Favourite Bulldogs Moments Ever

[The Doctor]

Allow me some self indulgence here folks. But here are my top 10 favourite Bulldogs moments from games. Would love to hear from anyone else on their fave moments as well.

10. It's a Bird, It's a Plane, No it's Gary Dempsey

1976 Round 22 v Carlton at Princes Park

Footscray needed to win or draw to make the finals with Melbourne 4 points behind on the ladder but with the better percentage. We were up against top team and the league powerhouse Carlton on their home ground. Melbourne on the other hand had to play bottom placed Collingwood. It's going to be a massive game for the Doggies.

It was my first ever VFL game and the memory is hazy but some things were indelibly stamped on my memory including the sheer size of the crowd, the noise, the excitement, seeing all my favourite players that I'd only seen on TV like Stoneham, Huppatz, Templeton & particularly Bernie Quinlan running amok. The Dogs got in front and led all day until the blues fought back hard. I can't remember exactly when it occurred but it happened right in front of me. Gary Dempsey, like Superman, flew horizontally across the goal square to get a touch on a ball going through for a certain Blues goal. "Wow" I thought, Gary Dempsey had saved the day.

Final Scores

Carlton 15.17. 107
Footscray 15.17. 107

We made the finals!


9. "He'll be a hero forever if they win this match" Bruce Macavaney

2000 Round 21 v Essendon at Docklands

Again, The doggies need to win to make the finals and this time are up against the undefeated raging flag favourites Essendon, the team considered one of the greatest of all time. We weren't given much hope.

In a game that everything, the uber flood, an all in half time brawl, and a frenetic finish. The Dogs were mounting a charge in the final quarter coming back from about 4 goals down and needed someone to land a knock out blow for us to get up and win to make the finals. Up steps Chris Grant from the impossible angle on the boundary line and snaps truly. Sending everyone into raptures and the mighty Bombers were beaten. Chris Grant was already hero, thanks Bruce. On a side note I loved that Billy Kolyniuk wanted & tried to take that kick.

Final Scores

Essendon 12.9. 81
W.Bulldogs 14.8. 92

we're off to the finals!


8. The Passing of the Baton

2016 Semi Final v Hawthorn at Etihad

In front of one of the biggest crowds the Dogs had ever played in front of 87000+ we were up against the reigning triple champions, Hawthorn. Many thought that when the Bont dispossessed Luke Hodge in midfield to set up a crucial goal and potentially match winning lead that that was the moment the baton was passed from one to champ to another.

I thought it came earlier when the Dogs were struggling and badly needed a goal to get back into the match. The Bont pushed forward and rag dolled the Hawk champ in the forward pocket to take a superb mark and then go back and slot it. A very pivotal moment in the game and to be able to do that against the Hawthorn captain meant we had the firepower and belief to take on and knock out the Hawks. And we did!

Final Scores

W.Bulldogs 16.11. 107
Hawthorn 12.12. 84

we're off to the Preliminary Final!


7. Dancing Dougie boots the Bulldogs into the Finals & the Double Chance

1985 Round 21 v Hawthorn at the Western Oval

The Bulldogs faithful had endured many barren years prior to 1985 and a procession of stars leave the club to seek their footy fortunes elsewhere. However hope returned to the Western Oval in 1985. The Bulldogs went into this fixture knowing a win would give us the double chance and first finals appearance since 1976.

Late in the 3rd term, favourite son Dougie Hawkins kicks a brilliant goal on the run after a give and go with Phil Maylin. It was the only goal against the wind that game and the most decisive of the game. Super Macpherson would boot the sealer in the 4th and ensure the double chance was ours, but it was Dougie's goal that proved to be the difference. What a goal, what a game.

Final Scores

Footscray 5.13. 43
Hawthorn 5.8. 38

We're off to the finals and we're going to play in at least 2 of them!


6. "Mark this day down Bulldogs Fans" Anthony Hudson

2015 Round 5 v Sydney at the SCG

After the difficult years preceding 2015 the young Dogs, with new coach Luke Beveridge at the helm, were showing a bit of early season promise. This time they were up against grand finalist from 2014 the Swans.

Murphy weaves around the flank and kicks long to the top of the goalsquare. Dalhaus from the pack squeezes a hurried snap towards goal. It bounces up on the goal line and Easton Wood acrobatically jumps up to get a to poke to it and scores the match winning goal with only a minutes or so to go. Wood then in the dying seconds as the Swans surge forward makes a brilliant one handed scoop in the wet to clear the danger and save the day. The Dogs made a statement that day.

Final Scores

Sydney 10.13. 73
W.Bulldogs 11.11. 77

As skipper Rob Murphy said after the game "How could you not love the footy"


5. "Play of the Year” Brian Taylor

2016 Preliminary Final v GWS at Spotless Stadium

It’s a game for the ages with so many highlights. It’s the dying seconds of the 3rd quarter. The Dogs had been in front for most of the game but the Giants had seemingly got on top during the 3rd term and held a 7 point lead as the Dogs kicked the ball back into play.

In that desperate passage of play many Bulldogs got their hands on the ball. With sheer will we just forced the ball forward with bandpasses, knock ons etc. We clearly wanted the ball more as the Giants couldn’t get a hand on it but the pressure was so immense the Dogs couldn’t break free as they were all brought down as they tried to dispose. Libba somehow gets a miraculous handball out of the pack, Stringer with a deft tap to Dalhaus opens up the play but Dal gets brought down as he just gets a hand pass away. Then came the contest I’ll never forget. Clay Smith vs former captain Ryan Griffen. About 20 metres out they come from opposite sides to clash in the contest. Griffen has to kill that play, Smith has to keep it alive. Smith does enough for Caleb Daniel to swoop on the loose ball and snap truly just before the 3/4 time siren. it’s only 1 point the difference


4. "Listen to this. Listen to the fans. It’s why we go to the football” Rex Hunt

2016 Preliminary Final v GWS at Spotless Stadium

It’s about half way through the tense final quarter and the dogs are 5 points down. The Giants had broken away to a 14 point lead but as Anthony Hudson described “these bulldogs won’t lay down, they don’t know how” we just kept finding a way to get back into it.

The Giants go into attack on the half forward line. Each contest is as fierce as it possibly gets. There is a Grand Final place on the line. Matty Boyd gets a toe poke to it and JJ bursts onto the ball at half back. The crowd rises to a crescendo as JJ breaks the game open with his amazing run and kicks long to the advantage of the Bont about 60 metres from goal. The Bont runs onto it, taps it on, steadies and drills it from 40 metres out with Giants in hot pursuit. The Dogs hit the front by a point.

The most exciting goal I have ever seen and at this time the greatest Bulldogs moment of my life.


3. The Wall of Biggs

2016 Grand Final v Sydney Swans at the MCG

There is only 7 minutes left in the Grand Final and the dogs lead by a point in that epic last quarter. We’ve had most of the play but can’t land a killer blow. If the Swans score next we are in trouble.

The Swans look to clear from half back towards the wing. Biggs is standing the mark and smothers the kick from Papley, he goes after it and is brought down losing possession. He quickly gets back up and smothers a Swans player again. The Dogs with sheer will and good old fashioned guts & determination get the ball into the forward pocket through a number of players. A couple of players including Tom Boyd try and get a snap at goal but all are smothered. The ball spills out to Biggs who goes in with multiple efforts to keep it going forward. The Swans cant get past Biggs. Eventually Macrae gets a centering kick to around 40m from goal which leads to Picken crumbing the ball and slamming it through. Dogs up by 7 points. What a pressure goal. have never seen anything like it.

Thats what it takes to win and I think I had the best view of it at the MCG! I went mental!


2. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but the Bulldogs are through to a Grand Final” Luke Darcy

2016 Preliminary Final v GWS at Spotless Stadium

It’s the final play of the Prelim. A few minutes earlier Macrae had put us 6 points up. Could we hang on? The Giants then score a point and now it’s 5 points the difference. Can we hang on? The Giants attack again but Wood, Morris and Roberts combine to repel the attack. The Dogs take possession and try to milk the clock. Can we hang on I keep asking or is it more Preliminary Final misery and I’ve been through 7 of them?

Dunkley has it at half back near the boundary. He kicks long to a contest down the line. It spills to the back, Libba and Tom Boyd get it to Stringer who bursts into the 50. I’m thinking he’s going to have a shot on the angle but instead he kicks across the face. As the ball is in mid flight the crowd roar even louder as we all realise it’s heading for Dickson who is on his own 25m from goal. He marks and there is less than 30 seconds on the clock. We can’t lose.

Final scores

GWS 12.11 83
W.Bulldogs 13.11 89

“Wow”. We’re off to the Grand Final


1. "The Stadium Hold’s It’s Breath” Dennis Cometti

2016 Grand Final v Sydney Swans at the MCG

It’s the defining moment of the Grand Final. Moments after the disallowed JJ goal we were all fearing for the worst. Have they taken it away from us? Would the fairy tale end in the most cruel of nightmares for us long suffering Doggies supporters. Roughead marks in the centre to calm the nerves for a moment. But there is still time for the Swans who are only 9 points down.

Swans counter attack from half back and look to go through the corridor. Then comes the greatest tackle in Bulldogs history when Dale Morris brings down the man who was threatening to take the grand final away from us, Buddy Franklin who was trying to burst away and drive deep into attack. Franklin loses the ball and Tom Boyd picks it up and boots long from the centre square.

I remember watching this ball in flight. How high it seemed to go. It came into the forward line like an incoming missile and exploded in the goal square and bounced through for a goal. I had an amazing view of it. The roar from the crowd felt like the earth had shifted. it was colossal, just colossal. We went ballistic!

Final Scores

Sydney 10.7 67
W.Bulldogs 13.11 89


We won!

[bulldogtragic]

Amazing, epic post!

'F**K'

Brian Taylor on radio on the Grand Final. Upon Tom Boyd kicking his 60m monster, immediately after calling it in excitement yells 'F**K'. Brings tears to my eyes for Tom seizing the moment and the hilarity of a grown man excitedly yelling F**K in response on the radio.

[Doc26]

Great post Doctor.

5 of your 10 Ten Bulldogs Moments Ever in just under a week.

But is it too few


Can still recall vividly the feeling of jubilation at quarter time in the 1997 Qualifying Final against Sydney. A 9 goal to zip quarter in the opening term is what dreams are made of.

[SonofScray]

Blimey. What a thread. Thank you.

Pretty much have to agree on all the finals moments. Outside of that, our first win at Geelong for ages in the 90s gets a Guernsey in my immediate list. Monty in the 06 EF too.

[Daughter of the West]

This is fabulous Doc.

I would love to contribute my own:

Full Forward Macrae

2016 Preliminary Final v GWS at Spotless Stadium

Score is 82 a piece, less than 4 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Fans of both colours are on the edge of their seats. Dogs fans are waiting for defeat to be snatched from the jaws of victory.

There is a throw-in from the boundary, players all scrap around. Picken handballs through legs to Liberatore, who slams on his boot having spotted Macrae up forward. Macrae chests it, then has it knocked from his grasp late. Dogs fan's blood pressure rises, but it's paid a mark. He takes a deep breath and lines up. Jog, jog, jog and *BANG* - straight through the guts. Macrae turns around, flinging his clenched fist through the air and bellows at his teammates.

My sister and I leap out of our seat and the noise at Spotless is deafening.

[bornadog]

All great moments, it is what makes us go back to game after game.

I will have to think about it because that 4 week period in 2016 just tops everything.

[Twodogs]

This is fabulous Doc.

I would love to contribute my own:

Full Forward Macrae

2016 Preliminary Final v GWS at Spotless Stadium

Score is 82 a piece, less than 4 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Fans of both colours are on the edge of their seats. Dogs fans are waiting for defeat to be snatched from the jaws of victory.

There is a throw-in from the boundary, players all scrap around. Picken handballs through legs to Liberatore, who slams on his boot having spotted Macrae up forward. Macrae chests it, then has it knocked from his grasp late. Dogs fan's blood pressure rises, but it's paid a mark. He takes a deep breath and lines up. Jog, jog, jog and *BANG* - straight through the guts. Macrae turns around, flinging his clenched fist through the air and bellows at his teammates.

My sister and I leap out of our seat and the noise at Spotless is deafening.

Beautiful.

[LostDoggy]

Awesome thread. A couple of extra ones that spring to mind:

- I was only a young fella, but I was standing one row back just behind the little scoreboard on he fence in the forward pocket where Templeton kicked 8 in a quarter to take his tally to 15.9 for the day, as the Dogs kicked a then all time league record 33.15.213 v StKilda, Round 13, 1978.

- After very lean early 80s years, we won 3 of our first 4 games in 1983. Hopes were high in Round 5 when we came up against reigning grand finalist Richmond at the MCG in front of 50,000+ (unheard of for us in those days ) on Anzac Day. We kicked 10 goals to 0 in the first quarter, with Edmond kicking 5 in the first 15 minutes- we were in dreamland. Richmond came back hard, but we held on 18.8.116 to 17.12.114. That was a great day when they were extremely rare.

- Beating North in an elimination final in 1985 (our first finals win in 24 years) was a great memory. After a tight first half, we played some great attacking footy to win running away, 19.23.137 to 16.11.107. To top the day off, Beasley kicked his 100th goal for the season and Les Bamblett his 50th.

- After the fairytale 1997 season, the first final against reigning grand finalists Sydney was a great day. We knew we were a good team that year and hit the ground running, the game was over at quarter time - 9.2 to 0.5. The last 3 quarters were all joy, best not to think of what was to follow.

- The elimination final against Collingwood in 2006 was also pretty good. They were strong favourites that day but our young team were ruthless and so skillful that day. In front of 85,000, we kicked 18.13 to 11.14 to signal the Eade era that proved so near yet so far for us.

[Go_Dogs]

Brilliant, thanks doc and everyone else for the contributions.

[Happy Days]

Awesome post Doc - count me in for Happy Smother's Day as my personal favourite; had $10 on Biggs for the Norm Smith (because he was at longer odds than every other player for some reason - Sportsbet literally excluded him from the 'every other player' option to put him out $40 further. I think they must have seen his Instagram too) and if he had've kicked the goal at the end instead of getting tackled he might have got it done. Still an awesome moment.

It's hard not to focus on 2016, but one that sticks out to me personally is Chris Grant kicking 6 goals against West Coast in 2006. For AGES I always tried to claim to my friends that mid-2000's Grant was an all-time legend and still one of the best players in the competition in the face of overwhelming evidence it was not quite the case anymore. When he did that it gave me my first ever chance to stick it to my mates for something good the Bulldogs did.

[The Adelaide Connection]

I have just discovered there is something wrong with WOOF.

It won't let me 'thank for this post' and 'like this post' at the same time. This OP needs it.

[bornadog]

1. "The Stadium Hold’s It’s Breath” Dennis Cometti

2016 Grand Final v Sydney Swans at the MCG

It’s the defining moment of the Grand Final. Moments after the disallowed JJ goal we were all fearing for the worst. Have they taken it away from us? Would the fairy tale end in the most cruel of nightmares for us long suffering Doggies supporters. Roughead marks in the centre to calm the nerves for a moment. But there is still time for the Swans who are only 9 points down.

Swans counter attack from half back and look to go through the corridor. Then comes the greatest tackle in Bulldogs history when Dale Morris brings down the man who was threatening to take the grand final away from us, Buddy Franklin who was trying to burst away and drive deep into attack. Franklin loses the ball and Tom Boyd picks it up and boots long from the centre square.

I remember watching this ball in flight. How high it seemed to go. It came into the forward line like an incoming missile and exploded in the goal square and bounced through for a goal. I had an amazing view of it. The roar from the crowd felt like the earth had shifted. it was colossal, just colossal. We went ballistic!

Final Scores

Sydney 10.7 67
W.Bulldogs 13.11 89


We won!

This was the moment I knew we had won, and agree Doc, one of the greatest moments.

I also agree with your number two. When the ball was floating through the air to Dickson, that moment the roar in the stadium felt like there were 100,000 fans there. The feeling was just unbelievable to think we were in a grand final at last.

[1eyedog]

Dougie jogging out with EJ when he broke the games record was amazing.

KT and his 15 sausage rolls was an event to behold too. Everytime it went in to our forward line KT somehow managed to get hold of it.

Bevo and that medal tops the lot for mine.

[Twodogs]

Kick it to Phillips, to Phillips. Ahhhhhh geez, what'd ya kick it to Phillips for?


Footscray v Collingwood Round 10 1984 Western Oval

I'd never seen us beat Collingwood in person, I'd seen us beat every other team but the win against Collingwood was proving elusive. And today wasn't looking like the day it was going to happen either as Collingwood played us off the park in the first half and would have been disappointed to head to the sheds with a lead of only 29 points despite having almost twice as many scoring shots. A four goal to one third quarter got it back to a manageable 11 points at 3/4 time.

As the game ticked time on Collingwood holds on to a five point lead. Footscray mounts one last desperate attack a pack forms in the forward pocket but Gubby Allen wants it the most and Jim Edmomd, second to the ball, gets into his back and the umpire pays Allan the free. We all think that's the game as Allan slowly walks back and weighs up his options. Normally he would have gone long along the boundary line but today he spots Greg Phillips standing by himself in the goal square and goes to him instead. What he hadn't seen was Simon Beasley lurking with intent. Beasley managed to get between Allen and Phillips and take an intercept mark in the goal square. Cue the famous image of Jim Edmond (still not happy about the in the back decision) right up in Gubby's face pointing at his temple indicating what he thought of Allen's mental processes leading up to his kick. And it was all the better for us boys because it all unfolded 15-25 metres in front of us.

Beasley kicked a simple goal from the goalsquare and I've never seen delerium like it at a home and away game. We had a drink in every pub in Footscray that night, and in 1984 that was a lot of pubs. I don't remember the last few. The highlight of the day for me was my Collingwood supporting mate yelling "kick it to Phillips, kick it to Phillips. Ahhh geez what did you kick it to Phillips for?"

[Twodogs]

Awesome thread. A couple of extra ones that spring to mind:

- I was only a young fella, but I was standing one row back just behind the little scoreboard on he fence in the forward pocket where Templeton kicked 8 in a quarter to take his tally to 15.9 for the day, as the Dogs kicked a then all time league record 33.15.213 v StKilda, Round 13, 1978.

- After very lean early 80s years, we won 3 of our first 4 games in 1983. Hopes were high in Round 5 when we came up against reigning grand finalist Richmond at the MCG in front of 50,000+ (unheard of for us in those days ) on Anzac Day. We kicked 10 goals to 0 in the first quarter, with Edmond kicking 5 in the first 15 minutes- we were in dreamland. Richmond came back hard, but we held on 18.8.116 to 17.12.114. That was a great day when they were extremely rare.

- Beating North in an elimination final in 1985 (our first finals win in 24 years) was a great memory. After a tight first half, we played some great attacking footy to win running away, 19.23.137 to 16.11.107. To top the day off, Beasley kicked his 100th goal for the season and Les Bamblett his 50th.

- After the fairytale 1997 season, the first final against reigning grand finalists Sydney was a great day. We knew we were a good team that year and hit the ground running, the game was over at quarter time - 9.2 to 0.5. The last 3 quarters were all joy, best not to think of what was to follow.

- The elimination final against Collingwood in 2006 was also pretty good. They were strong favourites that day but our young team were ruthless and so skillful that day. In front of 85,000, we kicked 18.13 to 11.14 to signal the Eade era that proved so near yet so far for us.

I was looking at the scores of that game the other day. We kicked the last 16 goals of the match. When St Kilda kicked their 16th goal halfway through the third quarter we were only four points up. We shifted up a gear and win by a lazy 106 points.