Bulldog4life
25-08-2016, 03:48 PM
I am presuming this info is correct. If so Carlton were nearly the Bulldogs:eek:
November 16, 2010- Greater Western Sydney Giants: As the newest team in the league (obviously) its nickname is quite recent. First mentioned by the AFL as a potential expansion in 2008, and by the end of the year in 2010, in which they had competed in the TAC cup, a November function showcased the new team’s nickname and jumpers.
July 22, 2010- Gold Coast Suns: In 2008 the same venture that gave birth to GWS also revealed the AFL’s ambitions to first expand the competition to the Gold Coast, and so gradually laid the foundations for bringing the club into existence. At a function during their 2010 season in the VFL, the nickname, team song and guernsey was unveiled. And so began the Suns.
September 31st, 1995- Port Adelaide Power: Say what you will about Port, at the very least they’re sure an ambitious club. In fact this ambition earnt them the ire of both the SANFL and Collingwood when in 1990 unhappy with the progress of the State league, Port applied to join the AFL behind the SANFL’s back. The SANFL took action and managed to undercut them- assuring the Adelaide Crows would be the new SA team instead, and Port would be on ice for the time being.
Come late ’94 Port had won the tender to be the second SA team in the comp but needed to wait it out for an opening in the league, they also needed to compromise on the prison bars and magpie moniker that Collingwood claimed the rights to. A function at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on the above date announced they’d take the teal and become the Power. Likely feeding into alliteration that commonly is chosen for snappy team names.
July 12th, 1994- Fremantle Dockers: Fremantle has been a hotbed of Australian Rules football for a considerably long time, particularly with the intense battles between Fremantle teams that drew record crowds. As a result, the AFL was adamant the second WA expansion team was to be based there. The issue of the nickname was open to many suggestions, but eventually the tag of ‘Dockers’ was chosen due to Fremantle’s long association with wharfies and being a port city, in an announcement in July, 1994.
September 19th, 1990- Adelaide Crows: As mentioned above, the Adelaide Football Club was a hasty reaction against Port trying to sneak their way into the AFL. It took just 5 short months to make the arrangements for what would become South Australia’s first club in the competition. It is even alleged that Adelaide took the nickname that Port were planning to use if they were admitted to the AFL, just to add salt to the wound. And so 1991 began the Crows AFL journey.
1986- West Coast Eagles: Admittedly I couldn’t find much about this one (feel free to chip in if you do), except for the basics- that being that the new WA team was granted entry to the VFL for the next year in 1986 to finally broaden the League further from a Victorian competition, to a more national one. An eagle was chosen as the emblem and nickname, presumably due to the prevalence of the Wedge-tailed eagle in Australia. The logo always faces right, symbolically eyeing off its rivals to the east.
May 30th, 1957- Brisbane (Fitzroy) Lions: Brisbane thanks to the 90s merger dropped the ‘Bears’ moniker in favour of Fitzroy’s Lions. The bears itself appeared to be an attempt at a catchy name (alliteration, anyone?) and something that typified maroon. Fitzroy however back in the day, were often referred to as the ‘Roys’ or ‘Roy Boys’ and in the search for an identity, ‘Gorillas’ was used (token of their maroon colour) from before the Second World War, until about 1952.
It was then dropped as it was a subject of derision for opposition supporters, frequently calling the club ‘apes’. As Roys wasn’t seen to be stirring enough and Gorillas didn’t command a lot of respect, the club redesigned a Lions emblem to be used from 1957 onwards. Fans immediately took to the new identifier.
June 12th, 1954- North Melbourne Kangaroos: Originally, and even still in the current day, North Melbourne was referred to as the Shinboners. This uncompromisingly tough team image, possibly originated for the tendency of players to swing their boots in the vicinity of opponents’ lower legs. Another suggestion was that many players came from an area where it was common to work in abattoirs, where separating the meat from bones was required work. To add further credence to the name, local butchers decorated their display windows with blue and white beef leg bones.
In 1954 however the moniker of ‘Kangaroos’ was adopted. The club committee decided that they needed something more suitable, and importantly a mascot that they could show. Former President Phonse Tobin claimed it was an unfavourable image, and that they wanted something more identifiably Australian.
1942-1943- Hawthorn Hawks: From 1932 Hawthorn teams were known as the ‘Mayblooms’. Occasionally during these times they were also known as the ‘mustard pots’. Then in 1942 (probably motivated by consistently bad form) legendary figure and coach; Roy ‘Up There’ Cazaly decided a more aggressive name was required, and adopted the Hawks moniker allegedly on advice from his daughter.
1940-1945- Essendon Bombers: The club became known as the ‘Same Olds’ for a while to differentiate it from the VFA club of the same name which existed between 1900 and 1921. The still prevalent ‘Dons’ has been in widespread use for most of 20th century merely shortening the name, but it wasn’t until WWII when Essendon’s proximity to the wartime airport caused the nickname of the ‘Bombers’ to spring into life.
1933- Sydney (South Melbourne) Swans: South Melbourne was frequently referred to as a few things throughout the years, namely ‘Southerners’, ‘Bloods’, and ‘Blood-stained Angels’. In 1933 however, they resoundingly won the premiership and off the back of so many interstate recruits, that the team was dubbed in the media ‘the South Foreign Legion.’
Particularly the amount of WA recruits (the swan being the emblem of Western Australia), combined with South’s proximity to Albert Park Lake, breathed life into the Swans name.
Who would’ve guessed that the first NSW AFL team would have both a Victorian and a Western Australian legacy flowing through its veins?
1933- Melbourne Demons: Melbourne first had the nickname ‘Invincible Whites’ back in the really early days courtesy of their clothes largely resembling cricket whites. Around 1870 or so they adopted the red and blue off the back of an official bringing some red football socks from England; adding ‘redlegs’ into common parlance.
The name Fuschias was also heavily used, and this continued on through the 20th century until 1933, when then-Melbourne coach Frank ‘Checker’ Hughes, pulled the team aside at a break in play to blast them with; “You are playing like a lot of flowers! Lift up your heads and play like demons!”
June 23rd 1928- Western Bulldogs: The early nicknames of ‘Imperials’ and ‘Tricolours’ directly referenced the colours that Footscray wore (reminiscent of Britain and empire), but that was about to change in 1928 when a genuine bulldog accidentally led the team out against Collingwood at the Western Oval.
Although they lost on the day, supporters at the time said it typified the ‘bulldog spirit’ of the Tricolours that year, and well… the rest is history.
July 7th, 1923- Geelong Cats: What is a Pivotonian? That’s a great question, and one only the fine people of Geelong cared about in the earlier days of the Geelong Football Club. The name derives from city of Geelong being regarded as a centre or ‘pivot’ of trade and hub of primary and secondary industry. As a result the first 25 years of VFL competition the team was often referred to as ‘Pivotonians' or ‘Pivots’. A half-hearted use of ‘Seagulls’ was also an infrequent name due to Corio Oval’s closeness to the sea, but Williamstown had already beaten them to the punch on that front.
Things would change in 1923 however in which a series of coincidences involving a black cat had Geelong playing well. A Collingwood-Hawthorn reserves match was won after a black cat appeared amongst the players at 3 quarter time and turned their fortunes around. This lead The Herald cartoonist Sam Wells to put a cartoon in the paper indicating a black cat might help Geelong to beat Carlton.
It did, after losing 5 of 7 matches, Geelong finally picked up a win- and that, along with a young supporter Ken McIntyre and Geelong club captain; led to the prominence of the cat. By 1925 cries of; ‘Carn the Cats’ were already mixed in with ‘Carn the Pivots!’
1921- Richmond Tigers: The unlikely term ‘Yellow and Black Angels’ was often used to describe teams up until about 1920. Newspaper writers in particular also referred to them as the ‘Wasps’ from time to time, although it never found much prominence.
In 1921 though, Richmond had a new mascot in the Tiger. A Mr Miles, one of the club’s keenest supporters, often climbed up a tree outside the Punt road Oval to watch matches as he could not afford the cost of admission. Becoming quite a cult figure he associated the colours of the club with a tiger, and could be heard booming out to encourage players; ‘Eat ‘em alive, Tigers!’ This catchcry spurred on the adoption of the nickname, and is still a common phrase to this day.
1892- Collingwood Magpies: The Magpies, while the second youngest Victorian (or former Victorian) club in the league, probably has the oldest deliberately chosen nickname of any team.
The club is often associated with its birth as a complementary club to the junior club Britannia which played out of Victoria Park. Once agreements to convert the park to VFA standard were made however, the club needed to find a new jumper different from Britannia, as Britannia’s colours clashed with Footscray.
According to club records, a supporter had suggested the black and white colours after being impressed with the magpie on the South Australian coat of arms. Large numbers of magpies also frequented the banks of the Yarra near Victoria Park, and so this nickname was picked up with gusto.
‘Floreat Pica’ the club motto, can be translated as; ‘May the Magpie prosper.’
1873- St Kilda Saints: A distinctive choice on the name is hard to trace through history for the St Kilda Football Club. The prefix has always made ‘Saints’ the logical nickname for the team, however there were several attempts to introduce something else.
The seagull was often associated with the club in early times, and there was an attempt to name it the ‘Panthers’ in the 40s or ‘Penguins’ in the 50s… but none of them really gained any traction. As a result, the last half century or so has seen ‘Saints’ become the universal nickname.
1864- Carlton Blues: We know team songs are famed for their embellishment, so when you hear ‘We’re the team that never lets you down,’ you might chuckle a bit. But the one thing that certainly stands true for Carlton is that they’re old, they’re dark, and they’re navy blue.
In the extremely early days football teams had little to distinguish from one another, so Carlton took to wearing orange caps. This was quickly discarded as they promptly adopted the blue colours, and legend has it that the Melbourne official that brought back football socks from England, gave the blue socks to Carlton after Melbourne took the red.
This is not to say no other tags for Carlton existed though, in the late 1860s ‘Bulldogs’ was occasionally used, some newspapers before WWI referred to the club as the ‘Brewers’, and there was even an attempt to introduce a cockatoo mascot after WWII that never really took off. And so the Blues has been the nickname that has persisted over all these years.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AFL/comments/466tgw/how_and_when_your_team_got_their_nickname/
November 16, 2010- Greater Western Sydney Giants: As the newest team in the league (obviously) its nickname is quite recent. First mentioned by the AFL as a potential expansion in 2008, and by the end of the year in 2010, in which they had competed in the TAC cup, a November function showcased the new team’s nickname and jumpers.
July 22, 2010- Gold Coast Suns: In 2008 the same venture that gave birth to GWS also revealed the AFL’s ambitions to first expand the competition to the Gold Coast, and so gradually laid the foundations for bringing the club into existence. At a function during their 2010 season in the VFL, the nickname, team song and guernsey was unveiled. And so began the Suns.
September 31st, 1995- Port Adelaide Power: Say what you will about Port, at the very least they’re sure an ambitious club. In fact this ambition earnt them the ire of both the SANFL and Collingwood when in 1990 unhappy with the progress of the State league, Port applied to join the AFL behind the SANFL’s back. The SANFL took action and managed to undercut them- assuring the Adelaide Crows would be the new SA team instead, and Port would be on ice for the time being.
Come late ’94 Port had won the tender to be the second SA team in the comp but needed to wait it out for an opening in the league, they also needed to compromise on the prison bars and magpie moniker that Collingwood claimed the rights to. A function at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on the above date announced they’d take the teal and become the Power. Likely feeding into alliteration that commonly is chosen for snappy team names.
July 12th, 1994- Fremantle Dockers: Fremantle has been a hotbed of Australian Rules football for a considerably long time, particularly with the intense battles between Fremantle teams that drew record crowds. As a result, the AFL was adamant the second WA expansion team was to be based there. The issue of the nickname was open to many suggestions, but eventually the tag of ‘Dockers’ was chosen due to Fremantle’s long association with wharfies and being a port city, in an announcement in July, 1994.
September 19th, 1990- Adelaide Crows: As mentioned above, the Adelaide Football Club was a hasty reaction against Port trying to sneak their way into the AFL. It took just 5 short months to make the arrangements for what would become South Australia’s first club in the competition. It is even alleged that Adelaide took the nickname that Port were planning to use if they were admitted to the AFL, just to add salt to the wound. And so 1991 began the Crows AFL journey.
1986- West Coast Eagles: Admittedly I couldn’t find much about this one (feel free to chip in if you do), except for the basics- that being that the new WA team was granted entry to the VFL for the next year in 1986 to finally broaden the League further from a Victorian competition, to a more national one. An eagle was chosen as the emblem and nickname, presumably due to the prevalence of the Wedge-tailed eagle in Australia. The logo always faces right, symbolically eyeing off its rivals to the east.
May 30th, 1957- Brisbane (Fitzroy) Lions: Brisbane thanks to the 90s merger dropped the ‘Bears’ moniker in favour of Fitzroy’s Lions. The bears itself appeared to be an attempt at a catchy name (alliteration, anyone?) and something that typified maroon. Fitzroy however back in the day, were often referred to as the ‘Roys’ or ‘Roy Boys’ and in the search for an identity, ‘Gorillas’ was used (token of their maroon colour) from before the Second World War, until about 1952.
It was then dropped as it was a subject of derision for opposition supporters, frequently calling the club ‘apes’. As Roys wasn’t seen to be stirring enough and Gorillas didn’t command a lot of respect, the club redesigned a Lions emblem to be used from 1957 onwards. Fans immediately took to the new identifier.
June 12th, 1954- North Melbourne Kangaroos: Originally, and even still in the current day, North Melbourne was referred to as the Shinboners. This uncompromisingly tough team image, possibly originated for the tendency of players to swing their boots in the vicinity of opponents’ lower legs. Another suggestion was that many players came from an area where it was common to work in abattoirs, where separating the meat from bones was required work. To add further credence to the name, local butchers decorated their display windows with blue and white beef leg bones.
In 1954 however the moniker of ‘Kangaroos’ was adopted. The club committee decided that they needed something more suitable, and importantly a mascot that they could show. Former President Phonse Tobin claimed it was an unfavourable image, and that they wanted something more identifiably Australian.
1942-1943- Hawthorn Hawks: From 1932 Hawthorn teams were known as the ‘Mayblooms’. Occasionally during these times they were also known as the ‘mustard pots’. Then in 1942 (probably motivated by consistently bad form) legendary figure and coach; Roy ‘Up There’ Cazaly decided a more aggressive name was required, and adopted the Hawks moniker allegedly on advice from his daughter.
1940-1945- Essendon Bombers: The club became known as the ‘Same Olds’ for a while to differentiate it from the VFA club of the same name which existed between 1900 and 1921. The still prevalent ‘Dons’ has been in widespread use for most of 20th century merely shortening the name, but it wasn’t until WWII when Essendon’s proximity to the wartime airport caused the nickname of the ‘Bombers’ to spring into life.
1933- Sydney (South Melbourne) Swans: South Melbourne was frequently referred to as a few things throughout the years, namely ‘Southerners’, ‘Bloods’, and ‘Blood-stained Angels’. In 1933 however, they resoundingly won the premiership and off the back of so many interstate recruits, that the team was dubbed in the media ‘the South Foreign Legion.’
Particularly the amount of WA recruits (the swan being the emblem of Western Australia), combined with South’s proximity to Albert Park Lake, breathed life into the Swans name.
Who would’ve guessed that the first NSW AFL team would have both a Victorian and a Western Australian legacy flowing through its veins?
1933- Melbourne Demons: Melbourne first had the nickname ‘Invincible Whites’ back in the really early days courtesy of their clothes largely resembling cricket whites. Around 1870 or so they adopted the red and blue off the back of an official bringing some red football socks from England; adding ‘redlegs’ into common parlance.
The name Fuschias was also heavily used, and this continued on through the 20th century until 1933, when then-Melbourne coach Frank ‘Checker’ Hughes, pulled the team aside at a break in play to blast them with; “You are playing like a lot of flowers! Lift up your heads and play like demons!”
June 23rd 1928- Western Bulldogs: The early nicknames of ‘Imperials’ and ‘Tricolours’ directly referenced the colours that Footscray wore (reminiscent of Britain and empire), but that was about to change in 1928 when a genuine bulldog accidentally led the team out against Collingwood at the Western Oval.
Although they lost on the day, supporters at the time said it typified the ‘bulldog spirit’ of the Tricolours that year, and well… the rest is history.
July 7th, 1923- Geelong Cats: What is a Pivotonian? That’s a great question, and one only the fine people of Geelong cared about in the earlier days of the Geelong Football Club. The name derives from city of Geelong being regarded as a centre or ‘pivot’ of trade and hub of primary and secondary industry. As a result the first 25 years of VFL competition the team was often referred to as ‘Pivotonians' or ‘Pivots’. A half-hearted use of ‘Seagulls’ was also an infrequent name due to Corio Oval’s closeness to the sea, but Williamstown had already beaten them to the punch on that front.
Things would change in 1923 however in which a series of coincidences involving a black cat had Geelong playing well. A Collingwood-Hawthorn reserves match was won after a black cat appeared amongst the players at 3 quarter time and turned their fortunes around. This lead The Herald cartoonist Sam Wells to put a cartoon in the paper indicating a black cat might help Geelong to beat Carlton.
It did, after losing 5 of 7 matches, Geelong finally picked up a win- and that, along with a young supporter Ken McIntyre and Geelong club captain; led to the prominence of the cat. By 1925 cries of; ‘Carn the Cats’ were already mixed in with ‘Carn the Pivots!’
1921- Richmond Tigers: The unlikely term ‘Yellow and Black Angels’ was often used to describe teams up until about 1920. Newspaper writers in particular also referred to them as the ‘Wasps’ from time to time, although it never found much prominence.
In 1921 though, Richmond had a new mascot in the Tiger. A Mr Miles, one of the club’s keenest supporters, often climbed up a tree outside the Punt road Oval to watch matches as he could not afford the cost of admission. Becoming quite a cult figure he associated the colours of the club with a tiger, and could be heard booming out to encourage players; ‘Eat ‘em alive, Tigers!’ This catchcry spurred on the adoption of the nickname, and is still a common phrase to this day.
1892- Collingwood Magpies: The Magpies, while the second youngest Victorian (or former Victorian) club in the league, probably has the oldest deliberately chosen nickname of any team.
The club is often associated with its birth as a complementary club to the junior club Britannia which played out of Victoria Park. Once agreements to convert the park to VFA standard were made however, the club needed to find a new jumper different from Britannia, as Britannia’s colours clashed with Footscray.
According to club records, a supporter had suggested the black and white colours after being impressed with the magpie on the South Australian coat of arms. Large numbers of magpies also frequented the banks of the Yarra near Victoria Park, and so this nickname was picked up with gusto.
‘Floreat Pica’ the club motto, can be translated as; ‘May the Magpie prosper.’
1873- St Kilda Saints: A distinctive choice on the name is hard to trace through history for the St Kilda Football Club. The prefix has always made ‘Saints’ the logical nickname for the team, however there were several attempts to introduce something else.
The seagull was often associated with the club in early times, and there was an attempt to name it the ‘Panthers’ in the 40s or ‘Penguins’ in the 50s… but none of them really gained any traction. As a result, the last half century or so has seen ‘Saints’ become the universal nickname.
1864- Carlton Blues: We know team songs are famed for their embellishment, so when you hear ‘We’re the team that never lets you down,’ you might chuckle a bit. But the one thing that certainly stands true for Carlton is that they’re old, they’re dark, and they’re navy blue.
In the extremely early days football teams had little to distinguish from one another, so Carlton took to wearing orange caps. This was quickly discarded as they promptly adopted the blue colours, and legend has it that the Melbourne official that brought back football socks from England, gave the blue socks to Carlton after Melbourne took the red.
This is not to say no other tags for Carlton existed though, in the late 1860s ‘Bulldogs’ was occasionally used, some newspapers before WWI referred to the club as the ‘Brewers’, and there was even an attempt to introduce a cockatoo mascot after WWII that never really took off. And so the Blues has been the nickname that has persisted over all these years.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AFL/comments/466tgw/how_and_when_your_team_got_their_nickname/