Bulldog's History Book

[Dry Rot]

Unleashed was treleased ten years ago and so much has happened since. Is it time for a new updated club history?


What would be the topics covered/chapter headings?

For me it would be:



The Smorgon chairmanship
The Wallace years
Leaving the Whitten Oval
The Rose Administration
The Redevelopment
Success and failure on the field

Harbrow's goal and the 2009 Premiership

No-one predicted the terrible injuries which cut down the previous year's grand finalists and saw them bomb out in the first week of the finals, and no-one predicted Adelaide's incredible run of 12 straight wins to make the finals from nowhere and then fight their way to the Grand Final.

The Western Bulldogs finished minor premiers after a relatively good run with injuries and maintained their form from 2008, losing only 4 games. They were the obvious grand finalist, but nobody thought the Crows could get there from seventh place yet they won their 3 finals by an average of 6 goals.

The Crows specialised in excellent starts, the Bulldogs flying finishes from the best fitness in the AFL. And that was how the 2009 Grand Final was played out. But even Dogs coach Rodney Eade thought that an 8 goal deficit was simply too much ground to catch up in the last quarter.

But Eade and the Crows didn't reckon on newly crowned Brownlow winner Ryen Griffen who after keeping the Dogs in the game in the first half stepped up and made the last quarter his own. But Griffen could only get the Dogs within 5 points of the Crows in the dying seconds of the game when Jarrod Harbrow snapped an ugly spiralling kick goalwards.

All the Crows fans behind the goals swore it was a point and replays showed that they might be right, but the goal umpire signalled goal and the Bulldogs won their second premiership by a point with 2 seconds to spare.....

[The Coon Dog]

Harbrow's goal and the 2009 Premiership

No-one predicted the terrible injuries which cut down the previous year's grand finalists and saw them bomb out in the first week of the finals, and no-one predicted Adelaide's incredible run of 12 straight wins to make the finals from nowhere and then fight their way to the Grand Final.

The Western Bulldogs finished minor premiers after a relatively good run with injuries and maintained their form from 2008, losing only 4 games. They were the obvious grand finalist, but nobody thought the Crows could get there from seventh place yet they won their 3 finals by an average of 6 goals.

The Crows specialised in excellent starts, the Bulldogs flying finishes from the best fitness in the AFL. And that was how the 2009 Grand Final was played out. But even Dogs coach Rodney Eade thought that an 8 goal deficit was simply too much ground to catch up in the last quarter.

But Eade and the Crows didn't reckon on newly crowned Brownlow winner Ryen Griffen who after keeping the Dogs in the game in the first half stepped up and made the last quarter his own. But Griffen could only get the Dogs within 5 points of the Crows in the dying seconds of the game when Jarrod Harbrow snapped an ugly spiralling kick goalwards.

All the Crows fans behind the goals swore it was a point and replays showed that they might be right, but the goal umpire signalled goal and the Bulldogs won their second premiership by a point with 2 seconds to spare.....

Karma. Gave me a warm glow reading that.

[Twodogs]

I used to watch the doggies on the Saturday and Port on a Sunday and he would frequently turn up at Port games also. I reckon it was the mid 70's when I first saw him. 20 cents for a bag of peanuts. No one in the crowd ever gave him any stick either. It was all about respect. Just a battler trying to earn a little extra cash. RIP Mr Peanut.

He was probably a millionaire!

I remember a rumour that he was, of all things, a porn king.


He owned a bunch of those adult book shops back in the day.

[GetDimmaBack]

Using my imagination, would have to add the Chris Grant Brownlow fiasco - monumental.

That was 12 years ago.[/QUOTE]

Unleashed finishes at the end of 1996 (unless there's another edition I'm not aware of).
If we don't include 97, then it is lost from the Dogs' history...

[bornadog]

One of the oldest photos of the Footscray Team - taken around 1883

[Axe Man]

Which one are you BAD?

[bornadog]

Which one are you BAD?

The one with the beard

[Twodogs]

One of the oldest photos of the Footscray Team - taken around 1883

I can actually name some of those players. Ther is something wrong with me.

[ledge]

Which ones Kevin Bartlett?

[Jeanette54]

I used to watch the doggies on the Saturday and Port on a Sunday ... when I first saw him. 20 cents for a bag of peanuts. .

Rather sadly I have to admit that it was "Peanuts.... shilling a bag, Peanuts" when I first heard his call. That makes it at least pre decimal currency, ie.1966. I also remember the Footy Record doubling its price to one shilling, up from sixpence.

[Pickenitup]

Would be great if they updated a history book a lot has happened in the last 20 years

[Twodogs]

Unleashed was released ten years ago and so much has happened since. Is it time for a new updated club history?


What would be the topics covered/chapter headings?

For me it would be:



The Smorgon chairmanship
The Wallace years
Leaving the Whitten Oval
The Rose Administration
The Redevelopment
Success and failure on the field

It's now coming up to 21 years since Unleashed was real eased and it's well past time for an update I think. Just a few things have happened that we might want to commemorate.

I wonder what a collaborative effort at writing a history would be like. There's lots of talented brains on WOOF imagine if we could combine it into one big coherent brain? Imagine the power! Think of what that brain could do. It's just the coherent part that had me worried.

[Eastdog]

135 years ago 1883.

I believe we might have been established a bit earlier than that 1877 - 141 years ago.

2025 100 years in the VFL/AFL.

[Eastdog]

Would be great if they updated a history book a lot has happened in the last 20 years

Would certainly get the book if there was an updated one.

[Twodogs]

135 years ago 1883.

I believe we might have been established a bit earlier than that 1877 - 141 years ago.

2025 100 years in the VFL/AFL.

Nailing down the exact year we were formed is problematic. There were a few iterations of the Footscray Football Club before they finally managed to get their shit together and get over the petty rivalries that existed (Footscray had its own suburbs back then (west Footscray, Belgravia, the flats, Seddon, and all of those had their own teams. There were also church teams and a couple of clubs that had existed for ages tgat were formed by enthusiasts early on in the 1860s, Excelsior and Star of Footscray.

All these clubs spread the playing talent thin and it wasn't until 1883 that Lovett convinced everyone to have a go at forming a good local club. They had tried to get a Footcray team going a couple of times in the 1870s but petty interests won the first couple of times. We needed a strong personality to bring all the strands together and Lovett commanded enough support. The other clubs gave up their aspirations to be a senior club and accepted remaining junior clubs and stop competing with the district team (for the pride of the club and the honour of the district was the adage) Ebentually after a lot of hard work on the ground and signing the requisite number of paying members we qualified for admission to the VFA in 1886 along with Port Melbourne, St Kilda and South Williamstown (Willy had been through almost exactly the opposite as us, their football culture fractured and South Williamstown was formed.

So the current club can date back to either 1983 (which is when we formed) or 1887 (when we first played as a senior VFA club) or when a couple of other clubs called Footscray (which had nothing to do with the current club) were formed.

Just as an aside I had always assumed that we were a fairly hopeless VFA club that finished in the bottom half of the ladder every year until the VFL was formed. But we had a couple of good seasons in the early 1890S and even finished Third out of fourteen clubs according to some ladders (there wasn't really a hard and fast rule as to what constituted a proper match so ladders could vary a bit in each newspaper and the VFA didn't really release a ladder.

Even the club that won the premiership were disputed because of the confusion as to what a match involved (any match played on a Saturday between VFA clubs were considered official. Even if they were organised after the fixture lists were released. Lots of clubs picked and chose what they though an official match was and wasn't, if they won they were very keen to have it counted, if they loss then they were less keen.nit was a pigs breakfast. It was normal to wait to celebrate a win because it could easily be overturned on appeal.