Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

[Twodogs]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

Another mistake I think above. I don't think there is a place called Haywood. There is a Heywood but it's in Western Victoria, hundreds of kilometres away from Denison. Wil Anderson is from Heyfield, right next to Denison.

I worked with a bloke called Dennis Heyfield. Lovely bloke, his brother played footy for North Melbourne.

[HOSE B ROMERO]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

When i was young we had a builder called Haywood. His first name was Ted. But he was not related to E.J.

[Twodogs]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

When i was young we had a builder called Haywood. His first name was Ted. But he was not related to E.J.

Not the commodore Ted! (Teddy Bullpitt is the only other Ted I could think of off the top of my head.)

[Twodogs]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

Haydn Bunton, Ron Barassi and ''Lethal'' Leigh Matthews. E. J. Whitten’s statue is not there, a sore point out west

That really shits me that an out and out cowardly thug like Mathews (the back of anyone's head never frightened Lethal. He was happy to coward punch anyone. A bloke facing him and ready to hit back would send him screaming like a frightened ninny though. He was soooo brave ) gets a statue and EJ misses out.

Typical AFL. Glorify the bloke who went North and spent all that AFL money.

[Bornadog]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

That really shits me that an out and out cowardly thug like Mathews (the back of anyone's head never frightened Lethal. He was happy to coward punch anyone. A bloke facing him and ready to hit back would send him screaming like a frightened ninny though. He was soooo brave ) gets a statue and EJ misses out.

Typical AFL. Glorify the bloke who went North and spent all that AFL money.

What's worse is there is a statue of Jimmy Stynes. Yes he was a great footballer but no way is he a legend. There are many more that achieved greater things than a 265 gamer.

[Eastdog]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

It has been said before but I still believe EJ deserves a statue at the MCG. He contributed to the game so much and was huge with the State of Origin - loved it.

EJ is recognised in our heartland

In Footscray Whitten Stand, Whitten Oval, Whitten Avenue
In Braybrook a statue outside the Braybrook Hotel
The Western Ring Road bridge over the Maribyrnong river named the EJ Whitten Bridge
And in the future hopefully an EJ statue outside the home of footy where we all had the greatest day of our lives.

[Twodogs]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

What's worse is there is a statue of Jimmy Stynes. Yes he was a great footballer but no way is he a legend. There are many more that achieved greater things than a 265 gamer.

Actually I can understand Stynes getting a statue. It's his story that gets him accross the line I reckon. He traipsed halfway around the world to take up a game he didn't know as a teenager. Having an atypical teenager who has trouble negotiating that tricky space between the couch and the rest of the world that impresses me.

It has been said before but I still believe EJ deserves a statue at the MCG. He contributed to the game so much and was huge with the State of Origin - loved it.

EJ is recognised in our heartland

In Footscray Whitten Stand, Whitten Oval, Whitten Avenue
In Braybrook a statue outside the Braybrook Hotel
The Western Ring Road bridge over the Maribyrnong river named the EJ Whitten Bridge
And in the future hopefully an EJ statue outside the home of footy where we all had the greatest day of our lives.

It's a good point about State of Origin. Teddy drove that for years.

[Bornadog]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

Actually I can understand Stynes getting a statue. It's his story that gets him across the line I reckon. He traipsed halfway around the world to take up a game he didn't know as a teenager. Having an atypical teenager who has trouble negotiating that tricky space between the couch and the rest of the world that impresses me.

TD, I disagree with this. Jim Stynes has only been put up there because of some influential people, just because he died young. He was an ok player that did win a Brownlow, but other than that I think he was fairly ordinary over his career.

Statues currently around the MCG are:

Ron Barassi
Leigh Matthews
Dick Reynolds
Haydn Bunton
John Coleman
Norm Smith
Jim Stynes
Kevin Bartlett (in 2017)

Stynes is no legend or overly exceptional player and is no where near those players above. Stynes is even in the Australian Hall of Fame - why? Gary Ablett senior hasn't even been given that honour.

You look at someone's record like EJ's or even Scott West. 324 games, 7 B&Fs, 5 times All Australian but because they played for us there is no statue.

I bet if I think about it hard enough I can pick out many more players from other clubs that should be ahead of Stynes.

EJ is universally known to be one of the greatest players to play the game - yet no MCG statue.

[HOSE B ROMERO]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

I may be incorrect but i thought the original criteria for the statues around the mcg was 'sportspeople who had a long standing impact at the ground'. Rather than the greatest vfl/afl players.

Regardless, maybe 'woof' members could take things into our own hands? Meet outside the mcg under the cover of darkness ? Anyone handy with bronze?

[Twodogs]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

I may be incorrect but i thought the original criteria for the statues around the mcg was 'sportspeople who had a long standing impact at the ground'. Rather than the greatest vfl/afl players.

Regardless, maybe 'woof' members could take things into our own hands? Meet outside the mcg under the cover of darkness ? Anyone handy with bronze?

Umm, are we knocking down statues that are already there, or putting one up?

[westdog54]

Re: Book extract: Waiting for the Big Dance with the Western Bulldogs

Trainer Kev O’Neill hands the 1954 Australian penny given to him during the grand-final parade to coach Luke Beveridge for good luck. Six survivors from the Bulldogs’ only VFL/AFL premiership team, the men of ’54, visit the Bulldogs rooms before the match – Ron Stockman, Harvey Stevens, Don Ross, Jimmy Gallagher, Dougie Reynolds and Angus Abbey. Beveridge chats with them for 10 or 15 minutes, asking them questions about the club as they knew it and how their careers had started. ''He had no airs or graces,'' Ron Stockman tells me, adding slightly mystified, ''He was calm as a cucumber.''

Thank goodness his grandsons' foolishness didn't lead him to sever ties with the club.