Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

[Ghost Dog]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

I see your point fully. Goes to show, you need four quarters of top football and never take your foot off the pedal. Can anyone say we have really put together a four quarter performance yet?
That part IS frustrating. When you have the skills, but can't pay the bills.
It is encouraging to see young blokes coming through. Wood and Grant don't seem to gas out.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

We all get kicked in the guts now and again, maybe thats the feeling of Griffin when the siren went? But as does the players have to do week in and out there is nexts weeks game to redeem themselves and get those 4 points.

Look at the ladder Woofers, Tigers are well out of the 8 and we can still fight on for a Grand Final berth,
Go Dogs!

[EasternWest]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

We all get kicked in the guts now and again, maybe thats the feeling of Griffin when the siren went? But as does the players have to do week in and out there is nexts weeks game to redeem themselves and get those 4 points.

Look at the ladder Woofers, Tigers are well out of the 8 and we can still fight on for a Grand Final berth,
Go Dogs!

Who? (pet hate).

[LostDoggy]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

Who? (pet hate).

You know Ryan Griffin, he usually plays close to Ryan Hargreave.

[The Boy From Brasil]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

Warning tl;dr post approaching

We all love the Bulldogs even when we lose. It is dissappointing though for us not to witness a premiership. I have always said that I am not greedy, one premiership in a lifetime is all I require

There was so much premiership optimism at the start of the year, and given that we are 8-6, you can sense the deflating of the balloon with fellow supporters, almost the burst of the bubble. I can understand this in a way as top four looks out of reach, and therefore our premiership hopes look not as strong as the years start. But I think that it is only just half way through the season, so it is not all over until it is over. Maybe our expectation for a 2010 premiership is not there, but the hope and opportunity certainly is.

Seeing us come so close but not win the premiership is hard for all the supporters, but I feel sorry for the older ones who have gone through a lot of heartache and there must be some sense of doomed fate with it all. I guess how battle scarred you are, depends on how old you are or when you first supported the club. I read a poster(Dry Rot?) say that he started supporting the club in 98, and remember thinking at the time what impeccible timing it was to miss 97.

The way I tend to look at it though, is what a loyal and resilient lot the bulldogs supporters are and how many positive qualities they have. It would be easy to support a new franchise or one of the bigger clubs, to have more chance of a premiership. Much harder but more rewarding IMO to support the doggies.

I did a post last year(really long winded) on what makes a bulldog supporter, so given the thread subject thought it might be worth repeating to keep our spirits up.

************

One of the things I sometimes wonder(when I am bored of course), is why people support certain teams. What is in a persons pysche to lean them towards supporting a particular team. And from then, the next leap of logic, is to wonder what personalities or traits are common within Bulldogs supporters.

I had a think about it and came up with the following!


LOYALTY

Lets face it, to be a Doggies Supporter, you have to be loyal. And have it in spades. It is an essential pre requisite. We have only won one premiership(before most posters on here were born) and have spent many a year towards the bottom of the ladder. So you don't support the Bulldogs if you want to be guaranteed success or bragging rights at your school or work place. Bandwagoners and fair weather supporters are not ever found amongst the Bulldogs supporting ranks.

We support the club because we love it, pure and simple, and develop a long life loyalty from there. Even when our club has been down the bottom of the ladder and even though it has the smallest membership base. and not had the money and facilities that other clubs have had, at no stage do we ever think, or contemplate for one one single minute to switch allegiances. Our conscience and over riding sense of loyalty would never allow it.

This characteristic of loyalty defines us as a Bulldogs supporter and sets us apart from many supporters of other clubs. As this loyalty transposes itself into our other forms of life, it also has the ability to distinguish us from other people in everyday life as well. Whether it be family, relationships, friends, work or whatever situation, this sense of loyalty is there.

Many supporters from other clubs look down at us and see Bulldogs supporters as losers. However I see us as winners. Loyalty is one of the most important human traits there is and we can be relied upon to never sell ourselves out, no matter how how attractive or enticing the alternative offer.


SUPPORTING THE UNDERDOG


As Doggies supporters, invariably we have a part of our personality where we are drawn to supporting the underdog. And this is an admirable trait and it is also a very Australian trait, that stems from as far back as the miners strike or the man who issued the words before Ben Cousins did "Such is life" in Ned Kelly.

And we do support the underdog. We support David versus Goliath. And this supporting of the underdog manifested itself when we took on the AFL in 1989 and won, and restored our team from death back into the competition.

Whether it be our lack of success, our only one premiership, our low membership base or our working class background, there are many reasons why we are the underdog of the competition. And by supporting the doggies, we support the underdog and take the high risk and high reward path, rather than the safe and non risky path.



DOWN TO EARTH

Bulldogs supporters are the most down to earth people you could find. Our clubs, its history and many of our early memories as a supporter, all reside in the western suburbs of Melbourne; the home of the working class.

We identify success with an honest days work, an hard work ethic and doing the best you can rather than excessive weath and materialism. We do not need exuberant displays of prosperity to define us as people.

Being pretentious is something that the average Bulldogs supporter does not identify with. We do not need to boast or falsely impress to be comfortable in life.


HEALTHY SELF ESTEEM


Generally Doggies Supporters have a very healthy self esteem. We do not dine out on other peoples success and use it to reflect our own or why we are superior to others. If we were that way inclined we would have supported some of the power clubs or interstate franchises.

We have enough common sense to differentiate between judging ourselves as a person and the success or otherwise of our football team we support. Unlike some other teams supporters, we do not need our team to win a premiership to make us feel important human beings. It would be wonderful of course for the doggies to win a premiership, but we are not insecure that we hide behind team premierships to say that we are winners.


FATALISTIC


Unfortunately, with only one premiership and the horrors of such finals as 97 and 09, we tend to be fatalistic with a touch of negativity thrown in. In our subconcious is the thought that our premiership chances or mischances are predetermined and no matter what the team does, the final result is inevitable.

Destiny and bad luck all play their part in reasons why we havn't managed to witness a premiership in our lifetime and this effects our thinking to the point that we question whether it is meant to be.


RESILIENT

The deeds of 1989 show how resilient we are as a supporter group. By not letting the AFL kill us off, despite the overwheling odds against us, we never gave in and allowed inevitably to become fact. We have the attitude that no matter what they throw at us, we always will prevail.


ENJOYING THE CHALLENGE

That elusive premiership is what drives us as supporters. It is the golden rainbow or the mirage at the end of a dry and dusty desert. The more we long for it, the further away it seems.

As Bulldogs supporters, even though we long for that premiership drought to break, we still love the thrill of the chase and we still enjoy the journey along the way to the final destination:witnessing a premiership in our lifetime

[Chicago1]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

Because when you lose by a mile, there's never any letdown of losing a game you could've/should've won. It's terribly disappointing, and at least with a belting you're never in the hunt, and you can kind of resign yourself to that. We were in the hunt, and found wanting. Sure, it's good to know you're that close, but as others have said, being close but just not good enough (so often) is shattering.

This is kind of the difference between the '97 and '98 PFs. I cried at the end of the '97PF since we came soooooo close to winning. I was resigned to losing at half time of the '98 PF. By 3/4 time there was no question we'd lose. At the end of the match it didn't feel so bad.

However, I'd still prefer to be close even if we eventually lose. There is no shame in losing when you think your team gave its all. It's the "we should have won that one" match that I hate, especially when stupid errors mar the result.

Hey, I'm watching the Saints/Cats match on cable TV from Round 13 right now. Next Monday night they're showing our Friday night loss to Hawthorn. I just may miss that one.

[EasternWest]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

Warning tl;dr post approaching

tldr.

[EasternWest]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

You know Ryan Griffin, he usually plays close to Ryan Hargreave.

Oh the guy Acker is always on about.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

Good positivity GD, dont shoot him down guys, start your own miserable thread instead... 'Why me oh why oh why oh why'... lol...(I feel it too believe me!)

Why I love the dogs... I just couldnt support anyone else really, even when 'rooting' for another team I find it really hard. If it wasnt for the dogs I might only watch the odd game of footy, our play excites me...usually. I also like the fact that we have had far less than our share of knobs in the team than at any other club.
Aker was my favourite last year and its brain fade Brian this year. Seeing picken drill his way through about 5 Hawks players was magnificent. Glad we can pluck these players from obscurity and save some greats from ending their careeers too soon. I love seeing Barry Hall in a dogs jumper and I love our ruck combos, the best I have ever seen in Darcy and Wynd. Johno stood up for us almost single handedly for so long... Rohan Smith on the run, Eagleton on the run... James Cook anyone lol... Boyd and Morrises rise to the top of the game, only at the bulldogs... did I mention Brian Harris, both of them... I get excited when Will takes a Mark or manages to kick a drop punt. Liberatore and Romero? Should I go on....
The colours, the dog! The passion, the let downs will make the final victory so much sweeter... god I hope so!

[Remi Moses]

Re: Why I love the bulldogs, even when they lose

If you don't like "Feel good " threads don't read them!

I'll enjoy a 'feel good " thread when there is something to feel good about I.E winning a crunch game!