Eastdog
03-09-2016, 09:13 PM
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/western-bulldogs/bulldogs-legend-doug-hawkins-remembers-great-days-of-western-oval-now-named-whitten-oval/news-story/3bb4962bb62811e8ca6c01de61dd9e99
Bulldogs legend Doug Hawkins remembers great days of Western Oval, now named Whitten Oval
ELIZA SEWELL, Herald Sun
LONG before Doug Hawkins made the Western Oval his own, he watched the Bulldogs play there as a kid. His cousin, Terry Wilkins, was his hero.
Sometimes Hawkins worked as a lolly boy, selling drinks and treats. Well, he was supposed to be selling them.
“I had one of those little trays and a white coat,” he said. “I used to pay them because I used to sit down and eat all the food and drinks and I’d go back in and they’d say, ‘You owe us $3.50’.”
The 329-game Footscray legend (he played 350 games in all after a final year at Fitzroy) remembers the crowd and watching players including Bernie Quinlan. And even though he was only 10, he recalls the great Ted Whitten’s last game at the ground like it was yesterday.
“I remember Teddy standing there, he looked like he was on a fruit box,” Hawkins said.
“It was wet and they were playing Hawthorn. He was waving to all the crowd. I’ll never ever forget that
“I ran out on the ground with all the crowd and fan to say goodbye to the great E.J.”
The Barkley St ground is, of course, now known as Whitten Oval and Hawkins played his first game there at the age of 17.
Now 56, Hawkins made his debut in 1978 as a 17-year-old against the Kangaroos, the side he first supported. He said home ground advantage was very real back then.
“The crowd were very one-eyed, no different to Windy Hill or Victoria Park or Princes Park,” he said.
“The Footscray people, gee, they were very loud. They were very loyal. They’d give the opposition hell; they loved their own. Win, draw or lose, they stuck by us.
“Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Carlton and Richmond powerhouses had trouble beating Footscray at Footscray.
“We had this home ground advantage, a bit of wind, a bit of rain. No one liked coming to our ground. We had this sort of, I reckon, five or six-goal advantage.”
The origin of the iconic “Doug Hawkins Wing” dates to 1984, when Mick Malthouse was coaching from the box on the far side of the Western Oval.
Footscray was playing Fitzroy and Hawkins had a big first quarter on that outer wing.
Malthouse told Hawkins to stay there in the second quarter. Then he had a good second quarter and the message was the same at half-time.
“He said, ‘Listen, you’re saying on this side of the ground’,” Hawkins recalled. “From that Fitzroy game in ’84 I became an outer-wing wingman.
“It’s not only from Footscray. When we played at Windy Hill I played on the outer wing; when I played at Waverley I played on the outer wing; when I played at the MCG I played on the Southern Stand outer wing. I don’t know what that was (the MCG tactic). That doesn’t make much sense.
“But at the Whitten Oval, the wind would blow across the ground, that side was a little bit damp, the game slowed down a little bit and on that first day I had a big day and it was my wing.
Ted Whitten and Doug Hawkins at Western Oval on the eve of Hawkins breaking Whitten's games record of 321 with the Bulldogs.
Doug Hawkins is chaired off after playing his 322nd game.
“You could hear Mick yelling at me, all the instructions. Some weren’t too complimentary, sometimes.
“You could actually hear him. There were times I could feel him looking over me, saying, ‘Hawkins, you’re not going hard enough, you weak prick’.
“To know your coach is looking over you, you couldn’t take a short step. When you made a mistake you knew who was watching you.”
Hawkins played his 300th game at the Bulldogs’ home ground and in 1994 broke Whitten’s club games record of 321 games on the same sacred soil.
“To break E.J.’s record, Mr Football, on that ground — I’ll have memories of that football ground for the rest of my life,” he said.
Bulldogs legend Doug Hawkins remembers great days of Western Oval, now named Whitten Oval
ELIZA SEWELL, Herald Sun
LONG before Doug Hawkins made the Western Oval his own, he watched the Bulldogs play there as a kid. His cousin, Terry Wilkins, was his hero.
Sometimes Hawkins worked as a lolly boy, selling drinks and treats. Well, he was supposed to be selling them.
“I had one of those little trays and a white coat,” he said. “I used to pay them because I used to sit down and eat all the food and drinks and I’d go back in and they’d say, ‘You owe us $3.50’.”
The 329-game Footscray legend (he played 350 games in all after a final year at Fitzroy) remembers the crowd and watching players including Bernie Quinlan. And even though he was only 10, he recalls the great Ted Whitten’s last game at the ground like it was yesterday.
“I remember Teddy standing there, he looked like he was on a fruit box,” Hawkins said.
“It was wet and they were playing Hawthorn. He was waving to all the crowd. I’ll never ever forget that
“I ran out on the ground with all the crowd and fan to say goodbye to the great E.J.”
The Barkley St ground is, of course, now known as Whitten Oval and Hawkins played his first game there at the age of 17.
Now 56, Hawkins made his debut in 1978 as a 17-year-old against the Kangaroos, the side he first supported. He said home ground advantage was very real back then.
“The crowd were very one-eyed, no different to Windy Hill or Victoria Park or Princes Park,” he said.
“The Footscray people, gee, they were very loud. They were very loyal. They’d give the opposition hell; they loved their own. Win, draw or lose, they stuck by us.
“Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Carlton and Richmond powerhouses had trouble beating Footscray at Footscray.
“We had this home ground advantage, a bit of wind, a bit of rain. No one liked coming to our ground. We had this sort of, I reckon, five or six-goal advantage.”
The origin of the iconic “Doug Hawkins Wing” dates to 1984, when Mick Malthouse was coaching from the box on the far side of the Western Oval.
Footscray was playing Fitzroy and Hawkins had a big first quarter on that outer wing.
Malthouse told Hawkins to stay there in the second quarter. Then he had a good second quarter and the message was the same at half-time.
“He said, ‘Listen, you’re saying on this side of the ground’,” Hawkins recalled. “From that Fitzroy game in ’84 I became an outer-wing wingman.
“It’s not only from Footscray. When we played at Windy Hill I played on the outer wing; when I played at Waverley I played on the outer wing; when I played at the MCG I played on the Southern Stand outer wing. I don’t know what that was (the MCG tactic). That doesn’t make much sense.
“But at the Whitten Oval, the wind would blow across the ground, that side was a little bit damp, the game slowed down a little bit and on that first day I had a big day and it was my wing.
Ted Whitten and Doug Hawkins at Western Oval on the eve of Hawkins breaking Whitten's games record of 321 with the Bulldogs.
Doug Hawkins is chaired off after playing his 322nd game.
“You could hear Mick yelling at me, all the instructions. Some weren’t too complimentary, sometimes.
“You could actually hear him. There were times I could feel him looking over me, saying, ‘Hawkins, you’re not going hard enough, you weak prick’.
“To know your coach is looking over you, you couldn’t take a short step. When you made a mistake you knew who was watching you.”
Hawkins played his 300th game at the Bulldogs’ home ground and in 1994 broke Whitten’s club games record of 321 games on the same sacred soil.
“To break E.J.’s record, Mr Football, on that ground — I’ll have memories of that football ground for the rest of my life,” he said.