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  1. #1
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    Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www....aacc716f9e0fe5


    Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name
    Matt Balmer from Fox Sports
    @mattbalmer7
    February 11th, 2021 12:18 pm


    Former club captain Bob Murphy believes it is time the Western Bulldogs changed their name back to Footscray.

    Murphy played 312 games in the red, white and blue across his career and suggested it was time the Dogs went back to where the heart of the club was, by returning the name back to Footscray.

    The Dogs changed the name at the end of 1996 in order to market the club more broadly in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

    The Western Bulldogs title is the only club in Victoria not to be directly named after a suburb.

    “I have long held the thought that I would love the Western Bulldogs to go back to being the Footscray Bulldogs,” he told SEN’s Bob and Andy.

    “This is just me speaking for me. I understand why it was done in the first place, they were bleak times at the end of ’96, the club was on its knees.

    “I think enough time now has gone past and we still are in Footscray and I actually don’t think going back to (being called) Footscray leaves anyone out.

    “I don’t really buy the theory that calling ourselves the Western Bulldogs opens ourselves up to including more and getting more people in.

    “Footscray is a tangible feeling as much as it is a place of geography. That’s where the heart of the football club is, that’s where the football ground is, that’s where the players and fans congregate.”

    Speaking on SEN Breakfast, Melbourne great Garry Lyon didn’t share Murphy’s view, believing it was a “backwards step” and “real vision stuff”.

    Colleague Tim Watson suggested the club’s association with the west wouldn’t suddenly stop if the name was flipped back to Footscray.

    “It was an idea at the time and it hasn’t been a failure,” he said.

    “The Western Bulldogs means the west, but I don’t think if they returned to being Footscray it means they are going to disassociate themselves with the Western Suburbs.”
    "Footscray people are incredible people; so humble. I'm just so happy - ecstatic"

  2. #2
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    No thanks.
    FFC: Established 1883

    Premierships: AFL 1954, 2016 VFA - 1898,99,1900, 1908, 1913, 1919-20, 1923-24, VFL: 2014, 2016 . Champions of Victoria 1924. AFLW - 2018.

  3. #3
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    I actually had a discussion with Bob on instagram and he told me he feels Jordan 4's are superior to Jordan 5's.

    So obviously with this in mind, he is clearly wrong again.
    "It's over. It's all over."

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  5. #4
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    Yeah I’m used to the Western Bulldogs now and particularly as we play 2 games per year in Ballarat. We won the flag as the Western Bulldogs and we definitely recognise Footscray on the back on our jumper and have always been based there. A generation has gone by now who knows us as the Western Bulldogs.
    "Footscray people are incredible people; so humble. I'm just so happy - ecstatic"

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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    Bad idea. Western Corridor extends all the way to the Western District. How is our expansion to Ballarat supposed to be supported by calling us Footscray?
    You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. ― Epicurus

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  9. #6
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    Western Bulldogs is Footscray.

    That is a good way to look at it. Exactly the same. Financially also we are in the best position we have ever been.
    "Footscray people are incredible people; so humble. I'm just so happy - ecstatic"

  10. #7
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    Bugger you lot, this hapless, hollow branding exercise still shits me, welcome to the club Bob.
    BORDERLINE FLYING

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  12. #8
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    My family lived in Byron st in Footscray for 3 generations but it's been 25 years and we already have a Footscray team in the VFL.

    It's time to let this go. Playing one game each season at Whitten oval however...
    Have you been reading those Roddy Doyle books again, Dougal!?


    I have, yeah Ted, you big gobshite

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  14. #9
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    I was really disappointed to listen to Bob's view on this. Its his view, which he is more than entitled to have, particularly given his status at the club - but I get borderline offended by the suggestion of going back to Footscray.

    I realise it is a very personal thing for each and every supporter of a certain age.

    My experience, is that we've been the Western Bulldogs for a long time now - for two-thirds of my lifetime. And I'm not saying that a name change has meant success - but when I think back to the first 13 years of my life as a Footscray Bulldogs supporter - there wasn't that much joy. Forever broke, rarely winning, and always in the conversation about mergers or going under entirely.

    Again, its not all in the name - but this last 24 years - we've actually won as many games as we have lost (259 W, 259 L and 5 Draws) which far exceeds previous to that. And we've won more finals (10) than in the 72 years previous (8). Add to that, we have become one of the most financially stable clubs in the game, representing an area which is the biggest growth corridor in the country - and are the 'default' club of choice for kids from Footscray to Yarraville, Sunshine, Werribee, Point Cook, Melton and perhaps one day Ballarat.

    Whenever the odd person says "Oh you barrack for Footscray" I've honestly always taken it as a 'put down' and it reminds me of being in school in Essendon surrounded by Essendon, Carlton and North supporters who were all winning flags and played in the big games.

    As I said - just my personal view - and respect that there are people that never got over the name change - but after 24/25 years, I don't see the benefit in going back for nostalgic reasons, I don't see what it adds to the club.

  15. #10
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    Boring. Nostalgia provides that warm fuzzy feeling but rarely delivers in reality.
    Bob must be struggling for content.

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  17. #11
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    All for it. But the horse probably has bolted. PG I think mended some of those bridges with the VFL team etc, we are much more comfortable being the FFC trading as the Western Bulldogs than we were under Smorgo, who was hostile towards our name.

    The western thing is annoying to me, in that the brand existed without the name. Heaps of examples of that type of rebrand in that era, ours is a rare one that stuck. To suggest that we somehow weren’t the club of the west, or had a strong identity through that corridor prior to the name change is wilfully ignoring reality.

    We are the Footscray Football Club. We field teams in the AFL men’s and women’s competitions under the Western Bulldogs moniker and in the VFL as Footscray. It’s close enough for me. Not as angry about it as I used to be.

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  19. #12
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    The club has made huge strides off field and we find ourselves as battlers no more and to one of those clubs that made it through last year and still finish in the black shows how strong the club is.
    I'm an old fart and have plenty of old callouses from the Footscray oval pine but you can't step backwards for sentimentality.
    Nearly a quarter of a century has gone by and the Footscray followers are becoming fewer in number and the younger generation in their peak earning stages are Western Bulldog followers.
    It's time to let sleeping Dogs lie.
    Just my 2 cents worth
    Don't piss off old people
    The older we get the less "LIFE IN PRISON" is a deterrent...

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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    I grew up watching Footscray in the early 70s; and I know its probably just me, but I associate the Footscray name with a weak off-field performer ... just a suburban club. definitely not like the franchises of Collingwood/Carlton etc. Whereas the success the Western Bulldogs have had both on and off the field has us (in my mind) as a strong outfit that can contend with, and in some facets surpass, the big clubs.

    I was, and always will be, a Footscray supporter ... I loved shouting "Up the Scraggers" at the footy. But to me, the Scray is dead. The weak 'suburban' club died when Super sang American Pie.

    Long live the Western Bulldogs
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  22. #14
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    When “Bob” starts calling himself “Robert” again maybe I’ll listen...
    More of an In Bruges guy?

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  24. #15
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    Re: Club legend outlines why Bulldogs should go back to original name

    Quote Originally Posted by Grantysghost View Post
    Boring. Nostalgia provides that warm fuzzy feeling but rarely delivers in reality.
    Bob must be struggling for content.
    Although I love our return to our old guernsey and do get the warm and fuzzies watching the girls do their thing out at the Whitten Oval.

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