Favourite Bulldogs Moments Ever

[Mofra]

- 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.

The sub-plot to this game deserves a separate mention.

Rohan Smith announced his retirement before the match and if we lost we would be eliminated from the finals and he would have been stranded on 299 games.

In the last quarter as it became clear we would win and Bubba would get to the magical 300 game tally, the crowd started chanting "Bubba, Bubba" in appreciation of a player who put the team above a personal milestone.

It's easy to forget that Bubba was Lindsay Gilbee before a Gilbee was even a thing. And he won our goal-kicking one year when shifted forward.

[bornadog]

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.

What a wonderful day that was. We held the record for the highest score in a game for a number of years. God KT was brilliant as was the stab passing to him by EJ Whitten junior.

[westdog54]

Its over, its all over. The dam wall has busted.

Not even Tom Boyd's goal had made me comfortable.

When we repelled another attack initiated by Lance Franklin (who for all his criticisms on the day, I thought he tried his guts out given he would have been in considerable discomfort after the first quarter), I was fairly certain that that was their last chance gone.

Then, as we swept forward, Liam Picken found himself one-on-one in the goalsquare with a centering kick from Jake Stringer on the way to him.

He couldn't hold the mark, but he held his feet, gathered up the ball, and waltzed to the goal line to kick the sealing goal from point blank range.

Bruce Mcavaney delivered the line above. In radio commentary boxes around the stadium, various commentators erupted in their excitement.

Luke Darcy was lost for words, simply saying "I don't know what to say, I'm out". Terry Wallace waxed lyrical about how he "couldn't be more proud", recalling that he was there when the club was told "Its over, its done". Tony Leonard, a long suffering Bulldog, couldn't allow the fatalist in him to be suppressed. With two minutes to go, not even a 21 point lead was enough to make him comfortable.

No such problems in the stands. Tony Liberatore and Scott West pulled their children into a massive group hug. The chants and cheers that usually followed a goal at such a stage of the game gave way to fans turning and embracing family, friends, strangers, anyone within hugging distance. My reaction was to sit back in my seat and sit in silent thought, only to be told by a young collingwood supporting lass there to wintess the moment that "its ok to cry, you know". From that point on, there was nothing left to say but to lead all within my shouting range in a chorus of 'Sons of the West'.

Luke Beveridge and the coaching staff were on the boundary less than a minute after Picken's goal. The celebration was on in earnest.

The dogs were going to win the flag.

[Twodogs]

What a wonderful day that was. We held the record for the highest score in a game for a number of years. God KT was brilliant as was the stab passing to him by EJ Whitten junior.

I reckon we held the record score for less than a year. Fitzroy beat it the year after and then the Swans bettered it and now I'm sure that Geelong have it. The day Fitzroy topped our score they beat Melbourne by 190 points (let's see how good my memory is-I think the score in that game was 238-48) I was sitting in the same spot in the Whitten stand when I saw the score on the scoreboard as I was sitting in when we beat St Kilda the year before and I can remeber thinking "that didn't last long"

[Twodogs]

Its over, its all over. The dam wall has busted.

Not even Tom Boyd's goal had made me comfortable.

When we repelled another attack initiated by Lance Franklin (who for all his criticisms on the day, I thought he tried his guts out given he would have been in considerable discomfort after the first quarter), I was fairly certain that that was their last chance gone.

Then, as we swept forward, Liam Picken found himself one-on-one in the goalsquare with a centering kick from Jake Stringer on the way to him.

He couldn't hold the mark, but he held his feet, gathered up the ball, and waltzed to the goal line to kick the sealing goal from point blank range.

Bruce Mcavaney delivered the line above. In radio commentary boxes around the stadium, various commentators erupted in their excitement.

Luke Darcy was lost for words, simply saying "I don't know what to say, I'm out". Terry Wallace waxed lyrical about how he "couldn't be more proud", recalling that he was there when the club was told "Its over, its done". Tony Leonard, a long suffering Bulldog, couldn't allow the fatalist in him to be suppressed. With two minutes to go, not even a 21 point lead was enough to make him comfortable.

Tony Leonard's (an ex Barkly St boy!) summing up after the siren was beautiful. "They were never meant to be here, they are, they're the premiers!" He would have been so wrapped to say it and it was just right.

Luke Beveridge and the coaching staff were on the boundary less than a minute after Picken's goal. The celebration was on in earnest.

The dogs were going to win the flag.

I was standing there (who was sitting by that stage?) when Bevo and Bubba arrived at the interchange. Firstdog had spotted Stringer kick the ball sideways to Libba (?) when the Bontbwas a trickier option he would have gone to if the game had been in the balance. He gave me the biggest shove (Firstdog, not Stringer) and yelled "Mate, I can't *!*!*!*!ing believe it! We are icing the clock in a Grand *!*!*!*!ing Final!!!!!" I said "ohhhhh mate don't say it, we could still lose this" and then he pointed to the interchange area where everybody was going batshit crazy (except Bevo, he just had a bit of a smile) and said "good enough for you now?"

[AndrewP6]

Great thread. Great, GREAT thread.

For mine:

2016 Semi-final vs Hawthorn. They were the team to beat, we'd already conquered the Weagles over in the west. The Pups of 2016 gave a contest pretty much game in game out, so I knew we would fight. Then we went and did it to the 3 time premiers. Sitting next to my mum, I turned to her and said "Want to go to Sydney next week?".

2016 Preliminary Final vs The Plastic Franchise. Spent a fortune to get up there. Sitting in fantastic seats on the wing, right behind the Smorgon family (about 8 of them). Behind us, a bar filled with mostly Plastics supporters. We'd watched some of them arriving, putting on their scarves (probably for the first time). I bit my tongue while the idiots shouted stuff like "Go home Bulldogs"... "Get on the plane, Bulldogs"... On that glorious final siren, as the place erupted...I turned to them and shouted "Go home GWS!!! Get on the plane and get out of here. Start your holidays early! I'd join you, but I'm busy next week!!!"... I never really engage with opposition supporters, but couldn't resist. The cops standing next to me were trying to stifle their laughter

Grand Final, 2016. I never thought, right through that series, we'd get to the big dance. To quote the Bont "Why not us?"... I echo all the other comments regarding the game itself. With about 2 minutes left, I turned to the bloke next to me, a complete stranger and said "Mate, we're going to win this bloody game!!". It was almost as if I was trying to convince myself it was actually happening. Seeing the cup being held aloft... Meeting and briefly chatting with the great John Schultz... Hearing BT drop the F bomb in his epic call. ...Reading all the news, watching all the TV shows.... all about us - The PREMIERS.

Holding that cup myself. Out of this world.

Side note, I had a dream earlier in the season about us winning the Premiership and Murph visiting my work (a school) with the cup. I still am amazed at least one of those things actually happened.

As a kid, my dad used to get us into the change rooms. I've got photos with Terry Wheeler, Kelvin Templeton, Dougie, Jim Edmond, Bluey Hampshire and others. Great memories.