One happy Dog, By Tyler Hannigan
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One happy Dog
Saturday, 8th October, 2016
By Tyler Hannigan
Former Footscray and West Robins’ player Alan Hunter was on hand to see the Western Bulldogs win just their second ever premiership, and first since 1954, when they beat the Sydney Swans in the Grand Final last weekend.
Hunter played 15 games for Footscray (now the Bulldogs) between 1963 and ‘67 before moving to Broken Hill and spending almost 50 years in the Silver City.
Born in Queensland, Hunter was a part of a Queensland under 18s team that travelled to Melbourne to take on the Footscray under 19s. He kicked 6 goals in the match and so impressed the Footscray higher ups - including the great Bulldogs’ forward Jack Collins who was club secretary at the time - that they offered to find him a job in Melbourne and an opportunity to play for the club.
Hunter came to the club at an interesting time in their history as legendary player-coach Ted Whitten Snr relinquished coaching duties in 1967 to the returning Charlie Sutton who had coached Footscray to their 1954 premiership.
Because of this, Hunter was coached by the two biggest names in the Bulldogs’ history.
“EJ (Whitten) was the hardest player I’ve ever seen,” said Hunter.
“(He was the) hardest at the ball and he’d take the man as well as the ball.”
Hunter said that being a part of the team that won the 1965 night premiership was his highlight with the Dogs.
“We beat St Kilda in that year’s final and I think they had 45,000 there and had 5,000 trying to get in.
“They locked them out but they ended up knocking the gates down.”
The night competition was held concurrent with the VFL’s finals and included the teams that missed out on the main season’s finals with games played at night and in a knockout cup style.
Upon finishing his VFL career, Hunter moved to Broken Hill to take up a player-coach role with the West Football Club although injuries took their toll and he was forced into a relatively early retirement.
“I only lasted a few years for West as I had injury problems.
“I had trouble with the harder grounds (in Broken Hill) but I was still able to get runner-up in the (Middleton) medal in my first year.
“I was only coach for two or three years but I made a comeback of sorts to play when Ray Giblett became coach.
“I retired pretty early. I think I was only 28 but I was picked in (West’s) team of the century so I must have played okay.”
Hunter maintained his involvement with the Robins though, becoming a selector and secretary as well as providing some specialist coaching to the 1990 premiership team.
He said that despite never being approached by another club, he wouldn’t have entertained the thought of playing or coaching for another Broken Hill club as he was, and still is, a Westie through and through.
Hunter worked on the mines for five years before working behind the bar of the RSL for more than 20 years. He also spent time as a professional punter with his father.
Hunter, 72, still works as a casual delivery driver for the Barrier Daily Truth.
“I work in five-year blocks,” said Hunter, who keeps himself in top shape by regularly working out.
“I asses my health every five years to see if I can keep working and I’ve always said that my body will tell me when it’s time to give it away but it hasn’t said so yet.”
Hunter attended the Grand Final with his family, all of whom support the Bulldogs.
“I’ve never seen so many Bulldogs’ supporters,” he said.
“I went with my family and they’re all die-hard ‘Dog supporters and my grandchildren were dressed up in all the ‘Dogs’ gear with face paint.
“They know all the players and all the words to the song, so we had a terrific family day.”
On the game itself, Hunter wasn’t sure the ‘Dogs had it in the bag until he heard that there were only three minutes left and remembered the old Leigh Matthews saying.
“The game was always in the balance until the last three minutes 20 seconds and my son was sitting next to me and I turned to him and said “We’re going to win”.
“At that stage we had got to 15 points up and I go on the old Leigh Matthews adage of a goal-a-minute and that just doesn’t happen in a Grand Final so that was the point we started to celebrate.
“The feeling after the game was euphoria. It was amazing.
“But I was mostly pleased for my family as they are such dedicated Bulldog fans.
“And to be there for the first one (premiership, since 1954) was something special.”
He almost missed the Grand Final as he was scheduled to work on the Friday night before the game but thanks to some reworking of the roster, Hunter was able to make it.
“I really need to thank Gavin Schmidt at the BDT for allowing me to get to the game,” he said.
