.

[strebla]

No mention of my boy Lully Bamblett being there I thought I recognised Magic at the VFL on Saturday .

[LostDoggy]

Great reading.

Man that 85 team was something to support. I remember them taking a phenomonal Essendon team apart at the Western Oval and talking to grown men with tears in their eyes at 3QT, such was the emotion of watching a genuinely good Dogs team after many years of crap. I remember Lally kicking special goals that day.

Great to read how much it means to them. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall at that reunion and hear some of the inner circle stories.

Good advice in there for the current group as well.

[FrediKanoute]

Yep - was my first preliminary final experience. What I remember was being disappointed we had missed the GF, but consoled that we ad such a good team we would definitely be challenging for a few more years.......Sadly it was not to be and post this the club sold our Captain, sold out Brownlow medallist, lost its club champion to a knee injury and generally saw the team that had been compiled fall apart.

The lesson is that you NEVER, EVER, take something for granted.

[Remi Moses]

Great article .
The club fell apart in 86, but a positive was Tony Mcguiness .
I think they may have got a bit ahead of themselves as well.

[1eyedog]

Yes I was there at the 1985 Prelim. It was devastating getting so close only to fall a goal and half short. Hawthorn's finals hardened experience may have been the key, that and Matthews getting off the chain in the last. The 85 prelim hurt more than any subsequent prelim appearance. It was just because we'd come through such an extended run of poor performaces through the late 70s early 80s.

It was also very hard watching Essendon beat the Hawks in the Granny the following week because as has been discussed many times we would have put up a far better showing than the Hawks did.

[1eyedog]

Mitch's pose looks like Whitten reincarnate in that image doesn't he even down to the number. Nice pic.

[Twodogs]

It does look like Teddy's footy card kicking action.

[HOSE B ROMERO]

Another great article by Peter Hanlon. It's a pity the club didn't have the boys on the field before the game. It would even have been great to organize a function on the weekend for the fans to meet them. They may not have won us a flag but there's still a lot of warmth for those boys.
Yep, still the hardest Prelim loss for me. Coming out of the ground i ran into a bloke i knew and he just said 'oh well, we're just not good enough' and i was so furious with him. It was just the air of resignation.

[Twodogs]

Yep. It was like a short sharp jab to the guts that game.

[bornadog]

Another great article by Peter Hanlon. It's a pity the club didn't have the boys on the field before the game. It would even have been great to organize a function on the weekend for the fans to meet them. They may not have won us a flag but there's still a lot of warmth for those boys.
Yep, still the hardest Prelim loss for me. Coming out of the ground i ran into a bloke i knew and he just said 'oh well, we're just not good enough' and i was so furious with him. It was just the air of resignation.

I was so gutted after the game and still feel sad when I think of how close we were to a GF.