My tenth anniversary supporting the Dogs!

[Dry Rot]

I just realised that 2007 is the tenth season of supporting the Dogs for me, starting in the '98 season.

What a ride: almost a minor premiership and a PF loss, finals appearances, beating the unbeatable team, sliding out of the 8, club teetering on financial collapse and the coach walks out, a wooden spoon, a near wooden spoon, hope with a great new coach, back in the finals.

Almost seen it all - but where's that premiership?

[Mofra]

Congratulations.

I started a little younger, I must admit.

I call the aniversary of the beginning of my support of the Bulldogs a "birthday"

[BulldogBelle]

Good effort DR, congrats. You're complaining of not having witnessed a Dogs Premiership since you started being a Bulldog Supporter 10 years ago? Spare a thought for me...supporting the Dogs for 36 years and I am still waiting for that magical day to materialize in September for us. I feel the time is not too far away now.

[southerncross]

Well done DR. They way I look at it is the wait will be soooo much sweeter when we win the big one. I have never regretted barracking for the Dogs.

[bornadog]

I remember going to my first match when I was about 4 or 5 years old ( I was born at the Footscray and District Hospital). We moved away for about a year when I was 4, then moved back for almost two years when I was 5. We lived down Barkley street and we used to walk to the ground when I was a about 6 years old. We must have won a few as it was 1961, the year of our last grand final, but I can't remember much about that year. I think we pretty well went down hill after that and the next final wasn't till 1974. I stuck with them all through those years as I was growing up and don't regret that fact one bit. So DR stick with them I feel we are on the right track.

[alwaysadog]

I just realised that 2007 is the tenth season of supporting the Dogs for me, starting in the '98 season.

What a ride: almost a minor premiership and a PF loss, finals appearances, beating the unbeatable team, sliding out of the 8, club teetering on financial collapse and the coach walks out, a wooden spoon, a near wooden spoon, hope with a great new coach, back in the finals.

Almost seen it all - but where's that premiership?

Congratulations.. it has certainly been an exciting ride and one suspects even more is to come in the near future in spite of your ultimate cynicism. However the real celebration for me is that you are not only a person of wit and charm but also a friend who I value highly.

Maybe we should make a joint appointment with a psychiatrist to explore this fixation with apparent lost causes.

What else can I say? It's a long time since 1953 when I first recall watching things dog like. It's possible I actually went to the WO in 1952 but then I was too young to distinguish between seasons, having come to this fine land the year before.

In the end what sustains us is not triumph or disaster but our refusal to accept defeat, and to affirm that the Dogs will rise up in the West.

As Rabbie Burns would have said, and if memory is correcty actually did, "Lang mae yer lum reek".

[Sockeye Salmon]

I can't put a date on when I started following the Dogs, it's just been a constant all my life.

I looked back on some old results and I'm certain I was at a game v Richmond at WO in 1972. Richmond had a huge lead and we gradually pegged them back only to fail by 2 pts.

I also remember seeing us beat Richmond @ WO before then but we beat them @ WO in 69, 70 & 71 so it could have been any (or all) of those years.

My family was split between Richmond and Footscray so as a kid I only ever got to see us play Richmond.

[Go_Dogs]

Good to see you have stuck with us too DR - unlike a lot of fickle supporters - and especially for a man living in Sydney when your home team was doing so well.

[firstdogonthemoon]

When we moved from Sydney to Melbourne for work in 2001 - my boss said "You have to get a football team". I was slightly bemused, and thought "whatever, we live in Seddon, might as well support Footscray". Didnt realise they were such rubbish at the time, signed up just when Wallet quit. Didnt realise it was a life long commitment that would impact my whole family on so many levels, from the emotional, spiritual, theological, geographical and economic. Everywhere I went, everyone had a team - it was like a cult. I didnt understand, I thought it was ridiculous. I couldnt comprehend how everyone, from every walk of life was engaged at some level - it crossed (and reinforced) class boundaries, it transcended race and gender (gender! - chicks dig this stuff, man). If you supported NRL in Sydney, the way most people support AFL in Melbourne you would be considered a hard core league nutter.

I watched a bit on telly - still didnt get it. I went to a game, it was all over. Epiphany City! I was gone, horrified the wife - "when i married you, you werent into any sport at all". Joined the club - never looked back. Now I am the kind of person who writes on football message boards, only my friends from Sydney think that is weird.

Didnt realise that you actually do have to a have a football team if you want to get by in Melbourne. Certainly if you dont want to get "those" looks from people and be the odd one out who has to justify why they dont follow footy, certainly if you want to be able to talk to people, certainly if you dont want to stand out like a weirdo. You must have an AFL team if you want to be involved in the greatest achievements of the human race along with the invention of writing and Devo's first album "Are We Not Men?".

And of course if you want to be part of a real football adventure, a life affirming journey that tests the depths of your compassion and resilience, a journey that lifts you to celestial heights just before it crashes you lost and alone the rocks of despair, then the only team for you (and me) is the Western Bulldogs.

woof

[Go_Dogs]

Good post FDOTM.

[The Coon Dog]

Congrats DR!

There's just something, I don't know what it is, but there's just something about following the Western Bulldogs.It's unique, it comes from within, you can't explain it to 'outsiders' & even if you could, they just wouldn't understand it.

Most of us live for the footy season to come around. Those 6 months where it's cricket season bore me to tears, & I like cricket, but not like footy.

I'm sure there are many of us who know people that support the Bulldogs, not by name, would have no idea where they live or whether they're married, single or divorced, but you just know their face because like you, they turn up week in week out, year in year out. You always say g'day, it'd be rude not to, exchange pleasantries & wonder how we'll go this week or this year. I LOVE these people!!

How could you possibly barrack for anyone else?

I'm extrremely fortunate that my wife is & always has been a Bulldogs supporter (she grew up in the Eastern Suburbs) so our children didn't really have a choice about who they support. I feel for families whose support is divided.

You could give me all the premierships in the world & they'de mean NOTHING to me. That's why when we do achieve the ultimate success (hopefully this year, been saying that since I was a tacker) it will mean just so much more to people like you & me, the very fabric of the club, because it will have all been built on our collective blood, sweat & tears.

[Dry Rot]

Good to see you have stuck with us too DR - unlike a lot of fickle supporters - and especially for a man living in Sydney when your home team was doing so well.

Yep, in for life now.

IIRC, the Bombers and the Blues were the dominant teams in 2000 until Kouta got injured.

I remember us beating Carlton at Optus Oval. I watched it on TV, thinking we had little hope as we were undermanned. Big day for Bartlett, I recall.

When we won I clearly remember punching the air and shouting that I go for a great team. Same feeling beating the Bombers later that year. The bonding was well and truly complete.

I used to hate the Swans under Eade but now quite like them under Roos - the play a rugby league style of AFL.

[Dry Rot]

Congratulations.. it has certainly been an exciting ride and one suspects even more is to come in the near future in spite of your ultimate cynicism. However the real celebration for me is that you are not only a person of wit and charm but also a friend who I value highly.

Maybe we should make a joint appointment with a psychiatrist to explore this fixation with apparent lost causes.

What else can I say? It's a long time since 1953 when I first recall watching things dog like. It's possible I actually went to the WO in 1952 but then I was too young to distinguish between seasons, having come to this fine land the year before.

In the end what sustains us is not triumph or disaster but our refusal to accept defeat, and to affirm that the Dogs will rise up in the West.

As Rabbie Burns would have said, and if memory is correcty actually did, "Lang mae yer lum reek".

Thanks AAD and for the kind words from others.

[alwaysadog]

Thanks AAD and for the kind words from others.

And you call me an optimist.

[alwaysadog]

Congrats DR!

There's just something, I don't know what it is, but there's just something about following the Western Bulldogs.It's unique, it comes from within, you can't explain it to 'outsiders' & even if you could, they just wouldn't understand it.

Most of us live for the footy season to come around. Those 6 months where it's cricket season bore me to tears, & I like cricket, but not like footy.

I'm sure there are many of us who know people that support the Bulldogs, not by name, would have no idea where they live or whether they're married, single or divorced, but you just know their face because like you, they turn up week in week out, year in year out. You always say g'day, it'd be rude not to, exchange pleasantries & wonder how we'll go this week or this year. I LOVE these people!!

How could you possibly barrack for anyone else?

I'm extrremely fortunate that my wife is & always has been a Bulldogs supporter (she grew up in the Eastern Suburbs) so our children didn't really have a choice about who they support. I feel for families whose support is divided.

You could give me all the premierships in the world & they'de mean NOTHING to me. That's why when we do achieve the ultimate success (hopefully this year, been saying that since I was a tacker) it will mean just so much more to people like you & me, the very fabric of the club, because it will have all been built on our collective blood, sweat & tears.

My favourite poet the Russian, Yevtushenko wrote in "Telling Lies to the Young is Wrong"

Who never knew the price of happiness will not be happy.

I'm sure had he been a Victorian he would have followed the Dogs or at least empathised with the struggle.